Can anyone suggest a PC for £400?

[Timo]

Hi guys, could anyone perhaps suggest a new, ready-built PC for £400, please? I'm a little out of touch since I last looked at computers.

It would be for general usage, not hardcore gaming. I'm guessing something with a a low end Phenom II X4 840 or Intel Core i3 would be fine.

What do you think to this: http://www.arbico.co.uk/product.php?pid=100163

Does Windows 7 require a dedicated graphics card?

Thanks,

Timo

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I would consider an AMD Llano A8 based build.

[Cornholio]

Where abouts are you from ? Might help us recommend a prebuilt from somewhere.

[=assassin=]

My Dad recently got a Dell Inspiron 620MT desktop for £399 delivered; fine for general use, very fast. Has a Core i3 2100 (3.1GHz dual core with hyper threading), 4GB Ram, 500GB Hard drive, 1GB 6450 Radeon (pretty weak I know, but for fine for general use and very light gaming.) NOTE: Doesn't have monitor though, it was just the tower as we had one spare already.

[kingpotnoodle]

My Dad recently got a Dell Inspiron 620MT desktop for £399 delivered; fine for general use, very fast. Has a Core i3 2100 (3.1GHz dual core with hyper threading), 4GB Ram, 500GB Hard drive, 1GB 6450 Radeon (pretty weak I know, but for fine for general use and very light gaming.) NOTE: Doesn't have monitor though, it was just the tower as we had one spare already.

Depends how you bias the usage - I would pick the above with more CPU power now, and upgrade the graphics card when I could.

If you need more gaming performance now and can live with less CPU performance then get a Llano based system, fast enough and better for gaming.

[AndyG]

That's not a bad spec for a cheap PC, though I'd probably try and find something from a bigger name such as Dell, unless you're local to Arbico and know them to be helpful in the shop.

Windows 7 doesn't need a dedicated GPU, using integrated graphics is fine - though obviously gaming performance will be much worse, and some games don't like Intel IGPs (but most are fine with AMD ones).

[scaryjim]

That arbico build is based off a very old chipset with GeForce 7 integrated graphics; it really is substandard compared to AMDs 700 and 800 series chipsets and even Intel's new HD graphics. As CAT says the budget market is all about AMD's Llano APUs now, if you can find a pre-build based on it.

Can I ask why you don't want to build youself?

[cam1986]

What about Tesco and i even seen cheap ones at PC vorld! £249 for a base unit and £80 for a tft.