Choosing a budget computer

When it comes to computers I think I may have searched everywhere online for the best deals. However I believe that I have narrowed down a few sources where you can make the best budget purchase that you can. If you feel that you can beat my comparisons then please feel free to comment afterwards.

Now my first desktop tower I’m going to look at is from Tech Inventory, the Lenovo Think Centre Edge 72 Desktop. This appears to be a nice cheap all rounder, a fairly basic exterior with the as per standard disk drive. The Lenovo retails for just under £300, however it doesn’t come with a monitor, but does have built in speakers. The desktop comes with a dual core Pentium processor, 64 – bit resolution, 500GB HDD and Intel HD graphics card. Accessories include a keyboard, optical mouse and comes with Microsoft Windows 8 Pro installed.  

All in all, the Lenovo is pretty standard, and doesn’t offer much in the way of power and great graphics. It doesn’t come with a monitor, and I’m fairly sure that we can purchase a laptop with the same specs elsewhere. I do think however that this isn’t a bad starter computer for someone who is willing to invest a bit of extra cash.

Moving on, I want to take a look at PC specialist’s Fusion A6-K III model. Retailing for around £415, a little bit more expensive than the previous model, however in comparison this computer comes with a stylish exterior, a much more powerful processor and graphics card and 1TB of HDD. The Fusion is much more suitable for gaming as well as general office tasks and internet browsing. The software is Windows 8 standard edition, which is a slight downside compared the Lenovo.

Another great example of value for money, the Fusion comes with a 60 day trial and free 90 day trial antivirus software. However this model doesn’t come with a monitor much like the Lenovo, nor does it come with any accessories, like a keyboard or mouse.

So in comparison these two models pretty much marry up to each other. They both don’t come with a monitor; however the Lenovo comes with a keyboard and mouse whereas the Fusion doesn’t. The Fusion costs over £100 more but is much more suited to gaming and comes with more software than the Lenovo.