Need help buying a PC

bb145m

Hello everyone,

I have a friend who wishes to buy a new PC, and has asked me for advice. I'm not really that knowledgeable when it comes to buying a PC, so I hope that some of the users on this board may be able to offer some advice.

She wants to use it for:

Home office type work - family accounts, kids homework, letters, etc
Managing her digital photo collection - but I don't think she will want to do very much, if any digital editing, more storage and display.
Internet usage - booking flights, hotels, looking up information, usual run of the mill internet stuff. Kids will also use internet to help with homework assignments (at least, that's what she thinks they will use it for). She is getting broadband from a wireless provider, I assume they will be supplying modem as part of package.
Kids play some games, but I don’t think there are any really heavy graphics hitters in here - they play things like SIMS and football manager. I think they may have an auto racing game as well. They have a PSII so I don't think PC will be widely used for games.

So given the above, what kind of system should I be going for? I've had a look at the Dell site, but am rather at a loss as to what options I should be selecting. So what should I be going for in terms of:

CPU
Memory
Disk space
Graphics

My friend already ahs a decent flat screen monitor from Dell, so looking for a PC only. Her upper limit is around €800, but if we can get a system that meets her needs that is cheaper that would obviously be better. Her preference is for something new.

Thanks for any advice offered

Jim

Anti

something along the lines of this will do her fine

http://www.komplett.ie/k/ci.asp?sku=10206

or

http://www.komplett.ie/k/ci.asp?sku=10090

Alkers

You could probably get away with one of the very cheap dell pcs. Look for the cheapest one that has a PCex slot for the graphics card and you'd be grand for most of the above. Then all you need is a bit extra memory and if it doesn't play the games the kids want it to, you buy a better GFX.

bbbbb

Have a look at the dell outlet site, www.dell.ie/outlet
prices are without a monitor and ex. VAT

You'll want 512MB memory min, 1024 would be good.
Disks are >100 G which should be fine.

What's available changes all the time, you should be able to get a machine with 1024 M of memory & 160G+ harddrive for less than €600 after you add vat & delivery.

K.O.Kiki

I strongly suggest you do a self-build (or have a friend do it for you, it's dead simple), this shopping list would build you a new PC for €600. All that needs to be added are mouse & keyboard (€50-ish), speakers (€40-ish) and delivery.
Plus, you get to do a clean install & not have to deal with Dell bloat-ware

I also checked Dell; their cheapest range (3100/3100c) only offer a PCI-e 1x slot, which is inadequate for all graphics card (except 1, but that one's terrible) which require a 16x slot.

(And before you ask, yes, building a PC is easy. We'll help if needed)

bb145m

Thanks to everyone who took the time to reply. I appreciate the advice offered. I'm intrigued by the idea of doing a self build, but probably will wait until I replace my own PC (in the next few months). My friend wants to get something pretty soon, in the next couple of weeks, so I'll probably try to source something from one of the sites mentioned in the replies.

Thanks again.

Jim

DVD-Lots

try www.ankermann-pc.com , my new pc is on it's way from them as we speak. very cheap base units and well built, a friend got a gaming rig which was very nicely done, neat and tidy inside with quality components. 2yr warranty on them also which is nice. And they have the new Conroe based sysetms!!!

Sample
AMD So.AM2 Dual Core X2 3800+ | ASUS M2NPV-VM VGA (PCI-e SATA-II)
ATI Radeon X1900 GT 256MB Sapphire | 250GB Samsung SATA-II 7200rpm/8MB HD
1024MB 533MHz DDR II RAM Kingston | LG H10N 16x Multiformat Double Layer DVD-RW
8 Channel AC 97 Audio Codec Sound | WLAN WIFI 140Mpbs / DSL-ready Ethernet

for €785 ex delivery (€25-€35)