PC Base unit advise - Littlewoods best buy?

womble374

Hi

We are looking at buying a new base unit, and will probably buy via Littlewoods as we can pay monthly. We only need the base unit and have £550 max to spend. I am totally confused on the best options, I grasp storage, but the rest is a mystery. Our pc is very old, so doesn't help. What should I be looking for in terms of RAM, processor, and graphics in this price range? We are an average family, so internet, games (mainly on line not loaded onto pc apart from Sims), microsoft word/excel/powerpoint, type of things?

Any advise helpfully received.

aerostar

There are plenty of base units at far less cost than you spending £550 that will do what you want. By using Littlewoods you would pay over the odds for a pc, for the pay monthly privilidge.

I assume that as you say base unit that you have a monitor.

Here is just a suggestion

http://www.misco.co.uk/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=485546&CatId=0

remember that the bold price needs vat to be added, though they do show the vat inc price.


Something like this should be very suitable.

They have monthly finance offer which even if you take the interest into account, you would still pay less than your anticipated £550.

Do have a look around at other suppliers and do not get fixated on Littlewoods purely for the monthly payment even if that is interest free.

NB I have no link with Misco, I and my friends have bought equipment from them in the past for business, and have been happy with their service and prices.

womble374

hi aerostar

thanks for you comments, I understand what you mean about cost.

Quick question then, does it not really matter what type of processor or HD I go for, or even graphics card. Would something like you mention be sufficient?

penrhyn

Maybe something like this?

http://configure.euro.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?c=uk&cs=ukdhs1&l=en&oc=D005715&dgc=AF&cid=5212&lid=122756&acd=a90019c5b1ebb025502d801faf8068c6

The spec should be more than sufficient for your needs.

macman

For what you want, a recon base unit could be got from a local independent PC shop for around £150 . Absurd to contemplate spendig £550 on a base unit just so you can pay in installments!

roddydogs

Or E-Bay for around £100.

Browntoa

or one of those "we buy your unwanted goods" shops , they do interest free weekly payments without a credit check if you really don't have the cash to hand

23n1th

For just a base unit for a little more money than 550 you could get this: http://www.ebuyer.com/product/225762 which is slight overkill for what you want it for so I hope the littlewoods computer has something like that hardware.

kabayiri

Womble, a question :-
- where in the country are you? Some here may know good local places near to you, which are able to supply quality 2nd hand units or new shops.

JasX

There is a long saga of the last person on here who thought about buying a PC from littlewods here....

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2038759

In summary (if you don't want to read thru)

They ordered a PC from litttlewoods for £650.... after badgering from people on here they cancelled the order and eventually went the bare bones PC route and ended up spending £250 for a higher spec machine.

If you do';t want to get your screwdriver out perhaps you could do something similar to a £550-650 littlewoods machine for around £350 I expect.

If you think its good value to pay £650+interest for a £300 machine for the 'convienience' of paying monthly you must have more money than you know what to do with.

Try using open office (free) instead of MS Office for a bit and see how you get on -I expect you'll find that fine and save yourself £80 there too

aerostar

roddydogs wrote: »

Or E-Bay for around £100.

My concern with some of these are usually no warranty or very short, perhaps have a pirate version of the windows operating system and/or programs, ensure it has a valid certificate of authenticity sticker on it if you do go this way, and if it goes FUT after a short while it could be money down the drain.