Looking for advice again . New PC

[Evans Electric]

Thinking of buying a Pack/Bell Desktop @ £300   Win 10   , Ram 4GB     HDD  1TB  Intel Pentium .

Two questions :-

1)  Should I pay the bit extra for  8GB  RAM    ( I'm sure  1TB  HDD will be plenty ) ?     

2)   How difficult is it to transfer everything from old PC to new ?

3)   Yes I know I said two but ...How important is an Intel Pentium  compared with Intel Celeron or an AMD  ?

 

[Murdoch]

4 GB Ram is NOT enough for Windows 10... it will run, but like a 3 legged dog

I've just bought a new laptop, this is the spec:

Intel i5-6200 CPU @ 2.30 Ghz

8 GB RAM

64 bit

Its a HP Probook 450 G3

and I'm running windows 7 but also have the upgrade disc to windows 10

 

[OnOff]

Does the old one still work?

 

[Blue Duck]

Does the old one still work?

Here here, what's all this chucking old pc's away...there's plenty of ways to speed an old pc up just get steps on team viewer!

 

[steptoe]

@Evans Electric

If you post up a link for the one you are considering I'm sure someone will be able to show you something better for the same sort of money, probably

It won't be me though, I know even less than you do about such things, :C

 

[binky]

twas talking to an IT guy the other day, he reckons Dell have been cheap skated and HP are more reliable.

 

[Lurch]

Thinking of buying a Pack/Bell Desktop

Have we ended up back in the early 90's?

Win 10   , Ram 4GB     HDD  1TB  Intel Pentium .

Nowhere near enough RAM, you want at least double that.

HDD would be fine.

Intel Pentium what exactly?

Win10 - if you fancy learning how to use a computer again. Not a fan of 10 personally, stick with 7 if you can. Windows 10 will work, so if you really want to then it won't not work.

Basically a Packard Bell desktop is not going to be great, it's for random consumers buying the brand. You could get a much better desktop by spending the same, or slightly more, somewhere else on a unbranded desktop. Last couple I have bought have been from Scan, or CCL. I tend to buy the business PC's, usually slightly better hardware and not as many unneeded frilly features, more value for money IMO. Not always a lot in it though.

twas talking to an IT guy the other day, he reckons Dell have been cheap skated and HP are more reliable.

You're paying for the business support there with either of those. HP or Dell are good if you want to buy 100 PC's for a business, not so much for the odd one for home.

 

[Evans Electric]

Here here, what's all this chucking old pc's away...there's plenty of ways to speed an old pc up just get steps on team viewer!

The old one  still works fine but looked into upgrading to Win 10  from Vista  ...not possible ...   was also advised that any PC over 7 yrs old was not worth upgrading as it would be too slow ...this is about 12 yrs old .     I'm getting no more security upgrades for Vista  or Chrome . 

I upped my laptop from Win7  to Win 10 ........worked for a week then crawled into a corner and died.

 

[Lurch]

I've got several nearly 12 year old PC's running Windows 7 perfectly happily. Not sure what your spec is exactly but just because it's old doesn't necessarily mean it is junk.

When I say happily, I mean it works, but probably only on par with that low end Packard Bell you mentioned in the OP. But still.... Probably wouldn't hurt to buy a new one anyway.

 

[Evans Electric]

Have we ended up back in the early 90's?     I don't know  :C

Nowhere near enough RAM, you want at least double that.       OK   I'll take that on board .

HDD would be fine.      OK

Intel Pentium what exactly?       No idea       

Win10 - if you fancy learning how to use a computer again. Not a fan of 10 personally, stick with 7 if you can. Windows 10 will work, so if you really want to then it won't not work.        I don't I have a choice TBH with withdrawn support for  Vista

Basically a Packard Bell desktop is not going to be great, it's for random consumers buying the brand. You could get a much better desktop by spending the same, or slightly more, somewhere else on a unbranded desktop. Last couple I have bought have been from Scan, or CCL. I tend to buy the business PC's, usually slightly better hardware and not as many unneeded frilly features, more value for money IMO. Not always a lot in it though.

