p.c for student daughter

smileylunar

HI my 19 yr old daughter would like a p.c that can access wireless, store music, put her work on and store, access the internet with wireless capability, store pictures. rewrite cd/dvd,be a reasonable cost, dependable, fair amount of memory,tft screen ideally, but could cope with bog standard monitor,keyboard mouse e.t.c, does anyone out here have any reccomendations? we have someone who can "make it up" for her from seperate components, or would a ready system be more economical?
grateful for any input.
many thanks

Leeds_Fan_2

Try here - http://www.pc-interworks.co.uk/acatalog/buyit247_net_Grade_2_Fujitsu_Siemens_Computers_3.html.

Would need to buy monitor seperate but the low cost pc on this at £250 is pretty good. These are new DOA pcs that have been repaired. 6 months warranty should be ok (if they work after 3 months.....)

ichiban1962

have a look at the dell website, if she does not need to play games
get the cheapest (then just upgrade what you need bigger hard drive more memory etc)
http://www1.euro.dell.com/content/default.aspx?c=uk&cs=ukdhs1&l=en&s=dhs

sleepali

This is V.good for the money & upgradeable

http://www.dabs.com/productview.aspx?Quicklinx=43T8&CategorySelectedId=11101#Paging&NavigationKey=11101&ExposedRefinement=11001

And possibly this

http://www.dabs.com/productview.aspx?quicklinx=4412&CategorySelectedId=11014&PageMode=1&cl=4294963687&InMerch=1

Or this

http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/110737

amdavies

PC World. Can be expensive but if things go wrong under warranty you can go down and bang on the counter top - I always enjoy being able to do this.

Dell. Normally cheaper than the high-street route but more difficult to get good customer satisfaction. If/when something goes wrong, you'll have to send it back to them unless you buy a (normally expensive) on-site warranty.

Refurbished. Cheapest, but normally only a short warranty period. Normally only a choice if you know what to do when it breaks.


If you can post here what your budget is, that'll make it easier to suggest a possible solution.

Students can normally get slightly cheaper equipment, it might be worth asking at the education establishment if they have any ties to PC firms.

asot

Wouldn't suggest letting your friend build the computer for you. There isn't really much advantage in this nowadays; the only thing is the fun of putting it together if you enjoy that kind of thing. If something goes wrong then you are relying on your friend to diagnose it, identify the component that has gone wrong and send it back the manufacturer. If you buy a ready made package then this is all done for you.

If you are looking for the absolute cheapest deal then the previously mentioned links are worthwhile. If you have a higher budget I would seriously consider getting a Mac. Your daughter would be able to get an 8-14% discount on hardware and prices start at £360 (incl. VAT, excl. Monitor/Keyboard/Mouse). As a bonus they also come with 3 years warranty as standard and great digital media software.

I bought my girlfirend a Mac laptop about 3 years ago and it has been so reliable. She doesn't have to worry about viruses and spyware, her system doesn't need reinstalls, the system is less prone to clogging up as more stuff is installed and finally she has been able to install 2 operating system upgrades without any problems whatsoever.

From another perspective I used PCs for almost 14 years and last September I decided to switch to Mac. As a computing graduate in the technology industry I find Macs extremely well designed and the technology to be more advanced than Microsoft in many respects. They aren't perfect but I do think they are superior to Windows machines in most respects.

If she is going to Uni, then consider getting a laptop. This makes moving it around from different accomodations much easier and also allows her to use her own computer in the library/at presentations.

If you decide to go for a PC rather than a Mac I would prefer larger, more standardised manufacturers rather than smaller manufacturers offering more customisation. Customisation is good in that it obviously allows you to handpick what you want but can lead to compatability problems which might not necessarily be obvious or apparent.

Lastly don't trust any sales person to give you the best advice regardless of who they work for. Not all of them are bad but you never know whether you are getting good advice (unless obviously you know about computers).

John_LG

ichiban1962 wrote:

have a look at the dell website, if she does not need to play games
get the cheapest (then just upgrade what you need bigger hard drive more memory etc)

Be careful by just buying thecheapest, as it won't give the OP what they want (wireless, cdrw, 'decent' ram... that's a lot of upgrades, and will probably negate the warranty if you start adding your own bits)

i'd try a site where you can pick and choose your own components, and the sites will only offer compatible options, so this could be a good start.
http://www.aria.co.uk/newAriaSystems.asp and go to custom PC (or the prebuilts)
http://www.savastore.com/configurator/default.aspx
These are two options for you.

Agreed it doesn't have to be cutting edge, and you can save some money by maybe looking for an AMD Athlon 64 (socket 939) chip over Intel (or even more by going for a AMD Sempron (socket 754 - slightly older). The motherboard could have an onboard graphics card too, to save £30+. Make sure you get 512MB ram as a minimum. 80GB hard drives are about the smallest you can get, but if you want to save music and photos, then invest another £20 and get at least 160GB. This can always be increased later, by getting a second drive. The wireless issue is one not to miss, if you buy a desktop PC. You can get pci wireless cards for about £20+. i assume that you already have a wireless signal in the home to connect to. the reason I say this, is that many people suffer the wrong message from advertising. You will have to have a wireless router in your home to make this work (around £40) the forum sticky on wireless issues is very informative, if you need it. You may as well get a dvd rw that can read and write to all dvds and cds as these are about £20, and there is little point just getting a cd rw.
Good luck,
Remember these sites can build these for you for a fee (about £40) and offer warranty - but if you know a good person who can build and offer that kind of support, then you may save a little money (but not as much as you used to) - I just prefer to hand pick my components.
J
P.S.
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=188049&highlight=cheapest+monitor
This is a record of the cheapest flat screen 17inch monitors around at the moment. £93 would you believe? Giving you a very good looking complete system for under £500 with lots of bells and whistles, and better than my own!

Fraserca

Keep it simple - buy a laptop for less than £500. Try Dell or offers on Acer, HP or any name you have heard of. Check the spec and the warranty and you are there.

Student need laptops, they don't need lumps of empty space called PC's to lug between flats, university and home.

Remember to get some kind of insurance to protect agains theft and damage.

Good luck

jack_daniels_2

Do students get any discounts still? i know MS sell software for students at discount prices but not sure about PCs from outlets i mean do you have to show a student card, its been a long time since i was a student

John_LG

Whilist posters are right about the benefits of laptops (portibility) there are many downsides to consider. Battery life, poor upgrading, dvd rw are rare, low memory, small hard drives, poor sound, smaller screen, limited connectivity for devices... just my opinion, of course.

Editted: By limited connectivity, I mean the quantity of usb ports for the devices you may use. Apologies for such a general misleading comment...

Neato

https://www.ebuyer.com
https://www.savastore.com
https://www.scan.co.uk

Great site for cheap pcs and parts.