All-in-one desktop?

NiftyDigits

Cisco001 wrote: »

Consider this itx if you don't mind it is slightly expensive than standard tower.

£357
i3 4150 (get G3258 if you want to save money)
Windows 8.1
Asrock H81-ITX
4GB DDR3 1333
1TB HDD
DVD burner
Onboard Video
Cooler Master Elite 130
Corsair VS450

Not good value for money. It is not even particularly compact. She does not need anything as expensive as that. Where is the monitor? That's taken the price to at least £450.

Geep

Another route to go if you are still possibly thinking of a desktop, is refurbished. There are some reasonable bargains to be had.
A fair selection for £130 to £150 at:
http://www.refurbthat.com/refurbished-desktop-pcs?dir=asc&order=price

The performance would probably be best described as adequate but not exceptional. If you want more, then consider adding an SSD. The same firm do a deal with a refurb monitor, plus an SSD, for £240.
http://www.refurbthat.com/lenovo-m57-sff-intel-core2duo-2-4ghz-2gb-memory-80gb-hdd-dvd-rw-with-keyboard-and-mouse-with-19-tf-and-windows-7-professional

AliceBanned

Geep wrote: »

Another route to go if you are still possibly thinking of a desktop, is refurbished. There are some reasonable bargains to be had.
A fair selection for £130 to £150 at:
http://www.refurbthat.com/refurbished-desktop-pcs?dir=asc&order=price

The performance would probably be best described as adequate but not exceptional. If you want more, then consider adding an SSD. The same firm do a deal with a refurb monitor, plus an SSD, for £240.
http://www.refurbthat.com/lenovo-m57-sff-intel-core2duo-2-4ghz-2gb-memory-80gb-hdd-dvd-rw-with-keyboard-and-mouse-with-19-tf-and-windows-7-professional

Looks good enough. I think refurb may be all I can afford for now and I need something in the next couple of months. I'll have a look on there when I'm ready to buy, and elsewhere maybe and then ask for some advice from you helpful people.

NiftyDigits

AliceBanned wrote: »

Looks good enough. I think refurb may be all I can afford for now and I need something in the next couple of months. I'll have a look on there when I'm ready to buy, and elsewhere maybe and then ask for some advice from you helpful people.

Monitor fit for throwing in to the bin. I wouldn't bother.

You can buy a new PC for much the same.

I wasn't aware those machines accepted DDR3 RAM...as is in their description.

Geep

I think you would struggle to find a new PC, SSD and monitor for under say £350. I'd be happy to be proved wrong though.

Geep

Yes, that is a good price and no doubt worth pursuing by the OP if the extra cash can be raised. Obviously it is better value in the longer term.

NiftyDigits

Geep wrote: »

I think you would struggle to find a new PC, SSD and monitor for under say £350. I'd be happy to be proved wrong though.

New PC: Zoostorm Desktop PC £159.99

250GB Samsung SSD £84 Double capacity of the unknown SSD in your post.
128GB SSD go for £50.

So that is £210 so far.

Should I include a monitor in the pricing, considering that the the old square monitor in your recommendation is worth precisely nothing?

But I can add a Hanns-G HS241HPB 24" LED IPS Monitor for £102

So less than £315 for a far superior system.

Of course, for the purpose of a comparison, you can pair the ZooStorm PC with this Acer K202HQL 19.5" LED VGA Monitor for a total of £199.98.

So you have you new PC, with a new £128 SSD and a new monitor for £250.

I 'm glad to have made you happy.

What extra cash? It's the same price as your suggestion.
Nevertheless, she has to save for it in the first place. No need to buy old equipment.
Notwithstanding, none of the above, apart from perhaps the IPS monitor, would be my recommendation anyway.

Geep

The extra cash as between £240 and £315, which is what I replied to when I did, rather than the additional comparison you subsequently made.

NiftyDigits

Geep wrote: »

The extra cash as between £240 and £315, which is what I replied to when I did, rather than the additional comparison you subsequently made.

You asked me to find a system under £350, which I did.
But I wanted to show you that it could also be done at the same price, which was my original claim.

zarf2007

InsideInsurance wrote: »

I will fully admit that I am an apple fan and for me, as a "business person" I really cannot see massive advantages of OS X over Windows. There are some bits that are better and there are some bits that are worse.

Apple computers are not that much more expensive when you compare a true like for like. By that I mean not just the processor and memory but the weight of the unit, battery life, thickness etc. Obviously there is a separate question on if having a laptop that is 10mm thicker and 200g heavier is such a big thing -v- a £300 saving or such but thats another matter.

Reliability for me has been fantastic, iMac has only ever been restarted when installing a couple of updates or when moving house. My windows desktop rarely went 24 hours without needing to be restarted because something or other had become buggy. Our MacBook Air has been almost as good, just one problem with the screen that was immediately replaced FOC despite being just out of warranty.

Wife who works in the creative space sings the praise of OS X more than I do.

Previously I used to build my own PCs, spent hours tweaking them, trying to get the perfect combination of driver versions to get optimum performance etc. Now I like the apple "it just works". Have a number of other apple components and within 5 minutes of having a new toy at home its up and running, backing itself up automatically to the timecapsule, interacting correctly with the other components etc.

I am also now pro apple after working with windows for my profession for years and also having various windows PC's you will honestly never look back if you get a mac.

Stability, lack of viruses and the fact that it just works. If you really need to run windows apps you can just install something like virtualbox and a copy of windows or dual boot the mac if necessary.

one good place to try is the apple refurb store:

http://store.apple.com/uk/browse/home/specialdeals/mac/imac/21

these are generally macs people have purchased and then changed there mind/buyers remorse etc and are really brand new but in a non branded box with apples 1 year warranty + the option to purchase an addional two years warranty before the year is up if required.

there are some significant discounts as apple cannot sell these as new as they are preowned but they are new all but in name!

Apple and OSX is for users who want to spend their time USING their computer and not installing the latest crap driver to get the thing to work in the first place....

and dont listen to windows users with their buy a cheap wintel box advice, with apple you get a quality hardware and software solution and if you have an iphone or ipad it is all part of the same eco system.

I hear the same lame comments from windows/android phone users all of the time, the truth is if they ever actually used an apple product they would realise how much better they are.

If you dont want to spend too much and a laptop can tie you over for now, this is well worth a look:

http://store.apple.com/uk/product/FD760B/A/refurbished-133-inch-macbook-air-13ghz-dual-core-intel-core-i5