Computers retailers - WHAT CHOICE?!!!!

[5129frederick]

To celebrate my forthcoming retirement I thought I'd splash out on a new computer (my old thing really is on it's last legs, it's not worth downloading av and the sound hasn't worked for five years), so visited a couple of big names to see what they had in store, and how their prices compared.  How their prices compared?  The top two are BOTH run by the same set-up, with the same models and same "Fantastic discounts" being offered.  Talk about holding a monopoly!  Even their monitors have changed - you can't get a square flat screen for love of money now.  It's widescreen.  I've been told Windows 8 is the best one to get, which comes with "free" Norton av etc. etc, but what I didn't like was how I was very quickly told that I'd have to have a converter downloaded so that I'd be able to read data from my memory stick because "modern machines no longer support your old system."  Cost?   Another £30.00  Somebody at work pointed out that it is a standard feature on all modern computers that you can do yourself for FREE!  Then there was the set-up charge of £150.00 ...  Con men, the lot of them! 

I think I might well get the machine worked on and have a new hard drive installed - whatever it comes to, it's got to be less than the £630.00 they wanted me to part with!  Or even a modern secondhand set-up with printer for about £350.00. 

[al**bear]

'build your own computer online uk'

stick that in Google

The system I got last year cost a third of what it would have cost from a retailer and my sound & video cards are way better than the standard ones in those systems.

The reason they say Windows 8 is great is because they want to sell you a touch-screen monitor.

If you liked XP , windows 7 is more than enough and you usually get a free upgrade code for Win 8 anyway 😉

[al**bear]

of course, a friendly mate with a company could buy it for you and save you more money

[bankhaunter]

I would agree with building your own, a PC is only a simple assembly of suitable parts and you can make one that is best for your particular needs.

There is a huge amount of info on the web to learn from before you start.

[al**bear]

The link  I gave is to buy a system THEY build to your specifications & test it.

or they will sell you the stuff to build your own

[blackburn_stevie]

Fred .... The thing to do is ask yourself exactly what you will be doing on your computer. What I mean by that is, decide if you want to do a lot of video tweaking and such. If not, there's not much point in spending loads of cash on a mahoosive graphics card is there? Just get the fastest processor and the most RAM that you can afford. This will Future - Proof your new machine as much as possible and hopefully see you right until at least Christmas.

[5129frederick]

Stevie - I am a creative writer, pure and simple.  I'm not into computer graphics or downloading music or anything else, and I look on touch screen monitors as an unnecessary technological advancement.  BUT - and here's the reason I'm getting anxious, as a matter of course (once a month), I defragment in the vain hope of speeding up my computer - it doesn't and I'm still being pestered by a pop-up telling me a script is running on my page and do I want to get rid rid of it - I obviously answer "yes".

But the other evening when I went into defragment, the info bar told me I only had 8% space left on or just 3% after reserved system space whatever that is, and 15% on D.  They told me to get rid of unwanted downloads so I went into recycle and got rid of as much as I dared, but it's STILL coming up VERY close to the end.  Could it be because I'm heavily wrapped up in eBay - should I start deleting some of them.  On the document side I have too many important manuscripts (to me, anyway) to get rid of any.  Would it help if I started getting rid of excess photos?  I'm not one for diy as I'm only as computer literate as I have to be.

[blackburn_stevie]

Fred .... With regard to documents and photos that are important to you, all you need to do is buy yourself half a dozen memory sticks for about £5.00 each. Stick them into a USB slot and copy/paste the files that you find important over to the memory sticks. That way, you can keep them safe and look at them on any computer. You will probably find that it is the photos that are taking up most room on your computer. 

But if you still think that a new PC is the way to go, you may want to add "Disk size" to Processor speed and the amount of RAM as the things to have as much of as possible.

[5129frederick]

Thanks - I'll bear that in mind.  It's probably the old photos - stuff I've sold on eBay over the years that is taking up a lot of valuable space.  I'll start by deleting early blocks of photos and see how I go from there.  I might yet send my compaq in for a super service.  Although I'd have the money, parting with £600.00 for a computer would need a lot of justification, and it's a case of better the devil you know than the one you don't. 

[bankhaunter]

Have you tried one of the clean up programmes such as Glary Utilities, you can get a free version?

You may have a lot of temp files cluttering up your system.

[confusedjohn]

Just a thought, as computers are getting more 'elaborate' as the months/years go by, no doubt the market for good second-hand machines are a good 'fill-in' if your needs aren't for anything too demanding...eg...downloading music etc.

Might be worth having a look.

Cheers.

[ilove2patch]

There are plenty of small independent computer shops where they will build you a system to suit your requirements. Mine set me up with a great desktop with plenty of memory etc for under £400. 

[start-the-fire]

What about just getting a laptop,such as a mid ranged Acer and get an additional usb keyboard.

Assembling your own computer is an interesting project, but making sure everything is compatible may be a problem.

Local computer shops to build to your requirements can be excellent if they have been established a while.

John lewis are very good and used to offer a 3year guarentee standard.

Ebuyer can also be good for reasonably priced computerware.

out of curiosity how old is your computer?

[dixiekasilke]

Fredrick- have a look at those, they start at under 300,-

http://www.dinopc.com/shop/pc/home-office-cheap-pcs-computers.asp

got my latest poot from there (1 1/2 years ago) - just the tower+ insides. Very happy with it!

You choose which bits you want, and which you don't.

They might still do Windows 7.

Hope that helps.