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Post by rob strong on Aug 17, 2007 9:10:16 GMT 1
Has anyone here (preferably UK-based) bought a new PC recently?
Mine (six years old, Windows ME) makes a noise like a overworked tractor when started up, routinely fails to load Windows on the first, second and sometimes third attempt, has trouble shutting down, the DVD drive (DVD writer? hah!) doesn't work, crashes when asked to do more than one thing at the same time etc etc etc. I've spent the last week repeatedly uninstalling and reinstalling stuff to no avail, and I don't know enough about how the bleedin' things work to go any further.
So I'm thinking about buying a new one. Any tips on: a) features/software I might find useful b) good places to buy from
would be much appreciated.
Two further guidelines - I can't afford to spend a fortune, and I never play games/watch TV etc, so massively powerful graphics aren't important. And, before some smartarse says it, a Mac is no use to me. That's three further guidelines then.
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Post by markus on Aug 18, 2007 14:36:31 GMT 1
Rob, it basically depends on what you are actually going to do with your computer...
(1) Do you need to travel a lot? Then go for a laptop. However, be warned that - at least to tell from my personal experience - laptops tend to be louder, more error-prone and less expandable than regular PCs. If something goes wrong with your hardware, you will most likely have to send in your laptop to the manufacturer which can be quite expensive and might also take a while.
(2) If you use your PC domestically and you are no gamer: First of all, don't buy one of these all-in-one multimedia machines! You will get a lot of fancy stuff you will hardly ever need. However the manufacturer will have to use cheaper components for essential things like the motherboard, RAM etc. to deliver the machine at an affordable price.
Make sure that both the graphics card and the sound card are not "onboard" (i.e. part of your mainboard). Also, be careful that the PC is extendable. You should have at least 3-4 free PCI slots (e.g. for your Ethernet card, a graphics card, a good sound card etc) plus 1-3 free slots for memory (RAM) extensions. For example: If your retailer says the machine has 1GB of RAM, ask him if that's 2x512MB (Which is bad) or if this is just one big bar (Which is better, because if you need to add more RAM at some point in time, you won't have remove the old bar).
If you just use your PC for office applications and e.g. for occasional sound recording / editing, you don't need a fast CPU nor a double core processor (a single core 2GHz-3GHz processor will absolutely do). As for the processor itself, CPUs by AMD tend to be cheaper than their Intel counterparts. Be careful with 64-bit processors though, as there's not much software around which actually makes use of the newer 64-bit architecture (at least as far as the Windows corner is concerned).
If you have a rough idea which components you actually need: There are lots of internet shops (e.g. Dell, Alternate etc.) where you can customize your PC. The big advantage is that you only pay for those components you actually need - which means you either have to pay less or you get better value for your money.
Sometimes, you also have the option to buy a "bare" PC from these internet shops which is quite good if you are Linux user and don't want to spend a lot of money for licensing an - otherwise obligatory - Windows copy. (Most of the stuff that nowadays comes as a "bonus" with Windows OEM installations - e.g. crippled antivirus software and tons of ISP dial-in programs - is crap anyway.)
As far as the operating system is concerned, the golden rule is as follows: Don't buy a new (Windows) OS before the first service pack is released. In other words: Stay away from Vista - at least as long as there is no SP1...
BTW: Many modern Linux distributions run reasonably well on old hardware. Have you already tried to use a Linux live CD (like Ubuntu or Knoppix) or a lightweight distribution (with an alternatice window manager) on your old PC?
Another thing that I learnt to appreciate are disk imaging programs which can be used to create backups of individual partitions or even the entire system. With these tools you can restore working snapshots of your system (even from active partitions), if something goes terribly wrong with your machine or e.g. if it has caught some virus. Of the tools I know (Norton Ghost, ghost4linux, Acronis True Image and Altiris) Acronis True Image convinced me the most.
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Post by rob strong on Aug 19, 2007 9:51:36 GMT 1
Thanks Markus, much appreciated. You managed to pitch most of that at exactly the right level!
