Upgrade my computer

morganedge

derrick wrote: »

I don’t want to get to bogged down with to much information, the way I see it I have 2 points to address, one is the price, after all this is a money saving site

Looks a little on the expensive side to me.
I'd imagine you could get the same setup for slightly under £400

derrick wrote: »

and the other is the computer system, with that in mind is the system suggested in my OP sufficient for my needs

Yes.

Cisco001

Your local store seems expensive...

You can get something like this
http://www.ebuyer.com/579770-zoostorm-desktop-pc-7873-0512


If you want better quality component, consider this.
http://www.dinopc.com/shop/pc/-b-NEW-b-Seismo-i3-4130-95p1788.htm
Change Windows to Win 7 if you want
Case to Fractal Design Core 1000
Power Supply to Corsair VS 450

Basically, the PC from dino is similar to the one with your local store and it cost £355.20 + £15 shipping. Your local store one with last gen CPU. Your local store offer better chipset motherboard, but which I don't see you would need that extra features.

However, your local store didn't mention what brand of PSU and case, which I see that quite important.

Honestly, I suggest you show what dinopc can offer for £370, and ask your local store if they can sell that £489 PC for £360 - 390.

By the way, AMD releasing new APU next week. I would recommend you consider that if you can wait until end of the month to see if they worth over intel.
I personally would opt for AMD A10/ A8 over intel i3 for your use.

closed

derrick wrote: »

I am not confident on doing the back up/reinstall.

My machine was built and bought from a "local" shop and has lasted nearly 10 years, (it is still going), and the only things it has had replaced,(under warranty), are a power supply?, and the DVD writer, however that shop has unfortunately gone, the shop I got the quote from has been in the same position for 25 years.

Maybe so, but I want to use VLC as explained in the linked to thread below.

.

£500 or follow some easy instructions ... this thread has been going 2 hours already, it could be fast by now. There's even a video showing how to backup in the other thread.

You are free to ignore the advice about local shops, it's based on experience. You may be lucky - but you have a slow machine, company has gone bust, you presumably have no easy means of windows reinstallation, and have already had 2 parts replaced, in my book, that's not a good experience, 10 years old or not. Those problems and many others are commonplace in the unbranded/home builds arena.

I don't know what your reasons are to insist on vlc, but it don't work, it might not work for the same reason on a new machine, so ... use something else.

derrick

closed wrote: »

£500 or follow some easy instructions ... this thread has been going 2 hours already, it could be fast by now.

You are free to ignore the advice about local shops, it's based on experience. You may be lucky - but you have a slow machine, company has gone bust, you presumably no easy means of windows reinstallation, and have already had 2 parts replaced, in my book, that's not a good experience, 10 years old or not.

I don't know what your reasons are to insist on vlc, but it don't work, so ... use something else.

I am not sat waiting for replies, I am doing other things.

The company I used was at the time through recommendation and had been going for many years, ( I don't know why the folded),but I had excellent service/advice from them during the 3 or so years before they went, ( if I remember correctly they went from the general to a business model), I do not think that 2 parts in a 10 year period is by any way excessive, they went in the first year, as parts in any electronics can and do.

My reasons are outlined in the linked thread, ( from post #15 of said thread: - "The 2 main items in VLC are the ability to take a picture from the video,(yes MPC will in a fashion, I tried one this morning and it would not take the picture I wanted, choosing to jump several frames, and I did try various ways, it would not do it), and for example if I have say a 10 minute video but only want about 1 minute from the middle, I can press record on VLC at the point I want the video from whilst the video is playing, then when I reach where I want it to stop, press again and the 1 minute clip is saved to my videos.") and I will not be swayed on this unless there is another player that will do the 2 main functions, some people can play HD videos on VLC so it appears to be my computer.

.

closed

You read the speedup thread, and threw in the towel before you started

Your choice, I can't think of one reason to purchase from a local, other than the fact it's local. My idea of excellent service, is not needing any.

vlc doesn't work, so swaying doesn't come into it. You could try faffing around with the settings, of which there are many

chunter

Cisco001 wrote: »

Your local store seems expensive...

You can get something like this
http://www.ebuyer.com/579770-zoostorm-desktop-pc-7873-0512


If you want better quality component, consider this.
http://www.dinopc.com/shop/pc/-b-NEW-b-Seismo-i3-4130-95p1788.htm
Change Windows to Win 7 if you want

Yip. By far and away the most sensible suggestion.
EDIT. bought one of the zoostorms last week (an i5) for myself. Actually surprised how good it is. The 8gb memory is a single stick so I can add another in due course.

derrick

closed wrote: »

You read the speedup thread, and threw in the towel before you started

Your choice, I can't think of one reason to purchase from a local, other than the fact it's local. My idea of excellent service, is not needing any.

vlc doesn't work, so swaying doesn't come into it. You could try faffing around with the settings.

My reason for preferring local as against some faceless site god knows where situated and at best many miles away from home, is that if anything does go wrong at least you can visit them easily, i.e. you need a repair under warranty, instead of having to pack it up and send away you can just take it to the store, and yes it shouldn't go wrong, but as a lot of threads in this forum can testify to, things do go wrong.

The service I was referring to was their telephone helpline for which I was extremely grateful for being a brand new computer user, (even worse than I am now). Any product can have failures, the service you get when/if it happens counts for a lot IMO. Not needing any is not excellent service, that cannot be quantified until you actually need it.

VLC does work, I have tried faffing about with the settings, nothing will allow me to play the HD recordings but I can still play other recordings perfectly well, it is evident from the other thread, that I need some form of upgrade/new system.

.

closed

vlc works playing some files, it's clearly not working playing the ones you want it to, so it's not working.

it's not evident at all that a new system will cure the vlc problem, a software bug is a software bug, I've come across quite a few in vlc over the years, in all cases, the hardware was not relevant.

The fact that the same video plays on your machine in three different players, but doesn't play in vlc, tells you it has absolutely nothing to do with the machine or your recording device.

NiftyDigits

derrick wrote: »

I am not sat waiting for replies, I am doing other things.

The company I used was at the time through recommendation and had been going for many years, ( I don't know why the folded),but I had excellent service/advice from them during the 3 or so years before they went, ( if I remember correctly they went from the general to a business model), I do not think that 2 parts in a 10 year period is by any way excessive, they went in the first year, as parts in any electronics can and do.

My reasons are outlined in the linked thread, ( from post #15 of said thread: - "The 2 main items in VLC are the ability to take a picture from the video,(yes MPC will in a fashion, I tried one this morning and it would not take the picture I wanted, choosing to jump several frames, and I did try various ways, it would not do it), and for example if I have say a 10 minute video but only want about 1 minute from the middle, I can press record on VLC at the point I want the video from whilst the video is playing, then when I reach where I want it to stop, press again and the 1 minute clip is saved to my videos.") and I will not be swayed on this unless there is another player that will do the 2 main functions, some people can play HD videos on VLC so it appears to be my computer.

.

Indeed your PC will struggle to play HD Video(especially Full HD) via VLC. But the PC suggested is just too expensive.

At the lower end there is this Medion E2025 E for £174.99. Add a graphics card for £25 and you have a useful system for £200.

As new for £189.99

derrick

NiftyDigits wrote: »

Indeed your PC will struggle to play HD Video(especially Full HD) via VLC. But the PC suggested is just too expensive.

At the lower end there is this Medion E2025 E for £174.99. Add a graphics card for £25 and you have a useful system for £200.

As new for £189.99

Thanks, but I don't want to buy refurbished, ( secondhand), or have Windows 8.1 on it.

.