What do I replace dead desktop with...desktop, laptop or even a Mac ????

almillar

Plenty of 'nettops' around so I don't know how small this computer of yours is, but I can't imagine that they're much bigger, lots of them can be attached to the back of a TV! Anyway, as above, first option is to repair your current computer.
Laptops - you ask are they tough enough. Depends which laptop doesn't it? £300 Dell? Not that tough. £2,000 Panasonic Toughbook? Waterproof, takes some serious knocks. Pretty tough. Lots of options in between too. See how much a laptop bends or flexes to get an idea of how sturdy it is, and watch out for painted surfaces that are likely to wear.

richardvc

Thank you all for your answers so far - plenty for me to think about.

My old PC was considered uneconomical to repair (that was by the guy who looked at it) and it was thought that I would be better off replacing it.

I shall go and have a look at the links provided and once again thanks for your input.

Richard

richardvc

Gonzo, they are just what I am looking for I think. Do you know much about them ? I already have a great monitor and wireless keyboard and mouse so these seem to fit the bill at first glance.

Not sure what spec I need etc but the size looks good as that is roughly the size I had previously.

Shall investigate further and report back.

macman

richardvc wrote: »

Thank you all for your answers so far - plenty for me to think about.

My old PC was considered uneconomical to repair (that was by the guy who looked at it) and it was thought that I would be better off replacing it.

I shall go and have a look at the links provided and once again thanks for your input.

Richard

So what we still need to know is: what is wrong with it?

gonzo127

richardvc wrote: »

Gonzo, they are just what I am looking for I think. Do you know much about them ? I already have a great monitor and wireless keyboard and mouse so these seem to fit the bill at first glance.

Not sure what spec I need etc but the size looks good as that is roughly the size I had previously.

Shall investigate further and report back.

what do you need to know really?

their main 'problem' area is the processor which are lower power (means less electricity and lower heat) than the current main stream processors, however these are still more than powerful enough to run all the basics such as word, excel, internet, music and HD video decoding/streaming.

what they are not good at are games and heavy tasks such as video encoding or large image editing (im on about full editing not just your basic crop, rotate contrast sort of stuff) - this is not saying they can not do any of this, its just that they will be disproportionally slower than a 'big' cased system with a 'regular' processor

Knarf44

If you go for an iMac go for an intel one - aluminium finish rather than white plastic finish - you can always reformat the hard disk and put Windows 7 on it if you don't fancy trying OS X.

Notmyrealname

C_Mababejive wrote: »

Do yourself a favour...dont buy a MAC. They are just over priced fashion statements.

Except the build quality of the MBP is better than anything you can buy in PC World with the battery lasting at least three times as long and you cannot build a PC with the same spec as the 27" iMac for the same money even sourcing parts from places like Scan and the Dell monitor being on special offer.

Interestingly, the Macbook Pro is priced about the same as the Windows laptops built to the same quality - the Dell Latitudes, Lenovo T and X series, Toshiba Tecras....

richardvc

macman wrote: »

So what we still need to know is: what is wrong with it?

The hard disc was dead (I had backed up - lucky me) and the chip was damaged if I remember correctly.

We even tried a spare hard disc that I had and that wouldn't work either.

Bit unlucky really as I was keen to fix rather than replace.

macman

A hard drive failure is not a valid reason for binning the PC-it's easily replaced. A processor is also replaceable-if that's what you mean by 'chip'.

23n1th

The problem apart from the over pricing with apple is that you'll be tied into the apple brand.

Stick with a PC and you're free to do what you want with it. ATM I would consider the AMD E450 over the Intel Atom. My next purchase will be a couple of these: http://www.ebuyer.com/319567-acer-revo-rl70-nettop-pc-pt-sj4ec-003 similar to the ones gonzo posted.