Cheapest Family PC

MoneyMachine_2

Hi, my sister and her boyfriend have £500 to spend on a PC.
They have two young kids the oldest of whom is 5. they would like to use the PC for kiddy games and stuff aswell as Broadband surfing and word processing as my sister is doing a distance learning course.

They ae wanting to put their music and photos etc on it so a package with a photo printer, speakers, XP home, etc would be ideal.

Anyone seen a great package to fulfil this criteria.
I'm not sure whether to buy a good base unit and source the peripherals seperately or not.
Also, I realise a CRT would probably save quite a bit of cash.
Whats the general opinion on RAM?? 256 or 512??
It needs to be pre-installed as they won't be keen on upgrading or anything and I live at the opposite end of the country so can't help either.

Packaged software isn't really necessary as I can give them any of mine that they like, so long as XP is included.

Grateful for all your ideas!!!!

PS: I'm also on the market for a business laptop. Budget is about £550 - £700 and I intend on selling it and upgrading after a year.
What's the best around in that price range - I'm looking towards ACER at the mo' anyone know when there knew models are due to be released???

MM

Viz_2

Have a look at the Dell outlet store (online) for both computers.

http://outlet.dell.com/Emea_Dfo/EuDispatcher?target=InventoryPage&sessionID=B3DDm1eG!512681423!-1856652230!1106723779864

For the PC you should have at least 512mb ram and probably at least a Pentium 4, 2.8 ghz processor. Avoid a Celeron if you can

I bought from the Outlet only yesterday. Got . P4 3.2 512 DDR2 160gb HD DVD rom and DVD RW, keyboard, mouse, speakers delivered for £425.
Bearing in mind the systems are 'refurbished'.

coolagarry

I have heard lots of good things about this company and they seem to have several systems in your price range. Apparently their support is very good too
http://www.jal.co.uk/pages/

I agree that you need a minimum of 512 memory

Joe-C_4

If you want the best deal then building your own computer is the way to go!
http://www.newegg.com/ have some great prices..

Here are some nice PC's starting from £150!
http://www.aria.co.uk/newAriaSystems.asp

Here are some more:
http://www.pricerunner.co.uk/computing/computers/desktop-computers/210894/details
http://www.pricerunner.co.uk/computing/computers/desktop-computers/281684/details

Simpson

http://www.comp-buyer.co.uk/buyer/labs/165/buy-now-get-more/products.html

a couple of these look good maybe some of the techie gurus could advise, but they are listed as family pc's and seem to be a complete package and best of all they're sub £400.

Tempo_2

I've just bought myself a nice(well to my liking NEways) PC, from HP Market Place @ ebay. for £500 + £20(delivery). The same thing has been sold for about £20. less in the past few days. But I'm pleased with mine. They are remanufactured mostly, but do come with 1yr guarantee. My previous Pc was HP, but was purchased brand new, it's just a bit out of date for my needs now, which is why I got another, and was impressed by the quality and service I recieved from HP. I'd recommend them.
http://stores.ebay.co.uk/HP-Marketplace-UK

Simpson

dell pc £330 delivered with free printer
E-Value Code: 305 - D01245
last day of offers.

http://www1.euro.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/dimen_2400?c=uk&cs=ukdhs1&l=en&s=dhs

added link.

MylesBetter

PC World do a PC for £199 with monitor, if you do not want all singing all dancing machine.

Go to their WEB site and do a PC search.

It is also £199 in the stores but they do not have it on display in my local branch.

They say it is because they do not have enough room to show everything.

I think it is because the margins are lower.

MylesBetter

This is the model and product code.

ALBACOMP
C1841
INTEL CELERON 1.8 + 15" CRT MONITOR

MoneyMachine_2

Thanks for all th replies, some very good website I hadn't come across before.

I eventually plumped for a very good spec PC from the Jal website - excellent find - everything I needed inc a TFT for £509. Also found an excellent review of this machine from the comp-buyer site - so very helpful.

I didn't know you could specify the spec on PC's on the Pricerunner website either - so again very useful knowledge- Thanks again to everyone who posted.

Just need to find a laptop now.....

Currently set on the ACER Aspire 1362WLMI - £672 inc VAT + del (Pricerunner.)

Can anyone do any better b4 I commit???

MM

wb197

I got my last two pc`s from carrera well happy with them service good to

https://www.carrera.co.uk checkout their site