Wanted: PC for under £600

[Paddy]

My sister is after PC for her PhD. She wants to spend an upper limit of £600.

She only has two absolute requirements: a TFT display and 512MB RAM.

I looked into getting her an Asus A7N8X-E, XP2500+, Seagate 120GB, 2x256MB DDR (for dual mode), Radeon 9700 along with a case/psu, kb&m, cdrw etc.. but it came out at around £760ish.

Can anyone recommend a decent spec for around £600? She is not interested in playing games.

I have seen reasonable packages from the likes of Dell, but I am sure we can do better!

Cheers!

[Wombat]

Does she need an office machine, or will she be cranking a lot of numbers?

Maybe a Via Epia type machine? Small and quiet.

A 9700 is overkill for what she's doing, look into a 9500 or 9600.

For someone like her, no you probably can't do better than Dell. Remember that buying from Dell gets her support, rather than leaning on you.

[Fluff]

http://www.microdirect.co.uk/ProductInfo.aspx?ProductID=7020&GroupID=539

+ a cheap tft.

Will be a whisker over $600 inc. But a RTB warranty isnt amazing.

[az]

If this is going to be just an office machine, both suggestions so far are total overkill. Rather spend less on the machine, and more on a good TFT (don't forget a nice keyboard if she is going to write lots).

Some low-end Athlon or even Duron or whatever and any cheap passively cooled graphics card with DVI out, 512MB DDR, a decent HD (and I think noise, price, and reliability would be more important than speed and capacity - I don't think she'll be writing multi-GB word docs ), some kind of Writer (dunno how much they cost nowadays), cherry KB, mouse (I don't think she needs many extra buttons, wireless, or bluetooth...), cheap-ish case (no need for an Antec, Chieftec, Lian Li and those other bling bling cases. It's only a friggin' case!), quiet, reliable PSU (not fanless - too pricey, and you'd need a case fan anyway), nice 17"+ TFT, and you're set.

AZ

[Fat Tone]

Paddy, If you aren't building yourself, buy from Dell.

self build: ASUS A7n8x-vm-400 (integrated gfx etc but has agp port), ~2500+, 120GB, 2*256, DVD-RW, case, floppy will cost £320. Just add spkrs, keybd, mouse and TFT from ebuyer and you have change from your £600. For games just add an agp card later.

[GNEP]

Have you looked at Dell?

edit: Tony beat me to it. Just.

[KvHagedorn]

I agree.. there are some good Micro-atx boards out there with decent chipsets with video, lan, sound, and all built-in and an agp slot.. you just need to hunt them down. I managed to build an imaginary Athlon2000+ system with one of them for about $325 not too long ago. A duron might be a better choice if your micro-atx case has a wussy power supply, though.

[Paddy]

cheers lads.
Yes I will be building my self... I'll give her a shout today.
(although I was kind of hoping to flog some of my older kit to her! )

[az]

Why not? What is your older kit?

AZ

[Fat Tone]

Ah! I see another man making the switch to 64 bit!

[Paddy]

I have a7n8x-e, xp3200+, 512x2 ddr, AIW9800se to pro, seagate 120GB SATA x2. To good for her me thinks... I could always sell the mobo and CPU though....

[az]

Ehh.. here's a buyer

(actually, I'm broke What would you want for the CPU or one of the RAM sticks though? The other 512 should be plenty for her )

AZ

[Paddy]

I'd sell her either both or none of the RAM - I can't run it in dual mode otherwise
As far as the CPU is concerned I'd give her retail price
She will be getting some of my spares, but anything that I have to replace I'll sell (She earns more than me ATM )

[Paddy]

She is determined to get a Dell. Can anyone recommend a good one for around £650 all in?

[Fat Tone]

www.dell.co.uk