full fibre - seem to have an Ethernet restriction

[#1]

@markinwales 

Given the wide choice available nowadays it's always going to come down to what you fancy. If you just want to buy something off the shelf fair enough but otherwise it's worth thinking about what you want first and then looking for machines that generally fit the specification. I can point you in the direction of a couple of free programs that will analyse your current machine and tell you what's installed.

One thing that is worth serious consideration though is the monitor. I have a Dell 27" wide screen Ultrasharp though in truth I probably only needed a 25" If you have the space go for a reasonable size good quality monitor.

Mouse & keyboard - do you want wired or cordless (battery powered - always have spare batteries).

Opitical drive - do you need one.

RAM - 8gb probably does but 16gb future proofs heavy usage.

Apart from the total silent pc's from the company I already mentioned (there are others) have a look at Dell Online for options. PC and monitor or just moniitor.

Brian

[#2]

@markinwales 

You will probably get as many recommendations as replies. We all have out preferences. These days I always look at the base machine and what I need today but also to the future and the upgrade path. For example, the ram and main drive capacity can be upgraded in the future. More importantly. what I would look for is the upgrade potential. A tower case is a good starting point. Look closely at the motherboard spec. I would want an interface for 2 M.2 NVME SSDs, these are the future. To my mind the onboard graphics are unimportant, providing the base unit can take a graphics card. There are some really fast ones on auction sites no longer adequate for serious gamers.

I do agree with @bmc that the size of monitors is important. People work with a nice big desk onto which they can spread the papers which they are using for reference etc., but have a tiny computer desktop (monitor) with documents all piled one on top of the other in Windows.

[#3]

Gaming ..a big no to that   yes i know picked gaming computer out .....i suppose that's just a term meaning its capable

monitors ........ive been given at least 3  large wide screen tvs .....wondering if i could do something with them (but only if the price per KW goes down again)

the monitor i have now is 20 inch wide screen

to tell you the truth , ive no idea what i want  ...im 60 ..........if the next one lasts till im 70!

 what i want .....

"good for another 10 years"

and not another £ spent in those 10 years

does windows 10 have an email program,.......its important because i sell stuff on ebay that i have this ...not venturing onto google  or yahoo .with ebay......that's were all my [-Censored-] ends up.

All the best.mark

[#4]

oh forgot ..ive made some changes that make it add up to £800

 the whole figure still seems expensive to me 

changes are 500GB SSHD

and an extra 4TB HD

all the best...mark

[#5]

@markinwales 

I'll have a look at machines after Christmas.

A new PC won't come with a mail program unless it has M/S Office which would give you Outlook. What do you currently use?

A 4TB HD seems excessive. Do you know how much storage you currently have?

In the short term I had a quick look at Dell monitors. I used them for more years than I can remember. I specifically looked at 22-24" screens.

https://www.dell.com/en-uk/shop/monitors-monitor-accessories/ar/4009/22-24-inch?appliedRefinements=4...
https://www.dell.com/en-uk/shop/dell-ultrasharp-24-monitor-u2422h/apd/210-ayui/monitors-monitor-acce...

I make no recommendations as such.

Merry Christmas

Brian

[#6]

I Have a 3 TB drive now which is almost full ...........its taken years to get that full though

so was thinking 3 tb again until he said that there was only £20 or less difference or so for the 4TB.

not followed over the years what's changed .......so behind on knowledge

i know that there are now sshd ..which will be using for the main drive

other than that the processors have changed from 32 to 64 ..have more cores

that's about the extent of my knowledge .

all i can say and always have said ........if money was no object i would have a filtered air casing/tower.

cause that's the only thing that i see that gets my goat up .......lots of dust needs cleaning every 6 months

i use "windows live mail"

[#7]

@bmc

"A new PC won't come with a mail program unless it has M/S Office which would give you Outlook."

Doesn't Windows 11 come with its own Mail program built in - or is that just on the Pro version?

@markinwales 

There are also free open-source email clients available, such as Thunderbird, (which I use).

[#8]

Windows 11 mail is fairly naff.

If not buying Office365 then there are a few passable free email applications out there. Windows live mail can be made to work on Win 11 though it is well out of support.

[#9]

@markinwales 

Have you seen how much junk makes up 3TB. unless of course it’s hours and hours of video? 

[#10]

@Mr_Paul 

No idea about what comes with Win11. I use Pegasus Mail - have done since I got my first home computer over 30 years ago.

@markinwales 

While it appears Windows Live Mail can be used with a bit of effort (see link below) Office comes with Outlook so you would have a choice. If the price you quoted previously doesn't include Office (needed for Word) then you'll need to spend another £119.99 on Office Home / Student 2021. The link shown also details how to convert your current Live Mail setup to Outlook.

https://windowsreport.com/windows-live-mail-windows-10/

Brian

[#11]

seems to include something called "Windows 10’s Mail app"

We will have to see what that looks and performs like

The live mail i have now ...it's almost impossible to search the folders......lets you search the first few words in the title line only.

So any improvement on that would be great!

