Ordering A New Desktop PC Questions, Please. (from a Sr. citizen)

Robert11 said:

Hello,

It looks like my three year old hp pavilion desktop pc has given up the ghost.
Haven't got the energy to put in a new hd now at my age, so will just get,something new.

I still want a desktop model, though.

From the little,I've read, it seems that there are about the same percentage of likes and dislikes for hp vs. Dell, vs...

Can go up to perhaps $ 750 or so.

I would be most grateful for opinions from you experts.

Is there any kind of consensus these days as to which brand offers the best
In reliability, service, value, etc. ?

What about other than dell and hp; e.g., Asus, which frankly I know nothing about ?
Others ?

Anything in particular I should be aware of to get or order with ? Any caveats, etc. ?

Much thanks, really predicate the help.

BTW: is a three year life pretty typical for a desktop pc left on perhaps for twenty hours per day ?

Do they come now with a Cert. for a free upgrade to W8 which I guess is due out in the Fall ?

Thanks,
Bob

The HP models are better now than they were 3 years ago. They have startewd using better components. They don't use the cheap Bestec power supplies like they did even just a year ago. Dell's older computers were great, but I have heard bad things about their current models, but they still have some good computers on the market. I have an HP that was upgraded with a new power supply, an ssd, another hard drive, and an AMD Radeon HD 5670. The rest of the parts asre original. The original parts still work perfectly fine for the past several months. To help you more, please post the desktoip/desktops you are considering, so we can give you a good recommendation.

C'mon, you can't be that old that you are not able to replace a HDD. This is really a no-brainer and probably very worthwhile for a HP that is only 3 years old.

I am probably older than you and I replace disks very often. With a little bit of courage you can do it.

But if you really want a new box, I would stick to HP. Those are robust and much better built than e.g. Dells (of which I have two - unfortunately). With HPs I never had any problem.

Hi Bob,

Many people who are used to desktops for long time, hesitate to move on to laptops with the pressumptions that laptops are underpowered, small in size with small screens and awkward keyboard and touchpad.

Even I was of the same opinion until a year ago, I migrated to a 17.3" LED Toshiba i5 laptop with 500GB HDD. It has a full size keyboard with separate numeric keypad. I added a logitech wireless mouse (M215) and I am very happy with it. The performance is as good as a desktop and very light weight.

This gave me the mobility to move around the house, instead of sitting in the same place day after day. I can have a change of scenery whenever I feel like having it. With wireless internet (common these days) I have the freedom from wires on a fully charged battery (lasts upto 4 hours). I even use it in my bed sometimes without disturbing my sleeping wife.

Well this is my personal opinion. For a starter, you can go to a store and try out a 17.3" laptop and see for yourself whether you are comfortable with it. You will get a good one for the budget you have in your mind.

The second option would be to go for an entirely new desktop. Depending on your usage and needs, make a wish list for system configuration like CPU type, memory, HDD capacity, DVD or Blue-Ray drive, display (you would be better off with a minimum of 22" LED monitor), good keyboard and mouse (both wireless) and multimedia speakers. Get one custom built for good savings, or go for a branded one for after sales service.

The third option would be to continue using the three year old system (still has more years of service) and upgrade with a new HDD. When you change the HDD, you may have to reinstall the windows 7 x64. There are excellent tutorials on this forum for reinstalling windows 7 either OEM or retail. You will get excellent advice from our forum members.

On the third option, you save money and may be you can upgrade few things on the old system, like a bigger and better display. New keyboard and mouse or other things you always wanted to add to the desktop.

I migrated to a 17.3" LED Toshiba i5 laptop with 500GB HDD

I have one of those too (mine even has a SSD) that I use for teaching outside my house. But it is just a poor compromise. For serious work - e.g. video encoding - it is too slow and the little screen is more difficult to use. Besides, it only has USB2 and USB3 ports but no eSata which I use a lot. And the graphics is integrated which makes it very weak.

I prefer my 3.6GHz i7 desktop with a 22" screen and full features by far. And that did not cost a lot more than the laptop (desktop only).

I fully agree with you that for specialized work like video encoding etc., a fully loaded desktop is much better than a laptop. The desktop also has better expansion capabilities and more ports compared to a laptop.

But for general day to day work like using Word, Excel, Powerpoint, writing emails and web browsing a decent 17.3" laptop provides better portability.

The desktops and laptops are different kinds of animals. For sheer performance a quad core i7 desktop with >8GB memory is suitable, and a laptop for portability and convenience.

If the OP uses his computer for serious professional work then it has to be a desktop. If he looks for light work, entertainment and convenience then a laptop suits well.

By the way, I use AutoCAD 2012 64 bit on my laptop occasionally for my office work and I did not find any lag in creating / editing engineering drawings. I also use it to recode avi files sometimes.

rraod said:

I fully agree with you that for specialized work like video encoding etc., a fully loaded desktop is much better than a laptop. The desktop also has better expansion capabilities and more ports compared to a laptop.

But for general day to day work like using Word, Excel, Powerpoint, writing emails and web browsing a decent 17.3" laptop provides better portability.

The desktops and laptops are different kinds of animals. For sheer performance a quad core i7 desktop with >8GB memory is suitable, and a laptop for portability and convenience.

If the OP uses his computer for serious professional work then it has to be a desktop. If he looks for light work, entertainment and convenience then a laptop suits well.

By the way, I use AutoCAD 2012 64 bit on my laptop occasionally for my office work and I did not find any lag in creating / editing engineering drawings. I also use it to recode avi files sometimes.

Right, laptops provide portability and that is important for some people. Best, of course is, to have both.

My main gripes with my laptop is the small screen. I have a very poor eyesight and am much more comfortable with a 22" screen. There I can set the DPI to 150% and still operate conveniently. With the small screen that is not possible.