Reconditioned base unit from pcworld?

poly1

I am looking to buy a new base unit, as mine is well and truely dying on me! I have a maximun of £500 to spend. I have been looking at loads of pc sites etc and came across this Packard Bell at pcworld. I am am not a huge fan of pcworld but the spec of the computer (Core 2 Duo E6400, 2Gb DDR Ram, 320GB Hard Drive, 512MB ATi Radeon X1600SE, Windows XP MCE) I am having problems finding anywhere else at this low price. I use my pc for video editing, some CAD applications, and all the usual stuff too, and I want it to last for some time as the one I have now is 8 years old although has been upgraded alot. So my questions are:
Has anyone here bought a recon base unit from pcworld, any problem with them? I am not that worried about tech support for software etc, it is only hardware failure that really concerns me.
Does anyone here own a packard bell, if so any idea how drive bays are available, because I can't see from the picture nor tell from the spec ?
Thanks for any help.

j_davies

Dont even bother with PCworld as their support is non existent, try your local PC shop and see what deals they may have, the PC itself is ok but its from PC world.

poly1

Sorry I don't mean to be rude but I already said that I don't really like PCworld, but I am not that worried about support. What I wanted to know was whether anyone had bought a recon from PCworld before and whether anybody owned a similar packard bell. My local PC shop cannot get me anywhere near those specs for that kind of money.

frogbottler

I haven't used PCWorld but over the years I have bought several factory reconditioned computers from morgancomputers.co.uk and had no problems. I doubt that morgan's (or anyone else) can match that spec and price tho!

IMHO if PackardBell did the recon work you should be ok esp as it comes with 12 months guarantee. On the other hand if PCWorld did the reconditioning... I'd keep looking :-)

piggydude

poly1 wrote:

Sorry I don't mean to be rude but I already said that I don't really like PCworld, but I am not that worried about support. What I wanted to know was whether anyone had bought a recon from PCworld before and whether anybody owned a similar packard bell. My local PC shop cannot get me anywhere near those specs for that kind of money.

I see you don't need tech support, but my experiences of PC world as regards hardware failure have been awful :mad:

FWIW, I've decided that I'm never going to buy anything that can possibly go wrong from PCWorld, no matter how cheap, as the grief I've had with their "Customer Service" isn't worth the money I may have saved on the purchase price.

Just my £0.02

poly1

Can you tell me what happened with regards your hardware? Also any suggestions as to where I can get a similar spec machine for any where near that price???

cigar_2

https://www.mcscom.co.uk have a great range of refurbished Dells on their website - you can select standard base units with no OS and little warranty - or Dell Refurbs with Windows installed and 3 year on-site warranties.

I suggest you take a look and see if anything on there catches your eye. Just remember that all prices on the site are EX VAT.

Dell Outlet is another option - although I have found it better value from MCS (and standard delivery from Dell if they haven't got any offers on is something daft like £50).

poly1

Thanks for the links. It seems no one here has bought recon from pcworld!! Was having a look elsewhere too, has anyone used http://www.computerplanet.co.uk or http://www.komplett.co.uk for buying base units from?
Thanks

BillScarab

I had a new base unit delivered from Komplett yesterday and I'm very happy with it so far! I've used Komplett several times over the last four years or so and never had any complaints although this is the computer I've bought from them.

I like the fact you can specify what components you want in the machine.

x2o

Also try:

https://www.ebuyer.com
https://www.scan.co.uk
https://www.dabs.com
https://www.misco.co.uk
https://www.microdirect.co.uk