Recommended PC

curly shirley

Hi anyone,

I need to get a new computer but not sure which 1 to get, was told to keep away from Dell????
Any ideas on what's best and where would be the best store in Cork to go to!

Bradidup

curly shirley wrote:

Hi anyone,

I need to get a new computer but not sure which 1 to get, was told to keep away from Dell????
Any ideas on what's best and where would be the best store in Cork to go to!

Depends on what you want to use it for. The components that are used to make up the computer are as important as the brand name. You cant go wrong with Pacard Bell, Compaq, (Hp), Acer, Im not from Cork but im sure theres a PC world / Dixons there. I never had probems with Dell. Advantage with dell is that you get them to "custom build" your pc from ground up rather than buy it from the shelf, if you get carried away it gets very expensive!!!

An entry level computer used for brousing and word documents would cost you e500+ and would use a "celeron" chip and would have smaller storage. (hard drive) and less working memory (ram). Make sure it has a dvd writer! (I would personally keep away from celeron, they are very slow and will drive you mad if you have kids that want to play games etc!!)

A more advanced computer used for basic graphic design, gaming, multimedia would have a "centrino duo" chip, larger hard drive and more ram would be much faster. expect to pay 900+.

Probably more than 90% of pc complaints back to manufacturers are software issues and are not the fault of the manufacture. Such would be deleating important driver files, viruses, adding conflicting software and hardware components etc.

Things that the manufacture would have to cover would be the monitor, power supply, hard drives, dvd drive etc. these rarely give trouble.

Frank.

spurious

I've never had any bother with Fujitsu-Siemens machines.

Have you considered buying online from komplett, dabs and the like?

Bradidup

spurious wrote:

I've never had any bother with Fujitsu-Siemens machines.

Have you considered buying online from komplett, dabs and the like?

Only thing I have against online buying is that if you have a warrenty issue its more effective to "knock on doors" . Had a mate in Holland that waited 6 weeks for his dvd rw to be replaced in his Fujitsu-Siemens laptop. Something to be said for having it assembled in this country.

admiralofthefleet

slightly ot but what are those philips iqon systems that tesco sell like?

TerrorFirmer

admiralofthefleet wrote:

something something iqon something something

No. Just no.

curly shirley

Thanks folks,
Even tho a lot of computer language is like double dutch to me , I'll keep these tips in mind.

Bradidup

curly shirley wrote:

Thanks folks,
Even tho a lot of computer language is like double dutch to me , I'll keep these tips in mind.

When you go to buy a PC no matter what make it is it will contain a chip, two of the most popular chips available are listed below.

ok ill be simple.
Computers using "Intel Celeron" is like a Nissan Micra.......Cheaper, slower, basic suitable for learners etc.

Computers using "Intel Centrino duo" woud be like a Nissan Primera........More expensive, more powerful, faster.

...................................................................................................................................
Sorry to all those AMD heads out there, im an INTEL Purist!!!!

curly shirley

Think I'll buy the Primera instead, no really tho thanks for that, I suppose it can't get any more simple (ahem!):o than that.

TerrorFirmer

Intel Celeron, Pentium 4, Sempron, AMD 64 - all budget now, some better then others but all feature in the cheaper price range. What you can do is post here if you have any questions about any particular machines that interest you.

Intel Core Duo, Amd X2 - the better more expensive machines.

I wouldn't pay too much attention to the fact that Celeron is a budget machine - what do you want to do with your machine? A high speed Celeron is actually better then what popular opinion would have you believe - if you're the type that wants to watch DVDs, browse the web, compose and print things - anything but a Celeron would be a total waste of money to be honest.

For a basic comptuer, you won't get cheaper then Dell or PC World. But just be careful what you buy - more so then whatever processor they give you, an important thing to watch is the amount of memory - Dell offer a minimum of 512mb which is fairly ok for a basic user, but PC World often ship cheap machines with mere 256mb, which would impede performance. Dell charge very high prices for extra Ram, PC World charge decent, online-competitive prices.

What's your budget? Dell will give you an Amd 64 3200+, 1gb of ram, and 19" monitor for about 700 including delivery and everything else - a fairly powerful machine for any use, not just basic ones.

PC World offer some really cheap E Systems and Packard Bell Machines - for about the 450-500 mark you'd get a more basic but totally functional machine, with a 15 or 17" monitor.

And it's Core 2 Duo, not Centrino Duo, those are old laptop chips....

Bradidup

And it's Core 2 Duo, not Centrino Duo, those are old laptop chips....[/QUOTE]


Sorry, Im a bit behind well anyone who knows anything in a pc shop will understand (centrino Duo ) Core 2 duo as superior / faster to Celeron.

P4 I think is finished

Tom Dunne

Bradidup wrote:

Sorry, Im a bit behind well anyone who knows anything in a pc shop will understand (centrino Duo ) Core 2 duo as superior / faster to Celeron.

Define superior.

It's all relative. Would you say an articulated truck is superior to a Nissan Micra? It depends on what you will be using it for. If you are just running to the shop, visiting your friends, whatever, you don't need an articulated truck.

If, however, you are doing work that needs loads of horsepower, like delivering a container load of equipment, then your Micra might not be up to the job.

Dismissing Celerons without knowing the intended use is simply misleading and bad advice. Celerons, like Micras, are aimed at a particular market and have an intended purpose. Games playing is certainly not one of them.

ActorSeeksJob

i got a dell desktop maybe 6-8 years ago,still going strong and dont plan on replacing it for a while.had no complains @ all about them so i wudnt rule them out tbh

zilog_jones

I'd recommend getting the best you can afford. My relatives got a decent enough Dell for christmas 2001 - they don't use it much outside the odd emails and web browsing (they only got broadband last week) and some old games for the kids, but after 5 years it's still grand for what they use it for. If they bought some cheapo Celeron with feck-all memory back then it wouldn't be half as useful.

