Personally I'd go for the third one down on the list here:-
www.dmxdimension.com/blogcategory/dell_uk_dimensio...l
Good spec. machine with a reasonable 19inch flat panel for 450 quid. Probably not good enough for the latest games, but then I'd regard that as an advantage ;-)
I wouldn't bother with secondhand when you can get new machines at this sort of price.
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Good spec. machine with a reasonable 19inch flat panel for 450 quid. Probably not good enough for the latest games, but then I'd regard that as an advantage ;-)
The E196FP is one of Dell's "value" range though is actually a great monitor by any standards, now superceded by the E197FP, I think the differences are cosmetic only, an excellent monitor for games due to 8ms response time, also the PC should be more than powerful enough for games depending on the graphics card. I would visit the Dell UK website - superb - just been revamped, and spec an E520, less £550 should get a well speced machine powerful enough to run the NASA space programme, a Y2K CAD application and play FIFA 2007 at the same time.
Yes, perhaps a Playstation 2 for games is a sensible alternative.
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I would visit the Dell UK website
The reason I linked to one of the variety of sites that picks out the best Dell deals is that from personal experience the Dell home web site doesn't make it easy to find the best deals - whether this is accident or design I know not ;-)
I think that the 19" monitor is the same one SWMBO had with the Dell system I bought her earlier in the year, that's certainly good enough to watch TV / DVDs on without 'smearing'.
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The reason I linked to one of the variety of sites that picks ...
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only trouble is, in my case, none of the links from the dmxdimension site works for me - whether in ie6 or firefox. i tried typing in the e-value codes in the dell-uk site, and even those codes fail to work !
if i try to configure a dell pc from dell-uk, the newer 19" E197FP monitor mentioed by cheddar is selected. (the e196fp is not an option). so i suspect that the dmxdimension listings may be out of date.
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I couldn't get the direct link from dmxdimension to work, so I went to the dell.co.uk home page, selected 'home', then entered the E-vlaue code for the system, 305 in the first box and D10E05 in the second box.
This brought up the system under discussion, priced at about 550 notes. I then changed the warranty to 1 year collect & return, this brought the price down to around 440 quid.
I suspect most of best deals are on systems that are going out of production, and so not the obvious ones if just looking for the deals from the home page.
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... went to the dell.co.uk home page, selected 'home' then entered the E-vlaue code ..
thanks. worked using your method this time !
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I'll get shot here, but I'm going to recommend an iMac. Does everything you'll likely need out of the box.
Kids playing games on it is a bad idea; if they want to play games, you'd be much, much, much, much better off getting them a dedicated console for a couple of hundred £s. To get a PC running quickly enough to play games would require at least that much investment anyhow - and a separate console means they're not pestering you to get off the computer when you need to use it. And putting more and more software onto a PC will just slow everything down eventually.
I'd go for a 17" iMac Duo Core - get the student discount (assuming your kids are at school/college) for £630.08 inc VAT & Delivery and an Xbox 360. From the www.apple.com/uk/ store. There's also some good deals on the clearance stuff on there at the moment.
Buying second hand can be a tin of worms - ensure whatever you buy has a clean install of the operating system - but given you can get a new Dell PC for about £350 you might be better off not getting a second hand PC.
-- You know, it\'s not like changing toothpaste
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>>I'll get shot here, but I'm going to recommend an iMac. Does everything you'll likely need out of the box
Yes, probably would do, I suppose it depends whether the prospective purchaser considers that the iMac is worth paying an extra 200 quid for, with a smaller monitor. or not.
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>>I'll get shot here>>
To some extent, but don't forget that Apple now has Intel-based Macs and Windows XP can be used if required (own copy). See:
www.apple.com/macosx/bootcamp/
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Thanks Stuart - I'd not forgotten!
