New PC - Budget £600

I've saved my pennies and my long suffering wife has said she will make up the difference up to £600. So what system can I get for £600 or less that will include a monitor cos my current one is not very good.

cheers

Dunno mate

buy a barebone and make the pc yourself it is laborious but at the end you get a really powerful computer and easy to fix.

comprate un barebone y hasla tu mismo es laborioso pero al final son faciles de mantener y reparar y termina siendo una pc mas poderosa que la que compras a el mismo precio.

wouldn't know where to start with a self build to be honest. i'd rather just buy a pre-assembled one.

I'd have a butchers at Arbico Computers

Where I got mine from for around the same price albeit without the monitor.

then i can't help you all the computers i have has been do it by myself .

but hey use amazon and search a suitable pc remember the important parts of a pc are the proccesor and motherboard.

sorry for bad english.

Sort your searches by your budget.

Then make sure the processor is sandybridge. You can check that on intel site.

i3 processor is lowest, i5 is mid range, and i7 is top.

Go with as much RAM as you can

Try to get a dedicated video card.

Try Dabs.com

Dell

Komplett

or whatever websites you can search easily.

If you self build you can get a very powerful beast...my computer has had <£1000 spent on it for every part over 6/7 years, and boasts a quad core 3.2gHz processor, 120gb SSD, 8gb RAM and is dual screen. I seriously recommend looking into it as its not that hard and you can make stupidly powerful low price PC's.

Dunno mate

Well worth a reply.

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I'd personally say you could easily get a pretty decent computer with that amount and would suggest you have a look at refurbished computers as you can often get yourself a bargain. There is a wide choice of products out there, but with £600 I do reckon you could find yourself a good buy. Below I've highlighted just a couple of easy options that are fairly good spec, but as others have said, its worth a look around and trying to get decent parts etc.

For example, a quad core, 4gb memory and a 500gb hardrive would set you back at under £400 (IE; This one, or something like This one with a 1TB hardrive - 1000gb) and a 24" monitor for around £200 (IE; This one).

Thank you for the replies so far.

A few questions:

Just how much better is an i5 2500 compared to a slightly cheaper phenom II?

The only games I really play are FM and Minecraft, will the built in gfx on the i5 be good enough?

I realise these are probably dumb-ass questions, but I am 42 years old and no longer anything resembling a geek. As long as i can record myself playing ukulele with my dodgy usb microphone with some cheap vst fx added, play fm and minecraft, that's all i need.

Of course I want something that will still be good enough in 5 years time to play fm17.

pc specialist is the best place to look if your not going to build it yourself..

depends on what phenom II matey...

also.. if your going to spend £600 on a decent pc... get a dedicated gfx card..

http://www.dinopc.com/shop/pc/Gallant-AMD-955-94p766.htm

that one is top notch... and will breeze through anything you throw at it... including top games and programs out now and yes of course minecraft and pretty much all leagues and all players in FM too..

and it will leave just over a ton of notes to get a monitor.. which is more than acceptable

or if you want a ready made package with monitor and everything...

http://www.dinopc.com/shop/pc/-b-NEW-b-Sandyfoot-i5-2500K-OC-4-5Ghz-93p1055.htm

that's a great deal also mate.. that processor is stunningly fast ..

im tempted to get it myself infact, im shocked its that cheap

have a look around matey... theres some really good deals around at this time of year too...

and bare in mind... the processor is the most important thing when it comes to FM

Just how much better is an i5 2500 compared to a slightly cheaper phenom II?

Miles. The i5 2500K is better than the FX8150. So there you go.

The only games I really play are FM and Minecraft, will the built in gfx on the i5 be good enough?

The HD3000 graphics are actually pretty good. For basic gaming (perhaps up to WoW levels) they'll be plenty.

Almost any LGA1155 (Sandy Bridge) motherboard will be good. I've yet to test a seriously dodgy one. The MSI GD65 is really very good value indeed. Memory can be handled by almost anything, although generally speaking G.Skill and Kingston do the best kits in terms of bang for buck. Any decent SATA 6 hard-drive will be cheap, effective and large without busting the budget. Monitors I can highly recommend the iiyama stuff, specifically the E2473HDS which is big, great quality and, again, cheap. You could probably go all in with that lot for just a tick under your budget. Slap on a big cooler like the Noctua NH-D14 and you'll see 4.6GHz or so from the 2500K on that board for that money.

Although even if you don't want to overclock, the "standard" performance is great.

I'd personally point you at something like this bundle and leaves a sweet ton-load of cash for a PSU and Monitor.

Just a thought

im tempted to get it myself infact, im shocked its that cheap

Not wishing to rain on your parade, but what's the point in having specialist knowledge if I don't use it.

The KB and mouse are bog-stock items about a fiver. The GTX440 is just a value bumper because the onboard HD3000 isn't far behind in performance terms, 500GB HD is worth about £35, the mobo is the bottom end Giga. Add in a very wheezy PSU, bog stock £10 case, only 4GB of super-slow RAM and a small monitor it's not quite the value it seems. Seriously. Just not very good. You will be disappointed because if you want to upgrade the GPU you need a better PSU and a case with better airflow so you might as well start from scratch.

