Going in search of a PC

Opened my pennies tin yesterday that I've been saving for the last 2 years when I empty my pocket , just short of £400 . Going to start looking for a new pc ( my old one is about 8-9 yrs old now ) , anybody got any recent good experiences , I'm tempted to just go back to Dell

Only looked for a reasonable spec tower , no monitor etc , will hang on to what I have for now as they are still working so use the money to invest in the best tower I can get for the price

Don't do any gaming or stuff , maybe some photoshop

We don't have a pc anymore iPads/iPods/iPhones so I'm no good sorry, good luck in your search Dave

Im no help either Im a mac user, or a laptop. But Dell are pretty good, never had a problem with our work computers.

Maria90 wrote:Im no help either :(Im a mac user, or a laptop. But Dell are pretty good, never had a problem with our work computers.

All my work is Dell , my old pc is Dell and we bought a Dell laptop 6 years ao but sometimes its easy just getting into familiar territory

We have Dell work too, never have any problems

That's good going with the saving! Afraid all computer stuff just goes way over my head, I would probably end up with an abacus for ya! 

Inezmaria70 wrote:That's good going with the saving! Afraid all computer stuff just goes way over my head, I would probably end up with an abacus for ya! 

I thought I had more but a gut feeling it was less so on balance not a bad little result ( might just stick another hundred on top out o the real savings and not tell Jo >  )

mine is what i think a bloody good comp. ill let you know waht it is when i go upstairs lol

we are saving for an alien ware pc as we are wanting it for gaming, plus they look a bit sexy

Just googles them. they are pretty sexy looking

Here is a good deal for a refurb

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Medion-E4057-Desktop-PC-Quad-Core-A10-5700-Processor-8GB-RAM-1TB-HDD-Win-8-/290917749120?clk_rvr_id=502357920732

I prefer a tower PC as well Dave; not only can I see the monitor without tilting it around and screwing my eyes up, but the ankle biter in my house can't pinch it and take it upstairs to his lair!

My current one is a Packard Bell from PC World, more memory than I will ever need - could wish that it takes DVDs instead of just CDs but that was an oversight on my part.

Dell are good but tbh your just paying for a name these days as the playing field has leveld out alot. have a look at www.ebuyer.com you can get some great spec pc's for next to nothing withought a name to them. my current was a bare bones cobbled together with a few other parts. they do a good warrenty and the parts are prob the same that dell/hp use anyway. i used them to gut my tosh laptop and rebuild it with bespoke parts and it scores well above what it did before. i use it for vid editing as well as work stuff with no porbs at all.

I will ask hubby tomorrow Dave, more his area of expertise

Mike wrote:Just googles them. they are pretty sexy looking

told you!

ella wrote:we are saving for an alien ware pc as we are wanting it for gaming, plus they look a bit sexy

Don't need a mega spec gaming pc though Ella as these are also mega priced and I would never get my money's worth out of its capabilities

MrToast wrote:Here is a good deal for a refurb

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Medion-E4057-Desktop-PC-Quad-Core-A10-5700-Processor-8GB-RAM-1TB-HDD-Win-8-/290917749120?clk_rvr_id=502357920732

Does look tidy , but pretty sure this will not be a picture of the actual one so not clear how "cosmetically marked" it will be , and not sure how the processor compares ( I was aiming at a 3rd generation I5 ) TBH 1 of these is something I would consider buying if I was in a shop and could view it but the fact that it is billed as cosmetiucally damaged leaves it wide open for misinterpretation under terms of sale

Lynda wrote:I prefer a tower PC as well Dave; not only can I see the monitor without tilting it around and screwing my eyes up, but the ankle biter in my house can't pinch it and take it upstairs to his lair!

My current one is a Packard Bell from PC World, more memory than I will ever need - could wish that it takes DVDs instead of just CDs but that was an oversight on my part.  

