Best PC bargain

hubballi

I need an up to date PC but thee are so many retailers out there I am not sure where the best buys are.Idon't want the most expensive system, just a base system thats pretty good spec.I already have a monitor so I won't need another.

cheers.

ian

gk172

Avoid pc world, we bought one 2 months ago and it went faulty and had major headaches trying to get it fixed and ended up with a refund, and they only offer 28 warrenty then it passes to the manufacturer, i ended up going to a computer parts type shop and asked them to price up what spec i wanted then asked them how much to build, they took £20 to put everything together and told me to come back in a couple of hours and it would be ready.

Here is the shop incase you could be local or whether they do mail order -

budget computers

TheChillPill

Some of the Dell deals are hard to beat to be honest, unless you are comfortable with building your own.

I would generally say avoid any of the high-street chains, especially PCWorld as gk172 says - you pay more than they are worth, and will struggle for any support if things go wrong.

If you already have the monitor, I would give consideration to a Mac Mini - yes you will pay a fair bit more than you would for a PC, but believe me you will see where your money has gone - the build quality is superb. Ask anyone that has 'switched' and they will tell you they never looked back.

However, if you're stuck on the idea of a windows-based pc, try any independant retailer - the small one-man stores etc. You should be able to get them to build something to your spec at the component cost price, plus say £30-£50 for putting it together for you. If you don't want the hassle, stick with Dell.

Browntoa

I found the best places for things like this are a local computer shop, the guy has a reputation to keep and should ask you what you want to use it for...then quote you a price for a bespoke build.

BenL

I got my last base station from e-bay, interweb systems is the seller.

Usually no software on them though so you'll need top buy XP on top.

Ben

pre-reg

I am also on the lookout for a barebone system, i think it would be very very useful to have a sticky on best desktop/barebone system permanently on this forum similar to the best laptop sticky.

what does everyone else think?

TheChillPill

pre-reg, only problem I could see with that is that prices in the IT field can change almost daily - you'd end up with a huge thread!

Maybe another board would be better?

callmybill

Try www.ebuyer.com

http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/products/index.html?rb=7490953498&action=c2hvd19wcm9kdWN0X292ZXJ2aWV3&product_uid=86864

**Special Price** Acer Aspire T120E Sempron 2800+ 256MB 40GB DVD Card Reader 56k Windows XP Home + MS Works

XP is pre-installed, NO monitor included.

£234.99


OR
http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/products/index.html?action=c2hvd19wcm9kdWN0X292ZXJ2aWV3&product_uid=64658
Acer Aspire T120 Desktop XP2600+ 40GB 256MB DVD-RW Speakers Windows XP Home + Works (no floppy)

£351.84

apintofstella

Not sure if this has been posted before but steer clear of Acer (no matter how cheap their machines are going). Their customer services make PC World and/or Ebuyers look very impressive (they are that bad!).

[I should point out I've never had problems with ebuyer but i know others have....]

pre-reg

TheChillPill wrote:

pre-reg, only problem I could see with that is that prices in the IT field can change almost daily - you'd end up with a huge thread!

Maybe another board would be better?

sorry, i meant to say it would be better suited to the techie board. This would be similar to the laptop hunt board. Thus anyone after a desktop could look on that thread.

Hope iam making sense because i think it would be very useful as iam sure its a fairly common purchase.

hubballi

what about this company http://www.ezcomputers.co.uk/ they seem very cheap.

ian.