New computer required

Other people will have different ideas, but my experience of Dell desktops has been good and they do offer good specs for the money.

For the laptop, you might want to look at IBM, Dell or Toshiba and buying secondhand can be quite cost-effective if you don't need all the latest bells & whistles.

If you're going to set up a wireless network, you'll need a connection with a router rather than just a single ADSL or cable modem.

The wireless network could provide a way of transferring files etc., or you could use a simple USB cable connection.

Apple!

Sorry, had to.

I would definately consider a Mac, I shan't preach but perhaps take a look.

For desktops I would still say Dell or Evesham, for home use once you get beyond those two I think you may as well just stick a pin in a computer magazine.

For laptops I would suggest Toshiba or IBM, possibly Dell, and personally I would buy new because with a laptop if it breaks and it's not under warantee it will usually cost you.

As for "C" it depends what "thingy" you already have but it should (stress should) be as simple as making sure both machines have wireless cards installed.

Paul

quote:

Apple!

....to match the Betamx Video and 8-track cartridge player.....

Sorry, had to.

Cheers

Don

quote:

Originally posted by Don Atkinson:

quote:

Apple!

....to match the Betamx Video and 8-track cartridge player.....

Sorry, had to.

Cheers

Don

You've gotta be kidding me?

If you already have a monitor just take a look at this: www.apple.com/macmini
I think that putting money on the last type of processor, motherboard, video card etc etc is a waste.
When you step out of the shop your PC is already old!

Get an apple with MSOffice it will do absolutely everything you want with out the viruses,

Thanks for the suggestions so far - I did not realise that Apple's could run MS Office functions which makes an Apple a consideration.

I am going to try the suppliers to our office and see what they suggest (possibly HP - any good?) and will also look at packages from Dell.

It looks as if I need a router for the wireless aspect. Let's see what happens...

Mike

Avoid Mesh like the plague. I have had good experiences with both Evesham and Viglen.

Brad

Although I've nothing against the MAC, I'd stick with the PCs, unless you have a specific, application driven, reason for buying a MAC. The PC market is more competitive, with greater choice and typically at lower cost. Whether Apple like it or not, MS dominates the market and will continue to do so. In the longer term the survival of Apple is always in some doubt.

Incidentally, you dont necessarily need to use MS/Office, there is an open-source equivalent called Open Office available as a free download. I've not personally used it, but it appears to offer a lot of functionality for the money (£0).

David its statements like that which insure the shite windows stays at the top.

Where did you get your information that Apple were in trouble? They shipped 10 million ipods between october and december, let alone massive sales of the imac range.

The poster has made specific reference to problems with viruses and worms, I notice another thread here today with the same problems, this does not happen with a mac and has got to be worth another 50 odd quid on the price of a computer surely.

It's the same tiresome old diatribe trotted out by PC users everywhere:- the PC has cornered over 90% of the market so therefore Apple is in trouble and struggling to survive.

Yeah right - it won't last the year, surely

I'm sorry I stirred up some defensive behaviour from MAC users, but the reality is that Apple has been in and out of financial difficulties several times over the last 15-20 years. I did not suggest that Apple was presently in trouble - please don't put words in my mouth.

Probably Apple will survive, I certainly hope it does and as Gary points out the iPod is certainly helping it to do so. However the iPod isn't going to last forever, soon another must-have gizmo will come along and not necessarily from Apple. This begs the question whether Apple could continue to survive on it's core business (the MAC).

I was very careful to point out that I have nothing against the MAC, but believe from 25 years experience in the computer business that the Windows PC is the better choice for most PC users. The Windows PC has cornered 90% of the market, so it must be doing something right.

David, the easy answer is to say us mac users are frothing at the mouth.

However read the gentlemans opening post again. He wants a flatscreen monitor for desktop use to use the web and play with photoes. Enter the imac, an all in one desktop machine with a foot print a couple of inches across. For his money he will get a 17 inch or 20 inch flat screen all the technical crap is left top the OS and not the user and a swath of software including iphoto for storage, itunes, imovie and iDVD, an ecellent os which has no know viruses or worms, an OS that does not have spy ware. It comes with most drivers installed for most printers, cameras and DV cameras.