Take it yours is an old one too then Lynda , not seen one with a cd only option for quite a while

Nathan wrote:Dell are good but tbh your just paying for a name these days as the playing field has leveld out alot. have a look at www.ebuyer.com you can get some great spec pc's for next to nothing withought a name to them. my current was a bare bones cobbled together with a few other parts. they do a good warrenty and the parts are prob the same that dell/hp use anyway. i used them to gut my tosh laptop and rebuild it with bespoke parts and it scores well above what it did before. i use it for vid editing as well as work stuff with no porbs at all.

Might be worth a look Nathan , have a little time today , TBH my old one is still working so I am not desperate and was hanging on and hanging on but with all technology you will NEVER come out on top

Kathy wrote:I will ask hubby tomorrow Dave, more his area of expertise

Thanks Kathy

I haven't had a chance to speak to hubby yet Dave but my advice would be to have a word with these guys, tell them what you are looking for, how much you want to spend, and what you will be using the computer for. I found them to be very good and reasonably priced machines:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/?adword=google%2FBrand+-+Search+-+OcUK%2FOverclockers+UK+-+Brand+Oc%2Foverclockers&amktid=29598874494587542&gclid=CMKT3cagwLgCFSGWtAod5XkA3w

Kathy wrote:I haven't had a chance to speak to hubby yet Dave but my advice would be to have a word with these guys, tell them what you are looking for, how much you want to spend, and what you will be using the computer for. I found them to be very good and reasonably priced machines:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/?adword=google%2FBrand+-+Search+-+OcUK%2FOverclockers+UK+-+Brand+Oc%2Foverclockers&amktid=29598874494587542&gclid=CMKT3cagwLgCFSGWtAod5XkA3w

So you've bought from them Kathy ??

Yes I have, had a word with them explained what I wanted it for, photoshop etc but no gaming, they are very good.

Kathy wrote:Yes I have, had a word with them explained what I wanted it for, photoshop etc but no gaming, they are very good.

What sort of price did you end up paying , how long ago and what sort of spec ??

Can't remember now, this was about 4 years ago, will ask hubby later for the details.

Have you looked into getting something like this?

Classic Mike!  

Mike wrote:Have you looked into getting something like this?

Mike if this is your idea of a personal review , I really think you should stick with joinery as your forte mate, my 2 1/2 year old grandson could pick a better laptop than that  , no wonder you were having a few internet problems recently

Dave wrote:

Only looked for a reasonable spec tower , no monitor etc ,

Mike wrote:Have you looked into getting something like this?

And other thing Mike , appreciate your efforts but please read the posts more carefully before replying ( not looking for a laptop   )

I was having internet problems because next door had moved their modem to the other side of the house and these fit perfectly on the desk  

Mike wrote:I was having internet problems because next door had moved their modem to the other side of the house and these fit perfectly on the desk  

    sometimes I am really not sure where fact starts and jokes end  

Having a look at some Zoostorm pc's , anybody got one , they seem quite reasonably priced , any reason for that ??

Also windows 8 , who's got it and likes it ??

Closest OS I have atm is windows 7 pro on my work lap , all my other stuff is XP still as I'm a dinosaur

No idea what a Zoostorm is sorry .... I have a HP PC (no tower though, touch screen all in one) and a Samsung laptop and can recommend both if that helps though

Windows 8 is fine once you get used to it ..

I don't know anything at all about this stuff, but Father in Law is very clued up on it all and says that windows 8 is crap!

XP!!!
Dave me mircowave has a newer OS

Kell wrote:
No idea what a Zoostorm is sorry .... I have a HP PC (no tower though, touch screen all in one) and a Samsung laptop and can recommend both if that helps though

Windows 8 is fine once you get used to it ..

Very posh , don't like the idea of touch screen all in one though as bit limited if all goes wrong , and I couldn't be a1rsed to clean the screen every 2 mins as I'm posting whilst eating a kebab:lol: 

Inezmaria70 wrote:I don't know anything at all about this stuff, but Father in Law is very clued up on it all and says that windows 8 is crap!

