(Still) thinking of buying a new PC

[Simon]

I've been considering buying a new PC for a while now, but it goes in phases.  When my current machine is running well, all is fine and thoughts of replacing it are forgotten, but the occurrences of it failing to start from cold without a reboot or two are increasing, as is the time it needs to become functional after starting up.  I also experience more 'freezes' than I would like, and occasionally get a (overheating?) warning 'siren' from the tower itself (not through the speakers), which always requires a reboot.  Further to this, I struggle to retain space on my C drive, which quite frequently goes into the red, despite regular 'cleaning', and as the computer is now at least 7 or 8 years old, I'm guessing that the internal hard drives may be reaching the end of their working lives anyway.

So, I don't have the time, interest, or patience any more to build a new machine myself, which is what I have always previous done, so have been casually browsing for a new 'off-the-shelf' desktop (tower only), and came across this, following an ad in Computer Active magazine. I'd probably want to tweak the spec a little, with a second hard drive and perhaps a more powerful CPU, but other than that, does this look OK?

http://www.meshcomputers.com/Default.aspx?PAGE=PRODUCTCONFIGPAGE&USG=PRODUCT&ENT=PRODUCT&KEY=1351102

[colirv]

I've no idea how that compares for vfm with the rest of the market, but if I was buying it I'd want to include the SuperSpeed USB 3.0 Internal Card Reader. And, if I didn't already have one, a 22" monitor!

[Simon]

Yes, the card reader would be one of the add-ons.

[zappaDPJ]

I can't comment on Mesh as I've not had any dealings with them for years. The only thing that really stands out to me is the lack of an SSD for a boot drive which I would consider essential these days. The cost of the base unit looks about right to me.

[Glenn]

Try spec'ing what you want on here and see what the price comes out at.

https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/intel-computers/

[Simon]

I can't comment on Mesh as I've not had any dealings with them for years. The only thing that really stands out to me is the lack of an SSD for a boot drive which I would consider essential these days. The cost of the base unit looks about right to me.

I believe Mesh went through a troubled period, but they have since sorted themselves out.

What you said about an SSD goes to show how not well up I am on latest specs.  What is the big advantage of SSD over a regular hard drive, and why are they so bloody expensive?

[Simon]

Try spec'ing what you want on here and see what the price comes out at.

https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/intel-computers/

Doesn't work on my phone, so will have to look later, but thanks. 

[zappaDPJ]

What you said about an SSD goes to show how not well up I am on latest specs.  What is the big advantage of SSD over a regular hard drive, and why are they so bloody expensive?

The advantage is the same as buying a faster processor or higher spec graphics card or upgrading to fibre over ADSL. There's really little point in upgrading to a faster processor or a more powerful graphics card if your hard drive is using old technology. SSDs make everything you do on a PC run significantly faster. My PC cold boots in under 15 seconds and all the software that I use loads in less than 2 seconds.

I wouldn't say they are particularly expensive, it's just that conventional hard drives are reaching the end of their reign and they are now ridiculously cheap by comparison. A 256GB SSD should be more than enough to store your OS and primary applications. You can still use conventional drives for backup purposes or storing large amounts of data.

[Clive]

I've bought two laptops from PC Specialist this year, both with good specs and I've been delighted with both.  My only gripe is that they charge if you use a credit card.  But there is a £15 discount code in Computer Active machine and it's CA297 if my memory serves me right.  I bought the second machine for my grandson and his dad is very impressed with it. 

[Simon]

I've tried the PC Specialist website, and the trouble is, I'm not up to speed on what's good and what isn't, so configuring a spec from scratch is quite a challenge.  I'm soon finding myself well over my budget with only half of the components selected!  At least with the Mesh one, what you see is what you get, and the only configuration is the add-ons.

[Clive]

Do what I did.  Make up a spec from the website and post it on here.  Wait for everyone to fall about laughing then adjust it until the laughter stops.  It worked very well for me!   

[Simon]

 

[Glenn]

http://outlet.euro.dell.com/Online/InventorySearch.aspx?brandid=1&c=uk&cs=ukdfh1&l=en&s=dfh

[Simon]

This looks pretty good, but the VAT pushes it quite a bit over-budget (I didn't really want to spend much more than £500), and would 32Gb be big enough for the SSD?  My current setup has 80Gb for the OS and programs, and that keeps getting full.

http://outlet.euro.dell.com/Online/SecondaryInventorySearch.aspx?c=uk&l=en&s=dfh&cs=ukdfh1&key=dTpy%2bRZFSAZHm5VEh1fLaQ%3d%3d&puid=c80f075b

[Steve]

