Although I'm firmly in the above camp, I'm about to replace my 10 year old PC for much the same reasons - it can't hold more than 1GB of RAM.

I'm getting conflicting advice about WIN 7 v WIN 8 (fully up to date patch wise etc)
any current views please, as with DELL (who I will probably use) they are both available at no cost differential.

Also any views on free virus software, as I have had enough of Norton?

Avast is the best free AV, imo.
Why Dell? They are tricky to fix when they go wrong and there are lots of good brands out out there with options of mega graphics cards and plenty of slots to add if you want?

Harry - my last 2 PC's have been DELL with the only problem being the power supply on the current machine @9 years old.

I've had a scout about and can't beat their price, they are currently offering a VOSTRO 470 MT with an I5-3470, GeForce GT 620 1G vid, 1TB drive (which I don't really need) and 4GB RAM.

They are also 'throwing in' a 20" LED monitor - for £515 inc VAT & delivery.

As always - I'm open to suggestions.

skinny, agree with Harrycat re. Dell. I've used a couple of Dell machines and have not been impressed. When my teenage son demanded a high-spec machine, I got him one from PC Specialist. Simply awesome machine. Never had a single problem with the it. He does a lot of his animation work on that system and it's still running like new.

As for anti-virus s/w, I've got on fine with Microsoft Security Essentials and a weekly scan with Malwarebytes Anti-malware. Both free! :-) My son prefers Norton though.

skinny
Try Win 8 if possible. It is really designed for touch screen systems. The interface can be very annoying especially on a laptop with a track pad instead of a mouse.

Dell gets my vote all the time for home puters but Acer i find are great for laptops.

Harry - I don't really want/need mega graphics etc - its purely for me and trading/charting, so just the 2 or 3 screen capability is fine.

Klal - just done a quick check and they are marginally more expensive (ignoring the free 20" monitor).

Just out of interest, why does your son prefer Norton - maybe its the age of my machine, but I find it obtrusive and bloaty.

Haystack - I have no desire to use the Win 8 touch screen functionality or a laptop - but its probably worth going for it over Win 7 as an archetypal O/S ??


I am intrigued to know what sort of problems that Harry and Klal have had with Dell
as I have always found them reliable - the only upgrade I've ever carried out, was to add more memory some years ago and had to replace the power supply last year.

From my experience and some others, Norton slows your PC down. The same is true of Macafee. I use MS Security Essentials and Comodo for the firewall - both free. I run scans via Malwarebytes at least weekly.

I agree re Norton. Slows the machine down with lots of unnecessary activity.
The only contact I have had with Dell is through friend's laptops who have had difficulty getting their machines fixed except through Dell themselves or an approved repair facility which has entailed sending the laptop by registered mail/courier. If you buy your machine locally, surely you should be able to get it fixed locally? Also they have had product quality issues in the past. I refer you to the following ;o)

http://www.ihatedell.net/forum/phpBB3/index.php

Interesting discussion chaps, But just going out now but why don't you get a computer set up by someone near you (a local reliable shop) to "Your specification" that suits your uses? You can get advice on "reliable components" and about upgrading capabilities for later years. Agree Norton/Macafee not needed there are better options so PC users have said. Also make sure that you get reliable Hardware as well at the same time. Get a Which report and other non-self interested advice, make sure it's up to date and not 1st generation gear and so on. it also depends if you don't find fiddling about which I don't with constant changes, usually if you buy cheap you by twice which I now try to avoid, again depends on your choice/knowledge/interest.. and tightness -):

Thanks for the input chaps.

skinny, my son's machine is pretty fast - Norton barely seems to make a dent in the performance. Besides, he's not had a single problem with malware/viruses - and he attributes that to Norton. And so....I pay for a fresh copy of Norton every year (at Tesco's, where else!).

As for the problems with Dell - bought a highish-spec Dell laptop for my daughter. Firstly, it came bundled with that crappy McAfee and when I tried to uninstall it, it screwed up internet access. Came with a tiny C partition and I kept struggling to expand it. Thirdly, the network card kept losing connection with our router. Had a very, very tough time trying to fix it. Even more fearsome was facing a cross nine-year old kid whose laptop it was! Finally, went in for one of those USB nano wireless clients and peace has reigned ever since! But I would never touch a Dell machine ever again.

Surely WINE is only a fix for what would be an unhappy marriage of Win programs you've bougt and Linux which you haven't. In time Linux programs will as good - or Better perhaps? then Linux will become an OS of mass-use, but it isn't and it's lack of good programs that is the root.
Techys don't mind, since they enjoy getting round the difficulties . . . and probably don't do much real work . . . for for most folks they just want it to work.

If these smart-phones are popular, it might have a great benefit to the Linux community, giving a platform for new programs/Apps for example... The snag is that many will be "paid-for" thereby defeating the underlying principle of Open Source.


Time will tell.

Have used AVG Free and Avast, out of the two i think Avast is better as AVG slows things down a bit at times when updating.

Thanks again - it does seem that the Dell problems mentioned on here are mainly laptop orientated - I'm still a desktop man, and have no desire to use laptops.

Skinny, I've bought a lot of Lenovo machines at work over the past 12 months, and they seem to work very well. I paid around £50 for 3 years next day on site maintenance which we used for one machine, but I think that was a power surge on an unportected machine. The machines work well, very happy with them.

As for protection, I use paid for avast at work, and free avast at home.

Lenovo are pretty good. My wife bought one from John Lewis recently. Lenovo are the company that made all the IBM Thinkpad laptops and notebooks. They then started to sell under their own name. The build quality and is similar to my son's Asus.

Has anyone here used PC Helper 360 or Ad Aware ?

Well my new Dell order hasn't started well - I ordered it on March 20th - estimated delivery was today 27th, I've just been told it will be delivered on Tuesday 1st April.

As its currently in Poland, I can only assume its coming by dog sledge!!

Well, we did warn you! Lots of other good brands about!!! (Hopefully you weren't seeking reassurance! )