It is crap .. but so was 7 when it came out If you want a good OS stay with XP or go Mac

Mike wrote:XP!!!
Dave me mircowave has a newer OS

It is XP Pro , my 2nd laptop was vista and rubbish so when the hard drive died I " upgraded to XP pro " , my Dell PC cam with it and discovered the licence was open

Dave wrote:

Kell wrote:
No idea what a Zoostorm is sorry .... I have a HP PC (no tower though, touch screen all in one) and a Samsung laptop and can recommend both if that helps though

Windows 8 is fine once you get used to it ..

Very posh , don't like the idea of touch screen all in one though as bit limited if all goes wrong , and I couldn't be a1rsed to clean the screen every 2 mins as I'm posting whilst eating a kebab:lol: 

  probably not kebab friendly, though mine survives well without being cleaned .. wireless mouse and keyboard probably help that though ;)The huge touch screen took me a while to get used to, love it now though - looks posh, but really I just chose it because it takes up so little room compared to a monitor and tower ...

Kell wrote:

Inezmaria70 wrote:I don't know anything at all about this stuff, but Father in Law is very clued up on it all and says that windows 8 is crap!

It is crap .. but so was 7 when it came out :)If you want a good OS stay with XP or go Mac

I like some of the features of 7 pro as I use it for work , seen some of these Zoostorm pc's are quite well priced and good spec , downgraded to 7 pro , lacking things like a media card reader , wifi etc , easy enough for me to sort out myself as they are cheap as chips ( not microchips of course as they are quite expensive )

I have 7 on both mine and like it .. I have 8 on my work laptop and computer and have gotten used to it, I find it makes more sense on the touch screen (it is kind of like using apps once you get the hang of it). I should say that 8 is getting better with upgrades - though using it for a while is probably helping the cause as well

Have just been advised by gamer teens that the 'story' on the Zoostorm i5 tower is "cheap, basically does what it says - no upgrades though" ...

"No spare slots" .. I missed that bit, sorry.

Kell wrote:I have 7 on both mine and like it .. I have 8 on my work laptop and computer and have gotten used to it, I find it makes more sense on the touch screen (it is kind of like using apps once you get the hang of it). I should say that 8 is getting better with upgrades - though using it for a while is probably helping the cause as well

Have just been advised by gamer teens that the 'story' on the Zoostorm i5 tower is "cheap, basically does what it says - no upgrades though" ...

"No spare slots" .. I missed that bit, sorry.

cheers Kell , assume that counts for what you buy as there are ones with upgradeable slots on there

Windows 8 sucks, widows vista sucks, 7 is ok, xp is lightweight and ok, windows 98se was my all time fave, or go linux

I would assume so Dave .. again though, I had no idea what they even were until I asked

i hate window 8!!


my comp is a HP pavilion

MrToast wrote:Windows 8 sucks, widows vista sucks, 7 is ok, xp is lightweight and ok, windows 98se was my all time fave, or go linux

Linux still has its fair share of problems .. would be nice if it didn't though Would be even nicer if the old windows OS would still work - I agree that the older they are the better they are!

Now I know you didn't want a new screen/keyboard/mouse but this may be just what you need.

... it is easy to wipe over ....

and with windmill looks like its powered by wind which in your company isn't a bad thing

Darcy-may wrote:Now I know you didn't want a new screen/keyboard/mouse but this may be just what you need.

Ummm don't like the colour  

Not really my colour either kathy, but I'm thinking it could be daves.

  

Yeah Dave I probably bought an end-of-range model looking to save money, never thought that having no DVD drive would be such a nuisance, but I cope.

I had XP on the my last computer which I blew up (and which caused me to start smoking again) and I don't know why they wanted to change from it, except that they are always changing things and not always for the better. My current PC came with Windows 7, which I am JUST starting to get my head around although I don't like it, and I won't touch Windows 8 unless I have to.

The pink laptops look lovely, guys - if I blow up this computer I may consider one as I would think it would suit my level of intelligence  

Good luck Dave - it's a minefield out there ....

Lynda wrote:
I had XP on the my last computer which I blew up (and which caused me to start smoking again)

      call the fire brigade quick