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PC Packages
Former Member
Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
in General Chat
My Brother and his girlfriend want a PC but they don't have a clue what to look for. They want to pay in installments instead of a lump sum. What I want to ask is
a) Who are the best retailers for this
and
b) Do you know of any packages they might be interested in. They want a PC for general web use so they don't need a really powerful one. Just a good one. They want to spend around £600 to £800. The package would be PC, Monitor, scanner and printer plus any stuff that's thrown in. I've seen one they might like in PC world but it didn't seem all that powerful.
a) Who are the best retailers for this
and
b) Do you know of any packages they might be interested in. They want a PC for general web use so they don't need a really powerful one. Just a good one. They want to spend around £600 to £800. The package would be PC, Monitor, scanner and printer plus any stuff that's thrown in. I've seen one they might like in PC world but it didn't seem all that powerful.
0
Comments
they do monthly plans of about £20 a month, there is interest but dell is pretty good.
Don't buy the big brand names, such as Dell, Hewlett Packard, Compaq, etc. They like to build computers their own way. Which means you can't easily, if at all, upgrade them with normal inexpensive parts, and have to buy their own expensive parts. Also future driver support for new operating systems can by non existent in some cases.
I'll give you an example or two of how they can be a right pain in the arse.
A Compaq computer of my house mate's went wrong. Power supply had quit. Normally no problem, buy new/second hand supply and fit in fifteen mins. Nope - Compaq use their own special power supply which means you have to buy one from them, which is horrendously expensive, not worth spending on an old PC, and it was discontinued anyway. :mad:
Another example. Workmate's shiny new Dell machine got infected with spyware, adware, and premium rate dialers. He asked me if I could have a look. Couldn't get rid of them, so offered to reinstall the system. I asked for the recovery disks. There weren't any! Dell didn't supply them! What they do is make a special partition on the hard drive that you can reinstall they system from. Which is fine, unless you need to do a reinstall due to a hard drive failure. And don't you just know they'd charge for a recovery CD? Lesson - don't buy Dell either.
The only big names I'd recommend are companies that build their PC's from regular parts. Someone like Tiny. They actually have some great offers, but check about exactly what you get as they sometimes seem to be offering a fantastic value computer, but without a monitor (which is extra, but still good value).
After that, I'd recommend looking for local independent PC specialists/shops, and see what systems they have to offer. Ask friends and family who have bought from them, and go by recommendations.
Another option is to build your own. Not as hard as it seems, and you get exactly what you need. But that's probably not an option in this case.
Just for the record i built my own computer, honestly not as hard as you think Mr JB, but you still gotta be careful.
I will be using Wobbles' advice and I'll look around. RB, it's for my brother and his girlfriend so they just want a nice package with no hassle etc. If I ever get another PC (hoping for a laptop) I might look into a self built one.