Which desktop pc package for £350 max?

jac29

Hi,
Had great advice here before so back again! I am looking to get my teenage son a desktop pc for xmas. Maximum budget is £350 including a monitor and keyboard. I have been advised to look for 4gb of ram and 500gb of storage which seems to be possible after looking on ebay. My problem arises when i start looking at processers/processing speeds. I have no idea. All I have found out so far is that there are different 'generations' and the more recent ones are far faster.
My son is 14/15 and looking at staying in education so will need this pc to last him. He has an xbox 360 so apart from 'minecraft' he wont be using the pc for gaming. He can add speakers/wireless card to it later but he will need windows or similar.
Any advice you can give about what to look for with regards to processors so I have a basic knowledge as to what to look for would be fantastic. Also, if anyone has seen anything that would fit the bill I would be grateful for details. Don't care about brand or look of it as it's how well it works he will be bothered about and I know for this budget it has to be a cheapo make or refurb.

I will also need to look at my internet connection. We live in a really old three storey house with solid internal walls and floors(even upstairs!). The router is on the ground floor with my pc plugged into it. We have an echolife HG520s router which i got when i signed up to talk talk some years ago. At the moment this doesn't provide enough for my oldest son to get a signal to use his laptop on the top floor so I know it won't for a pc put up there. Any advice as to what to do to resolve this would be gratefully received.

Thanking any kind people out there who take the time to read this....and hopefully help me make someones' Christmas Day the best ever! x

Qwiksilver

Hi jac,

the problem with looking at the latest processing technology is mainly that i tends to cost that little bit more than the previous. It is also slightly more difficult in that you want a monitor in addition to your pc. Obviously the more you spend on the monitor the less you have for your pc (stating the bleedin obvious i know).
Have a look at the following link. It contains some "all in one" pc's which will save you money on purchasing the monitor. They are not "high end" components but given that it is mainly for education and possibly uni work these will cope fine.


Good luck and hope it is indeed the best Christmas day ever.
http://outlet.euro.dell.com/Online/InventorySearch.aspx?brandid=1&c=uk&cs=ukdfh1&l=en&s=dfh

Oh and i forgot to add that the prices you see do not include vat or delivery so you need to take account.

grumpycrab

To connect the new desktop to the internet buy a pair of these (or similar).
http://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/powerline-adapter-twin-pack-for-29-17-including-delivery-ebuyer-1071654

EDIT: PC with Windows £300 http://www.ebuyer.com/282541-zoostorm-advanced-desktop-pc-7873-0282
OR http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/advent-dt1404-desktop-pc-11290971-pdt.html

Monitor £70 http://www.ebuyer.com/276285-lg-e1960s-tft-led-18-5-vga-monitor-e1960s-pn-aeu
OR £65 http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Philips-196-V-Line-18-5-Widescreen-TFT-LED-DVI-VGA-Backlit-Monitor-5MS-New-/330638430104?_trksid=p4340.m1374&_trkparms=algo%3DPI.WATCH%26its%3DC%252BS%26itu%3DUCC%26otn%3D5%26ps%3D63%26clkid%3D4840854209494475508

Sorry £15-£20 over budget.

EDIT2: For comparision here's a PCWorld sale package for £350 http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/acer-x1430-desktop-pc-with-20-lcd-monitor-black-11180297-pdt.html
Great monitor, disk space, memory but the processor is pants. The processor with this is rated at 601.
The processor of the Zoostorm above is rated at 2168 and ADVENT 2453 (higher is better!).

gonzo127

you will have to cut some corners to get a complete package for that price - however my thoughts are if he has a xbox, what does he play that on, - ie does he have a flat screen tv - if so he could use this instead of a monitor as most come with at least a vga connection. if this is the case you could get him a better base unit and get him to hook it up to the tv to for the time being - and look at getting a monitor for his birthday etc if the tv isnt upto scratch

Robo787

jac29,

Don't rush into anything, i know Chrimbo is only 2 weeks away.
Take a look at John Lewis for just a Desktop Base and buy the monitor from Argos or somewhere else.

I got a new Samsung 18.5 inch monitor for £69.99 from Argos and it's great. The Bases in John Lewis start at around the £300 price range but with the Base you get 2 years warranty.

I am getting my new Base from John Lewis, i was in the Liverpool store the other day and they had an Acer Desktop Base reduced to £279.99 with good specs.

Don't like Dell or Zoostorm.

