Find Me A PC

benvanwell · Nitrous Nuisance Joined: 10 Apr 2007 Karma :

I've got to source a PC for work for £1200 (or less) ex. VAT.
It should come from a reputable manufacturer, e.g. Dell, but doesn't need a fancy (expensive ) warranty. It will mostly be used for testing optical systems, so needs to have decent CPU/RAM/Display. Unfortunately I don't think I'll get away with playing games. Other than that just general office stuff, but often with lots open at once. It can run Vista or XP, but may end up needing dual boot to test for compatibility. Ideally it will have at least a couple of serial ports, but I guess I can just get a USB-RS232 converter?

Normally I'd just build something like this myself, so I have no idea where to start looking for something properly. When I go to the Dell website I can't seem to end up with a decent system for what is quite a lot of money!

In an ideal world, it'd cost about £800-900, and I'd get a very compact Laptop for off-site work as well....

Suggestions?
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UnknownStuntm... · World Chat Champion Joined: 13 Sep 2007 Karma :

Have a look at HP Workstations. They start about £450ish but don't come with a graphics card or display. I use one at work, and it's rock solid. The BIOS hasn't got many bells and whistles but it flies, it's dead quiet and it's got a 3y onsite warranty (not that you'd really use it, but it shows HP trust what they're selling. I think we paid about £700 including my 22" Samsung monitor, 4gb RAM and some random gfx card.