New Desktop Pc Required

Sylvester

Hi

No doubt this has been asked before, but looking around, I find very little and what I do find, people are looking for alot more than I need.

I need a very basic PC that just allows me to browse the web, download and play media files really. No games are played, other than very occasionally Football Manager! I don't need a monitor. I would like an OS already installed on it, so I have as less as possible to do. My current PC is slowly dying!

I've been getting by with an XP, 512mb Ram, 120GB HDD (this can be smaller as not alot is used at any one time) 863Mhz processor intel pentium III, so i'm not needing a top of the range PC, just something basic, but enough to be able to do a little more if required.

A good customer service and warranty would be useful.

Any recommendations on what I should be looking for, avoiding and the places to look at/avoid?

Cheap as possible

Thanks.

Marty_J

Have you had a look on Dell?

You can get a Dell Inspiron 545 without a monitor for £299.

It doesn't have amazing specs, but it would definitely be a step up (or two!) from what you're currently using.

pendulum

Do you mind used? Older computers (which are still perfectly suitable for your basic needs, e.g. P4 2.8Ghz, 1Gig RAM, 60Gb HD, XP installed) can be had real cheap on eBay, e.g. I've seen them go for under £40 (plus postage but I always collect), find a local seller and you can even arrange to go & inspect before you buy etc. For your basic needs I would not recommend a new machine when you can get by with a second hand one for fractions of the price, most people want dual/quad core now so all the single core stuff is priced very cheap.

£150 or so equals a pretty decent used system e.g. 2Gb RAM, dual core, bigger HD.

If you really want it cheap as possible & meets your needs then you have to buy used

Sylvester

Marty_J wrote: »

Have you had a look on Dell?

You can get a Dell Inspiron 545 without a monitor for £299.

It doesn't have amazing specs, but it would definitely be a step up (or two!) from what you're currently using.

I've thought about Dell. Just had a look and it is considerably better than what I have.

pendulum wrote: »

Do you mind used? Older computers (which are still perfectly suitable for your basic needs, e.g. P4 2.8Ghz, 1Gig RAM, 60Gb HD, XP installed) can be had real cheap on eBay, e.g. I've seen them go for under £40 (plus postage but I always collect), find a local seller and you can even arrange to go & inspect before you buy etc. For your basic needs I would not recommend a new machine when you can get by with a second hand one for fractions of the price, most people want dual/quad core now so all the single core stuff is priced very cheap.

£150 or so equals a pretty decent used system e.g. 2Gb RAM, dual core, bigger HD.

If you really want it cheap as possible & meets your needs then you have to buy used

Don't mind used, especially those specs you pointed out. I think 60GB may be the minimum HD i'd want, but the processor and RAM is plenty for what i'd want/need. Like I say, very basic needs and mainly just enough to get online and come to places like this to find bargains!

Would I have any comeback on eBay? I wouldn't want to buy a used one and find out after 3 months it was duff

pendulum

To be clear you would not have any warranty or comeback if you bought from a private seller, but the prices are so low for the kind of machine you're after that I wouldn't worry about it myself. Before bidding I always check to make sure the seller is prepared to show me the system working when I collect it, and for such a low priced system, that's good enough for me. I always *ask* if they are prepared to show me it working before I bid, but hardly ever actually get them to do so because I assume that if they're prepared to show me it working, then it must work! For the higher priced systems I will check them out properly.

Sylvester

I'm struggling to find a suitable machine.

I think the minimum i'd want is 80gb HDD (although thinking about it, my current 120GB HDD has ony 20GB used and that's with alot of stuff I need tio burn and take off, so even 40gb may be okay, if I could work out how to stick any of my 120gb, 40gb or 20gb hard drives as a 2nd HDD in the next machine!), 1gb ram and a CD-RW drive. (Would 512mb ram be okay, or could that be why my PC freezes alot?)

There are so many things to think about for a novice like myself. I spotted one that looked good, but then noticed no OS

I think if there is not much comeback, then i'd want to buy from a business seller that offers a warranty and one with a decent feedback level from selling PC's.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=120472780269&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT#ht_3152wt_1205

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=280393407235&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT#ht_2840wt_958

Are two i've looked at with my untrained eye.

