Recommendations for a new desktop PC
jsmith99
Posts: 20,382 Forum Member
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My last two PCs have been Evesham; unfortunately that is not an option now. The one before those was a Gateway - I seem to have the touch of death for PC manufacturers lol.
I'm looking for a PC primarily for internet, e-mail, music, with very occasional photo editing and printing. I may also have a try at video editing, though just in a small way.
My grandson wants to play games such as FIFA 10 and NHL (whatever they may be). They won't run on my current PC, with its 1Gb RAM and onboard graphics!
I've been round a few computer stores; they all seem to stock Acer, Packard Bell and HP. I've also been looking at Dell; so far as I can gather from reviews, they're very good machines so long as nothing goes wrong - the customer support isn't too good, apparently.
Any recommendations?
One question I asked in all the shops, which no-one could give me an answer to, was: if my amd athlon 64 runs at 3Ghz, and current chips runs at, say, 2.2 to 2.9, shouldn't my old chip be faster than the new ones? One assistant even suggested it depended on how big a hard drive it had.
Anyone got a (simple) explanation for this?
Thanks in advance.
I'm looking for a PC primarily for internet, e-mail, music, with very occasional photo editing and printing. I may also have a try at video editing, though just in a small way.
My grandson wants to play games such as FIFA 10 and NHL (whatever they may be). They won't run on my current PC, with its 1Gb RAM and onboard graphics!
I've been round a few computer stores; they all seem to stock Acer, Packard Bell and HP. I've also been looking at Dell; so far as I can gather from reviews, they're very good machines so long as nothing goes wrong - the customer support isn't too good, apparently.
Any recommendations?
One question I asked in all the shops, which no-one could give me an answer to, was: if my amd athlon 64 runs at 3Ghz, and current chips runs at, say, 2.2 to 2.9, shouldn't my old chip be faster than the new ones? One assistant even suggested it depended on how big a hard drive it had.
Anyone got a (simple) explanation for this?
Thanks in advance.
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Comments
a) Dell are a company that you either love or hate. Most folks never have any issues with Dell service....those that do post vehemently about it (as do folks about other vendors).
b) The answer is simple; no.
Do you imagine that a car with a 3.0L engine built in 1940 is faster than a similarly sized one with a 2.0L engine built last week?
Likewise, you cannot compare processors of differing generations, purely by clockspeed. And three years is an age in the advancement of processor technology.
10 yrs old. Unusable. Will run one Firefox page at a time.
(It was good in its' day)
Compaq Presario SR1619UK Tower PC. 5 yrs old still going fine. Now on W7 64.
Athlon (64) 3200+?? (Upgraded from XP with no fuss)
Recently, Compaq CQ61-320SA Laptop M something or other processor.
Supplied with W7 64 last November. Also reporting 3200+.
Doesnt anything change in 5 yrs?
Didnt set out to have 3 Compaqs in a row. But no complaints.
Beware some models. I saw (on a post) Dell (and possibly Acer/Asus) BIOS and security password protect their BIOS/Models...allegedly.
If you find this after the warranty runs out, when you want to upgrade, there may be a £20 or similar fee to unlock. Check at time of purchase. Get it in writing on a compliments slip or something.
My preferred brand are Acer, because I've had a few machines by them, and they've all been excellent. Though, like with Dell, there are some people who hate them.
Your old AMD processor runs at 3GHz, but todays processors have 2 or 4 processors on the one chip, compared to the AMD which only had one. Yours can run at 3GHz, whereas the new ones can run at 2x 2.4GHz or 4x 2.4GHz. (DO NOT confused this 2x 2.4GHz DOES NOT equal 4.8GHz. They both run at 2.4GHz. If you have 2 horses that can run at 30MPH each, you can't go 60MPH with them both)
You also need to figure out where you want to buy the PC from. High street store or online? Online is usually cheaper, but the benefit with a high street store is if it goes tits up, which I hope not, then you can simply take it back to them and they'll deal with it. Whereas from online, you'd have to contact the manufacturer.