You plug it in, register your product and get on with it. Yet you suggest this is not what he wants at all.

Why?

Because windows has 90% of the market. Do you for instance think that naim-audio has 90% of the audio market?

Gary,
I really don't want this to turn into another of those threads that get fora a bad reputation. Your argument is perfectly valid, the iMac would probably meet his needs and if that's what he wants and ends up getting, I'm sure he will have done so for all the right reasons, having had the opportunity to weigh the benefits of both formats.

I don't intend to get all evangelical about it, I respect your point of view, I just happen to feel the Windows PC is still the best option for most users. End of story and of my contribution to this thread.

quote:

Originally posted by JonR:
It's the same tiresome old diatribe trotted out by PC users everywhere:- the PC has cornered over 90% of the market so therefore Apple is in trouble and struggling to survive.

Yeah right - it won't last the year, surely

Jon me old China ! I didn't know that Mr Sugar has the same stubble mangement advisor as George Michael, did you ?

Fritz Von Well I never, perhaps he should grow a fulham ?

quote:

Originally posted by Berlin Fritz:
Jon me old China ! I didn't know that Mr Sugar has the same stubble mangement advisor as George Michael, did you ?

Fritz Von Well I never, perhaps he should grow a fulham ?

Maybe, Fritz, but Alan Sugar knows a lot more about stubbles than computers, innit

Isn't that a wine bar in the Kings Road ?


Fritz Von Tin openers now there's a topic !


N.B. I heard Mac insiders refer to Bill as weed killer, what a combination !

Sorry to drag things back to reality, but I'm mightily impressed and pleased with my 'XP' PC and 17" TFT from Evesham that I've had for nearly a year.

John.

quote:

Originally posted by Paul Hutchings:
I would definately consider a Mac, I shan't preach but perhaps take a look.

This part of the requirement "games for the children (and for me too!)" could well rule the Mac out, depending on what type of games he's talking about.

Very few of the games my kids or I play are available for the Mac, which is one reason why our 2 Macs get much less use than the PC's in the house.

quote:

Originally posted by garyi:
Get an apple with MSOffice it will do absolutely everything you want with out the viruses,

Except play much in the way of computer games. Even if the games were available on the Apple platform the graphics capabilities of the Mac Mini would rule many modern games out.

quote:

Originally posted by MichaelC:
Help please!

Sorry to raise this question as it seems to crop up fairly regularly. Looking back over past topics Dell and Evesham seem to get good press. Is this still the case?

I mainly use Dell machines for home and office and, taking examples from their range I'd expect you to be paying around £600 each for a desktop and laptop e.g.

Desktop - Dell Dimension 3000
3.0GHz 800FSB processor
XP Home
512MB RAM
80GB HDD
19" Flat panel monitor
DVD/CD-RW

Laptop - Inspiron 1150
2.4Ghz Celeron
15" screen
XP Home
512MB RAM
40GB HDD
DVD/CD-RW
11g Wireless networking

You'll get similar spec machines from other suppliers for similar prices. It's worth getting a copy of Computer Shopper or PC World and taking a look at the various offers. I've got something like 25 Dell's at the moment and have had very little in the way of problems with any of them.

In addition you'll need a 11g wireless card for the desktop (about £20) and a wireless router. I use a Belkin one with a built in 4-port hub which cost about £40 and was exceptionally simple to setup (switch everything off, plug wireless router into broadband cable modem, switch everything on). All the wireless capable PC's in the house (other than the iBook!) recognised the network straightaway and configuring themselves automatically to suit, including network printer setup etc.

quote:

Oh and I should ask how can I effectively copy accross programs and files from my old machine to the new machine bearing in mind that the disk drives on the old machine are no longer operable?

The best bet would be to temporarily install the wireless network card in the old desktop, then transfer all your files over to the laptop before removing the wireless card and then installing it in the new desktop.

