Where is best to go for new desktop advice?

SteveJH200

This machine really needs to have it's hard drive wiped and to start again as it sounds really corrupted. Sometimes it gets to the point where it would be quicker to do that than to try and restore or recover considering its been done many times before. Only thing is that you would need the XP disc to reload and the Dell licence code if it's still intact. If it's that slow now then I'm sure your father will get just as frustrated as you! Another option would be to wipe the disc and load it with an alternative operating system such as Linux Mint, Ubuntu or Joli 1.2.

ddoris

I recently saw a very slow pc and was blaming the hard drive - but I had a duplicate spare motherboard and thought I'd just try it - it sorted it !
The thing is I still don't know what the problem was.
I'd buy a pc off Stuff4sale/ebay/Loot whatever is local for £30 - ish.

robmar0se

In answering your original question in getting impartial advice - in the end people will always either be guided by the commision they get for selling you something, or from their own experience with what they have themselves.

You could buy a computer mag and read up - PcPro have what they call their A list of recommendations. You also need to be clear what you are going to use the PC for. Gaming requires a high spec, If you plan to use Photoshop/CAD work you also need lots of resources, photos/music can eat hard drive space etc etc. If its just for general day to day office work plus internet/email, then any reasonable PC should do the job.

I always tell my customers (I fix PCs for a living), its not the name on the box that matters (reminds me that life is not a box of .....). its whats inside.

For example Gigabyte do the best boards (some will say Asus are good too) - the board is key as everything is dependent on it, if you ask PCworld what mainboard their PC's have they will look blankly at you, Intel processors (CPU) are better tha AMD currently - always get the best cpu you can afford reasonably as it will future proof your PC, as a previous poster said, more RAM the better (Microsoft always issue service packs which tend to use more RAM as they increase in size), this implies you should get a 64 bit version of Windows 7 so that you don't have the 4gb RAM restriction as on the 32 bit versions - Crucial, Kingston, Corsair, Samsung RAM is good. WD/Samsung hard drives (avoid Fujitsu hdd); I usally go for SAmsung optical drives - but as DVDrw drives are dirt cheap, don't lose too much sleep ober this. Lastly the power supply (PSU) is often under spec'ed in branded PC's, Dell being a major culprit. You don't need something at the top end, but also avoid the cheapo's, and make sure there is enough "headroom" firstly so that it isn't running flat out all the time, and secondly allows for expansion eg everytime you plug in a USB device it draws extra power. An added advantage is that many of these manufacturers give you a 3 year manufacturer warranty too.

So if you decide what you want, a local PC firm will probably do a good deal for you, may be not the absolute rock bottom price, but you will get something that you know is good, and should last.

Lastly remember even Rolls Royces go wrong sometimes, but not as often as Renaults (but according to stats, 65% of Renault users are happy) - if this applies to Dells, you will see many people swearing by them too (well known that Dell does everyting it can to avoid fulfilling its warranty obligations - it costs them too much!).

gonzo127

ok well bypassing the suggestions above (which are good in the most)

just looking at your usage - a basic duel core cpu with 4gb of ram (3gb would also be fine) and on board graphics will do - make is not really important

£300 will get you something good enough for your usage and could probably get something fine for less as well, as pointed out no one will give you totally impartial advice,

PC world (or other big store) staff will push un-nesseseary features on more expensive models or just sell you something that is useless just to get a sale

Independant stores will usually have limited stock and although will try and meet a system to your needs will tend to push you towards the parts which will be good but will make them the most profit and bu are not nessesarily the best part for the job

i would also second the suggestion to pop Linux Mint or Ubuntu on your current system - if only for a test to see if its hardwear or software thats the problem - basically because it is a different operating system, if the problems are software related then your issues will dissapear, if they are hardware related then you will keep having the same problems.

if you are worried about installing it i would suggest looking into WUBI - not an ideal solution, however what it does is installs one of the ubuntu's (you have a choice of 3) as a normal program inside windows. however it does a bit of 'magic' which once done gives the the option to boot into Ubuntu (or the version you choose) instead of windows, without loading windows. Once you have tried it you can uninstall it the same as any other program using 'add/remove' inside windows

chunter

I smell Vista..

robmar0se

gonzo127 wrote: »

ok well bypassing the suggestions above (which are good in the most)

just looking at your usage - a basic duel core cpu with 4gb of ram (3gb would also be fine) and on board graphics will do - make is not really important

£300 will get you something good enough for your usage and could probably get something fine for less as well, as pointed out no one will give you totally impartial advice.

