Is this a good deal?

[AKMartin]

I don't know much about computer prices. I want a desktop PC, mainly used for internet, photography storage and manipulation, music and some games (nothing hyper-modern and high-graphic).

Packard Bell PC

AMD Sempron 3000+ processor

512Mb DDR RAM

200Gb Hard Drive

17" Philips flatscreen monitor

DVD re-writer

keyboard, mouse

Total - 529.99 inc. vat.

cheers

AKM

[beeker]

doesn't look too bad to me. check dell/compaq out for comparable systems and prices tho..

is this brand new yeah?

also europc.co.uk

do a bit of searching first!

[Moshulu Rob]

I don't know much about computer prices. I want a desktop PC' date=' mainly used for internet, photography storage and manipulation, music and some games (nothing hyper-modern and high-graphic).

Packard Bell PC

AMD Sempron 3000+ processor

512Mb DDR RAM

200Gb Hard Drive

17" Philips flatscreen monitor

DVD re-writer

keyboard, mouse

Total - 529.99 inc. vat.

cheers

AKM[/quote']

Yes thats a pretty good price for a pre-build computer to do what you want it to. However it will have on board graphics which will be no use at all for 3d gaming. If you want to game then you'd probably need to buy a graphics card such as a Nvidia 6600GT for about 100.

That would mean you could play all the latest games, albeit without maxing out the graphics options.

[Hardcore Mel]

i'm pretty sure you can get that exact same PC from PC World's website for 399 inc VAT and another fiver for shipping. maybe 20 G smaller harddrive though, but for the sake of 130 not too big a deal.

[Wishbone G]

You gotta watch out for these things

They offer what looks like a decent spec at low prices. The truth is they use sub standard parts. For example, it doesnt tell you the speed of the DVD re-writer, nor the RPM of the hard drive. The brand of memory they use can often be important, as cheap rubbish brands wont perform as well as other brands with the same megabytage. The monitor could have really rubbish response time, which would mean, in basic terms, that the previous image on the screen would be there for longer. To put this into example, it could possible cause the mouse to leave trails, and watching DVDs or playing graphical games could be a lot less sharp than a good monitor.

If you ask me, its worth investing a bit of money into a good PC. Spend a bit more and it will last you longer, not to mention being better to start with.

edit: Although stupid as i am, i didnt read what you would actually be using it for, so i guess it would be just fine for what you said.

[Neil]

Packard Bell PCs are usually pretty cheap and this is with good reason - they are usually sub-standard when it comes to quality and probably why PC World are one of the few places to actually still sell them (tip: never, ever buy anything from PC World - it's a rip-off!).

Looking at the system above there would appear to be some cost-cutting going on. As Rob points out there is no mention of a separate graphics card and so if it is using a built-in graphics chipset then gaming performance will likely suffer as a result. Also, it's using an AMD Sempron CPU - this is the cheaper and slower version of their Athlon CPUs (it's roughly equivalent to Intel's Celeron CPU). Again, this won't usually matter unless you want to do some gaming or other processor intensive work.

It isn't a bad price I guess but definitely shop around a bit.

[Chris]

seriously don't buy anything of value from dixons (pc world). ever. they're a bunch of fucking conmen and you can usually get a much better deal elsewhere. They thrive on people buying things from them because they don't realise there are better options. the only thing I ever buy from them is little things I can't be bothered waiting a few days to come by mail order.

buy a copy of computer shopper or pc format and read what systems they're recommending at the moment and then do some research.

[Guest MerryChristmas]

Dont buy anything from PC World, try www.europc.com www.dell.com

My one and only packard bell is still going strong from 1998