I'm quite eager to buy ASAP as this PC is dying on me. It freezes many times a day and i'm getting more and more frustrated with it.

Another option is:

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/174671

It's Linux though, and I don't know much about Linux

And another

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/HP-COMPAQ-D530-CMT-DESKTOP-PC-TOWER-P4-1GB-500GB-CD-RW_W0QQitemZ310168850684QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_Computing_DesktopPCs?hash=item48378110fc&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14#ht_3180wt_1215

pendulum

Had a quick look:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/HP-DC7600-Pentium4-2-8-Ghz-Computer-1024-RAM-80-GB-HDD_W0QQitemZ120469634148QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_Computing_DesktopPCs?hash=item1c0c8cbc64&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14

Pentium 4 2.8Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 80Gb HD, CD-RW & DVD reader drive, WinXP Pro installed. 90 day warranty and the guy has exceptional feedback (6333 transactions, and 100% positive, a few neutrals but with that volume of sales he will have). It's a £50 starting bid and £14.50 postage, 18 hours to go and no bids yet, you could do worse! It'll be onboard graphics though so not sure about how your football manager will like it. And the case has seen better days.

I quite like the one in the first link you posted, IBM ThinkCentre, the only downsides I can see is that its only got a shortish 30day warranty and the price (~£95 delivered) isn't what you would call a bargain and you CAN get the same spec cheaper if you hunt for the bargains, but it's still a fairly reasonable price

Good luck in your search

Sylvester

Looks a good one, Pendulum. Will add it to my watchlist, thanks

I haven't got a clue with regards to onboard graphics to be honest, but I could always use this old one for that

Not a bargain the IBM? I must look harder though even I can see there are some shocking 'deals' about

I take it the combo in the one you spotted is okay to burn CD's?

I'll keep looking, tedious as it is :rotfl: and apologies for all the questions. I don't want to make any mistakes:o

Sylvester

I apologise for listing PC's. But if any are any good, please let me know as i've little idea. I know what to look for, for most of it, but not sure on price and if anything is missing/wrong connections etc. I found one earlier, looked great, but no optical drive :rolleyes:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/SFF-RM-INTEL-P4-3-0-GHZ-1-GIG-DDR-XP-WINDOWS_W0QQitemZ290348356609QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_Computing_DesktopPCs?hash=item439a1c5401&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14#ht_1096wt_958

Sylvester

Getting frustrated now I think i've found one, then....no OS, or warranty, or the listing says different from the spec in title description :rolleyes:

Found a nice one earlier - £229! Thought was a goodun', then noticed an extra £85 for Windows :rolleyes:

This one is cheap but no warranty :rolleyes:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/CHEAP-PACKARD-BELL-iMEDIA-COMPUTER-XP-COA-FREE-POSTAGE_W0QQitemZ230380670060QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_Computing_DesktopPCs?hash=item35a3c20c6c&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14#ht_3595wt_995

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/HP-Compaq-D330-Desktop-Tower-PC-1GB-80GB-DVD-XP-PRO_W0QQitemZ200385691906QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_Computing_DesktopPCs?hash=item2ea7eb0102&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14#ht_655wt_958

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/DELL-GX620-P4-3-0-1GB-80-DVD-RW-XP-PRO-TOWER-BARGAIN_W0QQitemZ320425662823QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_Computing_DesktopPCs?hash=item4a9adb9967&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14#ht_585wt_958

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/DELL-GX520-P4-3-0-1GB-80-DVD-RW-XP-PRO-DESKTP-BARGAIN_W0QQitemZ320427493976QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_Computing_DesktopPCs?hash=item4a9af78a58&_trksid=p3911.c0.m14#ht_585wt_958

Humphrey10

Sylvester wrote: »

I take it the combo in the one you spotted is okay to burn CD's?

if it says 'CD-RW' or CD+RW' etc it can burn CDs.