Time for new pc (wife's business run from home).

3 years ago when we renewed the pc, laptops were pricier, performance per £ was lower but now there doesn't seem to be much difference. We do have a laptop (DELL) and it performs a damned sight better than the tower (which was decent spec a few years ago).

Anyway, new 'something' needed and not sure if another tower is actually the way to go forward. I know towers are easier to add memory/drives to etc but this is something we are unlikely to do as long as it does what it says on the tin.

Not needed for gaming etc

Opinions please (circa £400) (no monitor/keyboard needed)

Thanks in advance

 

I prefer desktop machines because if a part breaks down you can replace that part (assuming it hasn't taken anything else with it) If the laptop dies its much harder to save anything if it lets go.

Internet surfing on the sofa or in bed - laptop is king but for anything else I prefer a desktop.

 

Desktop for proper work, laptop for play! Main advantage is you can get a bigger screen on a desktop and they are more customisable.

Take a look at the Novatech range of machines

Computer Supplies and PC Components from Novatech

Looks good for £424

 

I prefer tower units too as Edd said.

Maplin are doing some deals on multi-core processor/motherboard combos, they also come with RAM, heatsink/fan, you could upgrade your existing PC for about £150, I've just done this and it's fast as ****

Here's a link to the one I got http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=226873

 

What spec is the existing desktop PC and monitor? Sometimes a cleanup, defrag and more RAM can bring something old alive, especially if only for office use.

Desktops are still much faster £ for £ - for the same price as my dual core laptop I built a desktop that is about four times faster in terms of CPU and perhaps crucially hard drive performance (2.5" laptop HDD vs 7200RPM SATA RAID array). A 22 or 24" monitor needn't take up much room and provides 1920*1200 instead of a typical 1280*800 laptop. Much more space for working without needing dual monitors.

 

We are away from home at the moment but Mrs SiPie has the rough spec written down on a post it note

Means little to me, but it says:

AMD 64 Processor
3200+
1.99 GHZ, 448 MB RAM (assume it's this bit that makes it so slooooooww?)

As I mentioned earlier, we don't want it to be ultra, it's just that the current one struggles (and it's just had a de-frag/clean up) with i-tunes/word and the internet open.

Thanks for advice so far, greatly appreciated ....... and in language we can understand too Worried that if it was put in computer related the opposite may have been the case

 

I don't understand how this isn't computer related?

 

Give that CPU the ram it deserves !


OK, its three years old but still very powerful, things have oved into Dual and Quad core but for normal desktop use that is still a beast of a CPU, I am writing this on my old trusty Athlon 1700 plus (garage MP3 player)with 756 mb ram (motley assortment of dimms), about six years old, has been left on for three of those years, left in a shed, things plugged in and out, generally abused and it has never failed to start, still feels snappy to use, even compared to my new 4 gig Quad Core work Laptop.

Ok, if you are playing games then it may need a better cpu, memory is the main factor and also for games an appropriate graphics card.

I spec servers at work, it pains me to see 3 grands worth of dual quad, with sixteen gigs of ram wasted on a small database just because the business owners want their own server, it might not be the latest and fastest spec but remember what we sent (alledegly) people to the moon with, a computer less powerful than your mobile.

Do your bit for recycling, use your old pc, there is pleny of life in it.

Makes me laugh when people ask me if a dual core will be fast enough for them, is 2 gigs of ram enough, I say that your internet **** experience will not be compromised by only going for 2gb and the dual core....

 

that'll be the problem then

 

buy on old powerbook of ebay or a new macbook

 

I use a laptop and a desktop. Got to say for fun, Laptop is the best, but for work it has to be the desktop. Desktop has that marvellous little feature of a calculater key pad on the right. I suppose you can buy one for the lappy but it is never in the right place. Might just be me, but working with figures all day, it's important

 

Done this for loads of customers who want the best of both worlds. The large screen, ext keyboard, proper mouse etc just sits better with some people and when you want to go mobile, then you just unplug and away you go.
Also it makes sense if for insurance purposes you need to lock the unit away securely.

Apart from that, even a mid range tower will always 'feel' faster than a laptop even if in real terms the spec is similar

 

Even 1GB total should bring it alive. Another thing to look at is that many Athlon boards can have a nice processor upgrade. Worth finding out the motherboard make/model, see how many RAM slots occupied etc.

XP running just a few applications will have very little free RAM if you have 512MB (no doubt 64MB of yours is taken for graphics). If you have 1GB it cuts down all the swap file bashing and runs many times better.

The bottle neck is your RAM, well before anything else I reckon.

 

Google; speed up XP

Theres loads of ways to free up resources

 

Obviously it is ........but by me asking politely if it could be left in NSR (thanks Mods, feel free to move now) I've managed to 'quickly' receive responses from people whose opinions I know and trust as opposed to those who live in Computer Related who play World of Warcraft and haven't seen daylight since 1983

Thanks for all the replies, ultra helpful and has persuaded us to modify and turn up the boost as opposed to a trade in trip to the dealers

Thanks again
Si (& Mrs Si says a big thanks too)

 

My lappy has one of those numeric keypads built in, just like a normal 'puter

17" screen too 1920 screen res, I wouldnt be without it, and havent used a desktop PC in about 5 years

 

The only advantages of a laptop are size and portability - in all other respects a desktop is better. A laptop will cost twice a same-spec desktop. It will be harder to use and harder (read mostly impossible) to upgrade - it's all or nothing.


If you need the machine in just one place, get a desktop. Need it in three or more, get a laptop. Need it in two places I'd say get two desktops.


M

 

Once again guys, thansk for all the replies.

As I mentioned we have a laptop that satisfies the 'portability' issue and it was simply because it has performed so well that we didn't want to overlook a higher specced laptop when replacing the tower.

We'll just upgrade the tower

Thanks all