Is this PC any good?

silverbullit

I am considering buying the PC below for my nephew; I intend to buy a monitor for him separately.

I'd be very grateful for the views of you tech experts on whether or not it is a decent spec at good value. Looking at the ebay seller's feedback, it appears that this PC sells for 150-200 pounds.

Thanks in advance for your views....

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&item=140313655096

Marty_J

It's a pretty good spec for that price.

Does it come with an operating system? I couldn't see any mention of it in the listing, though it has to be said I'm not wearing my glasses.

If not, unless you're going to be using Linux, you'll have to factor that into your costs.

silverbullit

^^Thanks for the reply; no, it does not appear to come with the OS, but I do have access to some OS discs which I can use.

Marty_J

Just bear in mind that if you're planning to install Windows and the disks you have are OEM copies (ones that were supplied with a computer), you might have some trouble activating them if they have already been used.

You generally need a retail copy to move licences between computers.

weegie.geek

Not bad spec for the price, but I guess it depends what he intends to do with it. If he's planning on playing games made in the last 5 years, it'll be more or less useless.

silverbullit

^^No, he isn't going to be using it for online games; he has enough consoles for that purpose! He'll be using it for the usual stuff - surfing, homework, online video and music etc...

weegie.geek

It'll be spot on for that stuff then.

Zeitgeist

You can put in a proper graphics card (the motherboard has integrated graphics ATM), which would make it a reasonable games machine, if you wanted to do that in the future.

macman

No mention of any warranty or support, which is what would put me off this build. If you do have your own OS to install, not bad value if you get it for £150. But if you add a monitor and OS then not so good, you could get a mainstream PC for £350 all in. Definitely not worth £200.
If anything, it's overspecced for the requirements you mention.

Jaffa.

Just to clear it up, 2.7GHz x2 does not = 5.4GHz. It only means there are 2 cores to the cpu, better put it means 2 programs can run alongside each other without major interference to performance. You will need to get the 64 bit of your desired OS to make use of the 4GB of ram
I personally wouldn’t go for it because it doesn’t look that good, the guys done a copy and paste job on the description, looks like a print screen from where he's brought the parts from - no care or effort has been put into the auction description, possibly the same with the build of the pc.

macman

Agree with Jaffa, always slightly curious about new builds being sold without an OS installled-have they been fully tested? I doubt it.
Description is very hard to unravel. If you're buying secondhand or refurb then you don't expect much of a warranty. On a new build you do.