Hi, please take a look at this PC?

[ArCElM]

Hi,

I am useless at LOW END stuff.

My mother had an old PC which she used for internet and emails and printing stuff, it has broken, she wants a replacement as cheap as possible, very basic functionality, she has a nice large widescreen monitor and mouse/keyboard and printer so she just needs the PC.

I have ordered this for her because it has windows 7 installed and the cheapest windows 7 was about £70 so really this seemed like a good deal even for an older PC.

Please could somebody take a look and say if it seems reasonable? would be so greatful - thanks.

It's an old second hand dell optiplex 755 seen below.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

[Domestic_Ginger]

In terms of performance it should be fine for what you have listed. Concerns:-

The part descriptions are not very detailed. I'm wondering if they are the origional Dell parts. The others i have seen have 40/80/160mb HDD for example.

2Gb ram. I think I would go for 4gb if possible.

Onboard graphics okay with large monitor?

I haven't compared against the ebay sellers, there appear to be alot of them on there.

[Phaz0r18]

Doesn't seem too bad for what you want it to do...

I'm always wary of buying second hand parts though, read those user reviews carefully...

[chr1s5opherr]

Hi think you have already ordered but this is the best deal on a new pc i have found recently, I have these exact specs in a laptop and they are more than suitable for your needs.
http://www.aria.co.uk/SuperSpecials/...roductId=52469

sorry i missed yours is also second hand this is brand new at the same price with better specs. cancel your order if possible and get this way better deal

[ArCElM]

Many thanks guys.

Hi think you have already ordered but this is the best deal on a new pc i have found recently, I have these exact specs in a laptop and they are more than suitable for your needs.
http://www.aria.co.uk/SuperSpecials/...roductId=52469

sorry i missed yours is also second hand this is brand new at the same price with better specs. cancel your order if possible and get this way better deal

Problem is mate with this, is it has no operating system - that's £70 alone, making that PC MUCH more expensive.

Does anybody else think it is worth paying the extra for this one?

cheers.

[ArCElM]

well I cancelled that order and went for the other one, hope it was worth the extra cash, delivery was £17 and it has no OS

[scaryjim]

Well worth getting something new over a dubiously refurbished Dell with a questionable copy of Windows (a computer that old, at £120 I'd be highly sceptical of any OS other than XP). No matter how well refurbished it is, the core of the system is still going to be at least 5 years old, probably more. Unless you want to be upgrading/replacing it again in a couple of years, it's simply not worth buying tech that old (IMNSHO, anyway).

Wish I'd got in here earlier as I think there are better value (although more expensive) options available - I'd personally have been looking at machines for around £250 with OS. However, for the intended use the aria machine will be perfectly adequate and is a decent buy at ~ £200 with OS. Have you considered trying a simple version of Linux on it first though? If she can't get on with it you can always swap to Windows later.

[ArCElM]

many thanks much appreciated.

She can hardly operate her phone mate so really any change from windows could be bad lol she can do VERY basic operation and the idea here was how cheap can she do what she wants, so although you may find better value, if it is more expensive it is still not going to do what she wants any better? I am guessing? I mean if you have a solid suggestion with good reason I can always cancel this order.

thanks again.

[scaryjim]

I'd've considered this desktop from ebuyer for £159.99 no OS simply because the APU is much faster than the E350. The E350 is an Atom/netbook type processor, designed to be *just* fast enough for email/internet usage, no more. The A4 in the zoostorm rig I've linked to is a proper desktop processor, much more like a Core 2 Duo + discrete graphics card.

If the point is "as cheap as possible", then a nettop might also be an option: http://www.ebuyer.com/395455-acer-re...c-dt-smbek-006 is a low-clocked sandy-bridge-based dual core box for ~ the same price as the aria but with Windows 8 installed (although what your mum will make of Moderm UI I don't know ). I suspect for your mum's usage it would be as good as if not better than the E350...

EDIT: one last suggestion: a zoostorm Ivy Bridge celeron desktop with Windows 8: http://www.ebuyer.com/443462-zoostor...p-pc-7873-0450 it's about the same price as the acer above - bigger tower case but faster processor.

[chr1s5opherr]

You should be pretty happy with the e-350 as i said i have the latpop version of this computer, exact same specs and it runs far better than youd think, belive it or not I can actually play FAR CRY 3 @ 20fps granted everything is on low but still i was pretty impressed, it also runs Hitman absolution with everything on low... im sure your ma wont be needing these features but this proccesor performs beyond what i expected it to when i bought it.