I'm not going to be taking the computer on the move, so I don't need a laptop.
One of the reasons I'm looking for a faster processor is that we have an increasing amount of video of Andrew, and I'd like to be able to back this up to DVD.
If the soundcard is described as 'integrated', does this mean it's part of the motherboard?
What's Ethernet?
I'm seeing this more and more as I read reviews etc. There seems to be a lot of comment around that Vista uses a massive amount of RAM? But presumably Microsoft will withdraw support for XP within the next four years or so? And I'm struggling to find anyone who sells new PCs with XP rather than Vista?
I've never tried using Linux, or seen anyone else using it either. Given that I use entirely Windows machines at work, I think I'm better sticking with them. Can I still use Excel, Word etc if I'm running Linux?
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Post by markus on Aug 19, 2007 16:06:45 GMT 1
> If the soundcard is described as 'integrated', does this mean it's part of the motherboard?
Yes, I think so. You have to disable the onboard / integrated chip in your BIOS settings before you can install a real sound card. Usually, the BIOS configuration management tool can be invoked at boot time by pressing one of the F keys. This is actually vendor specific. (In many cases it is just F1 or F2.) The installation itself merely consists of plugging the sound card into a free PCI slot and installing the driver (At least for Windows. Linux uses generic drivers). BTW: A decent sound card with a socket for SPDIF (=optical) input doesn't have to be expensive. For my last PC I bought an Ultron Octo-Sound 7.1 which hast cost me round about 30 Euros.
> What's Ethernet?
Sorry, ethernet is a common network technology. What I actually meant is a PCI card for your LAN access. Forget about the network PCI card, if you use a wireless or a dial-in connection instead.
> There seems to be a lot of comment around that Vista uses a massive amount of RAM? But presumably Microsoft will withdraw support for XP within the next four years or so? And I'm struggling to find anyone who sells new PCs with XP rather than Vista?
That depends on the "flavor" of Vista which comes with your PC. I think the 2 most basic versions come without the new Aero desktop. If I remember correctly, it is recommended to have at least 1GB of RAM for these versions. If, however, you use the Aero stuff, the minimum RAM requirements might double. The main problem at the moment is that there are not many Vista certified hardware drivers around. For example, not so long ago, a lot of people ruined their iPods because of compatibility issues with Vista.
> And I'm struggling to find anyone who sells new PCs with XP rather than Vista?
I read that Dell still offer PCs with XP (at least for customers in the US). Alternatively, it shouldn't be too difficult to find trustworthy shops on the internet which still sell XP without a PC. (In Germany this should include internet shops like alternate.de, mix or avitos. They always advertise in c't magazine which is the central organ for IT people here. I'm pretty sure there are equivalents in the UK, too).
> I've never tried using Linux, or seen anyone else using it either. Given that I use entirely Windows machines at work, I think I'm better sticking with them. Can I still use Excel, Word etc if I'm running Linux?
I use Suse Enterprise Linux at work and also have 2 dual-boot systems (XP+Debian 4.0) set up at home. If you are an absolute Linux-newbie, you should test some live CDs like Knoppix or (K)Ubuntu which require no physical installation and have good hardware detection capabilities. (You will need to enable booting from CD/DVD in your BIOS if you haven't done so already.) The aforementioned live CDs will tell you, whether your PC hardware is supported (Be careful with Linux, if your hardware is brand-new!) and if the learning curve is not too steep for you. If everything is fine, you can install Linux alongside an existing Windows system (=dual boot configuration). BTW: If you are accustomed to Windows, you will most likely prefer the KDE desktop to gnome. Kubuntu and OpenSuse are decent KDE based distros for beginners.
> Can I still use Excel, Word etc if I'm running Linux? OpenOffice handles these formats pretty well and comes with all of the big distributions. KOffice might also work. I use OpenOffice on both Windows and Linux and it is pretty compatible with Word, Excel and Powerpoint.
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