Best PC for <£500 with flatscreen monitor + printer?

martinbsp

Hi

my parents have finally taken the plunge and want to trade up from their creaking 486 PC. They have a budget of £500. Requirements include a colour printer and flatscreen monitor (15 inch upwards) with a decent amount of memory and processor. They do a fair amount of web surfing, document editing and emailing and will be using broadband. They'll also need to be running anti-virus, anti-spyware etc as much as possible. They're not technical and want to have as much protection as possible. They are aware that prevention is the best remedy but nevertheless..

They want Windows XP. It doesn't have to have any extra software bundled with it.


Any recommendations? Would a Celeron processor be a waste of money?

Thanks

Martin

chunter

Watch the MSE 'grabits' for the Dell misprices, which happen occasionally.

You're parents don't look at though they're going to be doing anything too stressful on the pc so, you don't need the fancy gizmos like separate graphic & sound cards, pentiums & gigabytes of RAM.

Maybe the Dimension 3000 is suitable for your parents.
I've bought these lately for £330 with a 17" flatscreen (w/o speakers or floppy disc). Don't go for any of the Dell extra/upgrades. Not worth it.

If you think need a floppy drive, get a 128 MByte usb flash drive.
It'll hold about 90 times as much a floppy and about a million times faster!
And they should be about a tenner in your local computer shop.

Leaves plenty of money for a decent printer.

There are a number of techie threads on decent FREE spyware, antivirus, firewall tools. Do a search of the techie forum for AVG or Ad-aware

I'm a great believer in buying exactly what I need,
not what I think would be nice to have. - like ornaments...

Poppy9

I know it's priced at £599 but is the PC world deal any good on the PACKARD BELL 1517

PC world.

I have never bought from PC world so couldn't recommend.

beautifulgorgeous_2

If you want to use PC world order online and pick up from store as the prices are cheaper on the net than in store.

Ted_Hutchinson

When I was in Kwiksave this morning checking the details of their 17in tft £149 offer I noticed they are also doing a PC/PRINTER/15inch TFT Medion Bundle about £450. It was a celeron the ram was 512 I think the hard disk was 60
I'm sorry I can't remember more details

Ted_Hutchinson

MAKRO MAIL EVESHAM OFFER £399 I can't remember if Makro quote prices with or without VAT. So you will need to check.

RajaStyle

http://configure.euro.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?b&c=uk&cs=ukdhs1&l=en&oc=D10306&rbc=D10306&s=dhs&sbc=ukdhsrsdimen_3000_2

£421 for Pentium 4 system (don't forget to reduce the service guarentee) leaving £79 for a printer.

non.basic

Poppy9 wrote:

I know it's priced at £599 but is the PC world deal any good on the PACKARD BELL 1517

PC world.

I have never bought from PC world so couldn't recommend.

Dont buy from PC world. I used to service computers for them.

fatblokexl

try tesco, there iqon comp is great......................................i have one and you get points for it too

Ted_Hutchinson

The iQon AMD 2800+ Lowest Priced Family PC Package ever at TESCO with 17'' Philips CRT Monitor and Lexmark Z615 Colour Printer is the ideal introduction to family computing. With a 2 year in home warranty freephone technical support and Childguard Child Protection Software the iQon Package features:

* AMD Sempron 2800+ Processor.
* 256mb RAM.
* 80gb Hard Drive.
* Philips DVD Rewriter Drive (record your own DVD's)
* Philips 17'' CRT Monitor.
* TESCO Internet software.
* Logitech Internet Keyboard and Optical Mouse.
* Floppy Disk Drive.
* Microsoft Works.
* Philips Stereo Speakers.
* iQon Recovery Software.
* complete with network card.
* Manufacturers Guarantee Period: 2 Years in Home Warranty
* Option: BLACK
* Height: 36cm
* Depth: 41cm
* Width: 19cm
£399.00 * 399 Clubcard points + 500 extra points * FREE DELIVERY
Tesco computer offer

They also do a £498 version with a 15in TFT monitor (which gives a similar viewing area but takes up a lot less desk space and used less power)

Poppy9

non.basic wrote:

Dont buy from PC world. I used to service computers for them.

And ?????? tell more.

I thought I had read on here somewhere that their own make machines were crap but the known brand ones ok.

Have to admit I like the sound of the Tesco's one - brill price. Shame no flat monitor though! Then again what do you expect for less than £400.