Best computer under £500?

Tallytom

Hi all

I am looking for a new desktop pc with a budget of £500 and would appreciate anybody's thoughts on the best ones at the moment. I am looking for Windows 7 and hopefully 4 gb. We use it as a family pc mainly for internet browsing, typing up homework and downloading music from itunes.
Any thoughts?

Thanks

robmar0se

You'll get 101 answers from this site, which might just confuse matters. I would start by buying a computer magazine, PCPro has a good article this month, they also have an A list of recommended PC's.

But remember "one man's meat is another's poisin".

gonzo127

are there any other expected uses such as gaming? also do you need a new monitor and or keyboard mouse etc?

penrhyn

I usually recommend Dell, however due to the awful customer service a friend is receiving I do not recommend them any more.

steve1980

Go to https://www.awd-it.co.uk really good value for money.

coolagarry

This has got top marks in PC Advisor http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/reviews/desktop-pc/3300350/chillblast-fusion-neutron-review/
and my mate has bought one. He is really pleased with it. The box looks great and runs quietly. For him the great advantage is that with integrated graphics, which are still very good, it makes the PC a reasonable price. If he wants to move onto heavy gaming later on he can add a dedicated graphics card.

Tallytom

Thanks everybody for your advice.

It will be used for some gaming, but not serious stuff. My current computer is Dell but in the four years since I bought it, I have heard that Dell aren't so good anymore. I still have the monitor and that seems to be good enough to hold on to. I'm confused that lots of brand names that I don't recognise. I'm not a techie person so don't keep up to date with things.

System

i have had a few systems from novatech in the past, seem to have decent pricing and have never had any issues with a system from them - best vfm is usually building one yourself but a lot of folks don't like that route!

gonzo127

Tallytom wrote: »

Thanks everybody for your advice.

It will be used for some gaming, but not serious stuff. My current computer is Dell but in the four years since I bought it, I have heard that Dell aren't so good anymore. I still have the monitor and that seems to be good enough to hold on to. I'm confused that lots of brand names that I don't recognise. I'm not a techie person so don't keep up to date with things.

ok well normally at the moment i suggest to people to look at the intel core i cpus however with the highlighted in mind i am leaning towards the latest AMD offerings as although the CPU is not quite as quick as intels, the intergrated graphics is miles ahead of intels.

although of course just popping a £30 graphics card in the intel system will bring simular graphics performance to the AMD system but also having a better CPU.

places i would suggest looking for a prebuilt system are
Novatech
Aria
Cyberpower
DinoPC

robmar0se

Add Scan to the last posters list - very reliable, and for a small fee will insure you against yr mistakes!

gonzo127

robmar0se wrote: »

Add Scan to the last posters list - very reliable, and for a small fee will insure you against yr mistakes!

scan is very good but not one i tend to think about for prebuilt systems, to me they are more a parts supplier,