Looking for new Desktop $300-$400

I have had success with Tigerdirect on their refurb units. I personally have had a refurbed HP that was refurbed from HP and not a third party supplier and it works great to this day, I retired it because I built me a custom rig. They sell several refurbed brands as well. I would look there.

Having a closer look, Newegg seems to have really stepped up their game on refurbished PC's, several to choose from in that price range. An AMD based system will be your best bang for the buck........ie, more RAM and bigger hard drive.

I'd recommend the Lenovo Outlet store.

Excellent value there.

Use the boxes on the left to narrow down what's available, based on your requirements.

Incidentally, just a few weeks ago my mother's PC died and I had to replace it pronto. She needs even less than your parents do.

Ran to Best Buy and they had a 4GB Dell Inspiron i660s (500GB hard drive, USB 3.0) on sale for $329. Perfect. Could use a little bit of a graphics upgrade, so for another $40 I installed an ATI HD5450 (1/2-size, fanless, 1GB).

Just checked and that machine is still on sale online at Best Buy (no shipping), for the same price. Check your local store.

Solarstarshines said:

UnknownReverent said:

shortmantuff said:

I would be willing to purchase in a store or online. I've currently checked tigerdirect and newegg online but just wondering what you thought. I do like Asus computers but they are a little more pricey than the other competition.

I honestly don't like Dell, so I wouldn't recommend that. That's my opinion though. As for buying one in general, just make sure it does have a warranty. I made that mistake when I bought my refurbished laptop. I'll take a look around. For stores, what do you mean? Like Best Buy and so forth?

BestBuy is one of the worst places to buy a pre built pc

Try Microcenter or Fry's you will get more bang for your buck

Thanks for the websites Solar. I found this computer. It looks pretty good and is rated as a high end CPU on cpubenchmark. Let me know what you guys think...
Micro Center - Computers, Electronics, Computer Parts, Networking, Gaming, Software, and more!

Looks pretty good... but if your parents are "gamers" then I don't know if the onboard Intel graphics (they don't mention the number) is ok. You could certainly try it and see.

Also, that graphics chip has VGA and HDMI as its output, which will only support up to 1920x1080. Don't know what your monitor is so this may be fine. I prefer DVI, which can support larger resolution monitors (e.g. 1920x1200). Also, DVI has the "screw-down" connector, rather than HDMI which "dangles" and often falls loose (causing "sparkles" on your monitor, as a typical symptom).

But I myself have taken to installing an upgraded video card in new "entry level" machines I build for friends/family, and the fanless ASUS Silent 1GB ATI HD5450 (at about $40) has been terrific. This is not a high-end card, but it's better than the onboard Intel HD Graphics I'd say (especially on its RAM). And it has a DVI connector as well as HDMI, along with VGA.

That ACER machine has one available PCIe x16 slot, so that's fine. Also, the ASUS HD5450 is 1/2-size, which is what you require in that "small form factor" machine (the card comes with an additional replacement alternate "small" backplate, so that it can be installed in either full-size or small-size computer cases). The "small" backplate will reveal the DVI and HDMI connectors, losing the VGA (which normally is not an issue).


Otherwise, it looks good. USB 3.0 support and HD Audio, 4GB, and a decent CPU. Also 7200 RPM 1TB SATA drive (no expansion capability for a second drive, but that won't be important for you).

That looks to be a good deal. The on-chip graphics will probably run anything they want it to. One thing I would do, it's overkill, but I would see what kind of RAM it has in it when you get it there and order another stick just like it. It has 1-4gb stick in it with 3 empty slots......get another 4gb stick, same frequency, CAS, etc and throw it in the other slot. 8gb, dual channel......should never have any problems with memory capacity after that. I only say that because you can get a stick of RAM for that for probably $20 or less! The benefits being double capacity, and being able to run a synchronous dual channel configuration.