IMO there's not really much wrong with Dell. I'd certainly recommend them over crap like Iqon and half the junk they sell in Dixons/PC World/Curries. HP/Compaq, Fujitsu-Siemens and (probably) Lenovo are decent enough as well.

eamon234

I agree nothing wrong with Dells the company I work for has 100+ desktops they use most over 3 years old now very few problems with them and are used and abused daily only thing I'd say about Dell is you get what you pay for - if you buy cheap you get cheap - buy a little above cheap spec and it should do you for a few years no probs

Bradidup

tom dunne wrote:

Define superior.



Dismissing Celerons without knowing the intended use is simply misleading and bad advice. Celerons, like Micras, are aimed at a particular market and have an intended purpose. Games playing is certainly not one of them.

Well for the few extra quid better safe than sorry, thats my advice. Its not just games, if she ever wanted to rip dvds etc, a bit of basic graphics etc she might as well trash a Celeron PC into the skip!!!. They are confined to places such as the civil service, schools and Fas.

DS

tom dunne wrote:

Define superior.

It's all relative. Would you say an articulated truck is superior to a Nissan Micra? It depends on what you will be using it for. If you are just running to the shop, visiting your friends, whatever, you don't need an articulated truck.

If, however, you are doing work that needs loads of horsepower, like delivering a container load of equipment, then your Micra might not be up to the job.

Dismissing Celerons without knowing the intended use is simply misleading and bad advice. Celerons, like Micras, are aimed at a particular market and have an intended purpose. Games playing is certainly not one of them.

I don't like that analogy, it implies that fast processors have some sort of limitation compared to inferior processors. Unless you're buying a notebook and are concerned about battery life, you are always better off with an articulated truck, and if you can afford one you should take it. Just because you don't need the extra power now doesn't mean you won't need or want it at some point in the future.

curly shirley

I hope to spend about 700 - 750. I basically need it for typing up documents, downloading music, and internet browsing as well as the usual photo albums n so on. Won't be doing anything major!

Appreciate the advice
Thanks

Tom Dunne

DS wrote:

and if you can afford one you should take it.

And that is the bottom line. You buy what you can afford. The difference in price between a Core Duo and a Celeron may not be justified in every case.
If somebody, such as curly shirley, is simply told go buy a Core Duo, because she might need it, well I don't think that is good advice. If, however, she is told here's model A, it can do XY and Z, at a cost of €1000, and here's model B, it can do X and Y, but not Z, at a cost of €500, that to me is better advice.

Give the person the bigger picture and let them decide.

Anyway, curly shirley have a look at the Dell C521. They have a decent enough processor, with 1 Gig of RAM for €579. The higher spec E520 is coming in with a Dual Core processor and 2 Gig of RAM for €679. That is a seriously powerful machine for what you want to do. Both of them exclude the 3 year warranty, so you may want to consider that also.

TerrorFirmer

I hope to spend about 700 - 750. I basically need it for typing up documents, downloading music, and internet browsing as well as the usual photo albums n so on. Won't be doing anything major!

If you can get a Dual Core machine, by all means go for it. But similarly, any Celeron based desktop will do those tasks effortlessly, both now and quite literally 5 or 6 years in the future - at least. In fact, a Celeron machine from the year 2000/2001 would still be adequate for those tasks. I'm not saying you should get a Celeron, nor am I saying you should get the cheapest machine you can - but the amount of misleading information regarding the Celeron needs some balancing I think.

if she ever wanted to rip dvds etc, a bit of basic graphics etc she might as well trash a Celeron PC into the skip!!!.

This is a fine example of people who like to criticize Celeron processors without any true practical experience with them. Do you know anything about Celeron processors? I don't mean that in a condescending way - just in case you intepet it that way. But it is a genuine question. All too often you hear 'Don't get a Celeron, it's rubbish.' Why? 'It just is.'

A modern Celeron processor is actually quite fast. I had a Celeron D for awhile until I could replace it with something a bit better - not only was it a good chip, it was perfectly competent in games too, I was running Battlefield 2, FEAR Combat, Company of Heroes among others without any issues. With any sort of semi-decent Celeron you're almost sooner limited by the card rather then the Celeron. So as for the 'if she wanted to do basic graphics trash it' - totally and utterly unfounded. The newest Celeron chips are actually good performers - you mention DVD ripping as well - at which they are quite good....

Fanny Cradock

curly shirley wrote:

I hope to spend about 700 - 750. I basically need it for typing up documents, downloading music, and internet browsing as well as the usual photo albums n so on. Won't be doing anything major!

Appreciate the advice
Thanks

When you ask for advice you really have to be wary because people often advise along the lines of what they would like, not what you need. There is a case for future proofing, i.e. spending as much as you can on components in case your needs change and you require the extra power of a better machine. However, if your are unlikely to be doing anything more taxing than Word etc. there is no point in splashing out on a higher spec machine.

For you, Dell will sell the right product. One caveat though: you must consider the fact that prices on Dell exclude programs like Office (about €150 I think). So, bearing in mind your budget, you are really limited to something along the lines of the lower end Dell C521 recommended by tom dunne.

Blowfish

Fanny Cradock wrote:

For you, Dell will sell the right product. One caveat though: you must consider the fact that prices on Dell exclude programs like Office (about €150 I think). So, bearing in mind your budget, you are really limited to something along the lines of the lower end Dell C521 recommended by tom dunne.

You don't need to buy Microsoft Office, Open Office will do everything you need and is free

Fanny Cradock

Indeed. I should have mentioned that.