What Computer To Buy [Split From: Hp Compaq 7620 Help]

[Vic Patterson]

What to buy? my Dell desktop is about 12 years old, runs O.K. but freezes often, (especially checking the mail) and is running XP!

My laptop a Toshiba Satellite 7 years old using Vista and just had a serious problem which I have resolved (for now) but need to get a replacement. What is recommended? All in one such as Apple iMac? a regular desktop? a Laptop? a combination using an iPad? is it worth looking at SSD? I do do have an external hard drive to save files but never used it to create a back up!

[threegee]

What to buy? my Dell desktop is about 12 years old, runs O.K. but freezes often, (especially checking the mail) and is running XP!

My laptop a Toshiba Satellite 7 years old using Vista and just had a serious problem which I have resolved (for now) but need to get a replacement. What is recommended? All in one such as Apple iMac? a regular desktop? a Laptop? a combination using an iPad? is it worth looking at SSD? I do do have an external hard drive to save files but never used it to create a back up!

 

That's the first thing you should use it for!  Download the free edition of Macrium Reflect and image your hard disk partitions right away.  If you have a recovery partition on the machine then Reflect will show it and allow you to copy it. You only need copy the recovery partition once, and can store its image anywhere - on a USB stick for instance.  When your drive fails or corrupts simply buy a new one and write the image(s) to it.  Weekly backups of the working partitions are recommended.

 

Macs are expensive to buy and have a high cost of ownership - especially in the UK where they are a rip-off.  The best thing to buy depends very much on your existing software investment, how you intend to use the machine, and how good your on-line connection is.  The trend is to cloud computing where you do need a decent Internet connection.

 

If you are replacing a legacy XP machine, like many are at the present time, it may pay you to look at Google Chromebooks.  They are amazingly good value, and there's a more powerful collection coming out from various manufacturers (using the latest 14nm Intel CPUs) over the coming months.  All software is provided to you for free, without all this staged nonsense (to extract more money for more features), and the machine is kept updated quite automatically.  In addition there's an ever-growing market in third party "apps" developing - just like Android.  Most people just look at the ticket price when buying a machine, and don't consider the cost of ownership.  I know that many educational establishments are moving their legacy XP stuff to Google Chrome as they do look at the total ownership cost.  Over the next decade Chrome could easily eclipse Windows as the number one operating system - unless Microsoft wake up very quickly, and cut their fees to manufacturers and end users.  Chromebooks generally have a smallish SSD and no hard drive which makes them quite compact, but you can buy them with hard drives too.

 

You are right to consider an SSD anyway, as prices are currently crashing and they do deliver a lot more performance.  They are pretty easy to retrofit, and knowing how to use disk imaging software will make this easy for you.

[Malcolm Robinson]

So entry level GGG...........Acer C720 WiFi  ?

[threegee]

So entry level GGG...........Acer C720 WiFi  ?

 

Well the Celeron 2955U seems to come in at about a PassMark of 1550 which isn't at all bad on the scale of things.  Find out what your existing gear has inside to get a performance comparison. The little SSD is almost certainly going to be faster than you existing hard drives, so it's worth a try, particularly if you are buying it from somewhere you can take it back to if you don't like it.

Here's how it compares to a (likely much more power-hungry) i3: http://cpuboss.com/cpu/Intel-Celeron-2955U  It's a 22nm device so not quite bleeding edge, but will have an impressive battery performance.  It's single core dual threads by the looks of it, so that's doubly impressive.  Someone you know has a little tablet with a 22nm dual core chip in it, and I'm amazed by the performance.  AFAIK the 14nm stuff hasn't actually surfaced yet.

 

Also impressive that a budget machine has Bluetooth 4 as standard, and a USB 3.  The real irritation that I've found with current Intel based tablets is that they have no separate power jack.  This means that you need to charge them through the microUSB port, and as they generally only have one, you are stuffed if you want to power them, and use an external drive or keyboard/mouse at the same time.  This is truly daft!  Make sure that anything you buy for serious use doesn't solely depend on microUSB power, or at least has more than one microUSB.

[threegee]

Whoops... spot the deliberate mistake?  It's actually a dual-core!   Full 64 bit, so it would be interesting to see if it is being used in 64 bit mode in this machine.

 

Comes in at about 60% to 70% of an i3 - depending on i3 stepping - so that's pretty good.

[Vic Patterson]

Great information GGG and Malcolm, I have down loaded "Reflect†but not yet used it, it will be about three weeks before my next shopping trip to the city (we only have a small computer outlet in town) so plenty of time for some research.

I don't have lots of software, (too cheep!) I letter write, e-mail, read newspapers, spread sheets, Family Tree, photo's,(lots of photos) a few Model T forum's, old car part vendors etc and keep in contact with the family, nothing too big. Photoshop is quite big (I like cleaning up old scratched and stained family photos) We watch streaming curling games that are not televised, but connecting to the TV was very poor!

[threegee]

...so you'll need to check that whatever you buy has a HDMI socket to connect it to your telly.

 

People tend to either love or hate Chromebooks. So, buy your first one from somewhere that will give you a week or two to take/send it back for credit.

 

According to Forbes the new batch (of about 20 models) is a month or two away from the shops. This could also throw up even better prices on the existing few models.  So... it will probably pay to take your time.  We'll also see 14nm chips in Windoze machines too.  They are quoting eleven hour battery lives (from quite small batteries) for the new crop, which is highly impressive, even if this is a bit exaggerated for real-world use.

 

http://www.forbes.com/sites/roberthof/2014/05/06/google-aims-new-intel-powered-chromebooks-at-mainstream-buyers/