Old one has given up the ghost. Had a look around last week but it appears most of them now are the built in type(apple imac copies). Mrs Huw thinks the imac is too expensive for the use we get out of it and I tend to agree.
Will, gratefully, take any advice.

Buy that before it's gone - use code PARCEL10 for 10% off - be quick

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/HP-M01-F1014 ... 01&mkevt=1

tarkys_ears wrote: ↑

Tue Apr 20, 2021 8:19 pm

Buy that before it's gone - use code PARCEL10 for 10% off - be quick

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/HP-M01-F1014 ... 01&mkevt=1

Looks good but might be a bit dearer, with postage, living in Ireland.

For most peoples usage a cheap, integrated PC is fine. Just don't go lower than a Intel i3 or AMD Ryzen CPU and 16gb of RAM if you want it to last for a bit. For storage, make sure you have at least a 256gb SSD and not a HDD. HDD is fine as a secondary drive though. Not easy to find deals in ROI though, may have best luck here: https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/forumdi ... esc&page=2

Yadda yadda yadda... its £200 and I doubt he's going to be playing Cyberpunk 2077 on it!

superdimitri wrote: ↑

Tue Apr 20, 2021 11:27 pm

For most peoples usage a cheap, integrated PC is fine. Just don't go lower than a Intel i3 or AMD Ryzen CPU and 16gb of RAM if you want it to last for a bit. For storage, make sure you have at least a 256gb SSD and not a HDD. HDD is fine as a secondary drive though. Not easy to find deals in ROI though, may have best luck here: https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/forumdi ... esc&page=2

Cheers. Mrs Huw has taken a fancy to this one.
https://www.currys.ie/ieen/computing/de ... 6-pdt.html
That meets all your criteria except RAM, only 8gb.
What benefit would the 16gb give me re: future proofing?
I have a 500gb secondary HDD. But I only save photos, music and funnies. The next model up was 512gb but €100 more. I can buy another HDD cheaper than that.
Thanks for your time.

The storage included (be it 256 or 512gb) isn't a HDD, but an SSD. It basically means the computer will boot up a lot faster, and if you go for the larger size, you can fit more programs without needing additional storage. For anything like photos or videos you can use an external HDD no problem. For web browsing and general use, 256 is fine.

Regarding RAM, it relates to how many programs you can have open at the same time. To give you a perspective, on my own PC right now I am playing a video on YouTube and my browser open with 4 tabs and I'm using almost 6gb of ram out 16. You don't need 16 right now, but in the future as programs naturally take up more room the computer could slow down if you don't do a RAM upgrade.

Doesn't seem anything wrong with the PC you linked aside from the RAM included and the fact you have to buy from Currys... you should be able to find a similar deal with 16gb though.

Not sure if they ship to ROI but sometimes the Dell outlet has some good deals.

We've used these guys in the past.

https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/

If you're after a high-end PC, now is not the time to buy. GPU prices are silly ATM.

Assess what you use it for.

Do you really need to buy a new monitor, keyboard and mouse? Can you not use existing ones?

If it's just to go on the internet, e-mails etc (not things which require a more powerful PC such as like film editing, gaming) you could just buy a 'Mini PC', a small box not much bigger then a pack of playing cards. Add to that an external disc drive and HDD.

I bought an i5 processor 2 years ago and I can tell it's slowing down with everyday use. Although I only have 4GB RAM. I'd make sure it has at least 8GB.

EricaJacko wrote: ↑

Wed Apr 21, 2021 10:16 am

I bought an i5 processor 2 years ago and I can tell it's slowing down with everyday use. Although I only have 4GB RAM. I'd make sure it has at least 8GB.

Yeah, Windows 10 will be very sluggish on 4GB. Go for 16GB if your MB will take it. RAM and SSD are the main thing for everyday workhorses. If you're gaming - then you are into a whole new ballpark with CPUs, GPUs, motherboards, and PSU.

My first desktop PC was a Packard-Bell and it had 300 megabytes (yes megabytes not gigabytes) of storage.

Which is equivalent to 100 photographs or 100 MP3 music files.

Mala591 wrote: ↑

Wed Apr 21, 2021 10:27 am

My first desktop PC was a Packard-Bell and it had 300 megabytes (yes megabytes not gigabytes) of storage.

