Opinions on this pc please

Sunnyday

My ageing desktop is just about ready for the knackers yard and i`m thinking of replacing it.

I only need a base unit as everything else is good and looking around i`ve found this http://www.dabs.com/products/hp-500b-micro-tower-pentium-e5800-2gb-500gb-dvd---rw-windows-7-professional---64-bit-7M4B.html

It will be primarily used for the web, photos & music so doesn`t really need to be high spec but obviously i would like to get a good deal for my money and be able to use it for watching telly over the web.

What are everyones opinions on this?

I`m guessing that it won`t run office XP which i use occasionally but i`m not sure as i don`t know that much about these things.

It says the version of windows is 64 bit but will older programs run in compatibility mode or am i being a bit hopeful?

Advice would be much appreciated.

SD

DUTR

Sunnyday wrote: »

My ageing desktop is just about ready for the knackers yard and i`m thinking of replacing it.

I only need a base unit as everything else is good and looking around i`ve found this http://www.dabs.com/products/hp-500b-micro-tower-pentium-e5800-2gb-500gb-dvd---rw-windows-7-professional---64-bit-7M4B.html

It will be primarily used for the web, photos & music so doesn`t really need to be high spec but obviously i would like to get a good deal for my money and be able to use it for watching telly over the web.

What are everyones opinions on this?

I`m guessing that it won`t run office XP which i use occasionally but i`m not sure as i don`t know that much about these things.

It says the version of windows is 64 bit but will older programs run in compatibility mode or am i being a bit hopeful?

Advice would be much appreciated.

SD

The spec is OK, but I'm not so sure on the price, I have just checked on my PC and the ram is utilised to 1.88mb (I have 4mb), I have the Dell Inspiron Zino HD which costs around £400 however a lot of the price is due to the compact size.

TakeThis

Sunnyday wrote: »

My ageing desktop is just about ready for the knackers yard and i`m thinking of replacing it.

I only need a base unit as everything else is good and looking around i`ve found this http://www.dabs.com/products/hp-500b-micro-tower-pentium-e5800-2gb-500gb-dvd---rw-windows-7-professional---64-bit-7M4B.html

It will be primarily used for the web, photos & music so doesn`t really need to be high spec but obviously i would like to get a good deal for my money and be able to use it for watching telly over the web.

What are everyones opinions on this?

I`m guessing that it won`t run office XP which i use occasionally but i`m not sure as i don`t know that much about these things.

It says the version of windows is 64 bit but will older programs run in compatibility mode or am i being a bit hopeful?

Advice would be much appreciated.

SD

Leave it there.

TakeThis

If you have a student in the family, you can buy this equally dull, but more highly specified PC for £190 and supplement it with Windows 7 from less than £40.

closed

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2436849

TakeThis

or of course, Windows XP if you have a suitable disc in your possession.

Sunnyday

Thanks everyone,looks like i shall leave it for a while and carry on saving. I was always taught albeit many moons ago that a dedicated graphics card and soundcard was best and the model i posted has neither but i was unsure whether things had improved for that not to be the case now.

closed wrote: »

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2436849

Closed thanks for the post to your thread, i pop in there to read every now and again

I`m confident that i don`t have anything malicious on that particular machine but i keep getting various stop errors which seem to be hardware related. I`ve done three completely fresh installs of windows and updated all the drivers scanned when possible with everything that i can find etc but i`m struggling to actually do anything else on it as it keeps rebooting. Sometimes it will stay on for 30 mins and sometimes its constantly in a loop.

All the fans are running and whenever i`ve googled the info on the screen i get links to a microsoft site that stipulates hardware problems and states that it could be memory, HDD, Mobo and something else that i can`t remember.
Its so old that its not really worth spending any money on and i can`t think how i could find out what is actually wrong without having some replacement bits to swap out. If its the mobo then its goosed anyway.

I`ve all my data on a seperate internal HDD so i shall spend any spare time moving that onto an external drive before i do any tinkering.

Its all very time consuming and i don`t have that much time atm.

SD

TakeThis

Sunnyday wrote: »

Thanks everyone,looks like i shall leave it for a while and carry on saving. I was always taught albeit many moons ago that a dedicated graphics card and soundcard was best and the model i posted has neither but i was unsure whether things had improved for that not to be the case now.



Closed thanks for the post to your thread, i pop in there to read every now and again

I`m confident that i don`t have anything malicious on that particular machine but i keep getting various stop errors which seem to be hardware related. I`ve done three completely fresh installs of windows and updated all the drivers scanned when possible with everything that i can find etc but i`m struggling to actually do anything else on it as it keeps rebooting. Sometimes it will stay on for 30 mins and sometimes its constantly in a loop.

All the fans are running and whenever i`ve googled the info on the screen i get links to a microsoft site that stipulates hardware problems and states that it could be memory, HDD, Mobo and something else that i can`t remember.
Its so old that its not really worth spending any money on and i can`t think how i could find out what is actually wrong without having some replacement bits to swap out. If its the mobo then its goosed anyway.

I`ve all my data on a seperate internal HDD so i shall spend any spare time moving that onto an external drive before i do any tinkering.

Its all very time consuming and i don`t have that much time atm.

SD

I would not worry about the seperate graphics and sound card. Quite unnecessary for your simple needs.
The Ebuyer PC will be more than ample.
If you did, for instance, want to use it as a Media Centre(to watch FULL HD movies for example), you can add an inexpensive Graphics card. £25 will take care of that.
If you want to add a multi speaker cinema system, then you can add a sound card as well.

But for your every day needs, the Ebuyer machine is fine. Plus it gives you the option to install whatever operating system that you choose.
No need to be stuck with Windows 7 64 bit. You can take 32 bit or go with XP.

Take Windows 7 Professional and that will give you the option to run XP Mode.

You really don't need to spend more than £250 for what you need.

texranger

TakeThis wrote: »

supplement it with Windows 7 from less than £40.

those prices are for upgrading, but as that system comes without any OS, their is nothing their to upgrade from

Sunnyday

TakeThis wrote: »

I would not worry about the seperate graphics and sound card. Quite unnecessary for your simple needs.
The Ebuyer PC will be more than ample.
If you did, for instance, want to use it as a Media Centre(to watch FULL HD movies for example), you can add an inexpensive Graphics card. £25 will take care of that.
If you want to add a multi speaker cinema system, then you can add a sound card as well.

But for your every day needs, the Ebuyer machine is fine. Plus it gives you the option to install whatever operating system that you choose.
No need to be stuck with Windows 7 64 bit. You can take 32 bit or go with XP.

Take Windows 7 Professional and that will give you the option to run XP Mode.

You really don't need to spend more than £250 for what you need.

Looks good, the problem is that the machine i have was supplied with a recovery disk only and i don`t have any OS on cd apart from Win98se

The XP recovery is also tied to serial numbers of various bits of hardware. I don`t have a student email address to get any of the bargain software around either

SD

TakeThis

texranger wrote: »

those prices are for upgrading, but as that system comes without any OS, their is nothing their to upgrade from

Well actually there is. But since he doesn't have access to the student discount, it's a moot point.