New Computer
Some time this year I think we’ll have to invest in a new computer. The one we have right now is about 6 years old and it’s getting kind of slow. When ever we have to look in to a new computer I get a little stressed. I’m not much of a computer guy so I don’t really know about specs and such. I know I don’t want to spend an arm and a leg, nor do I need a full package deal. Our mouse, keyboard and screen are just fine so we don’t need those. We’ll only need the tower (do they still call them that?).
Any tips on which brand is better or how to look for a computer that best suits our needs? Our needs being word processing, emailing, web surfing and the occasional Photoshopping.
Update: Thanks for all the tips everyone! I honestly I have no idea what specs are good for computers. I used to, but that was a long time ago. I was able to find out the specs I do have. Apparently I’m running a…
Dell Dimension DV051
Intel Pentium 4 CPU 2.80GHz
2.79 GHz, .099 GB of RAM
144 GB of space
At least that’s what the properties window tells me off of My Computer. I have no idea how to upgrade a PC. Is it easy? Is it more cost effective? Also, what are peoples opinions on refurbished computers?
Play Asia
May 19th, 2012 at 11:37 pm
My 5-y.o. Gateway PC is starting to be on it’s last legs. It refuses to update anything anymore (even from Microsoft), and no matter what I’ve tried, the mouse cursor keeps freezing every few minutes. Gonna shop the online stores for a good refurb and get a video card to go with it (since the video output on prebuilt machines tends to be crappy).
Try browsing places like Newegg or Fry’s online for a good deal. Just never, ever, eeevverrrr go to a place like Best Buy unless you want to get hosed.
May 20th, 2012 at 5:08 am
I actually got a REALLY good deal on a laptop like..3 years back at best buy. But then again I do my homework. The laptop had been going for like… 900 on amazon and newegg. I assume it was some special deal because it was/is copper colored. I paid 500 for a vaio. That machine has never given me problems and I was super happy with my choice (the machine I was upgrading from, yikes!) My computer tech bf opened it up last year to vacuum it out. Totally unneeded, I was impressed. There are diamonds in the rough, but you really have to know what to look for 😛 Otherwise I tended to avoid Best Buy for obvious reasons. But now I live in Sweden, no Best Buy. No big loss there.. but no Newegg either 🙁
May 20th, 2012 at 12:29 am
Well, “Photoshopping” thing is the only one that matters, i think all you need to have is about 8gb or more ram (not sure how much ram photoshop using) and you can try i5 (good price and speed) or i7 for photoshop, renders faster then i5.
Anyway i have beed used http://community.futuremark.com/hardware/cpu to pick my hardware, click on virtual pc icon to check combinations of different hardwares.
May 20th, 2012 at 12:49 am
I have to agree with Shadowmutt when he says to not go to any retail store if you don’t want to get screwed over.
As for Photoshop, I have no idea about it (I game and only game…), so you’ll have to do that on your own.
This is the type of computer I would recommend: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883220138
If you want to know, I’ve been using Newegg for years and I haven’t had a problem with it. If you want it a bit cheaper, just say it and I’ll try to help more.
Brand-wise, I’d also go with Asus or HP. Personal preferences. Hope this helps.
May 20th, 2012 at 1:26 am
If you gonna use your PC just for those things you mencioned then i sugest just upgrading CPU, RAM and probably geting new motherboard.
Just dont by some cheep ass RAM cubes, from my experiance cheep onses have high chance of beaing foulty. I sugest Kingstone or Corrsair.
May 20th, 2012 at 8:00 am
Myself? I reccomend you get some more RAMa bigger Hard Drive,and a better proccessor. A better graphics card can help,but it’s secondary for your concerns. If you’re running a Windows OS (It’s all I know…No idea if Mac or Linux is the same),you can easily fetch your computer’s specs by doing the following…
-Right click the “My Computer” icon
-Select “Properties”
-In the resulting window,select “Device Manager”
-From there,open the collabsible fields by selecting them.
-Google search “Upgrades for [insert part here]
An example of my proccessor would be eight (I have an eight core) Inel(R) Core(TM) i7 CPU 960 @ 3.2 Hz
You MAY need a new motherboard,while you’re at it. It’s the part that everything on the inside connects to.
Hope I helped!
May 20th, 2012 at 7:44 pm
About manual upgrades…It depends. Yo you have a desktop? I assume you do,looking at your language used in the post…Or do you have a laptop? If you have a laptop,get a new one,since they’re generally a much bigger pain to upgrade bits and bobs for.
For a desktop,I find it to be relatively easy. You open the side panel,and there you go-exposed board. IT goes without saying,but your computer needs to be off for this.
The CPU generally has a heat sink and/or fan mounted to it. You’ll need a long and narrow screwdriver to pull out the screws,and the CPU is attached to it’s place via pins and adhesive. With your new CPU (I reccomend cheking out Intel’s store to see what’s more recent),you place it where the old one was,and reattach the heat sink and fan. There are cables attached to that assembly,which can be unplugged somewhere along the cable,usually.
That 114GB of space,I’m fairly sure,reffers to your hard drive,which the computer reffers to as either an HDD (Hard Disc Drive),or Disc. I generally don’t touch that…I just pick up 1TB (terrabyte – VERY big!) external drives. I reccomend the WD My Passport Essential SE for that. As far as RAM goes,go for big numbers,generaly. Again,I rarely touch this,so I could be wrong. I reccomend you also consult a professional…If they don’t charge you an arm and a leg and your firstborn,that is. IT guys generally do,even for consulting…
Upgrades for components are les about cost effectiveness for me,and more about data preservation. Different people view it differently,but,there it is.
May 20th, 2012 at 10:56 pm
well, i havent had a desk top computer since my dads old windows 97, which we had until just this year, isnt that impressive? but anyway, all i know is that you should never buy a toshiba laptop, which is what i’m using right now, and my keyboard is horrible. but i have no idea about desktops. they might actually be good.
May 22nd, 2012 at 8:16 am
Your current system is old enough (about four generations of processors behind) that it isn’t really worth upgrading. Sure you can swap parts out but you’ll get much better bang for your buck replacing the whole system with current-generation hardware.
Really if you aren’t going to be doing much hard stuff (like 3D gaming) with the computer I would just pick up a base model Dell Inspiron off the website. They have a tower for $499 on the Dell Canada website with a Core i3 processor which would be much much faster than the P4 you are currently running. Refurbished electronics can be hit or miss but generally desktops from a big company should run just fine because for the most part the parts are intended to be interchangeable. They just swap out the broken bit and everything is good to go.
One note: since the P4 days processor clock speed frequency hasn’t really been going up so you’ll be looking at systems which are around 2.8GHz still. Don’t be fooled! The new 2.8GHz chips are many times faster than your 2.8GHz chip. The 2.8GHz i3 in the Dell I mentioned above is about an order of magnitude faster, and is supported by much faster memory and other hardware.