best place to buy home PC?

Want to buy a computer for the home. Can anybody recommend where I will get a good deal and what is the best specifications to go for?

www.apple.com/ie

New Imac looks awesome.

I know Dell have their detractors, but personally I haven't had a problem with them - excellent prices and fast delivery. So far I haven't needed their customer support - I believe it is supposed to be atrocious. However, we have had 3 Dell desktops and 3 Dell laptops in our house over a number of years and they have worked perfectly. We also have a Dell colour laser printer and are very happy with it.

Have a look at www.dell.ie - by the way, I would definitely recommend considering a laptop as the ability to move it around the house is very convenient.

The other half would agree with Fatphrog's recommendation but he is a hardened Mac user so that's no surprise!

As regards the best spec for you, what you want to do with your computer will affect that. Will it be used for games, heavy graphics stuff, and suchlike, or writing the odd letter and booking the occasional flight? You need to make sure your machine is powerful enough to meet your particular needs.

TreeTiger said:

I know Dell have their detractors, but personally I haven't had a problem with them

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Same here. Unless you need something specialised (e.g. ultra gaming or multimedia PC), and maybe even then, I'd certainly check them out first. Check out the boards.ie Bargain Alerts forum in case there are any current special offer codes doing the rounds. If you qualify you can purchase through the Employee Purchase Programme ([broken link removed]) site and get a c. 7% discount. There's also the Dell Outlet (www.dell.ie/outlet) which sometimes has bargains. And there's also a Dell eBay store (don't have the link handy).

You may get even better value from Dell if you go through the options for the system you buy and deselect the bits you don't want (3 year collect and return service, for example, is usually automatically included (at a price), but may not be something you require).

Be aware you will get the hard sell to go for Dell's insurance because of this - a phone call after about six months from an obnoxious scotsman was my experience. Called me stupid for not wanting to pay the price of a monitor in insurance!