Do I need a better PC?

Leo2020

If you know what your buying I don't think PC World are that bad - you can't get confused by any jargon because you knowing they're talking crap. PC World are pretty good on price these days and I have found it hard to beat them by looking else were.

Acer tend to have a higher fail rate but I had a Acer desktop for years and in the end it was me that broke it. Better brands are Asus, Toshiba (if you change your mind about a laptop), Lenovo.

Always thought Dell were meant to be good too. Packard Bell and Acer are owned by the same company, I think it was Packard Bell that bought Acer.

I used to be a desktop person but I no longer have the room with two kids. Much prefer a laptop these days. I used to like the idea that with a desktop I could upgrade and fix it a lot easier but that was back when it meant more sense to fix them. By the time my stuff goes wrong I tend to be after a new PC anyway and the costs these days are so much cheaper.

My parents bought a Time desktop, spent upwards of a £1000 and it wasn't even a top spec machine. You spend that now on a desktop your looking at getting a decent spec PC.

prowla

Dell's recent (and indeed current) models can be got for reasonable money on ebay.
Assuming the monitor/keyboard/mouse are OK, you could just get a system unit.
Something like a 3010 USFF (or 3020 for the current ones) could be had for around the £100 mark; they take i3 (dual core), i5 (quad core) & i7 processors (quad core + 4 threads), all of which are better than your outgoing one.

Strider590

This is all very well, but i've got two old IBM laptops running 1.6 Ghz Pentium M and 756MB of RAM.
These are by no means "slow", I even use one via remote desktop to run programs that don't work in Win7.

If OP's PC is running slow, it's either:

Full of junk and needs a reinstall
Full of malware
Has a very bloated anti-virus suite (something like Norton/Symantec)

Trying a different AV or getting shot completely, could reap huge speed benefits.

bsod

Very few people require a better machine. if google maps is so slow that it's annoying you, concentrate on finding out why, it is not your hardware at fault.

Follow post 10

rizla01

Def not Malware ( I use Malwarebytes, Spybot and Crap Cleaner fairly often) and I wouldn't go near Norton (Unless it had two wheels) - quite happy with AVG.

I guess if I were to get another PC I would probably lose a lot of software so perhaps best to dejunk first. I partitioned my HD so a re-install to 'C' drive would leave a lot of that intact and useable so perhaps I should try that - then decide.

prost

Before you do anything you should defragment your drive, every 2-3 months. That could explain a slow down. Don't use other software (eg. antivirus) or your PC whilst this takes place so you might want it done overnight. (Don't do it for an SSD drive.)

Would a reinstall of the operating system sort things out?

Ebay uses a lot of processing power, enough to justify another PC if you use it a lot.

If getting another PC, for AMD, you should look for an AM3 processor (like the Phenom II or the Athlon II) rather than an older AM2+ (Phenom X4), with 8Gb or pref 16Gb RAM (or with those as the maximum capacity). If you buy HP or Dell I don't think you can easily swap the motherboard in future as I think they make their own.

You could just get a PC with a dual-core AM3 processor (like the Phenom II X2 or the Athlon II X2). This would enable you to swap the processor for another, like the £34 4-core 45-watt 2.4Ghz Athlon II X4 610e:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/AMD-Athlon-II-X4-610e-2-4GHz-AD610EHDK42GM-Socket-AM3-Quad-Core-CPU-1000-MHz/261798882399?_trksid=p2047675.c100011.m1850&_trkparms=aid%3D222007%26algo%3DSIC.MBE%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20140107083358%26meid%3D4fceda8f0c5f401ebd152d5051b66e9d%26pid%3D100011%26rk%3D6%26rkt%3D10%26sd%3D151678129172

Or the faster £36 4-core 65-watt 2.5Ghz Phenom II X4 905e, which also has 6Mb of L3 cache:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/AMD-Phenom-II-X4-905E-2-5GHz-Socket-AM3-6MB-Quad-Core-65W-HD905EOCK4DGM-PC-CPU-/271759667524?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item3f46237144

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_AMD_Phenom_microprocessors

They should last you a long time & you save money because of their low energy use. If you needed a faster processor after that you just swap in a six-core (AM3) Phenom II X6. Search YouTube videos on replacing a heatsink, which is easy to do. Just get some inexpensive heatsink paste from ebay & search videos on applying heatsink paste although you don't have to as you just cut out a small piece of card & spread the paste thinly across the entire surface of the processor. It's like toothpaste.

(There are also 8-core AM3+ FX processors which use AM3+ motherboards:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_AMD_FX_microprocessors )

Remember to check the PC comes with driver software.

You need a 64-bit operating system if you want to use more than 3gb RAM & Windows 10 is coming free soon.

If you have your own copy of Windows you can just get a PC with no operating system on the drive.

The fans that come with AMD processors tend to be noisy. On Amazon you can also get quiet cheap reliable fan-heatsink that comes with pre-applied thermal paste for 65W AM3 processors called “Arctic Alpine 64 gt”. It's a good idea to re-apply thermal paste every 1-2 years.

You can undervolt a processor (in the BIOS) to use a third less energy with hardly any impact in performance:
http://www.legitreviews.com/undervolting-the-amd-a64-x2-4200-am2-processor_375

*** In fact to remove the heatsink you just use a screwdriver to disconnect the clips from the holders (or they might be screwed on). Then just pull off the heatsink. ***

Double_V

You can never go wrong with Dell.
Using Dell servers, PCs, laptops for years.
Go for i7 quadecore and never worry for the next good 5 years.

getmore4less

Dell outlet are not bad if you hang about for something.

you could try the reinstall and small SSD in your existing machine.

if still not up to scratch the SSD cab go in your new one.

richy999

rizla01 wrote: »

Is this a lame machine.
Is it time for an upgrade?

Do I need a better one?
No game playing but graphical use (photos) and ebay.
also frequent need of Google maps (VERY slow nowadays)
Apart from printing docs (labels etc) thats it.

It doesn't sound like you need a new one.


But it does sound like you want a new one.


If you've got the money and have nothing better to do with it, then go ahead and treat yourself :-)

rizla01

Lol Richy.

Actually, I cashed in some un-needed gold about a year ago and seriously haven't found anything worthwhile to use my £900 for.

Great responses from you all. I certainly have a few options available so declutter & defrag look like happening this weekend and then - perhaps - out with the spondoolies.

Onwards & upwards, I say.

This PC is a E521. Is it worth me trying to do anything with my old E520? I vaguely recall it was a Pentium 'D' so not too quick either.

I assume it can only take Dell Mobos?

I think the PSU is frazzled on that one.