Pc Help Needed Please

[Lexxy_703]

Hi Guys & a very belated Happy New Year to you all! I haven’t posted for ages but I have still been taking a peek at what’s been going on in here…so if any posts refer to ‘That Tart in Derby’, I’ll be after ya!! :winky:

I’m after a bit of assistance in the purchase of a new base unit for my ancient PC & just know that someone on here will be able to offer me some useful advice cos you’re all such stars (grovel, grovel).

Current specs: (no laughing pls… ;) )8 yrs old gateway model with 17” crt ev700 monitor, ms intelli-mouse & windows 105 keyboard. 400mhz celeron/intel 440bx, 64mb which I increased to 192mb a few years ago (aren’t I clever?!), 128kb full speed L2 cache, quantum eclipse plus 6.4gb hdd. Win98 which I upgraded to win98se a while back.

The PC normally states 45-60% resources free while I’m doing my usual stuff & the Drives show,

C = 2.99gb capacity with 1.08gb free & D = 2.99gb capacity with 942mb free. (how do I get all that GB when I’ve only got 192mb RAM? Something to do with virtual & actual disk space? I really don’t know much do I? ).

I only really use it for web browsing (BT broadband 512kbps currently & hoping to change to Sky bb shortly, will still only be in the region of 1mb speed tho), excel & word docs, saved photos & albums (99% cd’s, very few downloads). I do use ExactAudioCopy to convert cd’s to mp3, but not very often as it takes forever!

All I want is the base unit as I’m keeping the monitor, printer etc – unsure if I’ll need a new mouse & keyboard tho? Budget is up to about £350. as you can see from my current specs & useage, I don’t need an all singing, all dancing spec, just something good, fast & reliable (I could make a joke about that being the same for men, but I wont! ).

I’m thinking that this new spec will be sufficient for my needs –

Win XP Home, 80GB HDD, 512mb RAM & AMB Athlon 3500+ CPU with on-board sound & graphics cards –

I’ve found this one for £319.90 (which includes the upgrades on the CPU, ASUS WL-138g PCI adapter added for my wi-fi broadband & the upgrade to Win Vista). 2 years warranty & their helpline is just an 01 no. at a standard rate. The company gets good reviews & recommendations on the forums at pcadvisor.co.uk.

Believe me, I’ve spent HOURS on the net looking round & my poor brain is spinning! Initially, I was all excited with ‘dual-core’ CPU but I don’t really think it would suit my needs & most of them were a bit above my budget anyway. The only other 2 that really stood out were pcspecialist.co.uk & Dell but for a very similar spec etc to the Power Computing one, they were both around the £400 mark.

Huge apologies for the length of the post, but I didn’t want to miss any relevant info out.

All feedback gratefully received guys! :D

Abbie

[Paul Reece]

Hello, good luck with your search, there is so much out there.

Take a look at these 2

1st PC & 2nd PC

hope this helps.

all the best

Paul.

[Lexxy_703]

Hello, good luck with your search, there is so much out there.

Take a look at these 2

1st PC & 2nd PC

hope this helps.

all the best

Paul.

thanks for the links Paul :) , they are both the same model tho!

seems very good value at £240 but i don't know anything about Acer, but then again, it's the components that matter more i suppose. correct me if i'm wrong, no wi-fi broadband access on this particular one?

[Paul Reece]

Sorry theres always one T**T, and it's always me..lol :D

Try this one

You have have a good look round site, just go to home page then click on home computers.

Do you have a wireless router already?

If you do then you connect it up via LAN, then any another additional computer/laptop needs to have 802.11g receiver.

I have Acer computer, monitor and 2 laptops and have have brought my kids acer laptops aswell, who give them a right bashing and never had any problems.

All the best

Paul.

[GreyArea]

seems very good value at £240 but i don't know anything about Acer, but then again, it's the components that matter more i suppose. correct me if i'm wrong, no wi-fi broadband access on this particular one?

Acer is a good brand, generally reliable and value for money and usually get good reviews in the PC Magazine I edit :) If you want real value, but at the expense of customer service, you could buy Dell. Please do me a favour though and don't buy anything from PC World!

Once company I recommend is Evesham as it's privately owned and the Customer service is excellent - their PCs have won many awards. However, the cheapest one is slightly above your budget (link)

I've not heard of the company you linked to, but the system seems decent enough and if PC Advisor has given them good reviews, that counts for something.

One thing to bear in mind is that at this price, something has to give, however, on paper I can't see much wrong with the one you've picked, although I'd want to know how many USB ports it has in total.

