Update existing or buy new desktop?

Swanseajack

Swanseajack

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After subscribing to CC I am finding my computer slows down a lot when using the CC. I find it fine for general browsing, may do the odd letter but thats about it. So I dont really need the all singing and dancing spec. I bought a 1TB WD external drive a few weeks ago and transfered a lot of my old photos and docs on to it....

I bought the desktop about 5 years ago and I think it's showing its age. So I am thinking whats the best and easiest for a computer noob like me, is it best to buy new or upgrade what I have?

Also, I plan to buy a Dell U2412M this week, is this still the best for the wonga in this price range? Would have been nice for a 27" monitor., but I have £200 to spend on monitor and no more.


Spec of puter from Piriform Speccy

Operating System Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit SP1

CPU AMD Athlon II X2 220 27 °C Regor 45nm Technology

RAM 3.00GB Dual-Channel DDR3 @ 536MHz (7-7-7-20)

Motherboard FOXCONN 2AAF (CPU 1) 31 °C

Graphics L225W (1680x1050@60Hz)

ATI Radeon 3000 Graphics (HP)

Storage 465GB SAMSUNG HD502HJ SATA Disk Device (SATA) 32 °C

Optical Drives hp CDDVDW TS-H653R SATA CdRom Device

Audio Realtek High Definition Audio


If I was to upgrade the existing is it easy to do, for a puter noob like me is it worth taking to a shop to upgrade?

Any advice greatly appreciated.
 
Just buy a new one. the X2 220 is very much outclassed these days and you'd have to rip all the innards out to replace the CPU so better to buy new.

Look for an Intel i5 with 8 or 16GB memory. How much you willing to spend?
 
An easy boost to the old one would be more RAM, I'd say 4GB is a minimum and 6GB a reasonable amount for it.
But would agree it's probably better to get something with everything else up to modern specs or you will only highlight another weak area such as graphics card next.
 
4wd said:
An easy boost to the old one would be more RAM, I'd say 4GB is a minimum and 6GB a reasonable amount for it.
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Unless he is paging to disk, this is going to make very little difference - and even if it does, all it will do is push the inevitable out by a few months.
4wd said:
But would agree it's probably better to get something with everything else up to modern specs or you will only highlight another weak area such as graphics card next.
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The weak area is the processor. Even the slowest intel i3 low power laptop processor is 25% faster than the X2 220.... A sensible i5 such as in: http://www.ebuyer.com/634343-zoostorm-desktop-pc-7260-6005 is about 4x as quick as the X2 220
 
My desktop is showing it's age as well but it still handles the most intensive processes I use it for (music creation and streaming films, tv and music) to an xbox 360, apart from that it is mainly a glorified server as I do most things on the laptop nowadays.
A couple of things you could to improve the performance are upgrade the RAM and an SSD or two.
SDD's have fallen in price and the Samsung Evo's get very good reviews, loads of people I know are using them.
I'm planning on doing this to my desktop then moving over to 64bit Windows 7.

Having said that the zoomstorm dekstop that arad85 posted looks like it's very good value for money.
 
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Be aware that the machine I linked to comes with no OS. Depending on your version of OS, you may be entitled to move the Win 7 license from your old machine to the new one. I stress may be able to.
 
Thanks for the replies.

As for budget I was hoping for something around the £400 mark if buying new, I will have to wait for a little while to get the money as I am going to buy the Monitor this week (I have a £200 gift card for Debenhams) The reason for asking if it's easier to upgrade now, is I may have been able to do it a bit at a time. My current PC is okay for surfing etc, which is about 90% of the time, its just the LR & PS is so slow.

Like a clown I give the OS disks away when I sold my old computer, so I have no disks now and will have to buy a operating system to go with the new computer.

@arad85 On your link, will it just be a matter of adding the Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit software to the computer you have linked (@ bottom of page). I will be ready to go then? It will come into budget @ £399 plus the £200 for monitor. Software > http://www.ebuyer.com/634343-zoosto...0_1423504313_9ee23d21d2990100531fe276d774f350

As for the monitor, is the Dell U2412M still the best value for money for PP work? Are the cheaper 27" any good for PP work? I have been looking at some of these > http://search.debenhamsplus.com/f/f/pt/monitors/tds/27in?itemsPerPage=12&sortOrder=1&pageNumber=2
 
Swanseajack said:
Like a clown I give the OS disks away when I sold my old computer, so I have no disks now and will have to buy a operating system to go with the new computer.
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If you have the product key AND THE SOFTWARE IS NOT BEING USED ELSEWHERE goto: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-recovery where you can download a fully legal replacement ISO image (the site is Microsoft, so nothing dodgy).

