new desktop required..... where?

[swissrob]

hi all,

been ages since i had a look at computers so after some recommendations.........

my parents need a new desktop as thier old one came out of the arc.

budget is about £400 and should include a 17" monitor and must be windows based.

can someone give me names of reputable companies??

or if it really comes down to it i can build one but the total cost will prob work out about the same i think?

thanks in advance.

 

[AberdeenAngus]

Dell
Toshiba

Do a google for " best desktop pc"
For £400 you can have your pick.

Main thing is what are they going to do with it and how much space do they have.

If space is limited, get a laptop.
If all they want is web and e-mail etc, then a netbook would be good for them.
If space or portability is not an issue then you will always get more for your money with a desktop (more upgradeable too).

If they are not going to be playing cutting edge games - then don't buy a high spec gaming machine.

If you want to keep it simple - go to PC world and buy a Dell.
You won't go too far wrong.

 

[Tim Cullis]

See PC Pro A-list recommendations, http://www.pcpro.co.uk/alist

For that sort of money you can get a PC with a 19-inch flat screen--check out the 'value PC' category.

 

[gwigglesworth]

Building one will cost lots more...

Dell, Tesco (sorry sorry sorry they are cheaper than dell sometimes for the same machine - free delivery or something) or my last 2 came from eBuyer...

 

[swissrob]

ta for replies - no gaming involved..... just some business stuff, email etc, ill look at the dell as an option but i have heard some horror stories if it comes to warranty with dell??

 

[MasterDabber]

ta for replies - no gaming involved..... just some business stuff, email etc, ill look at the dell as an option but i have heard some horror stories if it comes to warranty with dell??

Just in the middle of getting some problems resolved on my laptop with Dell. I've paid for onsite warranty. Dealing with them so far has not been impressive.
The engineer hasn't called yet so I'll reserve final judgement until that happens but getting it set up has been pretty crap.

 

[Deleted account 190920001]

I deal with Dell at my work and for a company they are great to deal with but not so good for home users. The upside is that out of 350 dell machines only one has failed and it was just a hard drive so they are very reliable. HP is a mare whether company or home user. They used to be really good but the last couple of years they are at rock bottom on both reliability and customer support. In all honesty if your looking for good after sales service then go to PC world. They might cost a little more but for a home user they have good customer service.

 

[Gonzo]

Dell
Toshiba

Do a google for " best desktop pc"
For £400 you can have your pick.

Main thing is what are they going to do with it and how much space do they have.

If space is limited, get a laptop.
If all they want is web and e-mail etc, then a netbook would be good for them.
If space or portability is not an issue then you will always get more for your money with a desktop (more upgradeable too).

If they are not going to be playing cutting edge games - then don't buy a high spec gaming machine.

If you want to keep it simple - go to PC world and buy a Dell.
You won't go too far wrong.

+1 for Dell.

£375 go me great spec + 20" screen and a seperate purchase of speakers. Fantastic after-sales service too. V important.

 

[Rushy]

I'm not an IT bod but I do some work for a company that sells Dell and their warranty / support is actually very good . Much better than HP / Apple and dont even get me started on Packard Bell (from PC World) .Dells on-site Next Business Day warranty is exactly what it says.

Even if you are out of warranty with a Dell machine you can still get loads of support/helps on the phone right up to the point where it becomes clear that an engineer is required.

You could buy Dell direct from their website or you could buy it from here www.europc.co.uk

One more thing, at the moment Acer are really being quite aggressive with their pricing so if cost is most important it might be worth looking at one of their machines.

 

[Bear]

I'm not an IT bod but I do some work for a company that sells Dell and their warranty / support is actually very good .
.Dells on-site Next Business Day warranty is exactly what it says.

Not in my experience. The first fault was a hard drive failure at about 18 months old. The buggering about I had to go through because the "technician" at the other end of the phone wanted to do thing step by step rather than tell me the full story (I worked for a computer company writing software at the time and did know something about computers) was tedious but I did get an exchange HDD to fit (my choice, I could have had the computer collected, repaired and returned). The second fault was a failed sound card, which I don't think happens very often. Dell's solution would have been to collect the computer, return the installed software to the factory state (in other words reinstall NT4 instead of the WIN2K upgrade Dell gave me, and remove every document I had on the computer) then test the sound card. I spent about £12 at my local computer shop on a generic sound card and driver disc and it all worked again. I can only conclude that Dell's pretence of service was to avoid the trivial cost of a cheap sound card. Dell hardware (the sound card was a SoundBlaster of some cheap sort) seems well made (the computer still works, albeit much modified) but I can't see a reason to buy another one. The HP I'm typing this on has worked for the last 14 months connected to an 8 year old HP printer (although to be fair my 9 year old HP printer has been repaired once in its life).

