where to start for a new PC?

confusedmix

Hello

I am looking to buy a pc as my old one is dying Anyway, I use it for word processing, surfing the net and sometimes playing games.
Now my budget is up tp £500 and I don't know where to start.

Any suggestions? I have been looking into pcworld but find that their prices are rather high for the specification of he pc's, can anyone help me find THE ONE?

Thanks

ckerrd

Desktop or laptop?
With or without a monitor?
What OS?
What kind of games - eg. are they graphics intense?

davester

well dont get from PC world for a start.
and what Ckerrd asked.
Would you feel confident building a desktop if thats what your after?

confusedmix

hi thanks for replying and:

Desktop
Pref. with monitor but not fussed as I have one (unless there's a good deal)
Pref. windows 7
and only simple games on the internet- their not really graphic intense

and I wouldn't be confident about building my own.
and what happened at pc world?

ckerrd

http://www1.euro.dell.com/uk/en/home/desktops_great_deals/fs.aspx?refid=desktops_great_deals&s=dhs&cs=ukdhs1

Just a quick search and a few above.
For £400 you get a nice shiny 19" monitor too.

Just a start to get you thinking

confusedmix

Thanks and can anyone tell me what cache is? i know I have read that the higher the number the faster it will be, but how high is high? and how do I know how much I need because the figuers vary alot from pc to pc.

closed

Whats wrong with the old one? Wouldn't worry too much about cache.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CPU_cache

confusedmix

Thanks for the reply, my old pc keeps restarting for no reason I have tried everything, and someone told me that my pc was old and that I should just invest in a new one as it wouldn't be worth fixing.

closed

It might be fixable, if you post more details

How often does it restart, when, how long after startup, how old is it, which model, which virus scanner is installed?

confusedmix

I'm worrying about the cache because they vary so much when I have compared some pc's online and the figure varies and that effects the price?

hethmar

You can do a lot of faffing about - but Dell tends to offer the best deals. Go through quidco.com for further cash back and/or google for discount vouchers.