Desktop and laptop advice

danwate

Hello.

I'm currently searching for a very basic desktop for my grandparents. All they ever use it for is a bit of surfing, word and excel. They only need the tower as they already have the monitor, keyboard, mouse and speakers. Although money isn't really a consideration I know they don't need a top end machine. A minimal harddrive, 1/2gb of RAM, a CD drive and even XP as the OS are all fine. I had seen this Dell Optiplex GX280 SFF Desktop Pc on amazon it's listed at £99.99
although my grandparents seem to be a bit unsure of getting a refurbished machine. Any suggestions as to a minimalist desktop for my grandparents?

Also for me, I'm looking for a laptop. I'd use it for internet, word processing, a bit of photo editing, watch DVDs occasionally and the major gaming I would do would be as graphically intensive as Football Manager.
Ideal spec of: i3/i5 processor, 3gb RAM min, 15.6" screen, 320gb HD.
Is the spec I'm looking at to much for what I'd use? Got a budget of £550, lower is obviously always preferred! Had been looking at this Acer machine: on ebuyer it's the Acer Aspire 5745

What would you all suggest?

I don't want an HP as not been too happy with the one I've got and friends with the same make report the same problems. Not a samsung fan for laptops either - I can be convinced otherwise though

Many thanks everyone

If anyone can help that would be greatly appreciated.

ps. apologies that as a newish user I can't post links!

HappyMJ

Dell Gx280's were good p.c's but they are a bit too slow for today. I've been pulling them out from a company I've just been working at recently. hmmm... I wonder if they are the ones you are looking at. They are worth lass than £50.

This one? http://www.amazon.co.uk/Dell-Optiplex-GX280-Professional-pre-installed/dp/B003JND61K

The call's I've had in regards to these have been. Slow running. Overheating issues. Fan's need replacing. Hard drive failure seemed more common than the other models we had. Despite that (and an actual hardware call is quite rare-mostly user error) they are a good desktop.

JasX

For the laptop have a look at bog standard 15" ones oon the dell site, if you can live with a slightly weaker processor might be able tto find something for £350ish (or dmxdimension who seem to discount dell offers)

Grandparents if they really do want a very basic one get them the £99 refurb job, very rare absolute worst case is is blows up at which point you can whip out the hard drive and just buy them another £50-£99 machine.... or you'll end up stumping up a few hundred pounds on a new machine.

gonzo127

to be honest the dell one for your grandparents would be fine for basic usage and i cant see a reason for spending more, but it really does depend on how much you want to spend, if they want (have to have) new then something like the Acer Revo ( http://www.ebuyer.com/product/225755 ) would be fine although you would need a external dvd drive if they would likely want a cd/dvd drive

Hammyman

danwate wrote: »

Although money isn't really a consideration I know they don't need a top end machine. A minimal harddrive, 1/2gb of RAM, a CD drive and even XP as the OS are all fine. I had seen this Dell Optiplex GX280 SFF Desktop Pc on amazon it's listed at £99.99
although my grandparents seem to be a bit unsure of getting a refurbished machine

I've sold a few of those and gave one to my parents. I put a couple of GB of RAM in it and it runs Vista Home Premium just fine.

Also for me, I'm looking for a laptop. I'd use it for internet, word processing, a bit of photo editing, watch DVDs occasionally and the major gaming I would do would be as graphically intensive as Football Manager.
Ideal spec of: i3/i5 processor, 3gb RAM min, 15.6" screen, 320gb HD.
Is the spec I'm looking at to much for what I'd use? Got a budget of £550, lower is obviously always preferred! Had been looking at this Acer machine: on ebuyer it's the Acer Aspire 5745

What would you all suggest?

I don't want an HP as not been too happy with the one I've got and friends with the same make report the same problems. Not a samsung fan for laptops either - I can be convinced otherwise though
!

All consumer grade laptops have problems. You want to be looking at business class ones such as the Toshiba Tecra. No need for more than 2GB of RAM or a 120GB HDD for most people.

danwate

Thanks for the help so far.
@SystemOADthanks for the offer however for the time being I've been put off of having another HP.

Any more laptop ideas?

stilltheone

SystemOAD wrote: »

That PC for your grandparents sounds ok to me... Might be worth having a look on ebuyer.com to see if they have any deals on as I got an email from em today saying upto 80% but not sure what products thats for so have a try.

As for the laptop. I have an 15.6" HP G60-214EM which I was gunu put up on ebay for about £350 if your interested?
Sample Specs:
Presario G60-214em
AMD Athlon 64 X2 QL-62 2 GHz,
Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium,
3072 MB,
Hard drive: 250 Gb,
DVD-RW DL rewriter,
Grey shell,
15.6 Widescreen

Putting it on at £350 hoping for £200? You are either a joker or very optimistic posting that here.

£350 is no 'offer'. Especially when often you can get a better machine, with a 12 month warranty and Windows 7 for much the same price.

KillerWatt

stilltheone wrote: »

£350 is no 'offer'. Especially when often you can get a better machine, with a 12 month warranty and Windows 7 for much the same price.

I was thinking that, primarily because we bought the kids the G61 (2GHz dual core Intel, 3GB RAM, 320GB HDD, DVD-RW DL, HDMI, Win 7 Home Premium, etc) last xmas and they were £379 brand new then.

manna777

Refurbs at a good price with 12months warranty at laptopshop hubby got one one a while ago from there dell 1750 something:D