UKH

I need a new windows PC but I'm a bit of a punter when it comes to this topic.

I don't need anything fancy, just an office machine,ie photo storage (not editing), Word, Excel and email.

I was just going to go to PC World but I'm sure there are better options. 

So any advice re where to go, best buys, things to avoid, desirable features, recommended models, should I go for a SSD, etc etc?

Thanks

I’m no tech expert but I’d recommend an hp laptop. I’m self employed and have had one for 3 years and it’s great.
 

Not dissimilar to this one: 

https://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/computing/laptops/laptops/hp-15-da0511sa-15-6...

Does everything I need it to do. 

Get a solid state disc, makes everything so much faster.

Nothing wrong with PC World. If you like you can walk out having got the sales advice and look online.

Decision points:

Budget: I'd suggest 350-600. Pay more, get more speed and space etc, better streaming ability if you need that.

Processor and graphics: pretty much anything will be ok. Don't worry too much about these.

Look at size of your photo library and other files - multiply by 3 and round up to nearest disk size. If possible as suggested above, get an SSD as that makes a *major* difference.

Physical size of screen - do you want more portable or more usable.

Screen resolution: 1920 x 1080 should be fine - think about whether an external monitor would be useful.

I mostly get Dells for work, and have bought HPs for friends. Be very gentle with the hinge on the screen.
 

PC world is OK but if you have a good local computer shop go there instead.

Can recommend one around Huddersfield but obviously I have no idea where you live.

SSD definitely.

If it's a work machine then you may want to run two screens. I find this very useful so make sure your graphic card can do that. 

What is your budget?

Dave

Not where to go, but one to avoid in my opinion is LaptopsDirect dot co.uk. Prices look good but the couple of people I know who have bought from them came away disappointed. What turned up was not as advertised, and the company got quite  difficult about it when the subject of returns came up.

Re SSDs if you want 1TB+ they are a bit pricey.  For a desktop a traditional HD is fine.

Desktop or Laptop?

Pretty much any pc will do what you want so it's down to personal choice or if you want anything extra. A new windows 10 i5 will start around £150-200 for the budget end branded ones. There are companies like pcspecialist which do unbranded custom builds starting at around £300, i.e. no bloatware. I have one of their laptops and the chassis has been poor but could be an anomaly as they're generally well reviewed and the PC's wont have the same issues.

Any reason you're discounting laptops? You don't get as much for your money and they'll always be lower spec'd than an equivelently priced PC but a cheap laptop will cope fine with what you're looking to do with the advantage of being portable.

SSD's are great for speed but they're not really aimed at storing large amounts of data that you access irregularly (like lots of photos). A small 120GB SSD to run your OS and a bigger HDD would be cheaper. A good option for photo storage would be a NAS drive which would be better for long term storage and allow access from other devices and when you're out and about if you set it up to allow remote access. They're really easy to set up these days and pretty user friendly.

For microsoft I personally held off on 365, you can get legitimate office 2016 product keys from ebay for about £5. 2016 is supported till 2025, can't really argue with £1 a year especially when you consider how many people are banging their heads against openoffice calc.

I'm thinking around £500?

Desktop.

I'm a punter too, but here's my tuppence!

I added an SSD to my PC - so the operating system and programs are on SSD but photos stored on a HD.  I also bought a 2Tb external HD that sits on a USB port and backs everything up.

I don't like laptops - the screen and keyboard annoy me - so got a cheap tablet (from Banggood; search earlier threads) for mobile stuff.  The PC is Dell but I upgraded to Windows 7 and that got rid of all the annoying add ons.

So budget looks like:  256Mb SSD £30; 2Tb external HD £50; £300 PC and your well covered

Thank you for your thoughtful reply. To answer your question re possibility of getting a laptop, I don't need to be portable and I prefer working with a proper keyboard.

Cheers

At home I use a laptop with a second screen plugged in (once you get used to using 2 screens it becomes difficult without 😟).

