So I have €1000 - €1200 to spend...

RuggieBear

Mate is looking for a new PC for surfing the net, word processing, maybe a few spreadsheets, perhaps some light digital photograph work, nothing majorly heavy.

He does want a decent printer though and at least a gig of RAM and will need a monitor.

Any recommendations?

OmegaRed

If he’s not doing anything heavy, i'd just buy a dell. Get the extra 512 of ram (most come standard with 512 now). You could pic up a fairly nice desktop with a flat panel monitor for 600 quid, give or take! Take a look at Komplett or Overclockers.co.uk for the printer and then out of the 3 or 4 hundred he has left go on the piss!

RuggieBear

I'm inclined to agree but i just want to ask the brains trust here....:D

chump

OmegaRed wrote:

If he’s not doing anything heavy, i'd just buy a dell. Get the extra 512 of ram (most come standard with 512 now). You could pic up a fairly nice desktop with a flat panel monitor for 600 quid, give or take! Take a look at Komplett or Overclockers.co.uk for the printer and then out of the 3 or 4 hundred he has left go on the piss!

agree, no point wasting too much time researching, Dell usually offer the best value for this kind of system...

timeout

Agree with above.Hell if you don't want to deal with dell then try PC world. Similar offers. Bit handier if anything goes wrong, if you live close by.

OmegaRed

Here’s one for 635 quid.

Its only a Celeron D 2.8Ghz but like you said, he’s not gonna be doing anything heavy. It has the gig or ram. You can also take the 1 year support away. Gives you more drinking money!

Dimension 1100 (D05115)

Base Intel® Celeron® D Processor 335 (2.80GHz, 533fsb, 256K cache)

Microsoft Operating System Genuine Windows® XP Home Edition, SP2

Memory 1024MB Dual Channel DDR400 (2x512MB)

Keyboard Dell Entry Quietkey USB Keyboard - UK/Ire (QWERTY)

Monitor Dell E156FP 15" Flat Panel Monitor - Midnight Grey

Video Card Integrated Intel® Extreme Graphics

Hard Drive 80GB (7,200rpm) Hard Drive

Floppy Drives No Floppy Drive Required

Mouse Dell USB 2 Button Wheel Mouse

Modem No Modem

CD/DVD Drives 48X DVD/CDRW Combo Drive

Sound Cards Integrated 2.0 Channel High Definition Audio

Speakers No Speakers

Shipping Documents Documentation with UK Power Cord

Gedis Bundle Reference List D05115 Dimension 1100

Microsoft Application Software Microsoft® Works 7.0

Standard Warranty 90-Day Collect and Return service
Cover It with Dell Support Services 1-Year Basic: At Home

On-site service PLUS online Multimedia training

AntiVirus & Security Software No Security/Anti-Virus Software

Digital Photography No Photo Organising & Sharing Software/No Photo Editing Software

Video Editing IEEE 1394 PCI Adapter card

Dell System Media Kit No Resource CD

Adobe Reader Adobe Reader 6.0 - English

Operating System Backup & Recovery PC Restore recovery system by Symantec

TOTAL Incl. VAT:€ 634.69

AdeleS

For anyone considering buying Dell, I would recommend you don't. My first Dell, bought in 1999, was superb, not a days problem with it. Upgraded in November 2004 to a newer model, lots of crashing problems with it which eventually culminated in having to replace hard drive. Bought another better one in February this year, only one month later, hard drive crashed, lost all data and had to have it replaced.

On another note, my mother just bought herself new one in March, hasn't been able to use it since she bought it. On/off switch dodgy, some loose usb ports, eventually had it sent back, "fixed" and returned. Then her wireless keyboard and mouse wouldn't work so they sent her out new one, still wouldn't work. It has taken her no less than one month to finally get them to send her out a whole new system. The saga will continue I'm sure.....

Be interesting to hear what other people think of the Dell products these days. I know I won't be buying from them again in a hurry...