any good desktop deals ??

[Ragweed]

Hi , I am looking for a decent pc desktop deal for my father in law . he does typical surfiing with sime photo editing .

can anyone recommend anything ? I would like to stay around the $500 mark

Thanks

[DavidY]

If you don't mind a refurb (NOTE: 90 day warranty typically), BB has several PCs starting at $399.99...I think that you all need to add is a LCD monitor:

http://www.bestbuy.ca/en-CA/product/hewlett-packard-hp-pavilion-desktop-computer-featuring-intel-core-i3-2120-processor-p6-2037c-english-refurb-p6-2037c/10200037.aspx

http://www.bestbuy.ca/en-CA/product/hewlett-packard-hp-pavilion-desktop-computer-featuring-amd-quad-core-a8-3800-processor-p7-1141-english-refurb-p7-1141/10200040.aspx $399.99 price ends on June 14th

Here's a new PC $479 with a 1 year warranty...smaller 500 GB HDD instead of 1 TB:

http://www.bestbuy.ca/en-CA/product/hewlett-packard-hp-pavilion-desktop-computer-featuring-intel-core-i3-2120-processor-p6-2142-p6-2142/10190935.aspx

Dave

[Ragweed]

thanks I will check them out. :)

[tng]

if you are willing ot put it together yourself you can get a barebones kit very cheaply, you'll get a much nicer build then most prepackaged systems. Here is one for $380

http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/searchtools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1824466&Sku=B69-0509&csid=ITD&recordsPerPage=10&body=REVIEWS#tabs

only thing you might want to add is a vid card. You can get one that would fit your FiL's needs for $50. If you dont have a copy of windows yet you can pick up a student version of premium for $65

http://www.microsoftstore.com/store/msstore/pd/productID.216644200?WT.mc_id=EducationSite_academi csavings

most systems come with home basic which is pretty dodgy so you would probably want to upgrade to premium either way.

All that is $495 and like I said you'll get much nicer components then any prepackaged build, plus the fun of putting a compy togther.

[mikeo007]

if you are willing ot put it together yourself you can get a barebones kit very cheaply, you'll get a much nicer build then most prepackaged systems. Here is one for $380

http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/searchtools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1824466&Sku=B69-0509&csid=ITD&recordsPerPage=10&body=REVIEWS#tabs

only thing you might want to add is a vid card. You can get one that would fit your FiL's needs for $50. If you dont have a copy of windows yet you can pick up a student version of premium for $65

http://www.microsoftstore.com/store/msstore/pd/productID.216644200?WT.mc_id=EducationSite_academi csavings

most systems come with home basic which is pretty dodgy so you would probably want to upgrade to premium either way.

All that is $495 and like I said you'll get much nicer components then any prepackaged build, plus the fun of putting a compy togther.

I've never seen a full desktop from Best Buy come with Windows Basic. As far as I know, that's only for netbooks.
Any of those Best Buy systems will work great for your purpose.

[tng]

I've never seen a full desktop from Best Buy come with Windows Basic. As far as I know, that's only for netbooks.
Any of those Best Buy systems will work great for your purpose.

I stand corrected looking at those models they are all home premium, going up to professional for an average user probably wont make a huge difference, two major features you would loose, that you may want, would be the ability to go beyond 16 gigs of ram and the ability to create virtual machines to run xp only software. Probably not something your FiL would need.

I still advocate building since every piece of hardware is better in spec and quaility then a prebuilt HP. I'm also a huge advocate of building yoru own so you understand your computer more, and its just plain fun.

[DavidY]

IMO, it would be tough building a PC under $400...unless you are using used components. The OS itself (64 bit Home Premium) is like $100 itself. That's $300 remaining for the PC. At this moment, I am typing this post with a refurb PC...I don't remember if I bought it years ago from FS or BB. If you buy a refurb, just make sure to "test" it out before the warranty is over. These refurb won't be much of a gamer....one could add a budget priced dedicated graphics card like a GT 440 or maybe a HD 6670 that would run within a 300 watt PS.

Dave

[JamesA1]

That Acer from FactoryDirect does seem like a good deal, but it is refurbished.

Another option is a cheap build-your-own bundle from NCIX: http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=72285&vpn=systembundle2&manufacture=Bundle%20Deals&promoid=1027 $279 (after $20 rebate on the motherboard)