Best speccd PC for €450?

MiketheMechanic

Hi All,

I'm looking for the best spec of PC I can find for a budget of up to €450.

Application is a home PC, mostly Internet and e-mail, with a small amount of video editing and the odd weekend of playing Crysis :-)

I'm looking for Windows 7, 3 to 4GB RAM and at least 500GB HDD. A decent CPU and graphics card would be nice.
I don't require a monitor.

I've had good results from entry level Dell Dimensions, Optiplexes and Vostros in the past.

Argos have this Acer M3400 at the moment

http://www.argos.ie/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Search?storeId=30001&catalogId=1500002451&langId=-1&searchTerms=5083675

I'm not too well up on specs

Any recommendations on whether this is good, or is there better value out there?

MtM

Voodu Child

Just about any budget computer can handle web browsing and e-mail. However, by including gaming and video-editing in your requirements, you raise the spec requirements considerably, to the point where it's going to be difficult to make your budget. Especially if Crysis is one of the games you want to play :pac:

ATI HD 4250 (in that Acer) certainly won't play Crysis, except possibly with a terrible framerate and at the very lowest settings and resolution.

About the only way you'll manage it is by building it yourself, and even then it's still going to be a push to keep it under €450. Try the building and upgrading forum for advice. http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=842

MiketheMechanic

Thanks Voodu Child.

I already have a PCIe Radeon 4550 and a GeForce 8600GTS that I could put into a new PC. I'm pretty sure I played Crysis and Far Cry at reasonable settings on these cards in the past. I'm not a serious gamer - just the odd weekend, especially in winter time, I fancy a bit of Crysis or Call of Duty.

I would have gone down the self-building route at one time, (I built my first PC - a high-end 486 in 1993!!)

These days though, I fancy the idea of just ordering a ready-built system.

I could just buy a Vostro 230 or Inspiron 560/570 and put a decent graphics card in.

Anyone else have a suggestion? Do HP have a similar or better alternative to the Acer or Dells?

MtM

Solitaire

Sorry man, just not going to happen on that budget, not unless you don't need an operating system with it or you find a really good deal on an old second-hand mid-range gaming rig

SugarHigh

I think the best you could do for that sort of money would be the Aldi pre built pc's

http://www.aldi.ie/ie/html/offers/special_buys3_14008.htm

I have no idea when they would be back in though.