I'm out of touch with PCs but some form of SSD drive would be a must for me, I would possibly look at  hybrid drives as well. As Zap says the speed difference between HDD and SSD is astounding. Certainly I'd want OS and frequently used applications on SSD as a minimum but with the price of SSDs coming down I'm not sure of the future role of hybrid drives (Hybrid drives have an smallish SSD incorporated into a larger mechanical drive and are therefore cheaper than the equivalent larger SSD i.e..1TB)

[zappaDPJ]

This looks pretty good, but the VAT pushes it quite a bit over-budget (I didn't really want to spend much more than £500), and would 32Gb be big enough for the SSD?  My current setup has 80Gb for the OS and programs, and that keeps getting full.

http://outlet.euro.dell.com/Online/SecondaryInventorySearch.aspx?c=uk&l=en&s=dfh&cs=ukdfh1&key=dTpy%2bRZFSAZHm5VEh1fLaQ%3d%3d&puid=c80f075b

The link doesn't seem to be working but regardless I don't recall seeing a 32GB SSD before. I think the smallest I've come across is 120GB and I've just been looking at the price of them, £25! Three years ago they were 5 times that price.

[Glenn]

240 - 256Gb SSD's can be had for less than £60 now

http://www.ebuyer.com/712133-sandisk-plus-240gb-sataiii-2-5inch-ssd-sdssda-240g-g25?mkwid=s4QEt2UBG_dc&pcrid=51482419619&pkw=&pmt=&gclid=CjwKEAjw4dm6BRCQhtzl6Z6N4i0SJADFPu1nZtyvTlfYWXP_HCMg_nKNBIeExLk0X0nlS-U3USu0iRoCVMnw_wcB

[Simon]

Not sure why the link isn't working, but from Glenn's link above, it's the XPS 8900:

XPS 8900
Processor: Intel® Core™ i7-6700 Processor (8MB Cache, up to 4.0GHz)
Windows 10 Home (64bit)
16GB (2x8GB) 2133MHz DDR4 Non-ECC
2 TB 3.5inch SATA Hard Drive (7200RPM)
32 GB Solid State Drive
16X DVD +/- RW DRIVE
4 GB DDR3 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 745
460W Chassis
Dell Wireless-N 1801+ Bluetooth 4.0
Heatsink

[Glenn]

It's a good spec but as said above add a larger SSD. Would you be doing anything graphics intensive FPS games etc, as the graphics card may struggle a little?

[nowster]

Be aware that SSD lifetime may be less than the equivalent conventional hard drive, and they definitely do not make for good long term storage. SSDs may have drastically lowered data retention times if left unpowered for months.

As always, backups are advised.

[Clive]

I understand that there is a big difference in SSD manufacturers with Samsung coming out by far the best.  But 32Gb?  Really Simon!! 

[Simon]

TBH, I don't need it to power up in three seconds.  Three minutes would be an improvement on my current machine at times!  If that Dell is an otherwise good spec, I wonder if I could substitute the SSD for a larger conventional hard drive, in addition to the 2Tb one included?

Before I make the jump, I also need to make sure that some essential old software, such as Sony Soundforge 8.0, will run on Windows 10, so I will have to test it out on my laptop first, as I don't want to incur the costs of updating software on top of the cost of the new machine.  It's not so much the money, but I really don't need anything all that special anymore, and other than it running slowly and freezing at times, my current Windows 7 machine actually does what I want it to do. 

Glenn, I'm pretty sure the specified graphics card would be better than the 8 year old one I already have, and that seems too managed OK with everything I throw at it.

[Simon]

I understand that there is a big difference in SSD manufacturers with Samsung coming out by far the best.  But 32Gb?  Really Simon!! 

It does sound woefully inadequate.  Compared to the rest of the specs, I wonder if that's a mistake?

[Glenn]

Needs an OS installing but not a bad price http://www.freshtechsolutions.co.uk/intel-core-i5-6600-1tb-8gb-2133mhz-gtx-960-2gb-zalman-t4-computer-gaming-pc.html?gclid=Cj0KEQjwvtS6BRC8pcKn8OXIg_wBEiQAqtpizzK_GrujZYge4eosOkfmOf9JJV2U4jixZqKPFm79Xm4aAspb8P8HAQ

[zappaDPJ]

TBH, I don't need it to power up in three seconds.  Three minutes would be an improvement on my current machine at times!

To put things in perspective, you would probably be better off fixing the overheating issue in your current machine and swapping out the hard drive for an SSD assuming the motherboard can handle it. It really doesn't make sense to buy a new PC without an SSD. It's not just power up or loading applications that benefits, modern operating systems constantly access your hard drive which is the major bottleneck on PCs using old technology.