Help needed finding budget PC

timberflake

I've been in the market for a new PC for a while now, but my budget has now reduced dramatically and I need help getting the most out of my money.

Firstly, I'm not fussed whether it's a laptop or a desktop, as long as I get the best spec. My requirements are:

1. Must have a gigabit ethernet port.
2. Core i3/i5 (if possible) preferrable.
3. 500gb+ hdd
4. Min 4gb RAM

As for my budget, I'd like to stick around the £350 price point, but would go up to £500 for a good deal.

I going to use it mainly for internet, streaming video's etc. iTunes, MS Office, and some light photo editing and video encoding (not very often though).

I found this on ebuyer http://www.ebuyer.com/322115-asus-x54h-laptop-x54h-sx168v

Can anyone do any better?

Reue

timberflake wrote: »

I've been in the market for a new PC for a while now, but my budget has now reduced dramatically and I need help getting the most out of my money.


Firstly, I'm not fussed whether it's a laptop or a desktop, as long as I get the best spec. My requirements are:

1. Must have a gigabit ethernet port.
2. Core i3/i5 (if possible) preferrable.
3. 500gb+ hdd
4. Min 4gb RAM

As for my budget, I'd like to stick around the £350 price point, but would go up to £500 for a good deal.

I going to use it mainly for internet, streaming video's etc. iTunes, MS Office, and some light photo editing and video encoding (not very often though).

I found this on ebuyer http://www.ebuyer.com/322115-asus-x54h-laptop-x54h-sx168v

Can anyone do any better?

For best possible spec vs cost, it will always be a self-built desktop over laptop. Can you, or do you know anyone who could, build a desktop from parts?

Notmyrealname

timberflake wrote: »

I've been in the market for a new PC for a while now, but my budget has now reduced dramatically and I need help getting the most out of my money.

Firstly, I'm not fussed whether it's a laptop or a desktop, as long as I get the best spec. My requirements are:

1. Must have a gigabit ethernet port.
2. Core i3/i5 (if possible) preferrable.
3. 500gb+ hdd
4. Min 4gb RAM

As for my budget, I'd like to stick around the £350 price point, but would go up to £500 for a good deal.

I going to use it mainly for internet, streaming video's etc. iTunes, MS Office, and some light photo editing and video encoding (not very often though).

I found this on ebuyer http://www.ebuyer.com/322115-asus-x54h-laptop-x54h-sx168v

Can anyone do any better?

Why Gigabit ethernet? Unless your router has gigabit ethernet and every device on the LAN does, its pointless.

Hardly anyone needs >500GB HDD.

Hardly anyone other than gamers need >2GB RAM.

Reue

Notmyrealname wrote: »

Hardly anyone other than gamers need >2GB RAM.

I'd disagree with this. Given the (very cheap) price of RAM, and the fact he's going for an i3/i5 processor, it would be a mistake not to go for 4gb ram.

steve1980

Check out https://www.awd-it.co.uk

m5rcc

Plenty of grade B stick at good prices here

timberflake

Notmyrealname wrote: »

Why Gigabit ethernet? Unless your router has gigabit ethernet and every device on the LAN does, its pointless.

Hardly anyone needs >500GB HDD.

Hardly anyone other than gamers need >2GB RAM.

I need gigabit ethernet to take full advantage of my 100mb internet, and yes my router has gigabit ethernet.

As for the comment on the HDD, that's crazy, I have over 300gb used on my current laptop with video, music, pics and docs so need something which will last a while.

Millionaire

I think Price vs Spec the Asus you have linked to is about as good as it gets currently for a new machine.

timberflake

Millionaire wrote: »

I think Price vs Spec the Asus you have linked to is about as good as it gets currently for a new machine.

Thanks for that, I was fairly certain it was about as good I'm going to get for the money, and I can't really see what spending another £150 (taking me up to £500) would achieve. I think this will meet my needs for the next few years.

gonzo127

if you was to go for a desktop do you need a monitor keyboard and mouse or just a base unit?

also which photo editing program do you plan on using, as a lot can use CUDA so having a nvidia graphics card would help speed this up

Millionaire

If you use Topcashback for ebuyer you'll get 1.51% cashback.

Should give you around another £5.