Dell Dimension 3000, 15TFT, 256MB, 80Gb, DVD - £292 delivered

biglugs

Not sure how old your son is, but if he's interested in any games like Harry Potter, or more adult games like Half-Life2 or any of those types of games this PC is NOT for you. It will be fine for simpler games, but anything with a 3D element will struggle to run on this machine, if at all.
You can install an additional graphics card (simple enough if you know what you're doing) but PCI graphics cards are becoming more difficult to find.

shrek101

If you upgrade the ram to 512mb (buy and extra 256mb) and a PCI video card which will costs around £50 in total the pc isn't bad. I know it costs extra but the computer can play most of the latest game including sims2 as my daughter plays or rather is on her pc all night playing it, much to my disgust sometimes.

biglugs

I agree - my son has one of these and I put in an FX5200 and an additional 256MB memory chip in (while Dell were selling them off cheap) and he plays Half-Life 2 perfectly well on this machine. But adding in a graphics card can be a little daunting if you are not computer minded and haven't done it before.
If you do intend to add a graphics card remember to disable the on-board graphics in Windows or you'll spend ages trying to work out why your monitor goes blank after booting up (believe me I know!)

payten

thank you to everyone who has posted a reply. i spoke to dell this morning and they stated that the graphics card could not be replaced on the 3000 model, but i found it hard to communicate with dell as the call centre is in india

plumb1_2

if ordering a Dell pc,go through rpoints,greasypalm,cashbag etc and get further money off.Dont pay full price from Dell.

there is a offer on for £484

Intel® Celeron® D processor 330 (2.66GHz, 533FSB, 256k cache)
FREE Dell Colour Inkjet Printer 720
512MB Dual Channel DDR333 (2x256MB)
160GB (7200rpm) IDE Hard Drive with 8mb DataBurst Cache
Dell E193FP 19" Value Flat Panel Monitor

payten

sorry you will have to tell me what is rpoints,greaseyplam,cashbag etc

plumb1_2

payten wrote:

sorry you will have to tell me what is rpoints,greaseyplam,cashbag etc

Sent you a PM

calibrax

payten wrote:

thank you to everyone who has posted a reply. i spoke to dell this morning and they stated that the graphics card could not be replaced on the 3000 model, but i found it hard to communicate with dell as the call centre is in india

It can't be replaced, as it is built in to the PC (i.e. it's not a plug in card). However, you don't have to use the built in card - you can buy a PCI graphics card that you can plug into the PC and use that instead (as other users have noted above). In other words, you plug your monitor into the monitor socket on the card, not into the built in monitor socket on the PC.

Hope this helps.

Steve

amancalledchip

be sure to get a PCI card and not a PCIe

a pci express socket is not the same

A PCIe ( express ) card will not fit into a regular PCI socket.

your better off getting the 8400 systems they did for about £450
At least you can swap the video card for another at a later time.

a decent video card starts around the £100 mark

biglugs

I agree - the 8400 is a lot more future proof because of the PCIe slot. Stick in a 6600GT card for £100 and you've got a great all-round machine that should last most people for a good 2-3 years at least.