My 2 pence.

"buy a barebone and make the pc yourself it is laborious but at the end you get a really powerful computer and easy to fix."

This is by far the best advice. For 600 quid you can end up with a PC worth well over a grand. I have built my last 3 or 4 and would never buy one pre-assembled. Its not hard at all to do and there are plenty of guides on-line. A good component store (not a chain) will be able to sell you all the parts you need. I would seriously think about it.

The last computer I owned was one I built myself. I had no knowledge of computer building before I made it, and learnt all I needed to know from Youtube and other Internet sources. I ended up with a computer that was able to run the best games at the time (about three years ago), and cost about £300 less than if I build the same spec computer prebuilt in a shop.

It's definitely worth learning about computer building and then building your own. It saves you money, and is a nice little project.

At some point in the future I would consider learning how to assemble a PC, but right now I care for my long suffering wife as she is chronically ill, I home educate our daughter and just don't have the time, space and head space to learn new tricks. Your encouragement is noted and I am grateful for you all spending the time to inform me about self-builds.

In thinking about it, I can live with my monitor for another year or two. This means I can spend more on a good system that will see me through until FM17 and maybe beyond

Thank you all for your input.

Ebay > MacBook Pro 15" Circa 2009-10 > £500 = Simples

I'd like a mac just for Garage Band, but having just looked at a macbook pro for £500 its is not going to be any better than my current pc. Besides I am a desktop user. Laptops annoy me with their portability and running out of power at inopportune moments. one day i would love to own a mac, but not this time

1- buy real graphic cards not intel or other one which share your memory

2- 4GB ram seem enough

3- i7 processor is too much for your budget, I5 is best option for your budget if not I3

the rest really is up to you

pc specialist is the best place to look if your not going to build it yourself..

depends on what phenom II matey...

also.. if your going to spend £600 on a decent pc... get a dedicated gfx card..

http://www.dinopc.com/shop/pc/Gallant-AMD-955-94p766.htm

that one is top notch... and will breeze through anything you throw at it... including top games and programs out now and yes of course minecraft and pretty much all leagues and all players in FM too..

and it will leave just over a ton of notes to get a monitor.. which is more than acceptable

or if you want a ready made package with monitor and everything...

http://www.dinopc.com/shop/pc/-b-NEW-b-Sandyfoot-i5-2500K-OC-4-5Ghz-93p1055.htm

that's a great deal also mate.. that processor is stunningly fast ..

im tempted to get it myself infact, im shocked its that cheap

have a look around matey... theres some really good deals around at this time of year too...

and bare in mind... the processor is the most important thing when it comes to FM

I'd agree with looking at the PC builders as you can choose exactly what you want / need. Keep current monitor/keyboard mouse as you can always get a new/better monitor at a later date (put it on yourxmas list) else someone will have one you can borrow for a while so you can get a decent one. 24" monitors are afoordable these days

wouldn't know where to start with a self build to be honest. i'd rather just buy a pre-assembled one.

Dispite not having any previous experience of building a computer from scratch I built my first one just last week. Like you I was unsure of where to start on such a project but after watching a couple of videos on youtube I took the plunge and ordered the components and built it and it hasn't exploded yet!

My new computer spec is

Core I5 2500K

8gb DDR3 Ram

2gb Radeon Graphics card

500GB Hard drive (although I made a mistake and only ordered a 5400rpm drive)

Blueray drive

Internal card reader

Due to one thing & another though I havent managed to install FM yet but dont imagine there will be any installation or performance issues.

Consider a laptop?

15 Inch

http://www.dabs.com/products/samsung-series-3-300e5a-core-i5-2450m-6gb-ram-500gb-hdd-15-6--windows-7-home-premium-laptop-7WJ1.html?refs=22-54950000&src=3

http://configure.euro.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?oc=n00q1552&c=uk&l=en&s=dhs&cs=ukdhs1&model_id=inspiron-15r-n5110

Or

17 Inch Screen

http://configure.euro.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?oc=n00q1753&c=uk&l=en&s=dhs&cs=ukdhs1&model_id=inspiron-17r-n7110

I'd go for the 17 inch in bold - or the 15 inch if you don't want such a big screen.

Maybe 1st do this, find a pc you are happy about buying then get all the specs for that pc for every component and price it up as if you where to build it yourself. Then check and see how much more of a spec upgrade you could get within your budget and if you still find its not worth it then go ahead and buy the origional said pc. But do make sure that its easily upgradable in the future as most arent and this ends up being very expensive, because instead of being able to change 1 component to get the machine upto date again you will end up having to replace the whole thing which is just a waste.

But by all means dont let the actual build part of it put you off because as people have already stated its really simple (even for 1st timers) and the whole project of choosing which component's to buy can actually be pretty fun.

I would definitly recommend doing it yourself (most pre built machines cost about 10-30% more just to have their name put on it and loads of crappy software which slows it right down)

Also they're very easy to build, I built my first one about 3 months ago with SSD, graphics card and all that very easily - just use youtube and online guides and you'll be fine

The OP is six months old!