Been given an impossible task!

How long it will "last" depends on what she's looking to do with the machine.

 

I think almost any cheap PC will probably "last" 5 years if it can make it beyond the first 2. Most of the parts which fail are user-replaceable (especially the hard drive), but you have to know what you're doing.

Is your sister old enough to warrant a laptop? By which I mean, is she 9 years old and won't be taking one to school for another 6 years, or is she 16 and will need one to take to class soon? If it's the former, a desktop can get you more for your money, especially if you already have a display.

 

Maybe you could convince her to get your little sister a Apple Refurbished MacBook? Tell her it would be an investment in her future, that without all the inherit Windows problems (viruses, spyware, etc.) that she'll be more productive and happier with a Mac. Seriously, unless your sister is trying to do high end stuff on a laptop, if she's careful with it and takes care of it there's no reason that a MacBook couldn't last 5 years. No it won't be state-of-the art, but can still be a productive computer for homework, internet, email, chatting, etc.

 

They're all made from the same parts. Not to mention at that price they are made of the cheapest bargain basement parts possible. At that price it may play Sims 1 moderately well but Sims 2 or later would be at the lowest settings possible.

The web browsing and word processing criteria are fine but not that game in five years it would definitely not play the Sims 4 assuming it gets made by then.

Other than that all brands seem to be the same to me. I would look at one with an AMD CPU as that will have an integrated Radeon GPU rather than an Intel GPU.

 

As I said lowest settings not that it would not play at all. I suppose lowest possible settings is a slight exaggeration but the settings would be quite low. An AMD CPU with a Radeon GPU would be far better than an Intel CPU and GPU combo.

Though looking at Amazon's, HP's and Dell's UK sites it seems to me that there is very little that surpasses the minimum specs at £300. I couldn't even find any AMD computers. I had overestimated what £300 could buy. I did not realize the dollar gained so much ground on the pound or rather that the pound lost so much value. Though there are a few dual core Intels with GeForce GPU's at that price. Which is just as good as the AMD CPU combined with the Radeon GPU.

Basically just look for any dual core with 2GB RAM and either a Radeon HD 3000+ or GeForce 8000+/G210m/GT220M+. You may find a few GeForce 8200's or Radeon HD 3200's at that price. Don't bother with the Radeon 7000+ or GeForce 6100's, if you don't know those are very old GPU's.

 

FWIW, you'll probably do better at that price point by building your own. I just got done assembling some office machines for a client, with the following specs:

- Foxconn A6GMV motherboard
- Athlon II X2 245 (2.9GHz)
- 2GB DDR3 RAM
- 160G WD drive
- SATA DVD burner
- fairly cheap Newegg-store-brand case

Total price (in the US): a shade under $280, modulo shipping. I'd recommend that you pick the case up locally if possible, as the shipping on that bit is ridiculous from most retailers.

Nothing fancy, but the client mostly uses Quickbooks and basic email/browsing stuff. And they were upgrading from <1GHz CPUs, so *they* think it's the fastest thing EVAR.

As to the "last 5 years" part, the nice thing about the system above is that it's got quite a bit of expandability: an open x16 slot for a video card, Socket AM3 for future processor upgrades (to a quad, for instance), and support for up to 8GB of RAM. The video card slot is one thing you'll find a lot of the cheapo prebuilts leave out; I've even seen boxes where the chipset supported the slot, the traces were on the board, but the *connector* was left out to save $$$.

 

Have her try a PC laptop that is 4 years old to get a preview of it.