Simon

[Bobski]

Are you sure you want to keep to the 350 mark? and want to keep the monitor you already have?

Just that for a little more you can get a complete system complete with a flat screen which would give you a little more viewing size than the 17 CRT.

[Lexxy_703]

Sorry theres always one T**T, and it's always me..lol :D

Try this one

You have have a good look round site, just go to home page then click on home computers.

Do you have a wireless router already?

If you do then you connect it up via LAN, then any another additional computer/laptop needs to have 802.11g receiver.

I have Acer computer, monitor and 2 laptops and have have brought my kids acer laptops aswell, who give them a right bashing and never had any problems.

All the best

Paul.

no worries Paul, easily done - thanks for the 2nd link.

i don't have wireless already. the only reason i was looking at getting wi-fi set up was for our Wii... , i feel like i'm missing out on something when people talk about the online stuff available & i can't get to it!

i'll have another look around at Acer tho, thanks again :)

seems very good value at £240 but i don't know anything about Acer, but then again, it's the components that matter more i suppose. correct me if i'm wrong, no wi-fi broadband access on this particular one?

Acer is a good brand, generally reliable and value for money and usually get good reviews in the PC Magazine I edit :) If you want real value, but at the expense of customer service, you could buy Dell. Please do me a favour though and don't buy anything from PC World!

Once company I recommend is Evesham as it's privately owned and the Customer service is excellent - their PCs have won many awards. However, the cheapest one is slightly above your budget (link)

I've not heard of the company you linked to, but the system seems decent enough and if PC Advisor has given them good reviews, that counts for something.

One thing to bear in mind is that at this price, something has to give, however, on paper I can't see much wrong with the one you've picked, although I'd want to know how many USB ports it has in total.

Simon

hi Simon

thanks for the info. weird, everyone keeps telling me Dell, both for machines & after service, but you're the 3rd one who's now said customer service aint that hot.

evesham were my 1st choice, until i saw the prices

pcadvisor hasn't actually reviewed them, it's just in their forums they get mentioned & recommended quite a bit - which i know could be any tom, ***** or harry, but a few different posters have given good feedback regarding them.

the power stopper from powerc.com has got 6 USB, 2 front & 4 rear - i've only got 2 now, so i won't know what to do with 6! :D

& don't worry, i wouldn't touch pcworld with mine or anyone else's bargepole!

Are you sure you want to keep to the 350 mark? and want to keep the monitor you already have?

Just that for a little more you can get a complete system complete with a flat screen which would give you a little more viewing size than the 17 CRT.

hi Bobski

i do want to keep to £350 - i'm not one of these women that sets a budget & then completely ignores it you know?!

i'm not really fussed about a new FST monitor to be honest, yes it would look nice, but for what i use the pc for, my current monitor is just fine. i'm a picky sod too, not just 'any' monitor would do, i'm bound to want the biggest & best! (& that wouldn't really match in with my budget system now would it )

[Fidgits]

try the likes of Dabs and Ebuyer, they tend to have 'tower only' machines at good prices..

at your price point you should get a decent machine for your needs...

[Tyger]

If you do your research you will know that this is the only machine you need.

It does EVERYTHING you want it to in a secure virus-free environment. (And it runs Windows 100% - although you will never want to again after using OS X)

http://www.apple.com/macmini

You also need to read this...

http://www.apple.com/getamac

If you buy one and don't fall in love with it in a month I will give you your money back.

Remember - it's VALUE FOR MONEY, not the pricetag that counts.

This will give you years of trouble free, ease of use computing Windows users can only dream of.

Any q's PM me.

[Parthiban]

For a change, I actually agree with Tyger...... :o :D

No PC for £400 is going to look anywhere near as good or be as small, while also being as powerful - you're getting an up-to-date dual core processor, with otherwise decent specs.

Although with something as nice as this, you'll prob want a nice new screen to go with it too......

[aido]

Hello Abbie!

Was going to say that Rock Computers do good stuff from what I hear, but I've been an apple man for years - and looking at what you do it would work fine, it's just an issue if you want to run some software that isn't compatible with OSX!

The neighbour got a Dell machine for a few hundred quid and I can't complain at that, it's a nice piece of kit for what he paid!

[Bobski]

What about the base Aldi was doing a short while back...very good spec for the price i recall....i was told that even if they dont have them in stock they might be able to order 1.

Worth a try.

I got a mesh base on its own....but i actually got it cheaper by asking for a quote on the whole system and then deducting bits...i did have a problem with the MOBO but mesh sorted it quickly enough.

