GRcade

A friend has asked if there are any good PC packages about at the minute for around £500.

It is for family use, not sure if they game on it or not. I am waiting to see if they need a monitor too.

Does anyone know of any reasonable spec pc's in that price range please?

ah that's easy - i'll wait for the PC supremacy crew. or you could post it in the PC thread.

bake it away, toys.

We'd need to know if they're gaming, and if you need a monitor. Each of those could be about £100 so would effect the rest of the budget a lot. Also, would they be willing to build, or does it have to be off the shelf because if they want a pc that can play games with a monitor for £500 it's going to be very, very difficult.

Thank you. I am trying to find that out at the min.

If its a standard desktop machine for home office use its well doable. If its for gaming its doable. If its for serious gaming its barely doable.

Rik is an expert in this field, is he not?

£200 is more his niche

She has said she can use her current monitor and gaming is not a major concern. Be nice but not something they will do a lot of.

So no GTA V needs I would say.

If size is an issue and she really isn't bothered about gaming on high graphics settings at all then a NUC or equivalent might be worth looking at, obviously you severely limit the upgrade paths for the system.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Intel-BOXD54250 ... 00ID4HSBY/

Remember you have to put that with a HDD (1TB ~ £50), memory (8GB ~ £50) and a copy of Windows (around £80 for a retail boxed copy) if required.

EDIT - And just in case it isn't clear, if she isn't bothered about size you can get much more for your money by getting a regular sized PC.