Gonzo is kind enough to say my suggestions are "mostly good", but then goes on to say that £300 or less will get you a good PC.

I would beg to differ, for £300 it would be a compromise, and I would predict that with a cheapo, you could be in the same position in a couple of years or so.

Just look at component prices, take out £70 for Windows, that leaves £230 - for this you would get second rate, out-of-date (older) stock. I usually suggest to clients either get a cheapo, and be prepared to throw away after a year or so (longer if you are lucky) - surprising how many P Bell's go wrong after 12 months!), or if you want something to last, go for quality and spend a little more. A good motherboard £70-£80, a current model Intel i series cpu similar price if not more, A decent psu is £45, then there is the case, hdd, dvd etc.

With your experience of yr Dell, I would hope that you would like something where the risk of probs is less likely, hence my suggestions - I'm not selling anything (unless you live in Sussex!).

I see that you are interested in the artistic side of things, if you think you will use Photoshop at some time, then as this is very resource hungry, go for a motherboard with 4 Dimm slots, so you can add more RAM later without throwing the existing RAM away - one thing for sure, PCs do slow and it is almost 100% predictable that you will need more RAM at some time.

Lastly try and avoid using CDs/DVDs for copying stuff - these are the slowest aspect of computing - you would be much better off with flashdrives, even 8gb ones now are quite cheap (larger sizes available too), plus hold more data than optical disks. Downloading stuff from the net is usually governed by the speed of your internet connection not the PC, unless the latter is almost dying!

Hope it helps you, good luck

GlynD

SteveJH200 wrote: »

This machine really needs to have it's hard drive wiped and to start again as it sounds really corrupted. Sometimes it gets to the point where it would be quicker to do that than to try and restore or recover considering its been done many times before. Only thing is that you would need the XP disc to reload and the Dell licence code if it's still intact. If it's that slow now then I'm sure your father will get just as frustrated as you! Another option would be to wipe the disc and load it with an alternative operating system such as Linux Mint, Ubuntu or Joli 1.2.

This sounds like a really good option. I've had problems like this before and a full format of the hard-drive followed by an install of a stable platform such as Windows XP Pro SP3 would always sort it out. Then after installing all your programs and drivers do a CC Clean and a disc defrag and all should be tickety boo.

closed

Factory restore it, install avast free, post a hijackthis log that's 20 minutes work, then post if and when you get a problem.

See if your cd drive works before installing itunes and anything else.

Corrupt message?

gonzo127

robmar0se wrote: »

Gonzo is kind enough to say my suggestions are "mostly good", but then goes on to say that £300 or less will get you a good PC.

I would beg to differ, for £300 it would be a compromise, and I would predict that with a cheapo, you could be in the same position in a couple of years or so.

just wishing to nit pick here, i didnt state a good pc i stated a pc good enough for their current usage

and as to being in the same position in a few years - well that all depends on what sort of usage they will do in future,

as up until one of my step daughters friends stood on it a few months back and killed it, i had a dell x300 ultra portable laptop from 2003 which was still more than upto the job of basic web usage, emails, office programs, listening to music etc etc

please note i am not saying your suggestions are bad as they are actually good (personally i spend at least £80 on a PSU but then again i overclock the nuts out of my systems), however this being money saving and all i do not currently believe spending £500-600 on a system at the moment would be any better than spending £300 now which covers the current useage and then spending another £300 on another system in 3 years time IF needed

Wannie_2

Are we talking about Vista? If so, personally I would just dispense with all the DELL crapola and install XP and Drivers manually after testing the RAM and Hard drive.

I too think that the OP should try an alternative operating system, perhaps as a Live CD initially. Start with Ubuntu and then 'Run it with Windows' as suggested.

Make sure the machine is clean inside. Earth yourself, perhaps by touching a radiator. Take out the RAM carefully without touching the chips or metal parts. Clean the contacts with an eraser. make sure there is no dust in the slot. Re-insert.

Then run Ubuntu as a Live CD to see if you have similar problems. If not, perhaps you can install it alongside Windows and see how you go. We can eliminate problems as we go along.