Computer purchased - MS Office info required.

[vRS_Pagey]

Need some advice from geekus maximus, below are the specs for a Dell desktop that I am looking at. It's not used for gaming, just everyday stuff internet, wordprocessing, etc. Any good for the price?

Processor - Intel® Pentium® G620 Processor (2.60GHz, 3MB)
Operating System - Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium, 64bit, English
Memory3 - 4GB3 Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM at 1333MHz
... Hard Drive - 1TB4 SATA hard drive (7200RPM)
Video Card - Graphics : Intel® HD
Optical Drive - DVD +/- RW Drive (read/write CD & DVD) with DVD Burn software
Keyboard - Dell™ USB Entry Keyboard - UK/Irish (QWERTY)
Wireless - ll Wireless 1502 (802.11n) WLAN Full-height Mini

£319 delivered, this doesn't include the monitor.

[stealthwolf]

For the price, it's very good. Closest I could get was almost £400. Question is: is it enough for your needs?

[edd666999]

if i was you id be looking at anything with an i3 as minimum.

http://www.ebuyer.com/279903-acer-aspire-m1930-desktop-pt-sgce9-005

Needs an OS and wifi dongle but would work out cheaper + quicker than your spec.

[vRS_Pagey]

For the price, it's very good. Closest I could get was almost £400. Question is: is it enough for your needs?

I currently have a Dell Dimension 5000, its approx' 6 years old running a pentium 4 with XP sp2, 3gb ram (upgraded), 160 GB HD (only 17 GB left).  I have just got a new 21.5" wide screen monitor so that will stay.

Besides wordprocessing and internet, we have an extensive iTunes library, and I do a bit of photo editing.  Tbh it does all that we need apart from its getting old and randomly freezes.

if i was you id be looking at anything with an i3 as minimum.

http://www.ebuyer.com/279903-acer-aspire-m1930-desktop-pt-sgce9-005

Needs an OS and wifi dongle but would work out cheaper + quicker than your spec.

Is't Acer bargain basement stuff?  How does a dual core compare to my ancient Pentium 4?

[vRS_Pagey]

Just found this - http://outlet.euro.dell.com/Online/SecondaryInventorySearch.aspx?rn=7716&SC=&c=uk&cs=ukdfh1&l=en&s=dfh

Although its refurbished and doesn't have a keyboard or mouse it ticks all the boxes with maybe a hard drive upgrade......

[edd666999]

For the price, it's very good. Closest I could get was almost £400. Question is: is it enough for your needs?

I currently have a Dell Dimension 5000, its approx' 6 years old running a pentium 4 with XP sp2, 3gb ram (upgraded), 160 GB HD (only 17 GB left).  I have just got a new 21.5" wide screen monitor so that will stay.

Besides wordprocessing and internet, we have an extensive iTunes library, and I do a bit of photo editing.  Tbh it does all that we need apart from its getting old and randomly freezes.

if i was you id be looking at anything with an i3 as minimum.

http://www.ebuyer.com/279903-acer-aspire-m1930-desktop-pt-sgce9-005

Needs an OS and wifi dongle but would work out cheaper + quicker than your spec.

Is't Acer bargain basement stuff?  How does a dual core compare to my ancient Pentium 4?

Nah have plenty of acer kit that's still going strong 6+years on, they spend money where it counts. The i3 is the new sandybridge architecture, its dual core+ has hyperthreading meaning 4cores (only two physical) it will be alot better than your p4.

i cant see that dell outlet link...doesnt work

[edd666999]

bigger hdd + £20

http://www.ebuyer.com/261513-acer-aspire-m3920-desktop-pt-sfde9-006


i5:

http://www.comet.co.uk/p/Computer-Base-Units/buy-ACER-X3690-I5-Computer-Base-Unit/735086?_$ja=tsid:8361|prd:47868&awc=157_1319458676_41cca9d7b9e1c1c4026fe8d356c75815

bargain.

The things you need to concentrate on when buy a machine is processor, things like ram + HDD can easily be upraded in the future, a processor is slightly more tricky for the less tech minded

[vRS_Pagey]

Thanks for the info, dell link should be working now. 

[edd666999]

Thanks for the info, dell link should be working now. 

yeah i saw that, but with the 1gen i3 and a smaller hdd plus its a refurb i was skeptical as to if its really worth that money.

[vRS_Pagey]

are there issues with the 2gen i3?

[edd666999]

are there issues with the 2gen i3?

No issues with either, and tbh there no reason not to buy that if your happy with the smaller hdd + refurb status.

They are doing free delivery on outlet stock too.

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/143?vs=289&i=2.5.3.4.6.25.26.27.28.29.30.31.32.33.34.35.36.37.38.39.40.41.42.43.45.46.53.54.55.60.61.62.63.64.57.56.50.49.48.47.52.51

[vRS_Pagey]

Taking a completely different direction, I have thought about leaving the desktop in place and getting a more up to date laptop, while looking I came across this which looks pretty good -

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/dell-inspiron-q15r-switch-15-6-laptop-black-10562071-pdt.html

[edd666999]

Taking a completely different direction, I have thought about leaving the desktop in place and getting a more up to date laptop, while looking I came across this which looks pretty good -

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/dell-inspiron-q15r-switch-15-6-laptop-black-10562071-pdt.html

if your deffo interested in a laptop i can get a dell rep (who gave me good discount) to contact you.

i bought a £2300 alienware and a £1000 xps and paid £2k

Whats the max you would spend? ill spec you a laptop on dell site you should be able to get for that budget

[vRS_Pagey]

Still weighing up the pros and cons between laptop/desktop.  Going for the laptop I s'pose I could reinstall the OS on the desktop and use it for back up storage, word processing and a bit of browsing, plus it would be available to my boys for school work etc.  I would also be in the postion to get a VCDS cable (unless there is one available that's 10 miles long  ).

£400 is about the max I want to spend on either, preferably less.  

I think this is similar to the one you found in Comet, but with the keyboard and mouse included -

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Acer-Desktop-i5-2300-Processor-Keyboard/dp/B005HSS516/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1319535880&sr=8-2

EDIT: Just noticed this doesn't have a graphics card so a no, no!


 

[edd666999]

Still weighing up the pros and cons between laptop/desktop.  Going for the laptop I s'pose I could reinstall the OS on the desktop and use it for back up storage, word processing and a bit of browsing, plus it would be available to my boys for school work etc.  I would also be in the postion to get a VCDS cable (unless there is one available that's 10 miles long  ).

£400 is about the max I want to spend on either, preferably less.  

I think this is similar to the one you found in Comet, but with the keyboard and mouse included -

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Acer-Desktop-i5-2300-Processor-Keyboard/dp/B005HSS516/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1319535880&sr=8-2

EDIT: Just noticed this doesn't have a graphics card so a no, no!


 

the gpu is built into the processor so it will have a intel 3000hd