New PC Purchase: Advice Please! :-)

[ScreamingMidget]

My sister is looking at getting a new PC for when she works at home.

No games played and no DVDs watched on it. She just needs it faster. I booted it up yesterday and it took literally 10 minutes. When several windows are open or browsers it freezes and takes a while to unfreeze. Therefore I'm pretty sure this is down to a lack of RAM and Processor Speed.

PC Build is around 6 years old.
Current Spec:

Processor: AMD Phenom(tm) II X2 550 Processor (2 CPUs), ~3.1GHz
Memory: 4096MB RAM
Display: NVIDIA GeForce GTS 250
HD Space: 232 GB

Surely a minimum of 8GB is needed?

Also, we're based in the UK, and she has around £450-500 to spend. So any links to UK based deals would be brilliant. Even a trip to somewhere like PC World I'm sure would be ok, if it was fast.

As mentioned, this is not a games machine. It's purely for MS Office, MS Outlook, but having many Internet browsers open at the same time, so there needs to be more RAM. Just what you'd expect to have in an office.

No need for a laptop, ipad etc, it has to be a PC.

Thanks!

 

[MisterF]

PCW is the easiest to walk in and have a look.

Laptops Direct ( I think they're called ) in Huddersfield are a mail order supplier with decent pricing.

 

[Web Echo]

First try to change the browser. Most probably she doesn't need anything new (except... may be better monitor)

 

[ScreamingMidget]

First try to change the browser. Most probably she doesn't need anything new (except... may be better monitor)

Tried all browsers. It's almost definitely down to RAM. A lot of programmes need to be open at once.

 

[ScreamingMidget]

PCW is the easiest to walk in and have a look.

Laptops Direct ( I think they're called ) in Huddersfield are a mail order supplier with decent pricing.

We're in Leeds, so not far from Huddersfield.

The thing is, I'm all about software and using a computer - never been interested in the hardware, so I'm not really sure what's good and what's not.

Any advice you can give such as, which processors to go for as a minimum? Anything else in the spec I need to look out for?

 

[MisterF]

We're in Leeds, so not far from Huddersfield.

The thing is, I'm all about software and using a computer - never been interested in the hardware, so I'm not really sure what's good and what's not.

Any advice you can give such as, which processors to go for as a minimum? Anything else in the spec I need to look out for?

Off topic, next time I'm back across in White Rose County, have to meet up for a beer.

 

[Nowrid Ahsan]

You'll probably get an i5 7500, decent motherboard, 8 gb ram, 1tb hdd, 120gb ssd, 500watt psu, nice looking casing and a gpu and if you don't need a gpu you can get an i7

 

[ScreamingMidget]

You'll probably get an i5 7500, decent motherboard, 8 gb ram, 1tb hdd, 120gb ssd, 500watt psu, nice looking casing and a gpu and if you don't need a gpu you can get an i7

So an i5 7500 is a lot quicker than the one in the OP?

Graphics card I'm sure could be onboard so it won't need to be anything special. Do you mean if I get onboard she can get a better processor?

 

[ScreamingMidget]

Off topic, next time I'm back across in White Rose County, have to meet up for a beer.

Sure thing. Where abouts are you?

 

[Nowrid Ahsan]

So an i5 7500 is a lot quicker than the one in the OP?

Graphics card I'm sure could be onboard so it won't need to be anything special. Do you mean if I get onboard she can get a better processor?

if she gets the i7 for just browsing and basic work you probably won't even need to upgrade in like 8-10 years

 

[SEO]

If she's willing to switch to Google Docs, or if she uses Office cloud, then a 4 GB Ram Chromebook would be ideal. Those things boot up quickly. I use one anytime I'm out and about. Great battery life and very inexpensive. Obviously, if there are any desktop apps that she absolutely needs, then it would be a no-go.

 

[ScreamingMidget]

If she's willing to switch to Google Docs, or if she uses Office cloud, then a 4 GB Ram Chromebook would be ideal. Those things boot up quickly. I use one anytime I'm out and about. Great battery life and very inexpensive. Obviously, if there are any desktop apps that she absolutely needs, then it would be a no-go.

Hi, as mentioned in the OP, it has to be a PC. She already has a laptop, but doesn't like them. So it has to be a PC base unit.

 

[SEO]

Sorry about that. PC doesn't mean desktop, it often just refers to a windows machine, but I didn't see the last sentence in your post. There are also Chromeboxes.

 

[ScreamingMidget]

What do people think of these?

1: http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/compu...er-aspire-xc-780-desktop-pc-10146423-pdt.html
2: http://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/hp-2...s-10-professional-desktop-z6r72ea/version.asp
3: http://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/hp-2...s-10-professional-desktop-z6r73ea/version.asp

From what I've seen, the processor in the OP isn't much slower than what's around now.

 

[Jerring]

If you only need to have it faster then I would suggest getting a Ssd hard drive it's crazy how much faster the computer will get when you have an Ssd instead of a regular mechanical hard drive

 

[JB2302]

get a batter processor, the latest you can get, in speed i7>i5>i3,
in i3 6 the gen you can have around 10 words doc open and 20 tabs open ( in 3 different browsers ) still it run smooth, and ram works with processor and hard disk ,so upgrade the 3 for best performance
processor , ram, hard disk ( SSD is fastest )

 

[living2xl]

you need more ram
thats all
if she wants to open more browser tabs
no need for entirely new pc at all
get 8 or 16gb ram and downgrade windows to xp or win 7 at least

 

[Web Echo]

- Uninstall programs that she is not using
- Defrag system and windows registry. (I guess it's windows OS)
- How much vitual memory set? Set it at recommended value.

If this doesn't works then

- Buy more RAM

 

[Web Echo]

>downgrade windows to xp or win 7 at least

Agree! I am using win 7 with just 8GB RAM. I am happy with this setup

 

[ThopHayt]

The new AMD CPU's are the way to go, they are fast/cheap and have integrated graphics to handle WIndows 10 smooth. Make SURE to get an SSD of at least 200GB and then have a secondary hard drive for bulk file storage. For RAM make sure you get AT LEAST 12+ GB.

-ThopHayt