[Steve ( West Mids )]

Dell got a good deal at the moment, includes 17 inch flat panel & delivery in your price range

[Chris Skelton]

Don't do yourself down, dearest Lexxy!

I've been madly downloading lots of CDs into my Christmas present Ipod. Suddenly my ancient computer had only 1% space left!!

Panic!

I have NO idea how they work. Luckily help was at hand, so I now have an outboard hard drive that seems to have about 16 times the capacity of mine! For £100.

So Itunes is now on that. Apparently I could get my entire computer in there......

I'm trying HARD to remain in the 60s, but......

Was nice to be able to get back on here again though!

apple for me next though I think. Playing through a projector onto a wall, sound through Avantgarde Duos......if I can run the phone through it, I'll have reached sci-fi dreams of years ago!

[Lexxy_703]

Blimey, i nip away for a while & like buses, you all appear at once! :D

i would love to delve into the realms of apple, but i think for the spec i'm now looking at (i've decided 160GB HDD & 1GB of RAM are minimum requirements), it would be way out of my price range.

i'll be pondering & researching over the new couple of days & think i'll make my mind up this weekend - but i am female, so that is all subject to change of course! :winky:

Chris, i do hope you can make your dreams come tru - it sounds fab & you'll need to thro a huge party for us to show it all off!

[Tyger]

Factor in the yearly virus-checker costs for Windows and the support costs you will have to pay and the fact that you are limiting the software you can run by using a PC and then see what is the best buy.

Aido: Macs run Windows 100% (for those crazy enough to want to of course). Write it out 100 times. ;)

MORE software runs on Macs than PC's - there are NO software compatibility issues.

[Parthiban]

Factor in the yearly virus-checker costs for Windows and the support costs you will have to pay and the fact that you are limiting the software you can run by using a PC and then see what is the best buy.

Surely you need some kind of virus protection software though?

[aido]

Factor in the yearly virus-checker costs for Windows and the support costs you will have to pay and the fact that you are limiting the software you can run by using a PC and then see what is the best buy.

Aido: Macs run Windows 100% (for those crazy enough to want to of course). Write it out 100 times. ;)

MORE software runs on Macs than PC's - there are NO software compatibility issues.

To be honest you need to think about what you're writing here as it's getting a bit funny reading all the apple propaganda, even though I'm an apple supporter too

OSX is not invulnerable to viruses, there have already been proof of concepts out there, Symantec even offer virus checking software although the majority of the definitions are just to cover PC format files which don't affect the Mac.

I'm sure you're aware that January is the 'Month of apple Bugs' - http://projects.info-pull.com/moab/

As you can see there are applications on the system that are affected - admittedly some of these are in cross platform packages but they do affect OSX.

The reason I didn't mention Windows on the Mac is that it requires installing - it's not offered out of the box and this process is something a lot of people would struggle with if they're not technical.

Yes you can run Windows on apple hardware which I'll be doing when I move onto one of the newer apple PowerMac Pro's, but you can also run OSX on standard PC systems now that there are hacked versions out there. I know people running like this and they're quite happy with the system even though it's not supported at all by apple.

As for the software, I've got no idea where you've got that from! It's not the freeware / apps ported from Unix / Linux that count for the system but the commercial apps that count.

Don't get me wrong here I'm an apple supporter but there is much more commercial software available for the Windows platform, and the most important factor in all of this is that it is the Enterprise software that is much more freely available on the Windows platform, and personally I'd say that this is why apple have still to make inroads into the large enterprises out there!

The only ever time I've seen apple boxes in use in large organisations was when the designers had demanded one to run their software on, and the craziest thing is a lot of the software they wanted is available on Windows anyway, and it's even funnier when the likes of Photoshop run faster on Windows than they do on OSX - this is true even now until they release CS3 native code for Intel, and then you'll still be able to get quicker performance on a custom built PC using quicker spec processors than available in any of the current hardware that apple offer!

Hope you get everything sorted this weekend anyway Abbie!

[Tyger]

Parthiban: No. OS X users have NO need for any virus protection to protect their own machines. The ONLY reason it would be worthwhile having a virus-checker on a Mac is to scan for PC viruses so as not to pass them onto PC-using colleagues. In NO way can any virus affect OS X.

OK - umm. Listen. There have been NO viruses for OS X existing in the wild since it was released over 5 years ago. Proof of concept is just that - a theoretical virus. NO viruses have ever affected a Mac in the wild. OS X has for the 5 years it has been out been 100% invulnerable to viruses. As a Mac person Aido you should know this. If Mac users are spreading FUD then what chance do PC users have to leasrn the facts?