Regards
Steve

Trouble-free service is the most important value in computers, and I make the following recos based on my view of probability of failure. I make my living, such as it is, providing IT support to small businesses.

I'd stay away from Dell because their support is so poor. Anything you save on purchase wil be lost the first time you have to call and they tell you to restore to the original factory state.

I'd also recommend staying away from consumer PCs. The business class PCs cost a little more for the spec, but they'll be trouble-free for longer - possibly because they have more robust chassis and better power supplies.

IBM PCs (desk and lap) have a 'rapid restore' function that allows access to your files even if Windows doesn't boot - this is a GREAT feature...and I do data recovery for a living.

In laptops, again, stay away from the consumer class (Toshiba Satellite, etc.) and go for the business class and stick with IBM, or Toshiba if you really don't like IBM.

Don't buy a used or refurbished laptop. Do buy an extended warranty - one that provides for very quick turnaround of any repair. Don't rely on a laptop for trouble-free service for more than 18 months. And parts may be hard to get after 12-18 months. My Toshi Satellite was laid up for 3 weeks while the pricks looked for a new motherboard and battery. I personally will probably not buy another Toshi, but if you like their Tecra line....

Do consider a used, business class desktop. Unless you want to do heavy graphics development or play interactive, multi-person games a lot, a P3 at 1 GHz, with 512 MB RAM will seem pretty speedy, and the prices are low - a client of mine just bought a Dell GX 260, P4-2 GHz, 512 MB RAM, 20 GB HDD, Windows XP Pro COA for $260, delivered, with 6 months left on the warranty, saving $500 over a similarly equipped new PC. A P3, 1 GHz PC would probably be $125 or so.

I'd invest in a backup system from day 1, if you haven't already done so. An external hard drive is a good choice - but test the restore capability frequently. I've ben getting lots of inquiries about data recovery from external HDDs.

For alternatives to MSO, try WordPerfect Office 12 or their home version - much cheaper than MSO and very, very nice.

For free, try Open Office. Both OO and WP package ful function spreadsheets and presentation software - and both read and write MSO files.

In the US, retailers are promoting MSO Student & Teacher edition, which allows installation and activation on 3 PCs from 1 CD.

Computer Associates (what a foul company!) offers good, certified AV software for free for a year - search on 'free CA antivirus microsoft' or something like that.

Get a firewall - lots of free stuff available. Guard against spyware.

Consider getting2 PCs - 1 for kids, who will download music and spyware, and 1 for you, which the kids can't touch...unless you download risky stuff, too.

Regards.

Phil

Phil

My experience with Dell in both a home and commercial environment differs considerably from Phil but that may be due to differences in their UK and US service provision.

I quite like P3's and getting an older machine might be a good idea for some people (and I've put together a number of P3 systems for family members recently based on office machines we were discarding) who mainly do web & document type stuff. Given Micheal has described his current machine as 5 years old then that'd probably make it at a P3 anyway so I doubt another P3 would be applicable in his case.

A couple of our home machines are P3's (one's a Dell B800R and the other an older P2 Dell GX1 upgraded with a Slocket and P3) and since being upgraded with 80GB hard disks, a minimum of 256MB of RAM and decent graphics (PCi MX4000 on one and AGP Ti4200 on the other) they're not bad machines at all. The one woth the Ti4200 graphics is probably a better games machine than an entry level £300 PC with integrated graphics, but it's pretty much upgraded as far as it'll go now and there are already popular games (e.g. Sims 2) that it just doesn't have the grunt to run acceptably.

I use one of the P3's as an iPod, file and print server and it's pretty good at that job although processor limitations means that it only rips CD's at 4x instead of the 10x+ that my main machine can do.

quote:

Originally posted by Phil Barry:
Consider getting2 PCs - 1 for kids, who will download music and spyware, and 1 for you, which the kids can't touch...

This is very good advice as sites targetted at kids seem exceptionally spyware ridden. Upgrading to XP service pack 2 and the MS anti-spyware software helps a lot and since installing it a few months back I've had no problems on the kids PCs or mine.