IT - I have no idea

[Barbelcatcher]

I have recently inherited some money, which I'd didn't really expect, so am thinking about changing my old PC triple cored HP machine. However, I have no idea what to get and what I need to support it. I recently moved back into my house, following extensive plastering, rewiring, decorating - enough to last me out until the wooden box arrives. The computer sits in my office with a dedicated broadband line (BT) which also needs upgrading. I only have BT Freeview in a fashion or should have - It doesn't work.

My current computer is running Office works, including excel, word etc., all of the 7 series. I have Photoshop SC5, Adobe Acrobat X Pro etc.

Been hanging my nose over a IMac, but cannot really understand what they come with etc.,

Question - what would you have?
What broadband provider
What extra add ons might I have to buy.

My usual IT buff unfortunately died last year - so I have no ready source of knowledge and the computer specs mean nothing to me.

 

[Dave]

The biggest question is what do you want to do with it, or what do you want it to do?

 

[Barbelcatcher]

No games, maggot drowning - improve photoediting, execl, word, research

 

[commieboy257]

In the world of graphic design everyone swears by macs and they are pretty much an industry standard because that is what they do best.
personally I can't stand them.
if you want to just edit photographs and do business stuff then a windows 10 would be ideal as long as you have an I5 processor as a minimum and a minimum of 8gig of ram, preferably 12.
I run Paintshop Pro X7 with no hangups and I have the above I5 and 8 gig of ram.

 

[davej]

One with this sort of spec should cover all your needs.

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[muskrat]

TBH if all you are doing is a bit of web surfing, word processing, basic spreadsheets, and some basic photo editing, I think you'd be hard pressed to find an 'off the shelf' PC that wouldn't suit your needs. These days they all tend to come with Windows 10 bundled.

Don't forget to factor in the cost of a decent monitor, and the extra software you want. (Office / Office Works, Photoshop, Acrobat Pro, etc.)

MACs are for graphic artists, musicians, and of course MAC lovers.

 

[squimp]

My desktop that does similar jobs to yours broke 3 weeks ago.

im a computer philistine, but with bit of research and I ended up with:

Dell Inspiron i5, windows 10 and MS office. It has a card reader built in (fishing photos!), a dvd drive and lots of USB ports.

It was discounted £100 as a ‘black Friday’ deal and had free delivery included. It arrived 36 hours after I ordered it which was pretty impressive.

I have reused my old screen as it was pretty decent. But the port on the back of the desktop has been changed so that cost a few quid for a new cable !

It is quite compact, it is quiet and it seems to work well - so all good so far.

 

[Arfer Mo]

I have just updated my computer. I bought from here.

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It's the second one I've had from there. They are very helpful people to talk with.

 

[davej]

Used these people a few times always good service.

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[juttle]

If you decide to go with a PC, best bet for what you need, please remember that windows 10 needs a minimum of 8gb or RAM to function properly. The more RAM the better, just to be sure, go for 16mb if you can find it. If not, make sure the motherboard that you get has expansion slots to allow for more RAM to be added!

 

[ukzero1]

MACs are for graphic artists, musicians, and of course MAC lovers.

And their double cheeseburgers aren't bad either.

 

[NoCarpPlease]

I use windows PC for work and macs at home. Bearing in mind that the windows PC therefore has a load of "corporate build" that will impact on this observation:

IME
The macs have a useful life that is double that of windows machines, but cost at least double to start with.
All reasonable application functions are available for both - but there is more choice for Windows
Unless you're going to be sat at it all day - I'd go laptop over desktop every time.

The only question I'd have is about the "photo editing" requirement.
I know a couple of pro graphic designers who barely scratch photoshop's capabilities - it is probably way over the top for most amateur requirements.
Many photographers (who want to optimise the original image) use tools Like Lightroom by preference (or equivalent).
Anyway- the point I'm (badly) trying to make is that rapid manipulation of RAW images from 25MP cameras takes a lot more grunt (RAM and CPU) than just cutting down JPeg images to a size.

 

[Lee Richards]

Before you buy a basic model ask yourself how much porn you intend to stream and store.

Information provided from a friend

 

[davylad]

If you can afford it, get yourself a Macbook Pro, it will do all you need and more. Oh and it will do it very quickly. Before anyone starts, that's only my opinion, but it was the best thing I ever did regarding computers.

 

[robert d]

If you can afford it, get yourself a Macbook Pro, it will do all you need and more. Oh and it will do it very quickly. Before anyone starts, that's only my opinion, but it was the best thing I ever did regarding computers.

My daughter has a macbook pro ,she thinks its awesome

 

[Philocalist]

Pretty much any PC you can buy will be overpowered for what you want to do.
I'm sat typing on a PC I bought almost 5 years ago - an i5 processor, bought with 8GB of ram that was upgraded over time (as the operating system changed from Windows 8.1 to 10) to 16, then 32GB.
It handles with ease, everything you want to do, and runs two large screens.
I seriously doubt you could find anything this low-powered, even second hand, for sale
Personally, I'd get a decent, cheaper PC (even a decent laptop will happily do what you want, and is much easier to store etc), and put the money you save into a decent SMART TV and a good internet connection (which saves a lot of frustration) - and buy a decent keyboard and mouse - its worthwhile, as its the part of the PC that will get most use, and cheaper ones can be a bit nasty in comparison.
Printers? Unless you are seriously considering regularly printing photographs (and expect high quality), ignore 'photo-quality' printers - they get bloody expensive, quickly, just with ink costs! You're likely better of getting something that will give decent text / graphics (any printer should do that) and also have a scanning function - a wireless capability / connection might make life a bit easier too.
Be mindful of the imminent arrival of Black Friday, and the sale prices that will appear - ALSO, if you can hang on a month or so, there are usually some spectacular deals around at Christmas too, particularly when they start the sales before Christmas day ... remember, you're not really looking for the latest spec, and many places are desperate to get rid of older stock cheaply to make way for the arrival of the new stuff, ready for January.