I now run a Mac at home running Boot Camp 1.1.1 - works perfectly well and goes very quickly. Increasingly using Tiger day to day on it, but nice to have XP to fall back to when I need it. Could be a bit tricky for a novice to get working though
-- You know, it\'s not like changing toothpaste
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Thanks everyone.
In case I left you in any doubt about the poverty of my computer skills, one of my most important considerations is technical support. I need to be able to pick up the phone when I get stuck or have a problem!
I have been told (can't say if t's true) that If i buy a machine form a big chain and subscribe to their helpline it will be a) expensive and b) I will be put on hold for ages.
What's the best way for a duffer to get technical support?
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Firstly go to www.saynoto0870.com to look for an alternative contact number. PC World have a Freephone number on which you can get technical support, instead of an 0870 or 0845, but you you have to go to this website to find it!
Hard work pays off in the future - Laziness pays off now!
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If you dive into the Linux pool you open the door to an enormous talent of expertise which is freely given to people new to the system. This comes via the Linux User Groups which are everywhere and there should be one near to your location...
Has an advantage as nearly all Linux Distributions are happy running on older machines which are almost given away nowadays.
Phil I
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My local Tesco have some remarkable bargains - Phillips brand I think. COmputer in a box, does what it says on the box and Tesco points to boot. By the way my old man goat a Medion computer in a box from Woolies, works a treat.
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I speak from experience, lots and lots of experience. Don't plan to get one computer which you think all the family can use. At best you'll never get to use it when you want to and the younger ones will wreck it. However much you preach about firewalls, viruses etc. they will screw it up for you.
Buy TWO.
Consider yourself warned.
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DE just beat me to it!
Never share a computer with the children. At best it it will limit your access, at worst you will have endless virus problems with loss of data. Get two and keep them entirely separate, however attractive networking might seem. If you must network treat them as the enemy! and keep your passwords absolutely 100% secure.
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pmh (was peter)
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Ha so much for the brave new world of home computing accross networks....!
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This is why a Mac is a good idea. Separate user accounts. Nobody runs as administrator. If the kids bork their user account delete it and set up another.
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If you dive into the Linux pool you open the door to an enormous talent of expertise
Oh stop it, I cant think of a worse piece of advice. If linux worked properly out of the box and with all the games and apps you intend to run on it you wouldnt need a door of enourmous talent or the need to know your local linux user group by name.
Linux + new user = agro
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TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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good point TVM
My bit.....
i bought three computers two weeks ago at an auction of a closed business all the operating systems are intact but files wiped (im still working on this one thanks for your help guys) anyway one quick hard drive clean one new ms disc and everything is working for £100 all in
and they all have all the toys
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I wouldn't argue with that: however the lawman did make it clear he wanted a support package of some kind, personally I'm not sure what to suggest.
I've never needed to use the Dell support line; system restore gets me out of the doo-doo on the rare occasions m ykids break WinXp. I'm not sure if any of the other big boys are any better, or indeed have UK based support staff. I suppose the other alternative is to rely on local support from these folks who advertise in the local rags, but again it's difficult to know what kind of service you're going to get:-/
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Actually that's only partly right. If you can buy a Linux box already set up it's no harder to use than Windows and harder to break. Since this is a new user there is no unlearning to do, so the "it's not Windows" complaints won't apply. I agree though that giving a new user an install disk for any OS and telling them to get on with it is bonkers.
Linux user support is great though.
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What is Linux? I thought he was a character in Charlie Brown?
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Does Dell make an all in one that takes up no more space than the monitor on its own? Does it include a built in camera, remote control, built-in wireless, and a suite of multimedia software (iLife) that is arguably the best on the market? That might be worth £200 to some people.
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Well the 680 quid system I've just configured on the Apple store doesn't include the remote, and had a 17" monitor. A USB webcam for a PC is under 20 quid in Argoose; a USB wifi adaptor is 15 quid in PC world.
Having said that then the Apple would be a much nicer looking, integrated solution, and I do know peple who are considering iMacs just to get hold of iLife, which has no Windowze equivalent to my knowledge.
