Where to start with pc?

gabyjane

Went to Currys last night as seemed the best place to start where i could see them and found 2..i need a basic pc for me and dd, needs to be able to write cd's, have word etc on, hold photos and watch the odd movie and play games on etc..nothing tot taxing but not sure what im after tbh.the one i thought seemed better i was told wasn't which threw me and the fact the lad tried to add on £88 for word annoys me as one shown below says it comes with it? So are the below any good or are there better places to look?

This one was a package for £399 with the screen so not sure how that price is coming up:
http://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/packard-bl-imedia-d2522-uk-06077236-pdt.html

this was the other one:
http://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/packard-bl-packard-bell-imedia-d3524-uk-and-viseo-190wb-19-widescreen-lcd-monitor-08104663-pdt.html

They say sold with a viseo monitor yet have a packard bell shown in the store and it says packard bell on the ticket..confused! i like it all to match though tbh.

Thanks for any help. x

JasX

gabyjane wrote: »

Went to Currys last night as seemed the best place to start

Error #1 - PCworld/curries is about the last place anyone on here is likely to recommend buying from, expect overpriced products and abysmal customer service. Be sure to check out a fair few other places to make sure any offer they make can't be found for a few hundred pounds cheaper elsewhere.

Good places to check any offers against are the Dell website -often has a special offer on, dinoPC.com has been recommended by others on here and www.novatech.co.uk often have competative bare boones offers if you fancy getting a screwdriver out.

For those addicted to the high street I hear john lewis are fairly competative with good warranties/gurantees.

most PCs don't come with word/MS office and that does cost about £80 standalone, however if you give openoffice a try it is compatible with word, looks and feels the same, can save as .doc word files and is FREE instead of costing £80

gabyjane

Thanks. Yeah i thought Currys would get a thumbs down but just thought it would show what i was after.
Basically i want to set it up and go, no faffing with a screw driver!..have checked out dell but found their site not to be as good as normal. Have looked at ebuyer too but again want a package..will look at the suggested ones thanks.

gonzo127

well the second one is by far the better buy out of those 2 as not only does it have a better processor it also has more ram a bigger hard drive and include the office starter pack instead of just a trial (which would require you to buy it after 30 - 60 days at roughly £80 as the lad said)

personally however i am not a big fan of currys and pc world and even less so of the space saving cases

QUICK EDIT unfortunatly one of the problems with choosing their low cost systems to compare others with is they are very good at getting a good sounding spec system for very little money as they will usually pair the headline parts with the cheapest possible 'other' parts they can get hold off which will keep the cost of the system down

SECOND QUICK EDIT - just wondering what your maximum budget actually is (including delivery) and you have mentioned games, do you have any specific games in mind?

mclmsn

I have been told this company is good http://www.europc.co.uk/ I haven't had to use them yet though I usually use http://www.aria.co.uk/

The monitors are usually sold separately even then they are still cheaper than Currys for a simple system.

TwistedPsycho

JasX wrote: »

Good places to check any offers against are the Dell website -often has a special offer on, dinoPC.com has been recommended by others on here and www.novatech.co.uk often have competative bare boones offers if you fancy getting a screwdriver out.

A big thumbs up for Novatech here to.
I am luck yo to be living in a few minutes drive of their Portsmouth store so I pre-order and then go and collect. They offer that for their stores in Bristol (Portishead), Reading, Cardiff and Portsmouth.

Okay, so I buy compnents and build my own specs, but I know of companies using them on a regular basis for their pre-built stuff as well... oh and the small print is monitors are pictured, but purchased seperately - a 19inch monitor is usually on offer about £90 at novatech as well.

Mobeer

Two points from the original post:

1 - the monitor is made by Packard Bell - Viseo is a product name

2 - the system comes with a trial version of Office Home & Student, which will work for a limited time only. A full licence would cost in the region of £80.

bengalknights

Also Aldi do some good spec Medion pcs for quite cheap might be worthwhile waiting for one of there special buys that pop up

JasX

bengalknights wrote: »

Also Aldi do some good spec Medion pcs for quite cheap might be worthwhile waiting for one of there special buys that pop up

meh they did one (their very first one) that was good value... the others since have all been so-so

sillygoose

JasX wrote: »

meh they did one (their very first one) that was good value... the others since have all been so-so

I have looked around PC world recently, was shocked at the price of the PC's as most had 'budget' processors tucked away, they know people are confused by all the choice and numbers.

Aldi did a pretty good PC recently, again high general spec. but they had skimped on the processor power. But they also did around the same time one that I think was a 'back to school' special that had a decent quad core processor as well and was priced close to the parts cost of my new 'self-built' PC, to the point had I seen it before I might have bought instead of built to save time.

Point being they pushed the one but didn't do much for the great value 'school' one so don't discount Aldi just have to be careful.

macman

PC's never come with a full version of MS Office included, as that would almost double the price!
You can get a student version for around £80 if you want, but why not just use OpenOffice, which does everything MS Office does, and is free to download?