If you don't have the product key (often on a sticker somewhere on the computer) you will need to buy the OS again. Personally, I'd buy Win 8.1 if I had to buy an OS today - the OEM version (which means you are responsible for supporting it) is £73.66 here: http://www.ebuyer.com/store/Software/cat/Microsoft-Windows

Swanseajack said:
As for the monitor, is the Dell U2412M still the best value for money for PP work? Are the cheaper 27" any good for PP work? I have been looking at some of these > http://search.debenhamsplus.com/f/f/pt/monitors/tds/27in?itemsPerPage=12&sortOrder=1&pageNumber=2
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No. I'd stick with the 24" Dell. The cheap 27" monitors have no higher resolution and have lower quality screens. The only thing I'd replace the 24" U-series Dell with would be a 27" U-series Dell which would give 2560 x 1440 resolution....
 
Again thanks for the reply.

I will order the 24" Dell tomorrow and I will bookmark this page and buy the PC in the near future.
 
arad85 said:
Personally, I'd buy Win 8.1 if I had to buy an OS today
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A lot of people think the GUI in Win 8.1 is trully awful but the underlying engine does seem solid enough, Windows 7 looks so much nicer and he will still be entitled to the free Win 10 within the first year of it's release for free.
I've customised the hell out of Win 8.1 on my laptop and bought a copy of start8 which is worth every penny for the cheap price.
The only reason I haven't wiped the HDD and installed Win 7 is because knowing HP, they would insist only giving support for the latop with the OS it was supplied with should I require it, dispite having full Win 7 driver support available to download via their website.
Micrsoft pulled Win 8.1 from retail at the end of last October and yes he couls buy an OEM version to install on a new computer but I would stick with Win 7 then accept the free upgrade to Win 10 if it is an improvement over Win 8.1

Whoever signed of Win 8.1 at Microsoft must have been smoking crack because even now 2 years since it's launch, there still aren't any budget laptops that would be good for a touchscreen system, I hope they have learned their lesson with this OS.
 
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hashcake said:
A lot of people think the GUI in Win 8.1 is trully awful but the underlying engine does seem solid enough,
Click to expand...
I use Classic Shell to get the Win7 look and feel back. 2 minute install and there's only the occasional thing left to remind you of Win 8. IMHO, there are advantages to Win 8 on newer hardware - particularly stuff like fast boot and generally lower resource usage. Whilst my main machine uses 7, I have a laptop that uses 8.1 (it's a touch screen, but NEVER gets used as one) and have no real issues with it.
 
arad85 said:
I use Classic Shell to get the Win7 look and feel back. 2 minute install and there's only the occasional thing left to remind you of Win 8. IMHO, there are advantages to Win 8 on newer hardware - particularly stuff like fast boot and generally lower resource usage. Whilst my main machine uses 7, I have a laptop that uses 8.1 (it's a touch screen, but NEVER gets used as one) and have no real issues with it.
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(
I don't get the hate towards the windows 8.1 OS. I use it on my laptop and all of my regular programs are docked to the taskbar (just like in 7) windows+r still works (as it has forever) and pressing windows then typing still searches for everything else (just like in 7).

On top of this, the boot time makes my far more powerful desktop (running 7) look a bit geriatric!
 
miker said:
I don't get the hate towards the windows 8.1 OS.
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I don't like it taking over the whole screen, I find it slower to find stuff in the Win 8 start screen than in the Win 7 as it is not hierarchical (my mind likes hierarchical) and all my regular programs are in a Quick Launch toolbar on the taskbar. My machine is on 24/7 so is hardly ever rebooted.

I'm not the "average" user though - I write software for a living, have a desktop with 2x27" and a 24" monitor and STILL have 3 virtual screens as a desktop that is >7k x 1440 is clearly not enough. Having 10+ windows in front of me and displaying useful info is not unusual.
 
arad85 said:
I don't like it taking over the whole screen, I find it slower to find stuff in the Win 8 start screen than in the Win 7 as it is not hierarchical (my mind likes hierarchical) and all my regular programs are in a Quick Launch toolbar on the taskbar. My machine is on 24/7 so is hardly ever rebooted.

I'm not the "average" user though - I write software for a living, have a desktop with 2x27" and a 24" monitor and STILL have 3 virtual screens as a desktop that is >7k x 1440 is clearly not enough. Having 10+ windows in front of me and displaying useful info is not unusual.
Click to expand...

Sounds familiar! My thing is more 3D PCB design and 2D CAD though, and most of that is done at work on a WIndows 7 PC with a pair of 22" screens. When I get to too many windows it triggers a realisation that I need to clear some tasks off my plate!
 
miker said:
(
I don't get the hate towards the windows 8.1 OS. I use it on my laptop and all of my regular programs are docked to the taskbar (just like in 7) windows+r still works (as it has forever) and pressing windows then typing still searches for everything else (just like in 7).

On top of this, the boot time makes my far more powerful desktop (running 7) look a bit geriatric!
Click to expand...