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Apple iMac also gets my vote. iLife software will take care of all your photo, music, movie needs very niceley. I haven't come across anything on Windows that comes close. The other major benefit is that viruses, spyware, malware etc are all far less of a problem with Apple...some would even say non-existant!
Sometimes it's better to look beyond the headline grabbing prices of the PC firms...
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"one of my most important considerations is technical support. I need to be able to pick up the phone when I get stuck or have a problem!"
Who needs technical support when you have this forum??!!
As a fellow computer illiterate, I have had virtually no problems with my latest computer (about 2 years old) and any Qs I have had have resulted in excellent advice on here. Modern computers seem pretty reliable - whatever happened to the blue screen of death??
--
Phil
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whatever happened to the blue screen of death??
Its hibernating, it comes out of hibernation after about 2 years usually in mid october........
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TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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Expect a Q on how to cure it shortly then TVM - I'm sure you will be able to help (along with Stuartli, Dalglish et al)!!
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Phil
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Never let anyone use your computer unless it's for a very, very good reason (and you are watching what they are up to).
The only person allowed to come anywhere near mine is the youngest offspring and that's only because he's an IT Support specialist who's probably forgotten more than most could even hope to know about the subject...:-)
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Never let anyone use your computer unless it's for a very, very good reason (and you are watching what they are up to).
Windows users. tsk tsk.
It doesn't have to be that way.
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>>It doesn't have to be that way.>>
I'm quite aware of that - but I'm fussy.
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whatever happened to the blue screen of death?? Its hibernating, it comes out of hibernation after about 2 years usually in mid october........
Oh, so true!
My T42 (by some considerable margin the best built and best behaved laptop I've ever used), which must be coming up to two years old now, suffered its first ever BSofD just yesterday! ;-)
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SjB
I know the cure for this. you need to remove your sodimm memory card and clean the contacts.
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TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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Perhaps true, thanks TVM, though to be fair on this occasion I know the cause; I whipped the USB lead out of my Blackberry and plugged it in to my LaCie external HDD before the T42 (the CPU was at 100% at the time according to my system tray utility and pretty well all 512MB memory would have been in use too) had registered the initial disconnect. The "report a fault to Microsoft?" log shows the LaCie driver to be the trigger. A classic case of more haste, less speed, being needed!
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Ok well thats OK SjB. You may find tho that you get this issue, it starts to appear when you pick up the laptop by one corner, the slight flexing of the system will whip up a BSoD as the system board flexes but he sodimm doesent..
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TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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Ok well thats OK SjB. You may find tho that you get this issue, it starts to appear when you pick up the laptop by one corner, the slight flexing of the system will whip up a BSoD as the system board flexes but he sodimm doesent.. ------------------------------ TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
Noted for future.
Thanks. :-)
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Help, is this some kind of foreign language?
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Dell E520 dual core, e-value code: NPUK5 - D10E07, visit dell.co.uk and click "shop by e-value code".
£599 with std warranty, £740 with 3 year at home warranty, as advertised in yesterday's DT, good system, good value.
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Do go and look at the the Imac - tis beautiful to look at, wonderfully space-saving as the whole thing is just the screen + keyboard + mouse, easy-peasy to use and have not yet had to re-install/format, or whatever the word is my son uses when he has to mend his pc. We bought it, together with ibook for daughter, from the store that never knowingly undersells . They very quickly sorted out a problem when ibook got sick, firstly talking her through various actions then actually taking it away for 24 hours to mend - all of which was free.
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If you have a computer savvy friend, why not have a look at this website which offers excellent deals on new and used computer equipment including desktops and laptops from Dell and similar manufacturers:
www.itcsales.co.uk/acatalog/New_Items.html
Acquired a Compaq desktop unit on behalf of one of the offspring here earlier this week - ordered late at night and delivered to my front door 48 hours later.
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