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What Computer (1 Viewer)

claretjohn

claretjohn

Well-known member
I have recently upgraded my camera and now loading 20Mb+ photo files (RAW format) on to my PC and as a habitual horder I do not like to throw anything away, which includes images.
The problem I am going to have, in the not too distant future, is a meltdown of the current PC...it is already making grinding noises and taking longer and longer to fire up.

My question is.....if you were looking to buy a new PC, primarily for internet use (wife) and storage & processing photo images (me) what type of spec would you go for ?

All suggestions gratefully received.
John
 
For downloading & storage of your pictures think about using an external hard drive rather than the hard drive in the PC.
As to spec of PC... 3or 4Gb of RAM and a card reader built in are probably the only things you need think about for your requirements.
If you aren't into gaming then there's no point in going for the fastest processor or the most cutting edge graphics card or the loudest sound card.
Best thing would be to talk to a local PC builder about your requirements.
 
Same as Keith it will be better to talk to a PC builder, this way you paying for what you want. An external hardrive is a pretty useful thing and I know now they do 1TB (terrabytes) and at reasonably prices. An external hardrive plugs into a USB port on your pc and just act like a usb pen.
 
I concur with Keith and Thebird, but even go further. Re-build your existing PC with an updated motherboard, modest CPU and 1Mb of RAM. That way your cost will come in at under £100 for a rejuvenated machine. Install a free operating system on the hard drive, alongside whichever Windows you have, to get cutting edge software without having to pay Microsoft for it.
 
John, junk the pc and get an iMac you'll thank yourself in the long run. For editing it's screen is a joy to use, with either a mac wireless hard drive or one connected via 800mbps FireWire you'll gave a superb trouble free life. I see your in Norfolk, pop into Norwich to the new apple store and get a demonstration. Moved to apple 18 months ago and wish I had done it years ago
 
Duke Leto said:
John, junk the pc and get an iMac you'll thank yourself in the long run. For editing it's screen is a joy to use, with either a mac wireless hard drive or one connected via 800mbps FireWire you'll gave a superb trouble free life. I see your in Norfolk, pop into Norwich to the new apple store and get a demonstration. Moved to apple 18 months ago and wish I had done it years ago
Click to expand...

I've recently gone along this route, always been a PC man and then used an iMac and have never looked back. My only regret is I didn't do it years ago. Now I use a MacBook and iMac. The screen is just outstanding on the iMac.
 
Good monitors are available regardless of OS. Mac's do nothing that a good PC cannot do. PC software is far easier to find. You don't state audio requirements but I'd stick with a PC in this regard also. However, if video or audio processing is your raison d'etre (and it's not) then go for a Mac.
 
John,
Grinding noises from the computer is almost certainly an indication of a failing hard drive. Don't wait till it dies completely, back up your photos and data now! Recovering data from a dead drive is really expensive. Replace it now with a newer unit. You can easily get a Terabyte drive for around 100 sterling, which should keep your photographs at your fingertips.

The rest of your computer should be entirely unaffected by the problem with the hard drive, although it would do no harm to make sure the venting fans are clean and running smoothly. You can set your old drive as a slave unit to your new drive and then transfer your old data and photos to the new drive. This will take some expert help, as you'll need to reinstall Windows on your new drive, but that should be cheaper than a new PC. There are experts on this forum, Howard Hopkinso for instance, who might be able to walk you through the process for a reasonable fee.
 
If I were to get rid of my Son (not likely!) I would think seriously about this from Amazon. HP Pavilion All-in-One MS228uk Desktop PC (18.5-inch LCD, Windows 7 Home Premium, AMD Athlon II X2 250u Processor, 4 GB DDR2 RAM, 500 GB SATA HDD, 802.11 b/g Networking, ATI Radeon HD 3200 Graphics)
At £519 it has everthing you will need EXCEPT an external drive for backup. I use 2 Lacie Drives - one holds the master photo database - and the other the backup. I also have a 500gb portable drive which also has the databases and a copy of the program which I use for cataloging (Micrsoft Expression 2).
 
External hard drives are great for storage and backup. But USB is just too slow. So, when you get your new PC built, make sure it's got eSATA (or ensure it's got space for an eSATA interface). Then you can get an eSATA dock for your external drives and move data to and from them at the same sorts of speed as you get with an internal drive.
 
MichaelSH said:
If I were to get rid of my Son (not likely!) I would think seriously about this from Amazon. HP Pavilion All-in-One MS228uk Desktop PC (18.5-inch LCD, Windows 7 Home Premium, AMD Athlon II X2 250u Processor, 4 GB DDR2 RAM, 500 GB SATA HDD, 802.11 b/g Networking, ATI Radeon HD 3200 Graphics)
At £519 it has everthing you will need EXCEPT an external drive for backup. I use 2 Lacie Drives - one holds the master photo database - and the other the backup. I also have a 500gb portable drive which also has the databases and a copy of the program which I use for cataloging (Micrsoft Expression 2).
Click to expand...

I'd not get a HP Pavilion again, the machine I'm using now was a pavilion originally.
The hard drive packed up just outside the warranty period, luckily my local PC shop was able to clone the HD onto another one, the DVD Writer fitted was a pig which I finally got rid of and fitted new, and the graphics card just wasn't up to scratch so again the local chap fitted a new one for me. So the only original thing left is the motherboard and processor.
My next machine will be a custom built one from the local man, and it will have the bits in it that I want rather than what HP want to sell me.
 
That simply isn't true.

Macs can and do get infected with various types of malware. However, it is true that there aren't as many malware infections for Macs, mainly due to the fact that Macs occupy such a small percentage of computers in use.

See HERE for information.
 
Howard_Hopkinso said:
That simply isn't true.

Macs can and do get infected with various types of malware. However, it is true that there aren't as many malware infections for Macs, mainly due to the fact that Macs occupy such a small percentage of computers in use.

See HERE for information.
Click to expand...

Funny how people selling anti-virus software claim macs need it...
 
scary-canary said:
Funny how people selling anti-virus software claim macs need it...
Click to expand...

If Apple had a larger share of the pc market then you would need AV software. That's not going to happen anytime soon though so your safe. If I used a Mac I don't think I'd be in any rush to convert others to the cause.

I've never personally used a Mac but I've heard an iPod and if that's any measure of Apple as a company I'll stick with Windows thank you very much.

:'D
 
If your pc is making a noise it could just be the fan, a new one costs about a fiver. Worth getting it checked out as a failed fan could seriously cripple the pc, a failed HDD could lose you a lot of data. If your pc is going slow it probably needs a clean out, from physical dust accumulations and from accumulated junk software. Once it's 'cleaned' it should run as fast now as when new - but not as fast as a new pc. For what you're looking at doing, a fairly basic new pc should be fine.

Turn it off, whip off the side panel, turn it on, see if you can identify where the noise is coming from (don't touch anything inside).

If you go the new Windows pc route make sure to get Windows 7, it's more secure that the Apple OS, although there's far more malware out there targetting Windows than Macs: security by obscurity (about 92% of computers run Windows, 5% Apple OS), see http://blogs.forbes.com/firewall/2010/03/25/the-bounty-for-an-apple-bug-115000/
 
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