Advice on pc for childrens room please.

shopperhopper

Hi
Could anyone tell me if this PC would be any good ,and is it suitable for a childs bedroom as a 2nd pc connected with a wireless router? It is from PC World at £287.00 EI System AMD Athlon + processor + 17" CRT monitor.

I would be really grateful for any thoughts on this, as we are not very PC clued up.

Thank you.

Phantom_Flan_Flinger

If all they are going to do is surf the internet, then the specification of the PC doesn't really matter.

If they want to play games, especially newer ones, then it may well struggle as the graphics and sound will be integrated.

Ditto

Check here - http://www.hotukdeals.com/Article3943.phtml - for a cheap Dell pc for the kids bedroom.

shopperhopper

Thanks for the replies.
They will be mainly using it for the internet, but also for games . The Dell looks very good. What are the main things to look out for as to the specifications ?

Thank You

Darksun

It depends on the game. Modern 3D games usually need a decent graphics card and a lot of RAM. Usually budget range PCs only have integrated graphics, which really won't do for gaming

electron_3

May I also say that I would definetely get some kind of child protection
software like Net Nanny as I have just seen This Morning on ITV and they
mentioned the crime of Internet Bullying is getting quite significant so I would
just also say please keep an eye (supervise) your children as they may become
a target of this kind of hate crime.

http://www.netnanny.com/ Net Nanny £23.87

http://www.cyberpatrol.com/ Cyber Patrol

http://www.tucows.com/preview/424985 Spam Blocker (Free)

http://www.thinkuknow.co.uk/ A Guide to the net.

Just have safe surfing :beer:

Darksun

Well, to be honest I think Net Nanny et al is useless and a waste of money. It's no substitute for parenting, monitor your kids usage and inform them of the dangers on the internet.

kingshir

Don't put a computer in your childrens room!

electron_3

Darksun wrote:

Well, to be honest I think Net Nanny et al is useless and a waste of money. It's no substitute for parenting, monitor your kids usage and inform them of the dangers on the internet.

Not totally useless at all, what about when Mum or Dad have to
answer the door or run a bath or any number of things, its just
a good safety net to have in place, its either that or turn the PC
off or hibernate whenever something in the home needs doing.

Darksun

electron wrote:

Not totally useless at all, what about when Mum or Dad have to
answer the door or run a bath or any number of things, its just
a good safety net to have in place, its either that or turn the PC
off or hibernate whenever something in the home needs doing.

I'm not suggesting that you constantly monitor your kids (infact that's ridiculous, they need some degree of privacy). Just the software itself is ineffective (not filtering a high enough percentage of sites out or resulting in too many false positives). It'll most likely lead to annoyance all around.

electron_3

So whats the alternative?