Author Topic: PC just died.... any suggestions? (Read 5106 times)

This-is-damion · « **on:** February 09, 2015, 08:17:58 AM »

Just wondered if anyone (UK) has recently bought a computer and knows of any good deals?

Need something fairly decent to run Pshop/Scanning software, along with home recording software - so needs a degree of oooomph to it - on the other hand my numbers are yet to come up on the lottery and my 1 yr old child has the appetite of a ten year old so cost is a consideration.

LT · « **Reply #1 on:** February 09, 2015, 08:41:11 AM »

I know money is an issue Damion ... but can I just say I bought my MacBook Pro in summer 2009, I had to replace the hard-drive last year (£80) and I upgraded the memory at the same time to keep it running comfortably (£100 I think). Apart from that, it has never stuttered, shuddered or complained. 6 years. My PCs and laptops before then lasted 2 years each max. I think it was £1k well spent. And, you can pick up iMacs and MacBooks quite cheaply second hand I believe.

Just a thought.

jojonas~ · « **Reply #2 on:** February 09, 2015, 09:09:48 AM »

I'm with leon. been running PCs but when this one croaks I'm getting a mac. it'll be worth the switch in the long run. and nowadays I don't tinker as much, I just want the damn thing to work

hm... do you have a refurbishing company in the uk too? we have one here that takes care of office computers and sells at good prices to the private market (or what you call it)

This-is-damion · « **Reply #3 on:** February 09, 2015, 10:18:56 AM »

I've toyed with the idea of a mac before - but I'm kind of knee deep in the windows OS. Tablet, phone - all windows - all work very nicely together in terms of the day to day.

One thing which was lovely was I bought a nice windows tablet a few weeks back, took it round my Moms and it automatically connected to her wifi as it took all the stored connections from my windows phone. That's the internet of things right there!

However I do admit my computer has lasted under 4 years with minimal use.

Photo_Utopia · « **Reply #4 on:** February 09, 2015, 10:21:19 AM »

I too have a macbook I bought off ebay for £200 put 4 gb ram in it and a 128 SSD runs like a champ.
If you'd rather have a PC I'd go to this site that sell refurbished our College buys from them:
http://www.misco.co.uk/Cat/Computers/Desktops

They have Dell, HP and lenovo from about £150 up...

Kayos · « **Reply #5 on:** February 09, 2015, 12:22:40 PM »

Cheapest way is to build yourself, pretty simple these days and what I'm doing next month as mine has just died

£300 ish for hex core, 16gb ram and a decent mobo, graphics, psu, ssd and raid drives will be swapped from old machine

02Pilot · « **Reply #6 on:** February 09, 2015, 12:40:00 PM »

I refuse to pay the Mac tax. Windows boxes are pretty cheap at this point. Building your own is the most economical way to do it, but you may not want that option for any one of several good reasons. Any of the Intel i-series (i3/i5/i7) processors should be adequate for your needs. RAM is dirt cheap these days, so get 8GB minimum. You may be able to move drives over from the old box (depending on how it died), so you might save on storage.

Of course, in addition to the Windows and Mac options, there is always Linux, which will do more with less hardware than either of the other options, and is free to boot. If I were building a box to do the things you're describing, that's the way I'd go unless I needed OS-specific software.

This-is-damion · « **Reply #7 on:** February 09, 2015, 01:01:52 PM »

The error code I'm getting suggests HDD is in the process of dying/died - I've tried a few things and just cant get it past the repair stage.

Think I'm fairly happy to spend around £500 if that comes with a monitor - or £350 ish with no monitor.

Building my own is out the question - I don't have time (but mainly knowledge or patience) to be faffing about.

Terry · « **Reply #8 on:** February 09, 2015, 01:57:15 PM »

When my desktop (the one I run PS on) was making 'I'm about to die' gestures a couple of years ago, I bought a new WD hard drive that came with a free version of Acronis. It's a great idea--you plug both drives into the machine, Acronis mirror-images your old HD to the new one, and you remove the old one. The image was perfect and I lost nothing. I suppose if the old drive is too far gone it wouldn't work...

Francois · « **Reply #9 on:** February 09, 2015, 02:30:41 PM »

Installing a new drive and reinstalling windows is really easy.
But if you want to change the whole thing, I have a friend who bought a refurbished computer and he's quite happy with it. It's a Dell that came out of an office and was completely overhauled. They're easy to identify as they weigh a lot more than the computers you get at regular shops and are dead silent.

His is a dual core and has something like 4 GB of ram and runs win7. Something like that would probably be enough for Photoshop and a bunch other stuff. Unless you're a hardcore gamer, that should be enough... Besides, it's now a very cheap setup.

Bryan · « **Reply #10 on:** February 09, 2015, 04:18:06 PM »

I agree with those that suggested building your own or replacing the hard drive. I've been building my own for years and they last a long time. The manufactured ones tend to have cheap parts installed. For less cost you can build one with better quality parts and it's not that hard, even I can do it. My most recent computer was an ACER that I had to purchase because our old one finally died while I was out of town. My wife needed a replacement right away so I ordered it for her. It's been nothing but trouble. I've only had it a few years and I'm looking at replacing it soon.

