Help me buy a (cheapish) new PC please

[SaintGeorge]

Insurance company have (finally) told me I can have £450 for my new PC (this one very creaky after the great flood).

I might be able to rustle up £150 to add to that, emphasis on the might.

My current spec (which I am sure can be massively improved upon):

AMD Duron, 1.00HGZ, 248 MB RAM, 3 USB ports, CD RWD, DVD ROM.

Any recommendations for good buys?

TIA

footnote:
MAC lovers, I know you all adore your little darlings but I have tried a MAC and we just don't get along so save yourself the typing time, I am a Windows gal

[ninedragons]

No positive recommendations, but do stay away from BenQ - they're cheap but they're absolute garbage.

[SaintGeorge]

Will do, ta.

Must admit, never heard of them before but name frighteningly close to B & Q which is bad enough in itself to keep me away

[ninedragons]

They're Taiwanese. If you'd heard of them at all it would have been in connection with selling their mobile phone unit to Siemens. I think it subsequently went bankrupt, and if their phones are anything like their computers I'm not surprised.

We're getting another LG laptop. We've already got one to replace a Samsung. The Samsung was like that knight in the Monty Python film who kept picking the fight after his arms had been chopped off. The only reason we had to replace it was that the cat had pulled off half the keys and the remaining ones had gone mouldy (living in humid HK). It must be ten years old and it's still perfectly functional for our Slingbox.

If they're within budget, go Korean!

[throckenholt]

just make sure if it have vista on then you have 2Gb RAM or more - less than that and it might run like a slug.

[EvelynsDad]

£450 should buy a really good base unit. If you need that price to include a monitor and/or MS Office then you might find it's a tight buddet?

There are some possibilities here.