Refurbished Desktop Advice: Which one to buy?

jock1967

Managed to find system requirements of FM09:
OS: Windows XP/Vista
Processor:
- XP : 1.4GHz or Faster
- Vista : 2.0GHz or Faster
*Supported Processors: Intel Pentium 4, Intel Core, AMD Athlon
Memory:
- XP : 512MB RAM
- Vista : 1GB RAM
Hard Drive Space: 2GB
DVD-Drive: 4x Speed
Video Card: 128MB****Supported Chipsets - Nvidia FX 5900 Ultra or greater; ATI Radeon 9800 or greater; Intel 82915G/82910GL or greater.
Earlier cards may only display 2D Match Viewer Mode and are not supported. Laptop versions of these chipsets may work but are not supported.
Sound Card: DirectX 9.0c compatible
DirectX: Version 9.0c (included)


So for the spec I'm looking at FM09 should run okay.

jock1967

Okay so not PC World then!

I will start a new search for a refurbished Dual Core/Core Duo with Vista Home Premium, at least 2GB Ram, 250GB HDD, Dual Layer DVDRW, at least 128mb graphics card/on-board graphics. I will re-check DellOutlet, EuroPC, mcscom (thanks Psychofly) and the Tesco link (thanks wench).

Will probably pop back here for your opinion once I've narrowed the search down. Thanks for the advice.

Psychofly

The Tesco one is just as good as any other option but it's certainly not the best value one. Depends if you want convenience over value. To be honest you can't really go wrong with any of the ones you've been looking at so far.

macman

jock1967 wrote: »

Okay so not PC World then!

I will start a new search for a refurbished Dual Core/Core Duo with Vista Home Premium, at least 2GB Ram, 250GB HDD, Dual Layer DVDRW, at least 128mb graphics card/on-board graphics. I will re-check DellOutlet, EuroPC, mcscom (thanks Psychofly) and the Tesco link (thanks wench).

Will probably pop back here for your opinion once I've narrowed the search down. Thanks for the advice.

I would look for a min of 320GB HD. 250GB is very little on a modern desktop.

jock1967

What about this new one on Ebuyer then?:
Zoostorm Versatile Premium Desktop £300
Intel Core 2 Duo E5200 Dual Core Processor, 2.5Ghz, 2MB Cache
3GB DDR2 667MHz
320GB (1x320GB) SATA II Hard Drive
20 x Super multi DVDRW (Doesn't say if Dual Layer or not)
Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium
Onboard: integrated 2D/3D graphics
5.1 channel surround sound
Keyboard and Mouse
1 set 5.1 channel Audio jacks (3 jacks)
1 x PS/2 keyboard port
1 x PS/2 mouse port
1 x Parallel port
1 x Serial port
6 x USB 2.0 ports
1 x RJ45 LAN port
1 x VGA port
1 Year Warranty

Worth the extra £11 over the Tesco one or could I get a similar refurbished for significantly less?

On mcscom a similar refurbished Inspiron 530 machine with less Ram and smaller HDD is £255. But adding on vat its price rises to £293!

beag1e

Morgan computers have some good refurb deals, check their website. I'm thinking of getting one of their Dells, there are a few that would be ok for gaming. I got a great value Toshiba laptop from them in April, very happy.

el_gringo_3

FM09's a strange one. IIRC the minimimum system requirements won't actually run the full game - the 3D match engines etc. Also as with all FM games, the more 'leagues' you have active, and the greater number of 'real' players, the bigger your system would need to be.

I tried it on a PC way above those specs you listed (2.8 p4, 2g ram, 256mb gfx card, XP) and it just wasn't worth thinking about, you could manage about a league at a time and it was incredibly slow and boring.

Oh yeah, don't buy from PC World.

Strider590

Tesco should stick to food. When your PC goes wrong, you don't want the chap from the deli counter trying to give you technical support.

macman

Strider590 wrote: »

Tesco should stick to food. When your PC goes wrong, you don't want the chap from the deli counter trying to give you technical support.

He'd probably do a better job than the chap at PC World though...
and the salami they sell at PCW is just awful!