My 5yr old Packard Bell is borked. What to replace?

For web stuff, Google docs, music (CD ROM needed for ripping).

Desktop might be best as I have monitor etc end. It wouldn’t then get dropped.

Incjmbent/deceased cost £300, similar or less would be grandnn

Something from the Dell Outlet?
Low power not much juice needed? Do you really need the CD drive? Not got everything ripped? Most will probably be a blu ray player by now

Dell outlet, I personally won’t recommend any celeron processor, an Intel ‘i” from them, of some flavour (family/speed) might not be the latest generation (though can be) but will be more than powerful for a couple of years. I’ve yet to see Blueray players as standard, there still a premium add-on, at worst a external drive unit would be cheap, if none come on the unit you pick

Yep Dell Outlet is a good place to start, I also like refurb Small Form Factor (SFF) desktops like Dell Optiplex 7010 / 3010 / 3020 etc, these can be picked up cheap on eBay and run great with an i3 or i5 with 8gb ram.

Do you know what’s wrong with the current one? You could just upgrade /replace some choice components to give it a new lease of life, will be cheaper.

Old one a mess in several ways.

Cheers all

My Mother-in-law is looking for similar price/spec, best bang for the buck so far I have spotted is…

http://www.cclonline.com/product/202418/T6P47EA-ABU/Laptops/HP-250-G4-15-6-inch-Notebook-PC-Core-i5-6200U-2-3GHz-4GB-128GB-SSD-DVD-RW-WLAN-BT-Webcam-Windows-10-Home-64-bit-HD-Graphics-520-/NOT02543/

Keyboard connector doesn’t work, mouse pad connector got ripped off, internet doesn’t work even with cable plugged in.

Check this laptop out

http://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/hp-laptop-probook-455-g3-249-99-ebuyer-2443120

Ticks your boxes for £250

always good value refurbs at http://www.morgancomputers.co.uk/c/407/Desktop-Tower-PCs-Systems/

buy a barebones to stick with your current monitor/keyboard etc.

Id be aiming for a Core i5 with 4Gb (or ideally 8Gb, or add +4 from crucial at a later date)

Get a desktop, the bits are so much easier to replace/upgrade.

http://www.3bsystems.co.uk/managers-special-v10-amd-piledriver-x6-fx6300-gtx750ti-gaming-pc-base-unit-p-9732.html

Looks decent for the money…

or current email offer at Morgan came through to the inbox a moment ago:

http://marketing2.morganpc.co.uk/HM?b=Yq4Faxksc-kKDD-ODDgjtP6TVgAi7wmkh6DTceL5utE3Xx28TEt9TLZa9jfgnyxL&c=sbjS6aPxPEpkGu6qdxWtCw

at that price it’s almost disposable.

My 2 cents – yes get a desktop, why pay extra for a laptop inc screen and keyboard unless you need the portability ir like the fact you can hide it away. Quick note on @stoners post (RAM 6=4+2) when i upgraded the ram on the wife’s machine going from 4=2+2 to 10=2+8 was cheaper than 8=4+4, works fine and is super easy to do (I am mechanically incompetant, can just about change a tyre and take wheels on/off 🙁 )

EDIT:

Looking at some other posts/links inc the £250 laptop from @C you could well go that route HDMI out to stream Red Bull DH and other quality content to your TV, may offer you more options and thats a great price, 7200rpm hdd is decent enoigh, SSD upgrade not possible but I doubt you care. Stick another 4gb ram in if you care

So many choices

I’ve actually just ordered the one I linked to up there ^^. Picking it up tomorrow.
Never talk about new PCs on pay day!!!

@zz the thing about vicarious retail therapy is you are supposed to let others do the purchasing.

Thanks all.

Lappy is i3 2400 4mb so I might be best keeping it. I think all I need is WiFi dongle to make it usable (have keyboard, mouse and screen so can use as base).

Would prefer not to spend, but if I have to, to get a decent upgrade.

Erm is there a way of comparing my laptop spec to current ones?

Meaning it’s speed.

Googling suggests it’s a world of smoke and mirrors.

you can run benchmarking tests on it, but only really any good for comparing with machines you can run the same tests on.

I use web-hosted Octane to compare chromebook/chrombox performance as I cant install and run test software locally. It’s a javascript engine benchmark suite, so useful, but not a definitive of hardware.

https://developers.google.com/octane/

If you have access to the spec but not to run banchmarks:

http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/

No idea but i can confirm that contrary to the above not having a cd drive on a computer is a complete total pain in the tits.

Not often – but when it is its an utter bollix

For 350 i bought a lenovo all in one desk top unit at xmas. Its been good.