Is it so hard to understand that an OS can be written PROPERLY??? People are SO USED to the abysmal Windows thast they just can't get their head around it. It's such a sad situation what people put up with. I have run OS X for over 5 years without a second thought to firewalls or virus-checkers without any problems whatsoever. YOU could be doing the same.

The Month of apple Bugs? lol

Again this is all THEORY. You need to understand the difference between a VULNERABILITY and a real issue.

You didn't mention Windows on the Mac cos it requires INSTALLING!?? hehe Windows users had better get used to installing it as they generally have to reinstall every few months when the whole thing dies on them. Installing Windows isn't that hard.

OS X does NOT run on PC's. A hacked old unupdateable version can be run, but it is utterly useless runs very slowly and is already out of date and not all applications will run at all. It is very hard to install and about 6 people on the planet actually run it. Stop spreading FUD.

Is it so hard to understand? - ALL software will run on Macs. Macs run OS X and Windows 100% and are the ONLY hardware you can buy that will do so. Again write it out 100 times. I just don't see why that is so hard to get in your head!!

If you buy a PC you are limiting the amount of software you can run. If you buy a Mac you can run unlimited software. Got it?

[aido]

The Mac can't run unlimited software out of the box, simple as that, you're arguing with your own argument above - you're saying that you can buy a Mac and run unlimited software, but that if you buy a PC you can't - yet you admit that you can run OSX on a standard PC so how does that work?

There are a lot more people using that, I know of more than 6 personally! It's not hard by any means and it's certainly not slow - it runs quicker than either of my Macs!

All it takes is for one decent programmer with a dislike for apple to put that theory into practice, they've documented what the vulnerabilities are, on the Windows side of things it's getting common to see 0-day exploits when a vulnerability is launched, you're going to see this happening on OSX as it gets more common, the reason people have written malware for Windows based systems is because they know they're going to infect a massive amount of machines even with a 10% infection rate! Heck even if they got 100% OSX infection rate they'd get less machines than that crappy Windows virus!

I'll say it again, OSX is not invulnerable to anything, it's written by humans like you and I, who make mistakes like we all do.

Why do apple keep releasing security patches if the system is invulnerable to everything? Oh it's because people have found problems with the code which need fixing?

It's not FUD it's a basic observation - you sound intelligent so you should be able to see that quite clearly!

The only secure computer is one that is locked in a room without a connection to a network and that doesn't have anything connected to it!

Microsoft did a good thing getting Windows Update to bring patches down like we see on OSX, Windows is pretty well behaved as standard nowadays to how it used to be in the past.

Probably only something like 10% max of Macs out there have the capability of running Windows, both mine at home are PowerPC based and so cannot!

I'm looking forward to getting one of the newer PowerMac Pro's as in my line of work it will be great to have a few servers running in full speed in VMWare which is something I cannot do currently with my PowerMac G4.

Personally I do prefer apple systems and am excited with the potential of the range now they've moved to Intel, but I'm not naive enough to assume that the system is invulnerable to exploits - it's not and it never will be!

Take it to the bank - oh, and write that out 100 times please

[Tyger]

Exploits and vulnerabilities are totaly different to viruses. I never said OS X was invulnerable to exploits or bugs - THESE are why apple releases security updates - NOTHING to do with viruses. Despite this - OS X is as near as damn it impervious next to Windows.

I said clearly that PCs can run a crippled developers version of OS X and it is unupdateable and unsupported and is not fully functional. Why would anyone want to run a crippled OS X? So few people are doing this - just as a curiosity - it is immeasurable. Those PC users next computer will be a Mac where they can run BOTH OS 100%. You can ONLY do that on Mac hardware.

There is very little you can teach me about IT Aido - PC's, Macs or anything else. I am not trying to be a pain in the *****, I am just stating facts that are all publicly available should one bother to research.

Have you any idea how many more people would be flocking to Macs than already are if people took time to find things out?

It suprises me that so many here who take time to choose such wonderful cars spend little or no time investigating before spending money on a computer.

Ho hum.

[aido]

There is very little you can teach me about IT Aido - PC's, Macs or anything else. I am not trying to be a pain in the *****, I am just stating facts that are all publicly available should one bother to research.

Blimey do you ever get called arrogant?

Think you'd be surprised :winky:

[JOHNNY-BOY]

B)

[Tyger]

Yes, quite alot.

And - yes I would. :winky:

[aido]

In that case I bow to your obviously superior intellect and hope that at some point we can work together in the hope that you can pass on some of your knowledge!

I always like to learn :)