New PC including Monitor

Hi

I have a budget of £400 and need to buy a new pc including a new monitor (the bigger the better). I am going to use it for running office applications and emails mainly and the odd watching of you tube and online videos.

any recommendations will be very helpful.

Thank you.

I can only speak from my own experience - try phoning Chillblast and asking what they can offer within your budget.
They seem able to customise computers and packages to customers requirements from the most basic types to the super powered ones.

I've had one of their computers for just over a year and am very happy with both the computer and their sales/after sales assistance (all UK based).

If you feel brave/have the knowledge you could build your own.

In my experience Dell etc. have a standard 1 year warranty, whereas a CPU on its own may have a 3 or 5 year guarantee.

Maybe a look in the http://forums.thinkbroadband.com/hwsuppliers.html section may helkp whatever your final decision is.

Popper together a spec from Ebuyer. Can others double check please. I don't spend much time speccing hardware these days. There is onbaord gfx, and am not sure if the card specced would be any better than onboard, but obviously it wouldn't use system RAM.

http://www.camieabz.co.uk/spec.png

Use the spare £50 to tempt a shop or pal to build it, if not inclined to yourself. If you will self-build, you could go for a 24" monitor for a few more tenners, but double check gfx card cable options to monitor options.

Whoops! Forgot to add DVD drive. Probably another £15.

In reply to a post by camieabz:

Popper together a spec from Ebuyer. Can others double check please. I don't spend much time speccing hardware these days. There is onbaord gfx, and am not sure if the card specced would be any better than onboard, but obviously it wouldn't use system RAM.

http://www.camieabz.co.uk/spec.png

Use the spare £50 to tempt a shop or pal to build it, if not inclined to yourself. If you will self-build, you could go for a 24" monitor for a few more tenners, but double check gfx card cable options to monitor options.

Looks good from here. Hard drive wise, you won't get the benefit of Sata III as it's a Sata II mobo, but at least then it's futureproof. Would still work in that system either way.

Thanks for all the suggestions.

I have come across this one, is it any good?

Sorry forgot to add the link

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/compaq-cq1120uk-deskto...

have you thought about refurbished, and get what you need for less than half the outlay?

Your requirements are relatively lightweight.

If you don't mind a few scratches and (probably) WinXP rather than Win7, and being your own support desk, a refurb system (maybe with refurb monitor) would save a fortune.

A well known name to start with would be www.morgancomputers.co.uk - I've bought a variety of the HP/Compaq small factor business desktops (dc7700 and similar numbers) which are built like tanks and still perfectly usable but similar product may be available from less well known retailers at lower prices.

Depending on what you pick, you *may* want to add more RAM (£20), DVD writer (£20) and a graphics card (£25). But you won't *have* to if your usage doesn't need it.

reduce reuse recycle. you know it makes sense.

Don't no if its too late but what about this
I got one of these for my mum it beats the [censored] out of the old phenom 9500 pc that she was using before it when kaput

She plays left for dead 2 on it at 720p about 50fps with details on medium so not the best but not the worst also a few other basic games (including pogo.com) she watches full 1080p blurays on it flawlessly (with added bluray drive) YT HD no problems netflix etc, multi tasks very well and you can always bang an i3-i7 in it at a later date if you find you outgrow it. they make excellent budget pcs,

If you dont need a copy of windows 7 they sell it without for about £70 less (i had a copy of pro so did not need the 7 bundle)

Ash