We are in need of a New Home PC, as our is slowly dying.

It needs to handle some storage and running i tunes.

I won't be used for gaming, but will be used for searching the internet mainly by the girls for there school work.

I will need to handle some software that the school provides also.

I need something that is "Plug and Play" so to speak,

I just want some pointers as to what to look at, if i was to go to PC World.

Have a budget of around £350, is that enough?

Thanks for your help.

PC, or laptop?

For £350 you can get a very good PC for what you want, as long as your monitor/keyboard/mouse are still serviceable.

Infact: http://www.ebuyer.com/338537-zoostorm-2nd-gen-core-i3-pro-desktop-7873-0404

Just add your existing monitor

I'm selling a mini ITX it's the size of a shoebox but powerful enough for most tasks... Also has a HDMI graphics card so can be plugged into a large screen tv for movies etc.

I have a HP Pavilion Slimline which is brilliant and does what you want.

i-mac (get your hand in your pocket)

The End

i-mac (get your hand in your pocket)

The End

Pfft :p

Wouldn't mind an i-mac but they are to far out of my price range.

I'm thinking whatever we get will be better than our currant desktop PC which is about 8 years old.

Anyone know the best place to geta 1TB? desk top external HD?

Thanks.

Try www.ebuyer.com or just search for one on Google Shopping

Thanks Babs.

An iMAC wouldnt suit you, not only can you do joined up writing and are therefore far too smart, but the school software almost certainly wouldnt work.

Forget PCWorld and look around for a computer fair near to you, you can buy a new system and add the OS of choice for £250 or less. If you have a CD copy of XP and are happy with it, you can swap it to your new system and not need to buy a copy of Win7.

OR

You can by an ex corporate lease computer with XP Pro installed for £30-£70 and get them to slap a new, 1-2TB HDD inside to store all the music and video files you want.

I recently bought a DELL Optiplex system and 17" LCD for £65

I have always got my equipment from a company called novatech, they have a website and always find them good on prices if thats of any help

I'll no doubt get laughed at but Dell have always given me the most for the least

and try SVP for a HDD, sometimes you have to catch their offer of the week

Edited 11 April, 201214 yr by Lazy Daisy

Dell factory outlet can see some good deals. Infact all my desktop machines at home are Dells, apart from a whitebox Dual Xeon machine. When you come to rebuild the machine you know you can always pick up the drivers from the Dell website, and more often than not the machines are designed for office use (if you select the business range), so have larger slower spinning fans so are suitably quiet. My father is still using a P4 3Ghz as his standard machine, and I have a Pentium D here (with an SDD for a speed boost).

Arh, SVP I used to buy hundreds of blank DVDs from them, back in the day. Dabs can offer some reasonable deals on HDDs too, but but corporate discount with them only seems to knock off a few pennies these days :-(

Returns to ebuyer if they supply some dodgy stock can be a bit taxing.... I have found they sometimes supply something other than described.

Novatech used to do a reasonable build of machine when I was a student back in Portsmouth. I did buy one of their machines for the ex's mother and it broke, but given their dues they did fix it.

i-mac (get your hand in your pocket)

The End

How about a mac mini.....use your existing monitor if it can accept VGA /DVI or mini display port input and also your existing mouse & keyboard.

Mac OSX: The ultimate plug & play.

I'll no doubt get laughed at but Dell have always given me the most for the least

and try SVP for a HDD, sometimes you have to catch their offer of the week

No dell have some cracking deals from time to time, especially if you can get a 3 year warranty. That way you know it will last 3 years plus.

Otherwise ebuyer, ccl computers and novatech all have reasonable base units for a fair cost, that will be a million times better than an 8 year old PC.

Just make sure they include the OS in the price they're quoting.

This with a 500G hard drive

http://www.ebay.co.u...=item53ec1e4e57

Or if you want new with a 1Tb hard drive

http://configure.eur...id=inspiron-620

With dell try phoning them and asking for a discount - They will try and sell you "more" just politely resist.

Like anything else the more you spend the better/faster but either of these machines will be fine for you.

Avoid PC World etc,

Edited 11 April, 201214 yr by Web Ferret

Don't know how they compare on price ,but Maplin do some kits. Motherboard + memory ( sometimes ,but not always) , CPU .

All you need is a case & decent PSU.Even better value are their B grade kits. I got a 2.7Mhz Phenon + a Foxconn A74ML-K FOR APPROX £70 . Not a rocket, but 2gb memory it handles win 7 64bit with no complaints. Performance indicator is 5.9/6 except for on board graphics/gaming graphics .Memory set me back approx £20 , and Psu ( never rains but it pours don't it) another £20 . But I don't count PSU,as if I hadn't upgraded ,I'd have needed a new PSU anyway .(old one was 500w ,new one is 680). Problem was fan bearing was stuffed ,and the leads on the plugs were getting HR at times .

go to www.schtrade.co.uk and get a desktop unit if that is all you need.

ex business desktops going very cheap - no point in buying new if s/h is available for this price

This is the kind of range we have at PCW:

http://www.pcworld.c...0-criteria.html

If you're buying from here though, the HP P6-2002 would be decent.

However, desktops are not as popular as they once were and so our range is not amazing. If you are after a desktop, you can probably get more for your money elsewhere.

Edited 18 April, 201214 yr by Mike Wrightson

You get a lot for your money here, and all good quality components.

http://www.palicomp.co.uk/pc-base-units/core-i3-i5-blast-base-units/core-i3-blast-530oc44/prod_294.html

However, desktops are not as popular as they once were and so our range is not amazing. If you are after a desktop, you can probably get more for your money elsewhere.

Not going to say anything about the range available- it's already been said . As for getting more for your money- again on the nose .

Tend to agree with GG

Forget PCWorld and look around for a computer fair near to you, you can buy a new system and add the OS of choice for £250 or less. If you have a CD copy of XP and are happy with it, you can swap it to your new system and not need to buy a copy of Win7.

A quick look at some PCW ideas, like the "tune up service" , something any person with a bit of knowledge and some free software can do themselves.Smacks of baffling owners .It's like the fast fit places telling you that your brake discs are due replacement ,even though they're only 50% down . Sometimes new software isn't needed, as a simple defrag and clean out of temp files will do the job.

I'd prefer to add Win 7 to a new PC- IMHO, it's a far superior OS. I'm running Ultimate , but even the cheaper versions far outstrip XP pro .

Well my mate came up trumps.

I have now got a Pentium i3 proccessor, 4g of ram and 1 TB of memory running Windows 7 64 bit. and Microsoft Office Pro (inc CD and code ) in a new box with a 23" monitor for £340.

So i am very happy.

Thanks for the info guys.