TakeThis

If I were in that position, I would perhaps get this HP Pro 3125 for £184.98 (specs here) (Has a 12 month warranty and the usual 7 working day return policy if unsuitable)and a proper LED backlit 24" Full HD monitor for £130. Mini Review.
Still enough in the budget to buy a wireless keyboard and mouse and to add another 2GB of RAM(if extra RAM tickles his fancy).
I really wouldn't buy one of those cheapo little monitors. The picture quality is poor when compared to a decent Full HD LED monitor.
The PC's processor outdoes all others on this thread, if that is important to you.

gonzo127

TakeThis, i am a little confused about that base unit you have posted since both sets of specs state AMD cpu but with intergrated INTEL graphics,

also the included 300watt PSU will not support any extra graphics card if any further upgrades are required,

still feel if op can get away without having to buy a monitor just yet it would be better to spend a more on a base unit which is a little better and shoudl last a bit longer and then think about a good monitor for birthday or next christmas (or something for the ops son to have to save up to get)

TakeThis

gonzo127 wrote: »

TakeThis, i am a little confused about that base unit you have posted since both sets of specs state AMD cpu but with intergrated INTEL graphics,

also the included 300watt PSU will not support any extra graphics card if any further upgrades are required,

still feel if op can get away without having to buy a monitor just yet it would be better to spend a more on a base unit which is a little better and shoudl last a bit longer and then think about a good monitor for birthday or next christmas (or something for the ops son to have to save up to get)

Disagree on the external graphics card issue. My PC has a 250w PSU and I added an external graphics card. Works very nicely thank you.

It's only if you are thinking of adding one that consumes a fair amount of power, such as one running a fan that you will come unstuck.

As to the AMD Athlon II X3 Processor 440 (2.9 GHz, 1.5 MB L2 cache and Integrated Intel Graphics Media Accelerator X4500HD...it confused me too, but that is the HP page, so not my interpretation.

I would have expected ATI Radeon™ 3000. Still ok and can add a cheap discrete card if necessary. In fact this is the HP recommendation if you choose to add one: ATI Radeon HD 4550 (512 MB) DH PCIe x16 Graphics Card. Prolly pick something similar or better up for £25.

Either way, the spec is good for the price.

grumpycrab

TakeThis wrote: »

If I were in that position, I would perhaps get this HP Pro 3125 for £184.98 (specs here) (Has a 12 month warranty and the usual 7 working day return policy if unsuitable)...

That is a very good price. Note the operating system is Windows XP Professional (available through downgrade rights from Genuine Windows® 7 Professional).

jac29

Thank you all for taking the time to read and reply x

I have looked at your suggestions for dell and ebuyer etc as well as looking at one in argos and ebay and have a short list....

Dell factory outlet can offer two in my price range:

Inspiron One 2205 for £330 refurb/£312 scratch and dent. Offers:
Amd Athlon 11X2 250U, 1.6GHz. Windows 7 HP, 320GB H/D and 3GB RAM.

Studio XPS 7100 for £287 refurb. Offers: AMD Phenom 11X4 8830, 2.8GHz,8MB. Windows 7 HP, 500GB H/D, 4GB RAM.

Ebuyer offers:

Zoostorm Advanced for £299 exc monitor. Offers: Intel Pentium DC E5800 Dual Core Processor 3.2GHz. Windows 7 HP. 500GB H/D, 4GB RAM.

Argos offers:

Zoostorm for £270 exc monitor. Offers: Intel Celeron G530 dual core processor, 2.4GHz. Windows 7HP. 500GB H/D, 4GB RAM.

Ebay offers:

Dell refurb for £316 inc 19" new monitor and power leads. This offers: Intel Pentium 4HT, 3.4 GHZ with hyper threading technology which doubles the processing speed. Windows XP Prof. 1TB H/D, 4GB RAM. There is a three year warranty on the monitor and hard drive but only a 30 day warranty on tower. They do have huge sales with positive feedback.

I know these are only the basics of what they offer. But I was focusing on processing speed/ram/hard drive/windows. The zoostorm that argos offer (018391 or 018394) offer HD, surround sound, dvd writer etc. Having looked at what's available I was looking at a choice between the refurb on ebay or the zoostorms on argos/ebuyer (which has a year warranty and will leave something towards a cheapy monitor).

My son does have a tv he got two Christmas's ago but it is wall mounted so unless he gets a neck like a giraffe he can't use this for his pc. (Good suggestion tho'). He could always upgrade his monitor next Christmas if he really felt the need.
I've read suggestions about adding RAM/ Graphics cards etc but that all sounds just too hard for me! What I want is to get the best I can for him with what I can afford and he will have to take it for what it is!

So....what do you suggest I go for? I don't know which of these processors is better that the other and that's the bit i'm finding hardest.

Again, thank you all so much for taking the time to help me xx

grumpycrab

Looking purely at oomph... (the higher the number the better)
Athlon II X2 250U - 983
AMD Phenom 11X4 8830 (? you mean 830 ?) - 3490
Intel Pentium DC E5800 - 2170
Intel Celeron G530 - 2263
Intel Pentium 4 HT 3.4Ghz - 549

(You seem to have excluded the PC World Advent - Intel Pentium G620 @ 2.60GHz - 2453)

I think you can see why the Ebay Dell looks like such a good deal.
The Studio XPS 7100 for £287 looks good - where did you see it?