This-is-damion · « **Reply #11 on:** February 09, 2015, 05:01:43 PM »

This one that's just died was an acer... never again. I bought an Acer laptop a few years back- that also didn't last long

I've just bought a hard drive caddy so I can try and retrieve the pictures and music files. Thankfully (after a disaster years ago) I've been relatively good at backing up - don't think I will of lost any image files - but there is a lot of d/l music on my computer I want to get back!

Bryan · « **Reply #12 on:** February 09, 2015, 05:14:43 PM »

Quote from: This-is-damion on February 09, 2015, 05:01:43 PM

This one that's just died was an acer... never again. I bought an Acer laptop a few years back- that also didn't last long

I've just bought a hard drive caddy so I can try and retrieve the pictures and music files. Thankfully (after a disaster years ago) I've been relatively good at backing up - don't think I will of lost any image files - but there is a lot of d/l music on my computer I want to get back!

Due to recent computer problems I started using Carbonite, an online service, to backup my hard drive. It's already payed off once. It backs up the hard drive every evening and I can access the files from anywhere.

This-is-damion · « **Reply #13 on:** February 09, 2015, 05:18:29 PM »

I recently bought an HP stream tablet, £85 and it comes with 1 TB of onedrive storage... 1TB!!! that sounds insane to me!! good though...

John · « **Reply #14 on:** February 09, 2015, 07:53:39 PM »

Quote from: Leon on February 09, 2015, 08:41:11 AM

I know money is an issue Damion ... but can I just say I bought my MacBook Pro in summer 2009, I had to replace the hard-drive last year (£80) and I upgraded the memory at the same time to keep it running comfortably (£100 I think). Apart from that, it has never stuttered, shuddered or complained. 6 years. My PCs and laptops before then lasted 2 years each max. I think it was £1k well spent. And, you can pick up iMacs and MacBooks quite cheaply second hand I believe.

Just a thought.

That's a bit like saying 'My expensive 6 year old car is just great! Only had to replace the engine and gearbox since new - and apart from that it's never broken down'

Mac's are probably the best option as regards quality, but a decent laptop should last more than 2 years. Had my Toshiba laptop for 5 years - no probs. Still got my old Pentium 2 from 2002 and it still works - though useless as it's so low spec. But I can't bring myself to bin it.

jojonas~ · « **Reply #15 on:** February 09, 2015, 08:03:49 PM »

Quote from: Kayos on February 09, 2015, 12:22:40 PM

Cheapest way is to build yourself

you're making me nostalgic by saying that

Francois · « **Reply #16 on:** February 09, 2015, 08:50:04 PM »

many times a machine gets slow just from all the junk that's in it.
Right now I'm still using my 2006 vintage HP on which I added a better video card I got at a garage sale for 1$ and 2gb of memory (total 3).
While it's not a speed demon, I'm running Windows7 on it and it's a single core machine.

I've seen those business quality Dells advertized locally for 128$...
For that you get a Dual core Intel of unknown speed, 4gb of ram and a 160gb drive. The ad won't say more than that but for the price, I'm really tempted by it.

02Pilot · « **Reply #17 on:** February 10, 2015, 12:42:20 AM »

Quote from: John on February 09, 2015, 07:53:39 PM

Still got my old Pentium 2 from 2002 and it still works - though useless as it's so low spec. But I can't bring myself to bin it.

Linux - one of the lightweight distros. It'll work just fine as a web box.

Indofunk · « **Reply #18 on:** February 10, 2015, 01:37:30 AM »

Quote from: 02Pilot on February 10, 2015, 12:42:20 AM

Quote from: John on February 09, 2015, 07:53:39 PM
Still got my old Pentium 2 from 2002 and it still works - though useless as it's so low spec. But I can't bring myself to bin it.

Linux - one of the lightweight distros. It'll work just fine as a web box.

Truth so pure...

Kayos · « **Reply #19 on:** February 10, 2015, 07:32:31 AM »

I'm not a huge tinkerer, I'm just tight so saving money by self building appeals to me

I'm currently on a borrowed laptop, only thing I did is put an SSD drive and a fresh windows install, with photoshop, Lightroom and scanner software, it's about 5 years old and copes OK, however it's noticeibly slower than I'm used to

I've also had many macs over the years, but these days price vs performance seems to be a PC, running whatever os you choose, alltho I only run windows for Lightroom and Photoshop

This-is-damion · « **Reply #20 on:** February 10, 2015, 07:50:04 AM »

[/quote]

That's a bit like saying 'My expensive 6 year old car is just great! Only had to replace the engine and gearbox since new - and apart from that it's never broken down'

Mac's are probably the best option as regards quality, but a decent laptop should last more than 2 years. Had my Toshiba laptop for 5 years - no probs. Still got my old Pentium 2 from 2002 and it still works - though useless as it's so low spec. But I can't bring myself to bin it.
[/quote]

"This old brooms had 17 new heads and 14 new handles in its time"

Paul Mitchell · « **Reply #21 on:** February 10, 2015, 09:43:00 AM »

"This old brooms had 17 new heads and 14 new handles in its time"
[/quote]

Classic 'Only Fools & Horses' line that one!

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Author Topic: PC just died.... any suggestions? (Read 5106 times)

Terry