what PC?

soolin

I think my PC has developed too many problems to struggle on and I'm so fed up with it today that OH has said go buy a new one tomorrow.

After my last total meltdown this week a £50 repair has restored windows but I seem to have lost the ability to write anything to a floppy or a CD Rom, which is annoying. I've had trouble with using keyboards for ages, I think that connector has broken, and the PC is generally slow and bothersome and often refuses to do anything unless I reboot and start from scratch.

My question is what do I want on my shopping list? I really only use the PC for storing information browsing the net and writing letters etc. I also like to be able to burn my own Cds for the car. There seem to be some very reasonably priced ones out there, I don't care too much about monitors as I have a fairly new Flat screen one as the original one broke a while ago, however if I have to buy the whole lot it won't be too much of a problem as I can use the existing monitor on my sons PC.

I assume I want a decent hard drive and RAM, but what about processing systems? My other problem is all the ones I have seen so far don't come with Excel, which I currently have, and I can't locate the disc so assume it was pre loaded. I do have a disc for Works 99 so am covered for that.

My last question is more difficult to explaion. I am currently using a wireless router and it took weeks to set up and another £50 to the PC man to finally get it working, I assume I will have to go through all that again when I switch PC, or are the settings somehow linked to the router and not the PC? (sorry that's probably a dim question but when I started from a clean instal on Thursday my router still worked).

Any help would be appreciated, then I can have a list of things to look for when I go shopping.

Soo

gaming_guy

soolin wrote:

My last question is more difficult to explaion. I am currently using a wireless router and it took weeks to set up and another £50 to the PC man to finally get it working, I assume I will have to go through all that again when I switch PC, or are the settings somehow linked to the router and not the PC? (sorry that's probably a dim question but when I started from a clean instal on Thursday my router still worked).

Any help would be appreciated, then I can have a list of things to look for when I go shopping.

Soo

if the desktop is connected wirelessly it will need to be set up again which is fairly easy, but if it is wired into the rouer via an ethernet cable it should be plug and play

soolin

gaming_guy wrote:

if the desktop is connected wirelessly it will need to be set up again which is fairly easy, but if it is wired into the rouer via an ethernet cable it should be plug and play

I have several wires going from the router which is a Linksys, into the PC, is the yellow lead the ethernet cable?

Soo

(currently browsing the PC World site)

yellowlawn

You should pop along to Dell's website and get some ideas. Basically if you want a fast PC choose a dual core processor and more RAM. If you want data storage choose a bigger hard drive. If you want gaming choose an expensive PCI Express Graphics Card and Sound Card.

Ditch the MS Works Excel as Excel in MS Works and Office Excel are NOT compatible. MS Works is Microsofts poor attempt to offer free or nearly free "Office style applications" for PC users. Then you create loads of documents in Word for Works take them to the office and Word in MS Office cannot open those lovely files you created in Works. But it's from the same company and even the product looks the same. Hmmn time you upgraded to MS Office then??

The router should be straight forward on the new PC.

As for the monitor you already have choose the right Graphics card and you can run both on your brand spanking new PC!! How high tech!

bat999

Hi soolin

Don't worry if the PC you decide on doesn't come with Excel installed on it.
There's a very similar spreadsheet available to download for free as part of Open Office.
Also Open Office has a pretty good word processor.
People on this forum can help you install Open Office for yourself later.
:cool:

gaming_guy

soolin wrote:

s the yellow lead the ethernet cable?

spot on!

soolin

Thanks everyone. There's an advert in the Mail today for a Dell PC which I think is this one that looks OK.

http://configure.euro.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?b=&c=uk&cs=ukdhs1&l=en&oc=D12E16&rbc=D12E16&s=dhs&sbc=ukdhsftdhpdesktop1

The advert shows it as £479 and i seem to remember with Dell that you have to remove certain 'options' to get it to the offer price which accounts for the price difference.

It says it is an AMD Athlon, is that OK?

My only query is whether or not having a CD/DVD drive combined is a problem, at the moment my drives are different and whetehr it still takes floppy discs (my OH is even more of a Luddite than me). If it doesn't take floppy discs then I have a problem as my OH has all his accounts stored on them and my current floppy drive is one of the things that has given up the ghost so I can't even copy the info off onto a CD.

Soo

bat999

soolin

No floppy disk drive supplied fitted to this one.
It will cost an extra £17.62!
:eek: :eek: :eek:

soolin

bat999 wrote:

soolin

No floppy disk drive supplied fitted to this one.
It will cost an extra £17.62!
:eek: :eek: :eek:

Since OH is funding it I might splash out to make him happy :rotfl:

piggeh

You could have one fitted, or just get a USB floppy drive and plug it into your USB port.

You may also want to wait until the Boxing Day sales, as I'd imagine places like PC World will be having some offers on.

BillScarab

is the yellow lead the ethernet cable

they come in every colour under the sun, but if you unplug it an ethernet cable looks similar to the type of plug you get on a phone cable. There is often a flashing green light next to the ethernet port on the PC.