What desktop pc should I buy?

beachbeth

My old pc is about 10 years old and a bit slow so I now want to update it. I don't do heavy gaming and mainly use it for surfing the internet, music and photos. Im looking to spend about £400 but don't mind going over this for the right machine. I don't need a printer but want the other accessories, keyboard, tft, speakers etc.

I visited Pc World yesterday and if I had had a salesman that was interested in helping me I would have come away with a pc but we got this young lad that seemed to be making things up, ie "Microsoft Office 2003 won't work on Windows Vista" (my daughter uses Office 2003 on her laptop and it has Windows Vista!). This immediately made me not believe anything he said. Then, in the middle of showing us different pc's he just wandered off and lost interest!!!

I wrote down the details of the pc we were most interested in but forgot to note the brand name! Think is was HP at £479.99:

19" display, intel pentium dual core E2220, 2.4 GHz, 800MHz, 512kb
Vista Home Premium 32-bit, 2GB DDR2 memory, 320GB SATA hard drive (7200rpm) NVidia Ge Force 7100 graphics. Dual layer DVD rewriter.
This comes with printer (which I would sell)


Or on the PC World website there is a The Compaq Presario CQ5011 for £429.99,

• Intel® Pentium® E2220 Dual-Core(2.40GHz, 1MB Cache)
• 3GB DDR2 memory
• 320GB SATA hard drive
• Intel® GMA 3100 graphics
• Dual Layer DVD Rewriter
• Media card reader
• 6x USB ports

But it doesn't say what operating system it has.

Are there any better Dell deals or offers? I was also considering a PC World refurb to get the cost down.

isofa

Avoid PC World like the plague, the advice you've been given is wrong, it reinforces how inept and poor they are at sales, aftersales, care and anything in general. Avoid!

Office 2003 works fine with Vista. I believe you can even coax 2000 to work with it too...

Best Dell deals listed here: https://www.dmxdimension.co.uk (not www.dmxdimenson.co.uk)

beachbeth

Thanks isofa. However, your link doesn't work! Ive googled it and realised it should be com and not co.uk.

macman

Surprised you're even considering PCW after your experience there (which is nothing out of the ordinary). For your purposes you don't need a high end PC, I would suggest one of the Dell Inspiron range, but make sure your get min spec of: Vista Home Premium (not Basic), Dual Core or Core Duo processor, min 3GB RAM, min HD 320GB.
You should be able to get that within your budget.

isofa

beachbeth wrote: »

Thanks isofa. However, your link doesn't work! Ive googled it and realised it should be com and not co.uk.

I mistyped it, it should actually be www.dmxdimension.co.uk (I missed the i out before the on.co.uk) they all re-route to the .com site.

[Deleted User]

http://www.dmxdimension.com/

beachbeth

macman wrote: »

Surprised you're even considering PCW after your experience there (which is nothing out of the ordinary).

When we told him that Microsoft Office 2003 worked on my daughters laptop he just went red and didn't say anything! Id love to be able to go into a shop and choose a pc but if they can't be bothered then neither can I!!!

isofa

beachbeth wrote: »

When we told him that Microsoft Office 2003 worked on my daughters laptop he just went red and didn't say anything! Id love to be able to go into a shop and choose a pc but if they can't be bothered then neither can I!!!

Exactly. If they are this poor at selling, just think what they are like if you have a problem, need after sales support etc. Unfortunately everyone knows exactly how bad they are.

[Deleted User]

People make the mistake of assuming that anyone who works in PC World is an expert. They may have a fleeting interest in computers in general, but they in no way take any satisfaction in making sure a customer leaves with the right kit for them, just what the upper echelons of management want them to sell.

macman

anewhope wrote: »

People make the mistake of assuming that anyone who works in PC World is an expert. They may have a fleeting interest in computers in general, but they in no way take any satisfaction in making sure a customer leaves with the right kit for them, just what the upper echelons of management want them to sell.

Which are never going to be the basic models, which in this case is all the OP needs.

Jakes-mate

I am personally hanging on to my old XP home until Windows 7 is available, all i have heard is good things so far.

Bob