First time PC for my parents

[The Red Guy]

Hi there,

looking for a PC for my parents, both early 60's and their first computer( although my mum has done a bit of word and email)
It will be used for general surfing,emails, basic digital photography, music and possibly windows movie maker use for slideshows. The main thing is it needs to be reliable with good after sales service as i can set it up but live too far away in case of any problem. They are not very computer literate especially on the tech side
Budget is £400 to £500

I have seen the following specs at DELL

Slimline Inspiron 530s
ComponentsIntel® Viiv™ Core™ 2 Duo E4500 Processor (2.20GHz,800MHz,2MB cache)

Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium - English

1 Year Base Warranty - Collect & Return

No 19" Monitor

2048MB 667MHz Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM [2x1024]

250GB (7200rpm) Serial ATA Hard Drive with 8MB DataBurst™ cache

256MB ATI® Radeon™ HD 2400 XT graphics card

DVD +/- RW Drive (read/write CD & DVD)

Dell™ Entry Quietkey USB Keyboard - UK/Irish (QWERTY)

Dell 2 Button USB Scroll Optical Mouse - Black


AccessoriesIntegrated 7.1 Channel High Definition Audio

No Speakers

19-in-1 Media Card reader

No Modem

Internal PCI 802.11g Wireless Network Card

Microsoft® Works 9.0 - English


Services & SoftwareNo Accidental Damage Support

No Security/Anti-Virus Protection - English



Also Includes
Resource DVD - (Diagnostics & Drivers)
English Documentation with English/Irish Power Cord
D035S07
Inspiron Desktop Order Uk
1 Year Base Warranty - Collect & Return
Dell Internet Order.

For £358 which leaves enough for an LG monitor 19" at £135 and some speakers £15


or in full size case
Inspiron 531

ComponentsAMD® Athlon™ 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 5000+

Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium - English

1 Year Base Warranty - Collect & Return

No 19" Monitor

2048MB 667MHz Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM [2x1024]

320GB (7200rpm) Serial ATA Hard Drive with 16MB DataBurst™ cache

128MB NVIDIA® GeForce® 8300GS Turbocache graphics card

DVD +/- RW Drive (read/write CD & DVD)

Dell™ Entry Quietkey USB Keyboard - UK/Irish (QWERTY)

Dell 2 Button USB Scroll Optical Mouse - Black


AccessoriesIntegrated 7.1 Channel High Definition Audio

No Speakers

19-in-1 Media Card Reader

No Modem

Internal PCI 802.11b/g Wireless Network Card

Microsoft® Works 9.0 - English


Services & SoftwareNo Accidental Damage Support

No Security/Anti-Virus Protection - English



Also Includes
Resource DVD - (Diagnostics & Drivers)
English Documentation with UK/Irish Power Cord
D035108
Inspiron Desktop Order Uk
1 Year Base Warranty - Collect & Return
Dell Internet Order.


Comes in at £300



How are DELL on reliability, seem to have ok customer service compared to a few others?


The other one i have seen is a HP which someone i know has bought recently and is pleased with although it may mean buying from Comet ( awful customer service)

spec is here

Not sure myself about processors and graphic cards today as I'm still happily runnng an Athlon XP1800 with 750meg Ram and an mx440 graphics card!

any help would be appreciated

thanks

 

[guest_9323wk]

Have you linked the text in blue to go to the site, if so then I can't get any of you links to load please reenter them again.

P.S. it looks a good system to me what will you be using it for??

Thanks,

wiz

 

[The Red Guy]

hi there,
Thanks for the reply
sorry the bits in blue weren't supposed to be links, i just cut and pasted it from Dells site for the spec.
It's just for general use , Internet , email, basic photo stuff. Definitely no 3D games. Looking for something that will last them a few years.
I need to get it hopefully within the next couple of weeks.

 

[guest_9323wk]

Thats ok then.


If you are going to use it for editing photos then I would go for the frist PC that you listed as that has a biger Vedio card and that will be more able to cope with photo editing.

I think that is also a good price for that sort of spces.


Hope this helps,


wiz

 

[Abarbarian]

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/syscon_int.php?prodid=FS-054-OK

The Primo range from overclockers are pretty good for the money , well worth a look .

 

[Spezi]

For what it's worth I'd take a Dell over an HP any day.

I've had good results with Dell support.

 

[Ian]

I too have had good results with Dell support, it's very efficient It might be worth getting a system with a monitor included in the bundle, then your warranty will cover it all.

This one Inspiron 531 (D035108) works out at £399 inc val+delivery, and should have plenty of power for an internet/office system - and also has a monitor:

AMD® Athlon™ 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 5000+
Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium - English
1 Year Base Warranty - Collect & Return
Dell™ 19" Silver Wide Flat Panel (SE198WFP) - UK/Irish
2048MB 667MHz Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM [2x1024]
320GB (7200rpm) Serial ATA Hard Drive with 16MB DataBurst™ cache
128MB NVIDIA® GeForce® 8300GS Turbocache graphics card
DVD +/- RW Drive (read/write CD & DVD)
Dell™ Entry Quietkey USB Keyboard - UK/Irish (QWERTY)
Dell 2 Button USB Scroll Optical Mouse - Black

 

[guest_9323wk]

I have also heard that Dell use good quality parts in there pcs.

 

[The Red Guy]

many thanks for the replies,

Ian: that looks a good spec with monitor, I will check it out. They won't be playing games so as long as the graphics card will be ok for basic photo editing and watching slideshows/dvd's then that's all they need.
I use photoshop elements 6 on my 6 year old PC with a g force mx440 and it works ok.It's only now starting to be found a bit wanting in other areas.

The customer service is important to them in case of problems.

Will decide over next couple of days.

thanks again

 

[Anon_F]

I've just helped a family friend out wanting to buy a new pc.
In the end after trying my laptop they opted to buy a laptop at staples.
Decent Dual Core with 15" screen, 1GB RAM & Vista Home Basic for £349.

May be worth having a look at?