Time to upgrade PC ?????

alexlyne

Back about 3 years ago, I spent £250 doing up my computer, replacing pretty much everything apart from the case.
Soon after, I bought a solid state hard drive (SSD) to use as my main OS disk. It was only 30GB. It made more difference to my machine than upgrading from single to quad core processor, ddr to ddr2 memory etc.
I have since upgraded again to a 120GB SSD, as it is more convenient. It cost £150, though you can get 120GB for £100 these days (ebuyer). The 30gb drive is now in the laptop, reducing start-up speed from 90 seconds to around 20.

If I had my time again, I wouldn't have upgraded my main desktop machine in the first place, and just put an SSD in instead.

TakeThis

gonzo127 wrote: »

TakeThis - just to let you know hard drives have recently rocketed in price so £50 for a external hdd isnt realistic now (or for the forseeable future) - £70 for a 500gb one at the moment, and that is likely to increase same as internal ones have been doing over the last week or so - damned flood http://www.bit-tech.net/news/hardware/2011/11/07/hard-disk-component-supply-could-take-years/1

but anyway OP as has been stated whats your budget? if your set on a new system of course, if you want however follow Closed's advice and run the sticky at the top of the forum on how to speed up a slow or infected PC, this will bring your current system back close to new speed

as to antivirus, current independant tests (av comparatives) have shown AVG to be a poor program and consistantly gets beaten by a considerable margin in the detection tests by Avast and Avira, so i would recommend either of those, probably Avast over Avira due to no pop ups asking you to upgrade to the paid for product

I beg to differ.

Seagate 500GB Expansion Portable USB 2.0 Hard Drive £46.27

Buffalo Ministation 500GB USB 2.0 £49.99


Perhaps the newer USB 3.0 stock may be scarce, but there are still 500 GB ext. HDD to be found under £50.

Verbatim 500GB Store n Go USB 3.0 £53.55

Muppet81

Hello!

back again and thanks again for all the useful posts.

Budget!!!!

I am looking for a good middle of the road set up. I would like a decent sized screen and a nice feeling keypad. Actually prefer PCs but feel that this time i should bite the bullet and get something I can move around with me.

Would like wireless

Would like an external hard drive

Would like a combined Printer, fax copier as I have now

I do not use for playing games.

Main uses -
Email - I prefer Outlook to any other
Word and Excel
Internet - a lot!
Storage of photographs and working on the photographs - use Photoshop and various others
Storage of Family Tree data and research into it
Keeping track of my finances - very interesting that some of you are using MS Money on Windows 7. Trouble isI do not have the disc to reload it.

Budget? Well, money is not plentiful but I am hoping I could raise £500-£600 if that would give me what I need.

if i need to spend more in order to get something which will see me through for a few years, i would rather try to find the extra as I do not want something which will be obsolete in 2 years. £800 would be absolute top limit.

Does this give you a reasonable idea?

Muppet81

TakeThis wrote: »

Does your TV have an HDMI input?

Yes it does

Muppet81

alexlyne wrote: »

Back about 3 years ago, I spent £250 doing up my computer, replacing pretty much everything apart from the case.
Soon after, I bought a solid state hard drive (SSD) to use as my main OS disk. It was only 30GB. It made more difference to my machine than upgrading from single to quad core processor, ddr to ddr2 memory etc.
I have since upgraded again to a 120GB SSD, as it is more convenient. It cost £150, though you can get 120GB for £100 these days (ebuyer). The 30gb drive is now in the laptop, reducing start-up speed from 90 seconds to around 20.

If I had my time again, I wouldn't have upgraded my main desktop machine in the first place, and just put an SSD in instead.

This all sounds excellent but I am just not technical enought to consider going along those lines. I have not had the benefit of a DVD or CD wroter for a couple of years now and the techie firm I asked to fix it , fitted a new DVD writer but I still could not copy to disk. Even tried formatting PC and starting again but no joy.

Think it needs replacing sadly

TakeThis

Muppet81 wrote: »

This all sounds excellent but I am just not technical enought to consider going along those lines. I have not had the benefit of a DVD or CD wroter for a couple of years now and the techie firm I asked to fix it , fitted a new DVD writer but I still could not copy to disk. Even tried formatting PC and starting again but no joy.

Think it needs replacing sadly

Did they install DVD writing software?

Muppet81

TakeThis wrote: »

Did they install DVD writing software?

I have no idea I'm afraid.

TakeThis

If you don't have any sensitive info on your Desktop, I'm happy to have a cursory look at your PC remotely.

Eight years is old, but if the Motherboard is sound, you may well be able to get a bit more out of it with a little effort and minimal cost. Including getting optical disc writing back on board.

Then at least you will have a useful PC Tower and a laptop.

Muppet81

TakeThis wrote: »

If you don't have any sensitive info on your Desktop, I'm happy to have a cursory look at your PC remotely.

Eight years is old, but if the Motherboard is sound, you may well be able to get a bit more out of it with a little effort and minimal cost. Including getting optical disc writing back on board.

Then at least you will have a useful PC Tower and a laptop.

Would appreciate that. Nothing sensitive on PC probably. What would you need to do?

TakeThis

Muppet81 wrote: »

Would appreciate that. Nothing sensitive on PC probably. What would you need to do?

We would connect, with your permission, using Team Viewer.
I will check the basic spec of your machine, see what basic steps, if any, can be taken to improve performance and why, if a new DVD writer has been installed, that you cannot write to optical discs.