Hi guys

My parents old Dell desktop is on its last legs, so I have convinced them to shell out for a new tower. As I don't live with them it's rare I need to use it for anything - my brother will use it for some basic photo editing, and a few games, but nothing too hardcore. My parents just surf, use Office, etc - typical parent stuff.

Anyways, saw his deal in the Harvey Norman catalogue today which I thought could be up their alley, but wanted to seek some advice as to value for money/performance, etc.

Acer Aspire X1800-4942E Desktop (Tower Only)
Intel Core 2 Duo 2.8GHz
4GB Ram
750GB HDD
DVD Burner
512MB Graphics
Windows 7 Home
Price: $793

How is that value wise? Could we do better from MSY/Umart for a similar price? They have a newish monitor, keyboard, mouse, speakers and printer, so don't need any of that. Windows 7 would be good, but they have a license for XP on their Dell that they could use if need be. I think price wise they would want to start around $800 ($1000 at the absolute MAX).

As I am a complete noob when it comes to hardware, any help much appreciated. My last two computers have been laptops, so its been many years since I have even read up on parts.

Cheers

When it's your parents price doesn't matter, after sales warranty support is the whole thing so you don't have to be the one getting calls for stupid questions.

looks ok to me. id advice against getting parts and building it yourself cause when if/when it f***s up guess who's fixing it? (you).

for parents/family/friends i always recommend getting something like a dell. least they have a decent warranty and a 1800 to call when s*** goes wrong.

As epic said, tell them to get another Dell bud. Its the only way you'll have piece for the next 3 or 4 years.

yeah get a dell or the one above from Harvey's - saves having to deal with the 'support' issues...

When it's your parents price doesn't matter, after sales warranty support is the whole thing

This.

for parents/family/friends i always recommend getting something like a dell.

And this.

If you don't know much about hardware and won't be around much, I recommend against the DYI approach - just go Dell. I only go to Umart/MSY because I can drop by the same week to fix problems, plus I research the hardware heavily before purchase and convince the folks to pay extra for quality parts/hardware that I know are unlikely to break down anytime soon.

i.e. going for a quality motherboard rather than an SE/budget model, getting a decent PSU, getting a case+cooler that they can clean/maintain themselves against dust, and overall specifically seeking out hardware known to work together even if it costs a bit extra.

Summary: Dell.

A wise man once said;

yeah get a dell or the one above from Harvey's - saves having to deal with the 'support' issues...

Dell it is I guess, unless someone can make a convincing argument against!

you might as well buy it online too, cheaper and hardly normal don't do the support anyway
they'll tell you to call the customer help

http://www.retailmenot.com/view/dell.com

look at sites like that

google "dell coupons" or "dell deal codes" etc

A netbook may be all they need

look at sites like that

google "dell coupons" or "dell deal codes" etc

Or just enter your RACQ details here and get some decent discount codes directly from Dell ..

hang on there, did teq just call me wise and in a hardware thread?

what's the world come to :p

get them a mac, then when something goes wrong you can just play ignorant & say you don't know anything about macs & tell them to ring tech support.

Thanks chaps, have emailed them the details.

None of the codes on that page worked, but the RACQ one was good for 5% off, so cheers for that.

word heardy, you don't have to know a lot about hardware to know that if you supply it to a relative, they come to you when there's a problem
so i would suggest even getting the relative to go buy it themselves, at hardly normal
just give them a model number and tell them how much it is == best of both worlds

Yah, I've given up helping relo's now. (not that I have much clue anyway)