My folks want a new computer for £400 or under.

They suggested a laptop, but for no good reason really so I suggested a desktop. There are various ‘branded’ machines (with brands I’ve never heard of like Zoostorm and Vibox) on Amazon for under budget, but I’m suspicious of these brands. Any reason I shouldn’t just go to Aria or Scan for a budget system?

I’m not sure if their monitor is any good, it’s quite old, so they might want a new one of those. My Dad says he doesn’t, but given how wowed he was when he plugged his Chromebook into the telly I reckon he could use it. Their old monitor is a bargin bin one from about ten years ago. There’s probably enough wiggle room in the budget for it.

I think for the budget I can spec a 240Gb SSD for the OS and a 1TB hard drive for photo storage, which would be the wisest way.

He’s also asking if it’s better to buy a system without the OS and your own copy of Windows, but I think that’ll be more expensive.

One big advantage of a laptop is supporting it. If you’ll be fixing it for them, it’s very handy to be able to bring it home with you while reinstalling Windows / cleaning off malware or whatever. May not be an issue for you..

Get them a laptop.

Why?

Why not an issue? You might live next door so can pop round every 30 mins to keep an eye on it when you’re working on it?

Or why get a laptop?

No, why get a laptop when it’s never going to be moved?

Desktop – more ergonomic working position, more kit for the money, more robust internals, better cooling hence longer component life, components can be replaced individually if they fail

Laptop – portable

Does it require a warranty?

I’d buy em a 2/3 year old business machine that has Windows 7 pre loaded.

I picked up a machine last week: HP Intel i5 2400 – 4gb/500gb – & Pro preloaded.

Sum – £200 (with no keyboard or mouse etc)

I’d consider a laptop

more ergonomic working position – not really. Just plug the laptop into a keyboard/monitor as required

more kit for the money – not that much in it and you will get enough for their use

more robust internals better cooling hence longer component life – again not much in it. Not an issue

components can be replaced individually if they fail – as they can in a laptop (unless you buy a mac 😈 )

Maybe they only use it one location because that’s all they’ve ever done. A laptop might offer some new user options.

I’d not get a laptop for the reasons Molly mentioned.

We have a Zoostorm in the office, good, cheap, reliable but NOISY!

The Scan deals are pretty hard to beat – but don’t forget to put some aside to configure/update it before taking it to their place.

Might be worth upgrading to the pro version of Windows(if you have it too) so you can use remote desktop…

Maybe they only use it one location because that’s all they’ve ever done. A laptop might offer some new user options.

They have a chromebook and a tablet, and they previously had a laptop as well as the desktop. This one definitely 100% certainly stays put.

So buying a computer with a built in monitor and keyboard only to plug it into another monitor and keyboard is pointless.

components can be replaced individually if they fail – as they can in a laptop

CPU/GPU can’t be replaced in a laptop, nor can motherboard easily (without trawling ebay second hand spares)