Computer for parents

[Del Lardo]

Parents need a new computer as the one I built for them 6 years ago is finally dying a death. I can't be arsed to build or support computers any more so it needs to be a retail model (Dell, HP, etc) and they expect it to last ~5 years so are not afraid of spending a decent amount of money. There is no real budget but they would go to £1000 with no monitor though obviously the cheaper the better. I have suggested a Mac but they are not interested and will not be convinced.

They use it for normal internet stuff and photo editing, storage and while anything modern is going to be faster than their P4 1.8 I think it's worth making sure it packs some punch for future proofness, only requirements is for 1TB of HDD space. I was wondering if a SSD as a primary disk would be a good idea but none of the retail stuff I've seen seems to have it.

Finally they would prefer to buy it with XP and then upgrade to Windows 7 when it is released.



Ideas?

[LeperousDust]

No actual model numbers, but i generally cannot find deals that beat Dell for ease of use and buying power etc... If they have problems they can phone their support line save you hassle, and they can ever buy the 3/5 year warranty and totally cover their asses which is probbaly what they want. A nice little dell is probably perfect for what they need really, and cheaper than building your own in most cases as well...

[Del Lardo]

No actual model numbers, but i generally cannot find deals that beat Dell for ease of use and buying power etc... If they have problems they can phone their support line save you hassle, and they can ever buy the 3/5 year warranty and totally cover their asses which is probbaly what they want. A nice little dell is probably perfect for what they need really, and cheaper than building your own in most cases as well...


That's what I thought. Only issue is that I can't seem to spec them with XP.

Far more useful response in 1 post than I got in 10 posts on another forums as it's 101 reasons why they should buy a Mac despite the hardware platforms being utterly unsuitable :rolleyes:

[Daz]

Spec a business PC and you can have XP with it :) Something like a Vostro 200 - I'd be surprised if you spent much more than half your budget on a decent PC. Business warranty too - next day, and so much better than the consumer stuff.

[edit]
http://www.hotukdeals.com/item/403289/dell-vostro-220-desktop-system-2-8g/

Tasty.

[Haly]

Bought 3 Dell business PCs in the last couple of years, touch wood, no problems :) And so much cheaper!

[Del Lardo]

The problem is with Dell that they completed **** you over for adding simple specification changes. £150 to upgrade to a 1TB HDD, you're having a laugh.

Looking like Novatech is the way forward at the moment if they will upgrade the HDD to 1TB without taking the piss.

[LeperousDust]

Haha, gotta love responses from "other" forums :p

Can't you just add a 1TB hard drive for the money your saving? Not looked into it too much because im very much a laptop man now days, but i thought they were pretty sensible about warranties... Also do you parentals reeeaaallly need a 1TB right now? I know its a nice sweet spot, but could they just add more when they need it later on in a years time, when a 1TB hard drive is £20 and they can also decide if they really need it?

Was also coming back into this thread to post that deal daz has posted from HUKD :D

[Mark]

I'd go with Dell too. I did exactly that for my parents and haven't regretted it a bit - that was several years ago. I get a phone call every few months with a question or two and I've done some upgrades on it for them, but mostly it's been rock solid.

What sort of photo editing? £1000 is an awful lot to spend if they're just going to use Photoshop Elements or Paint Shop Pro, but for Photoshop proper there might be a case to argue.

And I'm with Alex. As long as you hang onto the original components in case something goes **** up, upgrading yourself is far cheaper, you'll get what you actually want, and it incurs very little extra risk. Dell are built on the production line "build 10,000 of these" principle - upgrades get in the way for them.

[Del Lardo]

Father is ordering one of these (http://www.cube247.co.uk/?customise=26) tomorrow. Spec looks good and the company gets good reviews in the magazines.

Dad uses Photoshop proper and has a DSLR shooting in RAW so at least some of the power will be used.