I want/need a new PC

GWR-Kris · February 05, 2013, 11:20:23 AM

Like the OP im a bit out of touch with the PC market, but having recently bought a new PC, I came to the conclusion that you want atleast 8GB of Ram or 4GB with the capability to upgrade to 8GB or more, and an i3 processor.

That PC above has a 1TB hard disk even 500GB hard disk is moire than enough for the average person, maybe try look at systems with less HD space and more RAM.

tim-pelican · February 05, 2013, 12:40:19 PM

Quote from: MikeDunn on February 05, 2013, 08:49:50 AM
Ah - so he can replace all his software for free, yes ?

I'm struggling to think of the last non-game piece of software I paid for. Probably Moneydance, which (as software should be) is cross-platform with a licensing regime that doesn't care what platform you're on. What software packages do home users pay for?

In any case, there are several both free and pay-for-support ways to run Windows software on Macs, if there are specific programs that really can't be replaced. Increasingly you're going to need to use one of these methods to run XP-era software under Win7/8 anyway...

EtchedPixels · February 05, 2013, 04:26:14 PM

Quote from: tim-pelican on February 05, 2013, 12:40:19 PM
What software packages do home users pay for?

Windows users seem to spend money on "anti-virus" stuff. Apple people keep paying for the privilege of updating their OS software.

Browsers are free, office suites are free, email is free, media players are free and everything else (including much of that) is on the web except for high end gaming. There are plenty of studies which suggest the main reason end users don't buy a PC any more is that they don't need one ! (PC sales are down 8% and thats across the lot including business and server which probably hasn't slipped at all)

Even most of those that don't fit phone/tablet essentially want a web browser with keyboard that can do email, document editing and printing while not in network coverage. Which is where things like Chromebook have come from.

jonclox · February 12, 2013, 09:56:11 AM

Ive just bought a system from
http://stores.ebay.co.uk/COMPUTER-TECHNOLOGY-STOKE-LTD?_trksid=p2047675.l2563
and dealing withem direct have got the exact system at the price I wanted/could afford. The only extra ~I bought was the operating system as I didn`t want Windows 8 or the other options they offered
Its working a treat

Agrippa · February 12, 2013, 02:52:09 PM

Whatever you do don't get a Sony Vaio , absolute rubbish.

EtchedPixels · February 12, 2013, 03:57:30 PM

Quote from: Agrippa on February 12, 2013, 02:52:09 PM
Whatever you do don't get a Sony Vaio , absolute rubbish.

Had one of those years ago - every time you plugged in a PCMCIA card the keyboard popped out

drchips42 · February 15, 2013, 11:18:37 AM

Get a PC you can afford , and for the purpose you need it for . Getting a over 4GB is not needed , as most programs cant address that size anyway .. the rule is be honest with your self and dont get pulled into stuff you dont know what it is. Win 8 is a dead duck, fine on phones and tablets rubbish on PC's . Most hardware wont work with win 8 anyway , Win 7 will be fine for most users .

tim-pelican · February 15, 2013, 12:20:18 PM

Quote from: drchips42 on February 15, 2013, 11:18:37 AM
Get a PC you can afford , and for the purpose you need it for . Getting a over 4GB is not needed , as most programs cant address that size anyway

Some individual programs can't - but do you run more than one program at a time? Not constantly swapping to disk when switching applications can make a big difference, depending on how you use your computer. Upgrading my iMac from 4GB to 12GB definitely made a huge difference to me, as did 4GB to 8GB on the work laptop.

MikeDunn · February 15, 2013, 01:38:54 PM

Quote from: drchips42 on February 15, 2013, 11:18:37 AM
Get a PC you can afford , and for the purpose you need it for . Getting a over 4GB is not needed , as most programs cant address that size anyway ..

Not true ... as long as the OS can see over 4GB (which means a 64-bit version OS) the apps can access that memory as it is the OS that allocates the memory space.

As Tim says, the lack of swapping to virtual memory is a great help to the running of the system (even if you normally don't realise it's happening - suddenly when it's not you appreciate it). For various reasons, I have 24GB installed on this system; it's amazing what works better with actual RAM instead of virtual ...

Most PCs these days (maybe all ?) are 64-bit capable; the difference in OS price isn't that much (is it anything, these days ?), so not getting decent RAM (if your system supports it) due to cost is a fallacy, as RAM prices are ridiculously low.

EtchedPixels · February 15, 2013, 02:31:43 PM

On the subject of Windows 8 I thought this was marvellous

Windows 8: The Animated Evaluation

Caz · February 15, 2013, 06:08:10 PM

Thanks EP for posting, that was fascinating and a great presentation, perhaps Microsoft should employ this guy to sort out the mess that is Windows 8.

drchips42 · February 16, 2013, 08:56:54 AM

The OS maybe 64 bit the Programmes are not.

Have a look in your programs folder .. one will be normal one will have (x86) after it one is for 64 bit progs one is not.. as for multi tasking , Macs do it better ( it pains me to say ) as they are built on Unix ,,, as is Andriod etc.. Windows was not designed to work the way it does today . Ideally they need to scrap this current system and start again , but then it goes back to my first point , how many programs are 64bit.. how many can see over 3.5 GB? Having more RAM is like having more wheels on your car , does not matter how many you have , you are not going to go any faster !!!!

tim-pelican · February 16, 2013, 11:32:31 AM

However, if you have 4 people wanting to go to completely different destinations, having 4 cars is going to get all of them there faster than stopping the car every few miles, changing the driver, and driving a bit of the way towards the next destination. (Did I stretch the car analogy far enough?)

If you have 4 programs that all make use of 2GB that you run at once and switch between a lot in the course of whatever it is you're doing, a computer with 8GB is going to be *much* more responsive than one with 4GB.

drchips42 · February 16, 2013, 02:59:49 PM

does not work like that

tim-pelican · February 16, 2013, 03:28:52 PM

Err, yes, it works *exactly* like that. Address space is virtualised. If I have 8GB of memory, then (ignoring overheads for the OS), four applications can have 2GB of memory each, even if they're 32-bit applications that can only access 4GB of RAM each. Each 32-bit application sees it's own 32-bit virtual address space, which can be mapped to *anywhere* in the physical RAM, or to swap space on disk.

It's not like the days of DOS any more, applications really do not know where in *physical* memory it is they're writing to. They'd need to be recompiled as 64-bit to make use of more than 4GB of RAM *in that application* (or 2GB, or 3.5GB, depending on exact set-up and OS), but they neither know nor care about whether the machine itself has more or less than 4GB.

All presupposing a 64-bit OS, of course.