Approx £1000 desktop

[jamiesalter]

A good friend of mine has just asked if I could point him in the direction of a decent prebuilt computer. It does need to include a screen, mouse and keyboard - but not speakers. The budget is variable, up and down (although by how much I need to find out), and the usage will be of gaming (although not heavily) and for watching films and doing emails etc. (ie there is no video editing or other power hungry usages)

Have been looking around and it seems that Core i7 is too expensive (around £1200 cheapest without a screen) so I'm inclined to look for an AMD system. Any suggestions?

Cheers.

[PeterStoba]

Dell had an i7 system for £700 iirc? There is bound to be i7 systems under £1000.

Build it yourself and save even more

[staffsMike]

These are the cheaper i7 desktops
http://www.dmxdimension.com/dell-uk/...codes-coupons/

Obviously fully customisable on dells site but this gives you a good idea of price.

[jamiesalter]

Thanks for those replies...this seems like a pretty decent spec for only £1,019 including VAt and shipping:

PROCESSOR
Intel® Core™ i7 Processor 920 (2.66GHz, 8MB cache, 4.8GT/sec)
OPERATING SYSTEM
Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium SP1 64Bit - English
OFFICE SOFTWARE
Microsoft® Works 9 - English
HARDWARE SUPPORT
1Yr Premium Warranty Support
MONITOR
21.5in S2209W Full HD Widescreen Black UK/Irish (1920 x 1080)
MEMORY
6144MB (6x1024) 1067MHz DDR3 Tri Channel
HARD DRIVE
500GB Serial ATA (7200RPM) Hard Drive
GRAPHICS CARD
512MB ATI® Radeon® 4850 Graphics card
OPTICAL DRIVE
16X DVD+/- RW Optical Drive (DVD & CD read and write)
KEYBOARD
Dell Multimedia USB Keyboard Black - UK
MOUSE
Dell Laser Mouse USB (6 buttons scroll) Black
PROTECT YOUR NEW PC
No Security/Anti-Virus Protection
SOUND SOFTWARE
Integrated HDA 7.1 Dolby Digital Audio
SPEAKERS
No Speakers
FLOPPY/MEDIA DRIVES
19-in-1 Media Card Reader
ACCIDENTAL DAMAGE SUPPORT
No Accidental Damage Support
ONLINE DATA BACKUP
DataSafe Online Backup 2GB 1 year

Does this seem the best for the money? I was looking at some of the 3XS systems and they all seemed more expensive.

[Infinite]

Go to the 3XS forum and ask them to spec you the best i7 for £xxx. Im sure they would be happy to help.

[shadowmaster]

Thanks for those replies...this seems like a pretty decent spec for only £1,019 including VAt and shipping:

PROCESSOR
Intel® Core™ i7 Processor 920 (2.66GHz, 8MB cache, 4.8GT/sec)
OPERATING SYSTEM
Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium SP1 64Bit - English
OFFICE SOFTWARE
Microsoft® Works 9 - English
HARDWARE SUPPORT
1Yr Premium Warranty Support
MONITOR
21.5in S2209W Full HD Widescreen Black UK/Irish (1920 x 1080)
MEMORY
6144MB (6x1024) 1067MHz DDR3 Tri Channel
HARD DRIVE
500GB Serial ATA (7200RPM) Hard Drive
GRAPHICS CARD
512MB ATI® Radeon® 4850 Graphics card
OPTICAL DRIVE
16X DVD+/- RW Optical Drive (DVD & CD read and write)
KEYBOARD
Dell Multimedia USB Keyboard Black - UK
MOUSE
Dell Laser Mouse USB (6 buttons scroll) Black
PROTECT YOUR NEW PC
No Security/Anti-Virus Protection
SOUND SOFTWARE
Integrated HDA 7.1 Dolby Digital Audio
SPEAKERS
No Speakers
FLOPPY/MEDIA DRIVES
19-in-1 Media Card Reader
ACCIDENTAL DAMAGE SUPPORT
No Accidental Damage Support
ONLINE DATA BACKUP
DataSafe Online Backup 2GB 1 year

Does this seem the best for the money? I was looking at some of the 3XS systems and they all seemed more expensive.

The spec is not bad but have you tried mesh or cyberpower? You could probably get a 4890 1Gb instead of that 4850 at cyberpower for the same price.

What about this?

http://www.cyberpowersystem.co.uk/sa....asp?id=144283

Its very similar except monitor is a 24inch, graphics card is a 4890 1GB and they have 3 year warranty.

[staffsMike]

Don't forget the 10% voucher on the dell if thats the way you want to go.

47CSPWLB?S0$MF

[jim]

And don't forget to ring and haggle with Dell. I'm told it can work in your favour, although maybe not to the tune of 10%. Who knows?

I would probably recommend trying Scan's 3XS first though.

[jamiesalter]

Good find for that 10% voucher staffsMike.

I've just created a thread on the 3XS forum so I'll wait and see. Thanks for the input - I'll let you know what happens.