Hard to recommend when you do not give a price bracket for your unit. With or without monitor?
A sensible decision might be to spend 10 minutes putting a games capable graphics card in your current PC.
Spending anything from £20 upwards cures the problem no doubt.
Well it works for me
So, a 1.8Ghz dual core current CPU will easily outperform any 3 year old Pentium4 or AMD single core 3Ghz / PR3000+ CPU. Plus they're less likely to use as much energy to run (you can cook eggs on an Athlon cpu after all!)
Just remember that most desktops sold don't have decent graphics capabilities... they're fine for anything other than recent 3d games.... so depending on the games played it may or may not be capable even if it's got a lot of ram and nice fast CPU. You can add a graphics card but you might want to get a PC with half decent graphics card at the same time.
Unless it is a 2006/2007 Athlon 64 5600+
That's true but from the sounds of it I imagine its an Athlon XP 3000+
I've never heard of this from a big brand? - any links ?
All the Dell's and HP's from recent years I've come across don't have password protected BIOS'es but they might well have Dell / HP 'locked down' BIOS which stops overclocking and much tweaking... hardly an issue for the 90% of their customers who won't ever likely wander into BIOS territory and it keeps customer support calls down due to people tinkering with things they read about on the 'net
Not true.
If this is an issue, Dell do an next day on-site warranty. We have this as standard on our work systems and it saves a lot of hassle if theres ever any problems. They send the tech (or part depending on the fault) to you and its fixed there and then rather than having to wait while the machine is shipped off to the unknown.
That is how they tie the operating system to the hardware.
And bios passwords are for customer's personal use.
Irrelevant mythical scare tactics supplied by someone.
The last time I had a pre-built machine was a Dell Dimension 2400 about 8 years ago, when I was about 14. Since I've built my own computers.
From what I recall it goes:
Standard crappy 1 year RTB warranty (not sure if this is even still available?)
Standard NBD warranty (from 1 up to 5 years)
Pro Support (Gets you through to a different call centre)
Pro Support w/ 4 hour response (for servers)
It also used to be that if you bought from the business store you would always get through to Scotland rather than India but I dont think this still applies.
Personally if I was buying a system and using it for work or education puproses I would definitly go with the NBD warranty because its often the case you cant afford to mess around. Having a quick look now its 1 year NBD for an Optiplex system with an upgrade to 3 years for £47, which imo is reasonable upgrade given that people usually spend that sort of money to add on a Norton CD in PC World.
Given the number of PCs sold by Dell, the number of complaints is probably small.
So far as the parts inside are concerned, most of the PCs I've looked at seem to be constructed using a selection from a small range of processors, motherboard, graphics card etc. So what makes one brand more reliable than others?
According to a program called System Information for Windows, I actually have an Athlon 64 3500+ chip, with a top speed of 3000 Ghz.
I'm looking at a top price of about £600, including a decent monitor, but a bit less if possible.....hope this isn't being too optimistic?
It already needs a new DVD read/write drive....it's a question of at what stage you stop spending money on it, and get a new one lol.
There is an independent shop near me which builds computers; not to order, though, they have 3 "standard" models. Comparing the specs with those for Dell, etc., they seem to be a little over-priced.
3500+, with top speed of 3000 Mhz.
Thanks for the replies....on the face of it everyone seems happy with the PC they, so I'll consider which is the most convenient source to buy one from.
I was wondering if to go for another Dell pc or get an HP pc this time.
The Dell pc that im using the now is my 2nd pc and the best I have had.
My first pc was a Tiny and that had minor faults after the first 18 months.
I do have a Compaq laptop that I got in December and im 98% happy with that.
I use my pc manly for surfing the net, emails and music. I use Last FM and also the BBCi player/ITV player and now and again You Tube.
I also once in a while type letters.
£500 or just over I will be looking to pay for I will have the after sales care cover on top of that.
Darren