Recommendations for a good family pc?

[markpsych]

Kids are currently competing for an old hard wired lap top, so long overdue, but I'm clueless when it comes to computers.

Something that comes with a monitor that could double as a tele would be ideal.

Can anyone recommend a reasonable package for under £500?

Thanks

[fishbowlhead]

If you have an HDTV with a vga input theres always a Mac Mini? Small, looks good and stable. Macs come with loads of built in software as well.

For work stuff apple iWork is only ?60 and is apple's version of word/publisher, excel & powerpoint. You can even save the files in Microsoft's format for use on pc's so compatibility isn't an issue.

[eASY aDDICT]

You will NOT find better than this!!!!

With free MS Office..

http://www.comet.co.uk/shopcomet/product/443816/APPLE-MB402B-A/tab/specification#spec

[fishbowlhead]

You will NOT find better than this!!!!

With free MS Office..

http://www.comet.co.uk/shopcomet/pro...ification#spec

Thats amazing! buy buy buy!

[Richard.John]

Go Apple Mac, more people should try it but don't. You won't regret it. OpenOffice.org will deal with MS Office files anyway.

[Brad]

Can't offer any specific advice, just that I can't imagine ever buying a Windows based computer ever again. I have to use that crap at work. I saw the light many years ago and concur with the posts above this one.

[markpsych]

An unexpected twist

Your shared enthusiasm for Macs must count for something!

Was really looking for a desktop pc though. 4 kids and a delicate little lap top aren't a great mix

[Salsa Party Animal]

A mac might be better computer for you, but PC is probably easier to use as you will have school work on computer and they don't need to learn how to use Mac as well in early ages.

Another thing to think about is gaming on computer (not console)

[markpsych]

A mac might be better computer for you, but PC is probably easier to use as you will have school work on computer and they don't need to learn how to use Mac as well in early ages.

Another thing to think about is gaming on computer (not console)

Sounds sensible....what about one of these: http://www.ebuyer.com/store/Computers/cat/Home-PCs

The buy now pay later option is quite tempting!

[abigsmurf]

For the love of god, don't buy anything with less than 2gb of ram.

All laptops around the £500 mark will be awful for gaming.

Most pre-built PCs are pretty bad too. Without fail they skimp on the graphics cards. a bad graphics card is a huge huge bottleneck for a gaming pc. I find it hard to recommend any prebuilts for people who game simply because the graphics cards in these systems are so awful. It's not even as simple and buying a graphics card afterwards and swapping them because the only thing more certain than the fact they've awful graphics cards is that the PSU won't be able to supply enough power for a better one.

Swapping a graphics card is easy, swapping a PSU, especially for a system with no motherboard manual is a lot more involving.

The best I've been able to find is This one . The graphics card is lower mid range but it will do gaming (25fps crysis @ high at full res). Depending on the monitor you want though, you're looking at going £30+ over budget.