Advice on Computer Spec please

flis21

Hi All,

I need a new computer (mine is 10 years old and takes me an hour to get it to turn on these days!!). I mostly use it for surfing the internet (facebook, shopping, emails etc.) my son uses it to play the little games on cbeebies website and I use basic office stuff like excel and word. Can anyone give me any ideas what I should be looking for. Probably gonna buy a refurbished one, so any advice would be great, I'm not very good at this techie stuff!!

Thanks,
Flis

gonzo127

if your current computer generally does fine but is just a little slow, have a look at the top of the forum for a post called how to speed up a slow or infected pc, this really can work wonders and is not that difficult, another thread just recently called has my computer had it should show that even someone who is not techie themselves can do it.

other than that if you really have too/ want to buy a new computer, to be honest the only thing i would suggest looking for is a duel core processor and a minimum of 2gb of ram (DDR3 is better), however virtually anything you buy now will be quicker than a 10 year old computer so dont stress to much. just post up the 'specs' here and we will give you a quick run down, however the only thing i would suggest is to think if you want a package (including monitor mouse and keyboard) or if you just want a base unit (the main computer)

flis21

Unfortunately I do need a new one, my current one is taking me over an hour to even get turned on!!

I only really need the base unit, I have a monitor and keyboard etc that work fine. I've found one on Dell's website that will be £260 with VAT and delivery. The specs are: BASE,MNTW,CTO,570
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium (64 BIT), Inspiron 570 MT : AMD Athlon II X2 245(2.9GHz,1MB)
320 GB SATA Hard Drive (7200 RPM), 2 GB DDR3 SDRAM 1333MHz (2 DIMMs)
16X DVD+/-RW Drive, Back Up Media Not Included

Can you let me know if that's any good? Thanks, F xx

Leo2020

For what you want to do with a PC that spec is more than adequate. My advice to anyone buying a PC that's mainly going to be used for going on the internet and using Word is that it doesn't really matter what PC you buy. Any cheap PC from Argos, Comet, PC World, Dell, etc will be fine.

gonzo127

flis21 wrote: »

Unfortunately I do need a new one, my current one is taking me over an hour to even get turned on!!

I only really need the base unit, I have a monitor and keyboard etc that work fine. I've found one on Dell's website that will be £260 with VAT and delivery. The specs are: BASE,MNTW,CTO,570
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium (64 BIT), Inspiron 570 MT : AMD Athlon II X2 245(2.9GHz,1MB)
320 GB SATA Hard Drive (7200 RPM), 2 GB DDR3 SDRAM 1333MHz (2 DIMMs)
16X DVD+/-RW Drive, Back Up Media Not Included

Can you let me know if that's any good? Thanks, F xx

if it didnt used to take this amount of time to turn on, the likelyhood is that this can be fixed by following the guide previously posted about.

however on those specs, it is acceptable for the price, of course more ram would be better, however this is a cheap upgrade if you want it in the future

TakeThis

If you hang on for a bit, one may appear here for a bit less and with a better specification.

boxst

If you are used to a computer that is 10 years old, then have a look at Freecycle (google it for one in your area, although if you are in Sussex like me then there is Uckfield, Brighton etc..).

People (me included) will quite often recycle unwanted computers there and by no means a modern spec it will probably be a revelation to you

Steve

flis21

Thanks all, I've now discovered that my friend's husband sells refurbished PC's, he's recently gone self employed. He's going to do me one for £120. The specs are: Dell GX280
CPU: Intel P4 2.8GHz Hyperthreaded Processor
Memory: 2GB
Hard Drive: 500GB
DVD/CDRW

Comes with a 3 month warranty

This seems quite a good deal, so I'm going to go with it. It's taken me all day to get this turned on today. Will have a look at the guide you suggested as I won't get my new one till next week and this one is driving me crazy!!!

Thanks All, F xx

closed

You may wish to read these before committing to the purchase

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2373069,00.asp

http://www.upenn.edu/computing/provider/docs/dellletter200602.html

and try the suggestions in your other thread to speed up the existing one

When you say an hour to turn on, do you mean turn on (ie power up), or boot into windows?

TakeThis

Probably already committed to it. Even worse that it's a friend's husband.

I'd rather get something like this and stick Ubuntu or similar on it, if I didn't have a Windows licence.

flis21

I am already commited to buying it now, he's bringing it tomorrow. This computer is now taking even longer to turn on, been trying all day and only just got it to start. And I mean I am sitting here pressing the power button repeatedly until it finally decides it will turn on!! Am about half way down the list on the other thread, but it doesn't seem to be making any difference!!