computers

[rich.]

morning chaps! our collection of steam powered typewriters are dying & i need a new computer, something good enough to search for cars on the net & a typing bills etc.. i have been looking at asus hp & dell, but i have not got a clue what i am looking at..

[zipgun]

Saw on the news yesterday some new Dells smell of cat wee..

[kevin]

i have a toshiba which i was fortunate enough to be given as an incentive! its been really good.
my daughter has an asus which is a great machine..well built and trouble free.
my choice would be the same as i use in work, a lenovo http://shop.lenovo.com/gb/en/tt/laptops ... nce-b.html
well built machines and seem pretty quick.

i must admit (bring on the hecklers) i now prefer an ipad for basic internet use (youtube, forums etc) and i would expect any decent tablet would be the same.

kev

[JPB]

Saw on the news yesterday some new Dells smell of cat wee..

My 2011 Dell Vostro 1015 smells of elderberries. I wouldn't notice cat wee around here as the place is full of ancient radio sets and when a Selenium rectifier lets go it's as though a thousand cats have micturated simultaneously all over the place.
The smell in that batch of Dells was said to be caused by something used as a releasing agent in the moulds but I wouldn't worry about it, just haggle for something off the price and scoosh the thing with Lynx once you get it out of the box . Dell had a reliability wobble some years ago when they got lumbered with a faulty batch of (Asus) mobos that suffered with short-lived (Toshiba) caps, but recent machines have been back to form with in-house mobos that use durable caps from Matsushita and Sankyo, but seriously; anyone who complains about that smell has clearly never even been in the same room as a cat, much less smelt the pee from one!
Much as I like my Dell, the current Samsungs are very good for their price and they almost won the supply contract for the engineering block at work back in Summer. Only the ease with which Dells can be upgraded, modified and serviced won the deal for them this year but the Samsung equivalents across the range were found to be well built and have a very pleasant feel to them.
Possibly the single biggest advantage of the Dells is that they are supplied with a full, OEM copy of their operating system on a DVD rather than relying on a recovery partition on the hard drive which will be as much use as a chocolate fireguard if the machine catches a virus and has to be wiped and given a fresh install. You're not limited to Windows these days as Acer and Dell offer Ubuntu as an option and Meenee laptops come with nothing else.

For a desktop, if that's what you're after, then simply work out the spec that you need and go for the least expensive supplier of that set of components in a box.

Kevin has a point about tablets but if you choose such a device as an alternative to a PC, get one that can be used with a keyboard as onscreen keyboards, though they work well enough, take up far too much screen space that would more usefully be given over to pictures of Bedford CAs, Datsun Micras or Anna Friel in a small pair of underpants.

[zipgun]

Always the Apple smell

[JPB]

That bloke's a nutter!

[rich.]

http://www.amazon.fr/HP-110-005efm-Ordi ... FK5RDHNB96
i think i have to attach my own fruit

[JPB]

That's expensive for what it has! 4GB of RAM is OK, but would still take a while to load a long picture thread. At that price I'd want at least double the RAM, a more up to date processor than the dual core Pentium provided - which is ok, but not in such an expensive machine - and a whole bowl of fruit to go with it.

As an idea of what you can get - spec wise - in a new laptop for well under £300 (£199 to buy at trade price, £30 for the RAM upgrade, a tenner for the processor (used but tested and warranted) and £30 for extra storage), here's a screen dump from mine:


These things are at the point where they're as reliable as a desktop, every bit as cheap to upgrade and well worth considering as a standalone PC.
Even without the upgrades, that's a quick machine that only really fell short in its graphics performance and still would if I wanted to play the games where you do a lot of murdering and/or driving. For everything else, that's all you need.

[TerryG]

Rich, it is pretty unusual for a modern PC to die completely. 99/100 it is just a stuffed software install that is causing the problems. Have you tried copying off all your files and doing a clean install of windows?
I have a 5year old dell inspiron running Ubuntu which is superb and the only part I have replaced in the time I have had it is a a bigger hard drive. The laptop I am using to type this is a 9 month old HP elitebook, I also have a 18 month old version, and 6/7 other HPs which I have rescued from the bin over the last few years. All working perfectly.
If your PC / laptop hasn't suffered physical abuse you will be able to get it running again for very little. That way you can save your £300+ to spend on tea!

[JPB]

Yeah, or get out there and go bin diving, Terry does it and we heard it first right here!