Desktop PC for < £500 new, what should i be looking for?

Tilly

Well-Known Forumite
Medion got aquired but they may still be German made

German made stuff

It's what I use
 

YorkshirePud

Well-Known Forumite
It looks fine for what you want to use it for. It's not immediately clear from the description, but the Q&As say it also comes with a keyboard and mouse, and contains a CD/DVD player/writer.
You just need to check that your current monitor and cable is either VGA (blue, three rows of holes) or HDMI.
 

Withnail

Well-Known Forumite
While i look suitably glorious, i fear the monitor may be haggered beyond belief.

It might still work though.
 

Withnail

Well-Known Forumite
Yup

( however should it have a tamper proof sticker or screw on the case, it would possibly invalidate the warranty )
However, there are available external ssd's that plug in via a usb input.

Presumably this would be no different than being in-built, no?

But would one then have to transfer the OS, and the BIOS arrangements to the external ssd to make it the 'start up' drive? And how easy would it be to do that? Then wouldn't you have to make all your other shit default to the hdd?

And would that be an easy thing to establish, or would an half-idiot be advised to take some professional advice along the way?

Please help me...
 

Perrier

Banned
However, there are available external ssd's that plug in via a usb input.

Presumably this would be no different than being in-built, no?

But would one then have to transfer the OS, and the BIOS arrangements to the external ssd to make it the 'start up' drive? And how easy would it be to do that? Then wouldn't you have to make all your other shit default to the hdd?

And would that be an easy thing to establish, or would an half-idiot be advised to take some professional advice along the way?

Please help me...

A motherboards SATA connection to the SSD is always going to be faster than a USB connection anyway so although it may be possible it would prob be a lot slower.
Presuming you have a windows CD , you would set the BIOS to boot from it and once in windows setup you would then instruct it to install windows to the SSD.

(Regarding the Hard drive with windows already installed , you can format that inside of the windows setup to avoid any conflicts. Only do this if you have a hard copy of windows and a hard copy of the licence though ).
In my opinion though, there's too many variables for something to go wrong and i would suggest the method below.



1 . open the case and remove the hard drive's SATA and power cable .
2. install the SSD and plug in the power and sata leads that you removed from the Hard drive to the SSD.
3. power on and enter the BIOS , from there set the boot device to the drive containing you copy of windows ( usb stick or cdrom ) save and exit ... reboot.
4. once in windows setup , point the windows installation to the SSD and follow the instructions from there.

Once in windows and its done all its updates etc, shutdown , open the case and connect a fresh SATA and power cable to the original Hard drive.
Power on the system , it should boot from the SSD but will show that there's also another drive , the HDD , containing a operating system , this can be formatted inside of windows and set as a storage drive.

again , make sure you have a copy of your windows licence .


There are other options such as cloning etc , but the method above is what i use to be safe.

If its all to much hassle , bung it around to me and i'll sort it or @wmrcomputers will be able to do this also.
@tek-monkey would also be able to do this too if he isn't busy jetting off to some exotic location :)
 
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Perrier

Banned
I don't know what almost any of that means, and now i'm just going to sit here and cry.

Please dont cry lol.

If you want me to take a look , feel free to message me .
Providing you have a windows licence , it should be a simple case of a drive swap and windows re install to the SSD.
It shouldnt take me 5 mins to sort the swap over , windows will take about an hour to install itself after including any updates.

take a look around the case for any tamperproof stickers ( usually around the back and side of the case ) or on top of any of the case screws themselves.
if there isnt any , the job can be done without invalidating the warranty.

please check you have a copy of windows and a licence sticker provided with your system before taking it further though.
 

Withnail

Well-Known Forumite
Where's @tek-monkey with his "gaming rig going for office pc money....." and his intriguing multitude of ellipses?

That's what i'd like to know...........
 

Lee B

Active Member
I personally would not buy an Acer they are not the best made and the support is not great if they go wrong. Also looks like there is not much room for expansion if you wished to add an ssd drive for OS and apps and use the 1tb as storage. You would not be able to have tow internal drives inside the case as it is a desktop size case.
 

prorsa

A few posts under my belt
I've just bought a Dell from their 'Outlet Store'. Described as 'refurbished', I'd say it was 'brand new', albeit in a non-retail box. I was completely happy.

The model you are looking at, for £599 at Currys, is £454 at Dell's outlet. First Purchase discount of 10% available, just message them. They often have 15% to 25% off deals on specific models too.

https://outlet.euro.dell.com/Online...d=1&c=uk&cs=ukdfh1&l=en&s=dfh&frid=147&~ck=mn
 
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