Topic: £200 computer

[Clive]

Somebody is trying to sell a Compaq computer to a friend of Mrs Clive for £200.  She knows absolutely nothing about computers but wants to use it for e-mail and art packages.  She does not know the specification of the Compaq but it's 2nd hand and was a company owned machine and that company has gone bankrupt.  

I have strongly advised her not to buy it as I think she is being "used" by the seller in order to get money out of her.  She's known to be a "soft touch" and has been caught before by unscupulous people.

If she did buy this unknown machine, what specification could she realistically expect to have for £200 anyway?

[Simon]

Something like this, Clive?  Sorry, couldn't resist!  

[Clive]

:funny:

[Sandra]

Have a look here Clive :

http://www.3bsystems.co.uk/systems/2nduser.asp

This is a small firm near to me that sells new and secondhand PCs.
If they can make a profit on those prices I would say you should be looking at something equivalent to what a firm is asking £300 for as a private sale of around £200 :doggie:

[Clive]

Thanks very much Sandra, that will be very useful information.  I hate seeing people get ripped off and I hope I can prevent it happening.  But I know this guy is putting a lot of pressure on her and I may be away when he calls.

[chorleydave]

There is a firm selling Pentium II, 400MHZ, 128 RAM, CD Drive, Sound, USB etc. on Ebay right now, for £55 (inc VAT + £15 Next Day Courier Delivery.

[Clive]

That's an incredible price Dave.  Thanks for that.    She's not short of money though (she's a teacher) and can afford a new machine.  I would prefer her to take that route.

[lobo]

This phrase caught my eye

wants to use it for e-mail and art packages

If she needs to run sophisticated art/graphics packages then she would be better off buying a new PC with a top of the range CPU and graphics card with plenty of fast memory.

A second-hand office machine will not normally have those characteristics being used mainly for word and excel operations

A new PC Pent4 2.4Gh 128DD memory 17inch monitor 120 GB hard drive free scanner and printer with a £200 digital camera thrown £599 at Dixon?s

Brian

[Clive]

Yes, the art package is the chief reason I want her to get a new one too Brian.  She's head of art in a local school and coming up to retirement age.  She can use these packages at school and wants to carry on using them when she finishes.  Thanls very much for that information, and I will get Mrs Clive to phone her.

[ketamininja]

You can pick up new machines at the 1400Mhz mark for about 350 - 400 with monitor etc... probably from a smaller PC store.

I wont comment on the components inside etc, but for £200 you should be expecting a speed of 1000Mhz these days I would say.

Tell her to be wary!

[Dack]

Local to me computer shop is selling an Athlon 1800 base unit for £299. The Embedded Duron 1800 base unit (built into motherboard with no option of replacing) is £199 - 128M Ram, 20G hard drive, shared graphics, Sound, Modem and Lan built in.

Two weeks ago I bought two P3-600 (with Lan, Sound and Onboard Graphics, 10G hard drive) for £75 each. (But that was very cheap).

While looking around for cheap computers for relatives I had a look at MCS com and they had P3-866 base units for £139 plus VAT.

None of those included monitors however (£20-30 second hand) or operating system.

If it was less than a 1G P3 system for £200 then it's not that good a deal. BTW what would the OS licensing issues be with the second hand machine they were trying to sell?

[Simon]

Hi Dack, and

Clive is actually away on holiday now, so he won't see your reply, but hopefully you'll have a look at the rest of the forum.  

[Dack]

Greetings to you too

As an addenum to my posting I just checked out bigproducts.co.uk where they currently have a few deals on 2nd hand computer systems.

Compaq deskpro P3-650 is £99.99 plus postage or £129.99 with Win98 pre-installed. (However they are small form factor and require a smaller CD drive than normal - and they don't come fitted as standard)

[Adept]

BTW what would the OS licensing issues be with the second hand machine they were trying to sell?

Hi Dack,

As far as I understand it, if they sell you an OS with the machine it has to be the original one that came with the machine e.g. a Compaq Windows licence with a Compaq PC. Anything else would be illegal/unlicensed

This is probably why the PCs don't have an OS - it's just a load of hassle for the dealer.

[Dack]

My fault for not clarifying that bit - I was refering to the post starter. Licenses for businesses are not usually transferable (as I understand it) so if someone was selling a computer from a bankrupt business there may be licensing issues.