What aboutthis PC

LittleMissInDebt

Hi

I asked for help earlier as had bought a refurb pc and had some concerns. Anyway after some very helpful advice decided to return it and look for one with a warranty - still as cheap as possible as all I really want to do with it is burn DVDs, look at the web and use photoshop.

Anyway have been looking on Ebay and Amazon but feel a bit lost. Saw this one http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Cheap-Tower-Computer-Desktop-PC-3-2GHz-512MB-40GB-DVD-/260808376199?pt=UK_Computing_DesktopPCs&hash=item3cb963ff87 but am not sure. My budget is around £150 so this would be cheap, but not a lot of good if it doesn't do what I want.

Any help would be, well, really helpful

PS Only need a tower, have the rest

robmar0se

I think this is an M51 from about 2005, used mostly on networks in corporate offices, hence the relatively small hdd.

For £50 its about right, but if you're going to want to do photograpgy then the hdd maybe rather small. You may find that 512mb RAM is a bit light too, especially if it is XP Pro SP3.

You can add change, but this puts the cost up - if right, then it can take RAM upto 2 x 1gb pc3200 per slot - you can of course buy this ebay too,

If you do run out of hdd space (bear in mind that you need a min of 15% free at any time (for Windows), you could either buy a larger hard drive, or alternatitively buy an external hdd - I suspect that the internal hdd is EIDE which are now in shorter supply and becoming increasingly expensive.

Your warranty is 7 days, plus you have to make your own Windows back-up disks (which you should make with the 7 days to cover yourself)

SteveJH200

Yes, by the time you pay for all the upgrades then it is not so cheap plus you will need to buy the DVD/CD Rewriter to make the back up discs!! However, if it meets your needs as it is then it's worth the risk.

gonzo127

other than whats been pointed out above the main issue i see is its a DVD ROM so the dvd drive will not actually burn of DVD's (although it does state its upgradeable - should be no more than £20 as a new drive can be got for ~£15 and then a few quid for them to install it)

robmar0se

Jere's a review of the M51

http://compreviews.about.com/od/maindesk/gr/ThinkCentreM51.htm

In my earlier post I thought the M51 used EIDE hdd, well I was right and wrong - It does have sata & ata (EIDE) slots so could take both types of hdd.

The previous posters comments about the DVD drive are true, however the system can write CD's ie., only upto 700mb - but I believe sufficent to create XP backups. But at £19 to have a DVDrw this is not a rip-off.

System

LittleMissInDebt wrote: »

Hi

.... and use photoshop.

what version of photoshop are you using? iirc the minimum ram for most of the variants is 1gb - and there is nothing more frustrating than photoshop churning away to magic wand something!!

Fifer

Might be something suitable here?