@trailrat agreed, I use mine quite often not least to rip misic and movie’s. I also use the ethernet port a lot (fast and reliable) so can’t imagine a computer without one

@cynical just post the soecs here and let those in the kniw tell you. For the vast majority of stuff most of us do “speed” is not about processor or possibly even the amount of ram. My experiemce of Macs is that 4gb ram and an ssd is massively faster than 8-16gb ram and a spinnjng hdd for example

My experiemce of Macs is that 4gb ram and an ssd is massively faster than 8-16gb ram and a spinnjng hdd for example

‘Hard drive performance has more effect on overall system performance than any other single factor.’ – http://redhill.net.au/ig.html

Thanks again all

cynic-al – Member
Thanks all.

Lappy is i3 2400 4mb

https://www.saveonlaptops.co.uk/m/p/1944252

Interesting desktop option, £280.

Trail Rat – which Lenovo have you gone for mate? I’m thinking of getting the following for general use and a bit of photo editing?

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/computing/desktop-pcs/desktop-pcs/lenovo-ideacentre-300-21-5-all-in-one-pc-10141707-pdt.html

I know nowt about pcs these days chunkymonkey.

But i got a c40-30 iirc for my 350 – i notice its gone back up in price but its been a good machine for what i ask which is basic internet , route planning , storage of docs and writing ride reports 🙂

Benchmarks will tell you nothing. In normal PC usage, the things that slow you down are the hard drive (compounded by the amount of crap you have installed) and the internet connection. The latter is independent of your PC of course. Therefore by far the most important thing for performance is an SSD, followed by an un-cluttered Windows installation. After that your CPU and whatnot will make hardly any difference.

As said above.

Interesting.

Can I buy ssd to fit my lappy

Yep. And you can also download a clean copy of whatever Windows you had on it, install using your key, and get a clean install on the new drive. You need to know a little bit about what you’re doing, but that doesn’t stop you when it comes to frame building so you’ll be fine 😉

Not sure if it’s worth doing this to a laptop that’s physically damaged, mind. Although it’s worth considering a new laptop/computer and spending the extra on an SSD upgrade straight away.

I’d be wary of spending money on an older laptop, eventually the motherboards tend to fail and then it’s junk. However, you should be able to reuse the SSD if you buy one [though you will have to reinstall Windows if you do that].

I can’t find an “i3 2400 4mb” to compare for you, but if it’s an i3, dual core, then any modern i3 or i5 will be slightly to significantly faster, and if the est of the system is newer [or sports an SSD] you’ll probably feel the difference.

[video]https://youtu.be/hNardk5hg0k[/video]

Good luck.

If I have the cash now I want this.
Intel NUC Skull Canyon NUC6i7kyk

+1 on the ssd. I replaced the hdd on my 4 yr old lappie with an ssd and it’s like new. The only one had a hybrid ssd/hdd but ssd’s wear out and it had gone. With the new one it flies again

OK so keeping costs down and looking for value, I can:

1. Use the lappy with a wifi dongle £15 and the 4:3 screen I have (but driver is for widescreen and far from optimal for it)

2. Flog it (£50?) And spend £140 on eBay no. 262407487717 and an ssd drive.

3. Flog it and get something like this:

http://www.morgancomputers.co.uk/product_detail/15256/Lenovo-Thinkpad-T410-14-1-Laptop-i5-520M-2-4GHz-4GB-250GB-Win-7-Pro-No-WebCam/

Any thoughts?

I know they are all different but I can take it the new ones will be faster?

Selling old laptops, particularly ones that are damaged, won’t get you much more than beer money.

Get the Lenovo, and an SSD.

Just bought an i7 Intel NUC and rehoused it in a completely silent Akasa case. No optical drive but i can attach a USB one IF I need it.

Can use an M2 HD which can be faster than your normal SSD, and can use both. Intel do a driver so you can control it from your tablet.

You can get dell outlet stuff from load of other sellers, the dell outlet actualy has much less on it than it used to as they sell the stuff on. E.g. Europc (http://www.europc.co.uk/) and X-Stock (http://www.x-stock.co.uk/), plus ebay.

So I went for the Lenovo, will probs leave ssd for a future upgrade .

Ta all!

I am disappoint.

35m battery life, gouges on exterior and a corner of it about to fall off.

Going back…any better retailers about?

Going back…any better retailers about?

the 2 I mentioned?

Had 1 laptop from Dell outlet, 2 from europc and 1 from x-stock, all ‘refurbished’, all mint. 3 year dell warranty as well.

Cheers, they do seem more likely to be returns rather than “****ed and worn out”