You can always plug in a wireless keyboard and mouse to a USB port if you don't like the laptop keyboard for extended use.

Having that available portability is useful for me, but it of course depends on your lifestyle, what and where you want to use a PC and what for, and also how much room you have at home for a PC.

More than 1Tb storage used to be only if you were downloading and keeping loads of videos, but with ever increasing camera resolutions, and the ever growing habit of taking and keeping zillions of rubbish pictures (as well as the occasional good one), it might be prudent if you take lots of piccies.

Edit: remember, nobody ever complained that "this computer is too fast" or "I've got too much storage space".

No problem. I'm with you on that one, wish I still had the space

Have a look at Dell. I have a Dell Optiplex 3050 with 8Gig of RAM which is fine for me - general stuff and some photo editing on RAW files of about 35 Meg.

An SSD will make it work much faster and the prices of SSDs have come down recently, but if you are not too bothered about being a it being a bit quicker then having and SSD is not a great advantage.

Dave

I build my own PCs and for £500 you could build a decent system. You mention you are a punter so why not try building a system and become less of a punter.  It's not as difficult as you might think and the satisfaction of hearing the fans spin on a home built rig is great and you get to custom everything.  Plus it's tremendous fun. 

You would need, in no particular order other than bolting it it together:

Case, motherboard, CPU, memory, SSD (or ideally NVMe) for OS or if budget allows for quick access files, HDD for larger storage requirements, PSU (power supply), case fans, OEM OS or downloaded OS.  Other optional stuff might be a DVD drive or a graphics card but many motherboards have on board graphics capabilities.  Same for a sound card.

i got mine for £20 off ebay, upgraded to an SSD, put in a new cpu and ram and bob's your uncle. Got a pretty good fast windows 10 pro machine now for about £100 all in! If you're a bit tech savvy then i'd say go get a 2nd hand one off ebay.

If you don't want the ebay hassle, then something like this will be fine: https://www.ebuyer.com/908035-dell-optiplex-3070-core-i5-9th-gen-8gb-ram-1t...

Edit: Found few ebay that you don't need to upgrade yourself. These will suit your needs just fine.

https://tinyurl.com/yx3xfpwa

https://tinyurl.com/ro55zta

When selecting the options go for i5, 8gb ram, and whatever hard drive size you like. if you want your computer to boot up fast, get an SSD, or install it yourself. Installing the operating system on a new hard drive is a bit of a mission and will involve a bit of know how though, so if you're not sure of how to do this and have no one to help you do this in person, pick the hard drive you want.

Hope this helps!

If you are thinking of a new PC, then give some thought to the Central Processing Unit inside it.

Intel are no longer the Big Boys on the block so don't be afraid to consider cheaper computers with current AMD processors inside.

Like for like, AMD at the moment, are cheaper and more powerful.

There is nothing wrong with a PC World computer, as it will come with an Operating System. However you can buy cheap legit licence keys for Windows Professional at about £20.

However if you want to build a PC then it's just like meccano and there are loads of YouTube builds to watch. You get more bang for bucks this way but no shop to complain to if things don't go to plan.

My current build is geared towards video editing and it's fekin fast with 12 cores and 24 threads to play with. The only physical moving parts are the fans keeping it cool.

Looks like this thread has dried up now so thanks to everyone for all the good advice. Having a SDD as well as a HD sounds like a good idea. I'll see what's in the sales in the new year. 

Merry Christmas!

If you are going down the SSD hard drive route, and if your motherboard will allow, then I suggest an M.2 SSD. They make 2.5 inch SSD's look slow. I have a couple of 2Tb versions, by Intel, in my new build. I still use a 2.5 inch SSD for the operating system.

https://www.scan.co.uk/products/1tb-intel-ssd-660p-series-m2-2280-pcie-30-x...

https://www.scan.co.uk/products/1tb-samsung-860-qvo-25-ssd-sata-iii-6gb-s-m...

What about screens. Anybody any experience of uhd screens?