You're paying for the business support there with either of those. HP or Dell are good if you want to buy 100 PC's for a business, not so much for the odd one for home.         I'm not sure about this ... this existing HP has done 12 yrs ...still works fine , its the OS  that has been dumped by MS as I see it .

I thank you for your advice though Lurch .

 

[steptoe]

@Evans Electric

I have a W7 OEM disc I can let you have if you want to try upgrading your present PC.

I'm currently using a PC I got gave by a member on here, not sure how old it is, but I'm sure its probably 10yrs +

We actually got a new 'house' PC a couple of years ago as the boys Xmas present, I think it was a free upgrade to 8G RAM , and cost just under £250 iirc. It may be a pentium i3 , but I don't honestly know off hand.

It happily runs W10 dual boot with Ubuntu ( I don't understand how windows works ) :C

 

[Lurch]

I'm not sure about this ... this existing HP has done 12 yrs ...still works fine , its the OS  that has been dumped by MS as I see it .

Well, there's 2 sides to HP these days (there always was, they are 2 distinct companies now though) a business side and a consumer side. Your 12 year old HP will not be what HP would sell on the business side.

 

[Evans Electric]

Thanks guys , interesting points .    As I said ,  Win 10 has already fubarred my laptop   ( £50  to take the back off  etc  no promises )   I shall dump it .

A couple of sources have said not to throw money at a 12yr old  PC .

Something else has crossed my mind .   I'm unsure about tackling a transfer between old & new PCs  .   PC World offer the service for £60  ...or theres a PC shop not far from me ...BUT  ....  how safe is my online banking .....  could these sort of  guys get round passwords etc  ...should I delete the links from the desktop ?

Or is not a big deal to do the transfer myself  do you think?   

 

[Murdoch]

^^ I bought a large USB stick to transfer the data..... Simples

 

[steptoe]

You could,

take the HDD out of the old PC and put it in the new one, then simply install your new os on the old HDD, 

 

[Apache]

You could,

take the HDD out of the old PC and put it in the new one, then simply install your new os on the old HDD, 

You could, but he's not going to.

This would be vastly easier

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/480Mb-s-USB-2-0-Laptop-PC-To-PC-Online-Data-Link-File-Transfer-Cable-Bridge-DG-/122342247051?hash=item1c7c2a8a8b:g:CYYAAOSwcUBYLqxb

 

[steptoe]

You could, but he's not going to.

This would be vastly easier

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/480Mb-s-USB-2-0-Laptop-PC-To-PC-Online-Data-Link-File-Transfer-Cable-Bridge-DG-/122342247051?hash=item1c7c2a8a8b:g:CYYAAOSwcUBYLqxb

Good call, 

 

[user 28595]

W10 is unlikely to be the cause of your laptop dying, unless it made the CPU run harder and the heat caused a failure - but that's a hardware fault.

As you are buying new I would spend a little more to get a PC with more grunt - and install W10, you'll need to go there soon anyway.

4GB is fine for basic computing, 8GB is better.

A faster CPU (i3 or i5) is better, but budget is king.

If 300 is your limit, go the PB and lash out on an external USB disk. You can use this to transfer the files from the old PC, then install Aomei Backupper free and use it to backup to the external disk - which you then store away from the PC.

cheers, Paul

 

[OnOff]

I WOULD NOT abandon and dump your "dead" lappy yet. MADNESS! Do yourself a favour and just try a Live Linux disc. It'll take a few minutes once you have the disc. I'd recommend Zorin OS for a Windoze convert. Do you want me to put one in the post?

 

[UNG]

Unless Packard Bell have radically improved I wouldn't buy one with anybody's money. They always had poor support and very often suffered from component failure