which of these desktops is best, please

althas

2g and 350g HDD will easily cope not a problem. The point I meant earlier is 4gb and 1TB would be faster for this kind of thing that is all

I personally detest Norton in any form, but you will have a free trial or pay a premium for the service and some kind of annual fee for updated etc. There are many free anti-virus programs out there, any of which will do the job very well. Avast is one, AVG is another, and windows also do one now. I have always used Avast or AVG since my 1st PC and internet and no complaints

Just kick back and enjoy your new PC which ever you decide. I do photo editing also so good luck and let us see some of your results

ih8stress

Hi althas. Thank you for your reply and for making my decision easier.

Looks like the cheaper one is the way to go for me, then. I know, it's from the dreaded PC World ............. but hey they are close by.

The Norton Security package is half price at £29.35 if bought with the computer - not seen mention of a trial version supplied, so it looks like I'll be browsing this forum for threads on Avast, AVG etc.

Been waiting to get a new pc before getting into photo editing, so it may be awhile before I produce anything. I appreciate your advice, thanks.

boliston

I've not brought a desktop for a few years as mainly use laptops now but I brought a couple of desktops from http://www.dnuk.com and they always offered good service, probably because they are a smaller supplier. I like the way you can tweak the spec to suit your exact needs rather than having to buy "off the peg" specs.

Basil1234

one thing i would check when you get to the awful pcworld is that the motherboard you can upgrade the ram should you need to and that the total capacity is not 2gb for the whole board as the quality specs from pcworld dont say about board loading lol. esp as is 64bit version otherwise you could be getting probs for later on!

ih8stress

Basil1234 wrote: »

one thing i would check when you get to the awful pcworld is that the motherboard you can upgrade the ram should you need to and that the total capacity is not 2gb for the whole board as the quality specs from pcworld dont say about board loading lol. esp as is 64bit version otherwise you could be getting probs for later on!

I was going to order it online as it is cheaper that way.

Can someone techie PLEASE explain how/where I can look to find out these facts.

Going by some threads on here I wouldn't want to ask a PC World staff member anyway.

Thanks

boliston

Most motherboards support at least 8gb ram now but I'd check the ram config that's actually been installed. For example if it has 2GB ram installed you would want to make sure it was a single 2GB chip rather 2 1GB chips as it's then easy to upgrade to 4GB by simply buying and extra 2GB chip. (Remember that you need a 64bit OS to make use of over 3GB though)

spakkker

The motherboard is classified!! Just like those used by dell, hp etc.
It's a g41 chipset and takes ddr3 memory so I'd guess that it will take at least 4gb ram, but it could be only 4gb in 2 slots.
You could use various free progs to find the m/b - once you have bought it

ih8stress

boliston wrote: »

Most motherboards support at least 8gb ram now but I'd check the ram config that's actually been installed.


Exactly how would I find out this information?

For example if it has 2GB ram installed you would want to make sure it was a single 2GB chip rather 2 1GB chips as it's then easy to upgrade to 4GB by simply buying and extra 2GB chip. (Remember that you need a 64bit OS to make use of over 3GB though)

It does say it is a 64-bit operating system mode

boliston

spakkker wrote: »

The motherboard is classified!! Just like those used by dell, hp etc.
It's a g41 chipset and takes ddr3 memory so I'd guess that it will take at least 4gb ram, but it could be only 4gb in 2 slots.
You could use various free progs to find the m/b - once you have bought it

That sounds a bit silly not letting a customer know what they have purchased until they have actually parted with their cash. After all a motherboard is a pretty important component.

ih8stress

spakkker wrote: »

The motherboard is classified!! Just like those used by dell, hp etc.
It's a g41 chipset and takes ddr3 memory so I'd guess that it will take at least 4gb ram, but it could be only 4gb in 2 slots.
You could use various free progs to find the m/b - once you have bought it

So does that mean there is no way of getting this information apart from buying the pc?

And if I buy it, use a free prog to find the m/b and find it is not upgradeable, would I be able to return it to PC World?