Best way to finance new computer

TrustyOven

One example:

http://www.dabs.com/products/pc-specialist-cosmos-ii-st17-850-core-i5-4310m-8gb-1tb-nvidia-gtx-850m-2gb-17-3--win-8-1-64-bit-9GYH.html?refs=51220000&src=3

(there are many other sites and models etc)

Is that enough to do web design work? I strongly suspect so. £700 and even that might be far too expensive. You save £300 (keep for emergency fund or something) and you save yourself the interest on the loan and you save yourself the potential for the loan repayments being missed and getting spiralling debt issues.

Apple hardware is very overpriced.

See this:
http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/1469121.htm

Smaller screen, slower CPU, smaller hard drive and £800 more expensive!

You have to be paying more money to get something more powerful:

http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/1447301.htm

http://www.dabs.com/products/msi-apache-ge70-2pc-037uk-17-3--core-i7-4700hq-12gb-1tb-nvidia-geforce-gtx-850m--win8-9B3M.html?refs=51220000&src=2

That's a difference of £730! The Apple is smaller screen, slower CPU, less RAM, smaller hard drive size... Yikes!

Someone else made a comment about the mistake the OP made was to say they needed £1500 for a computer.

If it was a £1500 as a loan, I would think people will be asking for a SoA and looking for ways for the OP to cut expenses and to save for it. (This is a money saving forum).

Either way, the decision rests with the OP.

thebritishbloke

robatwork wrote: »

I just checked Argos.
For £250 I found a 15.6" laptop with only a celeron processor. you can't do serious work on a screen smaller than that.

Care to link to the £250 i3 laptop you bought from Argos?

I can't find the actual one he bought, but there's quite a few on their ebay outlet.

DevCoder

The OP stated he is working with 600MB+ PSD files, I hardly think a £250 i3 is going to cope with that.

You do know that the Apple Retina you linked to has a 512GB SSD compared to the SATA 5,400rpm drive on the machine you linked to? So you can add another £300 to that PC spec for the HD upgrade and even then it won't be a PCIe drive.

If the OP's workplace is Apple based then by far the easiest workflow is with another Apple machine. iCloud, Airdrop, Time Machine backups just add to that.

Yes you can get a powerful PC laptop for around the ~£1K mark but even the HP Envy (x2) and other Macbook rivals are roughly the same price.

Apple hardware and OSX "just works" which is why a lot of people switch to it.

I have used pretty much every combination of PC and Apple hardware, iOS and Android (and even RIM) devices and I chose Apple for everything at home, this despite earning my living on PC based hardware for the past 25 years. Development is done purely in Xcode for the past 3-4 years after developing in Visual Studio/.NET, Borland Delphi and C++ builder and Microfocus Cobol before that.

The OP has made a decision on Apple hardware, not quite sure why people are throwing alternatives out there when the OP has already probably looked into those possibilities and discounted them.

DevCoder

thebritishbloke wrote: »

I can't find the actual one he bought, but there's quite a few on their ebay outlet.

The majority of which are 3rd gen i3 refurbished models. If you are doing the kind of work the OP obviously is then a 4GB, 1.4ghz with 500GB 5,200RPM drive is not going to cut it.

Yes the OP should ideally save up, all the equipment Ive purchased I've avoided the temptation of credit and purchased outright through saving. But if the OP thinks that working from home will further his career (either in his current employment of elsewhere) then I can't see the issue in purchasing a premium device.

TrustyOven

Then the only choice for the OP is to become indebted and get the shiny nice Apple equipment now.

I assumed the OP was generally trying to get a better deal and save money (what with the question about which loan to get to get less interest charged), and as part of that I (and I guess others) thought it would have made sense to re-evaluate the need for the very expensive equipment.

Either way, if the OP thinks they can afford the debt, and we can't sway their opinion, then the OP should just do what they think is most appropriate for their situation.

TrustyOven

krisdorey wrote: »

You do know that the Apple Retina you linked to has a 512GB SSD compared to the SATA 5,400rpm drive on the machine you linked to? So you can add another £300 to that PC spec for the HD upgrade and even then it won't be a PCIe drive.

Fair point about the SSD - I didn't spot that.

(Edit) But one could argue that an SSD is not essential to run a computer fast. Sure, it improves speed, but people got on with Photoshop etc without it for many years just fine

krisdorey wrote: »

I have used pretty much every combination of PC and Apple hardware, iOS and Android (and even RIM) devices and I chose Apple for everything at home, this despite earning my living on PC based hardware for the past 25 years. Development is done purely in Xcode for the past 3-4 years after developing in Visual Studio/.NET, Borland Delphi and C++ builder and Microfocus Cobol before that.

Ever considered Linux?

DevCoder

The OP has other choices and can still stick with his desired iMac, Apple do 0% finance, they also do refurbished machines, and the price of the iMac is in a current price drop and will do so again in September when the new iMac comes out.

As stated, you can spend more on PC based laptops of equivalent spec. I just find it funny that as soon as Apple is mentioned, people immediately start jumping on the post going on about how much cheaper a PC would be. They aren't necessarily as attested to by the HP Envy X2 and the IBM thinkpad Carbon X1 which are in the same league, price included.

DevCoder

TrustyOven wrote: »

Ever considered Linux?

I worked quite a bit on the ADSL "frog" modem drivers for Slackware/Red Hat, contributed towards the original X11 fork code about 10 years ago and have also worked on FreeBSD, AIX and HP-UX (which might be considered proper Unix OS's )

I'd go as far to say that I even prefer *nix OS's these days compared to current Windows versions (W7 excluded)

ConsumerWizkid

This guy isn't looking for advice on what computer to buy, re-read his post

gemnomnom

PeacefulWaters wrote: »

If this is your living, the best advice I can give you is to set money aside out of your income to pay for the next one.

Relying on credit to fund the basics of your trade is one hell of a risky way to manage your livelihood.

I would agree. Saving is always better than borrowing.