Which is equivalent to 100 photographs or 100 MP3 music files.

I can't remember my first PC spec, but it was around 1997.

My first PC I purchased was a generic 486sx with 4Mb RAM; a massive 120Mb hard disk (that I still have!) a 5 1/4 floppy drive AND a 3 1/2 floppy drive all for a nice price of approx £1200 in 1994 - with a HP 550C colour (yes colour!) inkjet printer on top for about £550

These days I work on an 8 year old RM (old one from work) which has 16Gb RAM and 1TB SSD with an 8 year old i7 processor... still going strong and faster than most other PCs I’ve seen recently

In the mid 80s I ran the business of an animal feed company on a computer system with disk storage of about 500MB in total. On this system we did all the invoicing, sales and purchase, the payroll, stock control and the point of sale systems.

... and before you say it, yes we did have to pay them for the privilege of working there and lick the street up outside every morning

huw.Y.WattfromWare wrote: ↑

Tue Apr 20, 2021 8:00 pm

Old one has given up the ghost. Had a look around last week but it appears most of them now are the built in type(apple imac copies). Mrs Huw thinks the imac is too expensive for the use we get out of it and I tend to agree.
Will, gratefully, take any advice.

Can you define "Given up the ghost"?

Mine went "pop" and had a burning plastic smell, but 20 quid on a new power supply and a youtube instructional later, im back at it....

(Also added a SSD for the boot and OS stuff which has done wonders)

ŽižkovClaret wrote: ↑

Thu Apr 22, 2021 9:41 am

Can you define "Given up the ghost"?

Mine went "pop" and had a burning plastic smell, but 20 quid on a new power supply and a youtube instructional later, im back at it....

(Also added a SSD for the boot and OS stuff which has done wonders)

It has just got so slow. I start it up and can walk away for 15 minutes whilst it boots itself. Even then it is so slow opening programs. It’s 14 years old so we can’t complain.

ah fair probably past the point where you'd bother sticking an ssd in it

Might be worth looking at office surplus stuff. If you arent gaming you can often pick up a servicable base unit for under a ton. Check out a medium sized local pc repair place and they will normally have a few desktops to choose from, and would be happy to pop an ssd in to speed it up a little

huw.Y.WattfromWare wrote: ↑

Thu Apr 22, 2021 9:45 am

It has just got so slow. I start it up and can walk away for 15 minutes whilst it boots itself. Even then it is so slow opening programs. It’s 14 years old so we can’t complain.

Blimey. Does it have acne?

The PC I have now boots up really quickly - under a minute, but after 2 years, I wonder whether it's just worth me spending £200-300 on a complete replacement, with faster everything.

huw.Y.WattfromWare wrote: ↑

Thu Apr 22, 2021 9:45 am

It has just got so slow. I start it up and can walk away for 15 minutes whilst it boots itself. Even then it is so slow opening programs. It’s 14 years old so we can’t complain.

You could make copies of your important files (which you would have to do anyway if buying a new PC) and reset the computer to the original software setup when you bought it. If you still weren’t happy and decided to buy new then the PC could then be used for family/relatives rather than just ditching it.

Mala591 wrote: ↑

Thu Apr 22, 2021 9:55 am

You could make copies of your important files (which you would have to do anyway if buying a new PC) and reset the computer to the original software setup when you bought it. If you still weren’t happy and decided to buy new then the PC could then be used for family/relatives rather than just ditching it.

Purchased a HP all in one today. We will be keeping the old one connected up but all important stuff is already on a HDD.
Thanks everyone for your help.

huw.Y.WattfromWare wrote: ↑

Thu Apr 22, 2021 5:03 pm

Purchased a HP all in one today. We will be keeping the old one connected up but all important stuff is already on a HDD.
Thanks everyone for your help.

How much did it cost, and what's the spec?

E719 for this HP.
For some reason the specification drop down won't open. You might have more luck when you try. Main features listed at the top.
https://www.currys.ie/ieen/computing/de ... 6-pdt.html

Edit: just checked that link and it's not the one I saved??? we got that model in 24". Same spec

The very first RAM upgrade I did was in the mid to late 90's and I added 4 mb. At the time I was so impressed