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

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

Hello Bob.

Any advice you get is bound to be subjective and skewed towards peoples' personal experience.

I currently have two desktop computers: a Dell XPS 8300 and an HP Pavilion 495 and both are providing excellent service.

For a budget of $750 you should be able to buy a computer with good specifications, but generally speaking an off-the-shelf mid-range model will have Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit, an i5 or i7 processor, 8GB RAM (you won't need any more than that unless you're a CAD user), probably a 1TB HDD, combo DVD/Blu-Ray optical drive, several USB ports and an HDMI port for your display.

One thing you may want to consider is a 128GB solid-state drive for a boost to your Windows performance, and a separate spinning drive for you personal data.

Many manufacturers offer a one-year guarantee as standard, but some offer more.

As far as I know, there are no plans for a free upgrade to Windows 8 as yet, and from what I've seen so far, I wouldn't want it anyway, but others may think differently.

Everyone has different opinions of what is good and what is bad, and no opinions are right or wrong. I for one would NOT buy Dell, Asus, HP, Lenovo if my life depended on it. Though I have worked in IT for over 30 years, and have been building systems for almost all of that time. I build all my own systems.

The problem I find with the "name brands" is that they sacrifice performance for stability. To keep prices down they will use older products that they bought in large quantities or are superceded parts. Dell were the worst for this when I was last purchasing 500 or so of them for a multi-national I worked for.

But if the performance is less important than stability maybe they are an option.

The other "problem" with name brands is you are paying a premium price.

My 2 cents worth, and others will have radically different opinions to mine - if you can build it yourself, or have someone you trust that can build it for you, put together a configuration that suits your needs, and fits your budget and build your own. In which case, there are many people here that can suggest configurations if you want. I tend to over spec machines so they last longer. Others build to meet your needs as they are now.

$750 of a custom built system can usually go further than $750 on a name brand system.

I have a computer that runs as a server for 17 hours a day. From 1991 to 2011 it ran 24 hours a day. I had 2 disk drives die and one power supply die in that time. However, with disk drives, most had been replaced every 3 - 4 years because I needed more and more capacity. It ran on XP and 2gb ram from 2001 - 2010.

I still have PCs that were built in the early 2000's are are working fine.

For gamers, upgrading is regular. For many other people, 5 or more years is not uncommon in how long they will meet your needs. My brother has computers that are 10 years old that are used for internet, email and homework for his kids.

I would recommend a custom built PC if there are vendors who would do it for you. You can then discuss the matter with the vendor of your choice and select the components that you want to include.

If not then LeNovo or Dell.

Regards from a more senior citizen perhaps

It's interesting that these questions aren't asked:

What have you been using your PC for?

Are there dreams of expanding the usage to unfamiliar fields?

Are you self-reliant or do you require product support?

Answers to these questions will determine price-performance-branding.

I found this for you Bob,

Holiday Special at TigerDirect

HP 505B B2C02UT Desktop PC - AMD Athlon II X2 220 2.8GHz, 3GB DDR3, 500GB HDD, DVDRW, Windows 7 Professional 64-bit at TigerDirect.com

As gigagiggles mentioned above, how will you be using the computer? You may be able to make do with a laptop sporting a 17.3 inch screen, Intel Core i5 or i7 processor, 500GB hard drive, and at least 4GB RAM. Laptops like this are usually on sale at newegg.com or tigerdirect.com for less than $700. This kind of laptop can replace a desktop system and have the added advantage of being able to move from room to room with a wireless router (usually provided by most ISPs.) Just something to consider if you like the idea of not being tied down to one particular desk or room in the house.

So Bob, you want a desktop and you don't have the energy to install a new drive in the old PC, right?

Well folks, that eliminates laptops and build-it-yourself, methinks.

Opinions, we all have. Buying a Pc is really preferential, but there were some good questions asked: What do you use the PC for? I doubt that you're a gamer (assumption) and probably just want a general purpose machine to write documents, communicate through eMail, Skype, or Social network, maybe save and tweak some photos.

Any brand will do those things, but I think you will get higher quality components if you can find a local PC builder. You have plenty of room on price, so discuss what you want to do with it when you talk to the builder.

I haven't tried Asus, but I've read good things. I was going to buy one to replace a recently deceased Cpq laptop, but the price held me back. I ended up buying a HP - Staples had a very sweet deal.

--> edit: you might consider using some of the cash on a large monitor (my $1 reading glasses are about maxed out - they don't go to 4+)

Good luck Bob.

Hey Bob,
I'm a Senior but I just build my own.
I'd stick with HP if I were you.
If you have external equipment on you old HP it may work with a new one.
If you want to transfer file buy an easy transfer cable.
Another thought is to have someone put a new drive in for you.
I've seen a lot of issues with Dell lately, particularly on this site.
Good Luck

I think the rig Doc Brown found would be just right for your light multi-tasking needs. There's no reason to pay more than that nowadays when you can find a similar deal in the Sunday ads for about the same price.

You'd only need to jump up in price if you wanted Core i3-7 which is really overkill for your usage needs.

I also vote for HP over Dell which is having problems with lemons for years now. My dad had to ship back a Dell and is very satisfied for 7 years now with his HP. Mine last around 10 years.

The only drawback with HP's is the huge load of preinstalled factory bloatware which tags along, so here's how to tame it: Clean Up Factory Bloatware . We can also help you here with optimizing it to run perfectly, even to Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7

If you'd like to consider buying a HD to replace yours here is a video to show you what's involved:

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

Click to expand...

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

Click to expand...

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.

Robert11 said:

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

Click to expand...

I doubt it.

More than anything, you need some luck--lucky enough not to have hardware breakdowns.

If you have to deal with customer service from any major OEM, you have a fair chance of being disappointed or worse.

You could buy a high priced warranty program to try to get improved service, but statistically those are not a good deal.

I'd probably point you to Dell even though I had an unforgivable customer service experience with them and will never give Dell another dime.

If you can't or won't build it yourself, the best bet is to find a local builder who will construct a PC from your parts list. Unfortunately, it is quite difficult in 2012 to find a reliable and trustworthy local builder--unless you just want to take the word of your neighbor or brother-in-law who had a good experience with builder X.

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.

Click to expand...

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.

Walmart.com: HP Refurbished Black Pavilion P7-1108p Desktop PC with AMD Dual-Core A4-3400 Processor, 6GB Memory, 1TB Hard Drive and Windows 7 Home Premium (Monitor Not Included): Computers

Cant go wrong with one of those.