 

[Deleted account 190920001]

Bear I think to be fair to Dell here the fact that your talking about NT and windows 2000 were talking about this being at least 8 years ago. Things change a lot in that time. Course if you get a bad service even once from a company then your less likely to ever use them again.

Some stats from my work.

2007
60 HP 5700 desktops bought, over 1st year 20 failed with an average of 2 week repair time. 14 have failed since and are now in the bin. Failed parts were memory, power supplies, mother board, and hard drives.
20 toshiba sat pro laptops 0 failure.

2008
80 Dell 200 Vostro bought. 1 hard drive failure 24hr repair turn around.
10 HP 5700 dektops 3 failed motherboard, CPU, powersupply average 2 week repir
10 dell E6400 laptops 0 failure
15 Toshiba Sat pro laptops 0 failure

2009
100 dell 220 Vostro bought 0 failure
20 Toshiba Sat pro Laptops 0 failure.

Take from those figures what you want but I wont be buying HP pc's any time soon. Servers on the other hand ( a different part of HP) I have just spent about 200K on as the are still the best in the marker.

 

[MasterDabber]

Just in the middle of getting some problems resolved on my laptop with Dell. I've paid for onsite warranty. Dealing with them so far has not been impressive.
The engineer hasn't called yet so I'll reserve final judgement until that happens but getting it set up has been pretty crap.

Had the visit from the dell engineer and had one of my two problems resolved - keyboard replaced.
However, the second problem that I had been arguing with "Dell Central" about - problem ripping CDs - has not been resolved. "Dell Central" kept arguing that I didn't really have a problem and hence when they sent the engineer they never sent him with a replacement drive and this is what the engineer diagnosed as the problem when he was onsite. I now have to wait for them to get their act together and get a new drive to me.
Not very impressive although the engineer who came onsite was very helpful.

 

[AberdeenAngus]

Must admit, I don't bother with support contracts.
I always pick the least expensive support option when buying a computer then forget about it.
If there is a problem I can't fix myself, I would take the machine to a local repairer.
Dealing with the support service from any major manufacturer will have you reaching for a shotgun.

I recently had a hard drive fail on a newish machine.
Now, I could either spend 2 hrs on the phone then wait in all day for someone not to arrive.....or... get a replacement drive from e-bay for £30.
Guess which ?

They are all as bad as each other. Therefore go for the best quality you can afford - less chance of a failure in the first place.

 

[AberdeenAngus]

Bear I think to be fair to Dell here the fact that your talking about NT and windows 2000 were talking about this being at least 8 years ago. Things change a lot in that time. Course if you get a bad service even once from a company then your less likely to ever use them again.

Some stats from my work.

2007
60 HP 5700 desktops bought, over 1st year 20 failed with an average of 2 week repair time. 14 have failed since and are now in the bin. Failed parts were memory, power supplies, mother board, and hard drives.
20 toshiba sat pro laptops 0 failure.

2008
80 Dell 200 Vostro bought. 1 hard drive failure 24hr repair turn around.
10 HP 5700 dektops 3 failed motherboard, CPU, powersupply average 2 week repir
10 dell E6400 laptops 0 failure
15 Toshiba Sat pro laptops 0 failure

2009
100 dell 220 Vostro bought 0 failure
20 Toshiba Sat pro Laptops 0 failure.

Take from those figures what you want but I wont be buying HP pc's any time soon. Servers on the other hand ( a different part of HP) I have just spent about 200K on as the are still the best in the marker.

Totally agree.
Best Desktops - Dell
Best Laptops - Tosh
Best Servers - HP
Best support network - none -they're all feckin crap !

 

[Onwalkabout]

+1 Dell

Our entire office is on Dells, reliable, cheap (hence why the office runs them) and you can get some very good specs for not a lot of cash. Their lap tops also seem to be holding together well - we originally used Lenovo/IBM machines, but have recently gone to Dell - light, fast and good specs for the cash. No warranty problems at all.

 

[Bear]

It may well be that Dell service has improved over the years. As I said, the Dell part of the machine still works after 9 years. I would observe that the original poster enquired about a single machine for home use and most of the replies have come from people buying lots of equipment for professional use. If I knew a suitable retailer then I would recommend them but I don't. My HP Pavillion came from Comet at an acceptable price on the basis that if it died under warranty it would be Comets problem. If it dies at some time in the future then if I can't mend it then it's scrap.

Dell used to regularly advertise in the weekend newspapers. It's worth reading a few ads in different papers as I have a sneaking feeling I saw better prices in the Daily Telegraph than in some other paper (I can't remember which one).