As I said in a previous post, the underlying engine in Win 8.1 is very good and the boot up time has certainly been improved.
The problem is the radical change to the graphics user interface and the rather dull 90's style graphics (apparently Apple have also adopted a similar style in their latest version of OSX).
One of the problems is that the first time it starts up it wants the user to use a microsoft account to login and a lot of people don't realise they can login via a local account.
Not everyone has a microsoft email address and to put that as first choice was a daft idea imho.
The removal of the start button was another major cock up, I understand that Microsoft needed to update the GUI but they just went too far with it.
Having to move the cursor to top right corner just to get to the powe off options made no sense either.
Then there as the implimentation of the metro tile system, the biggest laptop market is the budget sector, we still don't really have powerful cheap laptops that are designed for touchscreen so for microsoft to come up with the idea was daft as the technology wasn't ready for it.
There are lots of people 60+ who use Windows, it's fine for younger generations as they can adopt to new approaches a lot quicker but throw an entire new interface at older people will just confuse the hell out of them.
They spent years pushing MCE (Media Centre Edition) and to a degree it worked and lots of people hooked up computers to TV's then they removed it and expected people to splash out another 90 quid to get this feature.
There are plenty of other silly things that they did as well.
At the end of October 2014 they pulled Win 8.1 from the retail market because the uptake was far too dire and having to release Win 8.1 was also a major back track.
I've been using microsoft opertating systems since MS-DOS, I've used every flavour of windows and I have never even considered switching to Linux and I am not an apple fan and whereas lots of people didn't like Vista, I never had any major problems with it but as for Millenium Edition and 8/8.1, I have no idea what planet microsoft were on when they released them.
Windows 10 is going to have the start button but Metro will still be present albeit moving onto the start menu as opposed to the desktop and it's nice that microsoft are giving it as a free upgrade to Win 7 and 8 users during the first year of it's release but I am yet to be convinced by it based on what I have seen.
 
I see. But i quite like the tiles, and I am sure there will be developers out there produce schemes for windows 10 which is capable of changing the icon colours etc.

Windows 7 is probably the best when you combine features/stability/user interfaces. but features like SSD Optimisation and Bitlocker which supports TPM equivalent encryption feature is sorely missed.
 
Swanseajack said:
After subscribing to CC I am finding my computer slows down a lot when using the CC. I find it fine for general browsing, may do the odd letter but thats about it. So I dont really need the all singing and dancing spec. I bought a 1TB WD external drive a few weeks ago and transfered a lot of my old photos and docs on to it....

I bought the desktop about 5 years ago and I think it's showing its age. So I am thinking whats the best and easiest for a computer noob like me, is it best to buy new or upgrade what I have?


Operating System Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit SP1

CPU AMD Athlon II X2 220 27 °C Regor 45nm Technology

RAM 3.00GB Dual-Channel DDR3 @ 536MHz (7-7-7-20)

Motherboard FOXCONN 2AAF (CPU 1) 31 °C

-----

If I was to upgrade the existing is it easy to do, for a puter noob like me is it worth taking to a shop to upgrade?

Any advice greatly appreciated.
Click to expand...

I have a 15 years old computer with AMD K6 clocked at something like 400MHz, yes, MHz not GHz, with something like I think about 250(ish) MB (yes MB, not GB) of RAM with Windows 98, and I have CorelDRAW 10 installed. Since I do not have any deadlines and don't really mind my computer being too slow in saving the file, opening the file, processing the work, I still get to do a lot of good graphics work out of it, like an impressive birthday card for a friend, a cool looking poster, whatever.

I stopped using it only about a year ago when I got a machine with Windows XP and a little more power, I forgotten what processor it is, I think I now got 1GB RAM, from my mother as a temporary stop-gap use until I build my own new computer. A lot of family and friends seems to remark that I must be nuts to try to build my own computer as they think you need some engineering degree to do it, but I told them, no, it is actually easier nowadays, just plug them in according to the manual, the only thing to worry about is software side.

You could find upgrading your computer to be a little easier if you just follow the manuals, ready books/ebooks, and watch YouTube.

You mention "I am finding my computer slows down a lot when using the CC. I find it fine for general browsing" so in what manner is your computer slow when using CC? Are we talking about slow at loading? Slow at opening and saving files? Slow at processing with the editing?

I noticed you say that you have the 64-bit version of Windows, yet you have 3GB, did you know that with the 32-bit, you are limited to up to 4GB of RAM, but with the 64-bit, you can go up to something like 8GB, 16GB, or even 32GB, and sometimes up to 64GB of RAM, but only depending on your motherboard and what it can support. Also your RAM is 536MHz, so again depending on your motherboard, you could upgrade to something like a 1333MHz DDR3 RAM. This tend to be the most common upgrade to help speed up the computer, therefore most likely to sort out your problem. And you could find it easer to upgrade if you just follow books and YouTube that shows you how to do it.

It would be a good idea to try upgrading the RAM first and see how you feel, like if your CC gets better or not.
 
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