I've done some research ..on the computer i was quoted for above ........all those components when searched for on ebay  as brand new and lowest price - really do add up ...so computer as a whole looks like a good deal and good value, price wise, When you consider if things go wrong ....I've someone to visit when i need the warranty on it   note: that computer shop / business has been in existence for something like 22 years.  that's rare these days.

Yes the terabytes will be  TV stuff and documentaries

[#12]

I’m not a pc user, I use macs but one thing I’ve learned is try and use an ssd for your storage. A 1tb one is not too expensive these days and adding additional storage for less accessed files such as video files etc is easy.  An ssd makes a tremendous difference to system performance. 

[#13]

---

@Lwio wrote:There are two 

…...  An ssd makes a tremendous difference to system performance. 

---

It is important to know that there are two types of SSD interface. They are not interchangeable. There are also two different forms. The traditional 3.5in HDD equivalent and M.2. 
The former normally has a SATA3 interface, which will deliver a significant performance improvement and NVME which will give a tremendous difference, both types are available in the M.2 format.

[#14]

@markinwales 

I was going to look at a couple of machines as alternatives but based on what you've said and something I noticed on the company website I don't see the need.

Have you considered what happens once you have your nice shiny machine sitting on your desk.

I expect Win7 and Win11 would be like chalk and cheese. Most of what you know about how the system and programs work will be history. It'll take a good while to get up to speed with things. There is also the question of how to get your old data onto the newbie.

Here are some thoughts for your consideration.

You're buying a gaming rig - it appears to have LED lights on the case. Well over a decade ago I discovered to my cost when the machine was on my desk I couldn't turn them fully off. If you visit the shop have a look at the case. The keyboard / mouse may also be for gaming. If you like your current equipment it could be used if USB connected.

Is it possible to keep your old machine set up - even if it's on the floor using power extension cables. If you can you should be able to set up a Home Network between the two so old files can be copied across as and when you're ready. It would also keep your e-mail in the one place until you're ready.

What I noticed on the company website is that apart from free delivery you also get free installation (max one hour). Once the macnine is unpacked and set up with all cables attached I would imagine this would include looking at the software. Your internet would be first almost by default. After this, if you have the choice (and time) I would go

Browser

Home Network

Mail

Browser - MS Edge is the default. It doesn't get good reviews so I use FireFox. If you decide to change I would have an install file downloaded and saved on a memory stick so it's ready. You can also export all you Bookmarks and Cookies to the USB ready for import.

Home Network (if your old PC is available) - this isn't always straight forward to set up but gives you easy access to your old files.

Mail - despite what you said about Win 10 Mail App I would give serious consideration to trying Live Mail first. Have the Windows Essentials package and the required MS Patch downloaded and on the USB drive. My reasoning is you'll have a period of downtime from e-mail while you get things setup (you don't want mail in two separate places). By installing Live mail you know what the program is. When it's ready transfer all your e-mails and settings over. If you don't like the current version then you're in a position to look at the Win10 Mail App or any other client in your own time.

SATA ports - do you know how many are available. Must be at least two as you've spoken about a SSD and a HDD. If a third is available you could transfer your old 3TB drive over once you've transferred all the data (so you don't loose anything). This would give you an extra drive for backup. If no 3rd port you could consider an external caddy (the shop seems to sell one for about £30).

Brian

Edit : Forgot to add. If MS Office isn't part of the package consider LibreOffice. It probably does most of what you need and costs £0.00

https://www.libreoffice.org/ 

[#15]

To be honest all i use office for is pasting the ebay buyers address into.

To correct it (as its often jumbled up as ebay present to you) then alter size .. and then print it out.

More i think about this £800 

The more i think ..its a lot of money just to be able to do a few things ..its nuts

That is look at a few youtube videos every day - note at present and for the last few weeks i haven't been able to look at the notifications bell without it taking 3 mins to populate the list and use 100 percent CPU to do it....ive not been able to upload anything as just launching the youtube programs make it use 100 percent cpu.........nothing has changed here ...........nothing wrong with my pc

Conspiracy -  all in the name of profit , and agreements worked out between the glorious billionaires, think what you like, they are introducing things that don't work with W7

Down load a few torrents every day ...note with every year that goes by .......new codecs are forced on you that need an  ever more powerful computer.  files that need 64k...EVERMORE files by the name of HEVC - that will not play on my computer...how long before they are all HVEC?

Sell on ebay (note ebay ties any computer up in knots if it  does not have a certain amount of power to get out of it)

I look at a few forums

Why does it need to be so powerful;  just to run a MS program that previous versions ran with 500 k of ram with a 1 ghz processor

Most of the stuff slowing things down is advertising .......and we have to pay to upgrade the comp for the pleasure of it !

Its all a con trick i think ...to make you continuously  upgrade and spend on their products

i do edit pictures on it, for ebay in photoshop 7...note: don't see any need for anything better, than a new PS  which are more complicated and harder to use PS7 is good enough

as all i do mostly with pics is brightness , contrast ..resize them  ..note if you do that in ebayS own editor ..it makes them not zoomable ..ebay has lots of flaws!