Need some advice

Nala

Hi all,
Mammy and Daddy have decided to get a new computer and are asking me to help them pick one out. I know a bit about computers but not a whole lot.
The computer will be used for

-Games(e.g. Flight Simulator, Championship Manager)
-Internet
-Playing DVDs/CDs (would like a DVD/CD burner aswell)
-The usual Word stuff.

If anything goes wrong with this PC, it will automatically be my fault, so I need to go for a good machine that isn't too expensive and will last a few years.

The computer we have at the moment is 6 years old and pretty much dead, it takes 20 minutes to load up and the memory is all clogged up.

I'm the only person in my house that can actually use a computer properly but I am no expert.
My brothers will want to play their games on it. Can they install the games onto CD-R's instead of the hard drive? (sorry if that was a stupid question).
It's just I want to save as much memory on the hard drive as possible.

I was going to opt for a Dell as they seem cheap and do delivery but after reading the thread about Dell in this forum I think I'll stay away from them. It will have to be a readybuilt PC as
1) I have never built a PC before, and
2) I don't think Mammy and Daddy would approve, they like to go to the shop and listen to the nice salesperson! But I don't, as I generally find they will tell you anything to make a sale.

Can anyone reccommend me a good machine?
Our printer is pretty screwed up so a machine that comes with a printer would be great.

Cheers!

Neev

Khannie

Hi Neev,

neev wrote:

I'm the only person in my house that can actually use a computer properly but I am no expert.
My brothers will want to play their games on it. Can they install the games onto CD-R's instead of the hard drive? (sorry if that was a stupid question).
It's just I want to save as much memory on the hard drive as possible.

You can't install to CD-R's. You can do "minimal" installs, so that the game still partly runs off the cd.

Hard drive space is cheap though. Don't get overly worried about it. By the sounds of things, you're unlikely to fill even a "small" drive for a long time.

neev wrote:

I was going to opt for a Dell as they seem cheap and do delivery but after reading the thread about Dell in this forum I think I'll stay away from them.

I recommend that you get a Dell if you're not interested in / capable of a build yourself. My first PC was a dell, and it lasted...oh....4 years or thereabouts (until I upgraded.....there was nothing wrong with it).

The best thing to do is to decide on your budget, then check out the dell site and get the best machine you can for that budget.

Hope this helps.

jozi

I'd have to agree with khannie. Dell is prob the best option if you dont want to build one yourself.
We have one at home and it has given no problems at all over the last 2 years.
If you going to be playing games, make sure the dell pc your looking at doesn't have on-board graphics (not good for gaming) go for one with an agp or pci-e (or express, not sure on the right term) slot. Then when the graphics card gets old you have to option to upgrade aswell.

Jozi

Nala

Cheers for the replies so far guys.
Keep em coming!