Desktop Unit Only, Cheap, Any Advice

[MacB]

folks, home pc has died, this was a no-name build replacement via an insurance claim about 8 years ago. I've replaced the hard drive once and upgraded ram to maximum motherboard accepts(700 and something mb from 256). Keep getting hard drive/memory errors, have tried some fixes but it's just not holding up. My research has indicated that there's a known issue with XP, my type of hard drive and motherboard/cpu of a certain vintage. Something to do with corruption occurring when it tries to fire up from standby mode. I've tried all the fixes, barring wiping and starting again. If I do that I then have to download all the service packs again etc, it takes bloody ages. Due to age and limitations I'm not sure it's worth trying to nurse this back to health. My options for replacement parts are quite limited due to age and compatibility.

So I thought I'd just get a replacement box, nothing too fancy, I don't need gaming or graphic capabilities. I've seen a lot of reconditioned boxes from £80 to £250, gives you an idea of how cheap I'd like to go. I was thinking of looking for minimum 40gb hard drive, 1gb ram and 2ghz processor, plus basic graphics and sound cards. Any suggestions, advice, links, gratefully accepted.

I also have some stuff on the old drive I'd like to rescue, could I set it up as slave on a new box? If so do I have to do that internally or is there a way of doing so externally via USB. We're not talking much data here.

Finally I have 2 laptops that are very poorly and I'd like to get them fixed. The first doesn't hold charge in battery so we run off mains, getting joggled can cause it to shut down. Also screen can go dark and needs a little waggle to bring back. Second is a toshiba and it's the power supply that repair shops seem to want £150 plus to sort. Something about the internal power supply to the motherboard needing replacing and resoldering. The latter I've looked up online and found instructions on how to fix but is beyond my knowledge and range of tools. Any help in these areas would be appreciated as well...cheers.....Al

 

[peanut]

pity you could have had my Shuttle PC advertised on here last week for £75.00

I fix laptops for a hobby . Let me have the model No of the two laptops and I'll give you an opinion and estimate of the cost for repair .

The easiest way to remove your data is to slave your drive to another PC . You can get a USB lead to do it externally but as you'll need to get the cover of the pc to connect 5v you might as well shove it on a computer's IDE cable as a slave.

If you can't do this this I can do this in a few minutes and burn your data to a DVD for you.

The first laptop will need a new DC socket soldering onto the motherboard so a complete strip down and reassembly.

The second laptop may need a new screen (backlight) or possibly just a new inverter and/or screen cable. Impossible to know without testing.

Personally i wouldn't recommend using standby mode there is little to commend it. If you are not using your PC or laptop in this hot weather better to turn it off than to cook the CPU for hours needlessly.

 

[very-near]

Try http://www.europc.co.uk/

 

[twowheelsgood]

Shame I don't live near you.

I'd quite happily give you a suitable PC. If you had a licensed copy of Windows I'd be quite happy to install and update for you too. Otherwise you'd get Ubuntu... You might want to consider a new HDD for reliability sake though.

I've got 1 laptop, 2 netbooks and 5 PCs of recent vintage and it's time for a cull. At least 3 of the desktops need to go. One is an AMD something and the other a 3GHz Pentium IV.

I think your approach is sensible though. So many folk seem to buy absurdly over-specified machines.

TBH if you don't game or do video production, then anything made in the last 3-4 years is perfectly adequate.

 

[SavageHoutkop]

If you do get a reconditioned box, you might have an issue getting replacement bits when they break - thinking of my boxes at home - if something breaks now it's basically a new PC due to compatibility issues. (PCI express, SATA vs IDE etc etc). I'd recommend a new box at mid-spec. Might be trouble finding one without Vista though. (although not a problem if you have your XP disc - do you?)

 

[ian turner]

You don't need to open the case to connect the 5v up on a harddrive. Just use one of these which uses 2 usb connectors to get the required 5v.
Try this for £191 if you have the OS and a non OEM installion cd and key.

 

[MacB]

thanks guys, yes I have the XP disc and codes etc, I also have the MS office suite SW and codes.

Savage - good point on the risks of reconditioned, I'm currently exploring freecycle but expect you're right. I should really get a mid range so that it lasts a while. It just really hurts to spend much on something that's main use will be e-mail, browsing and the odd print out.

Peanut, got your mail, I'm looking locally for repairs as it wouldn't take much in postage etc to make it not worth the effort. I'll send you the details anyway so that you can quote....cheers....Al

 

[accountantpete]

Why not build your own - Asus mobo ,AMD Athlon x2 4000 etc should be about £200 for the hardware.

 

[Deleted member 1258]

Have a look on here http://www.dinopc.com/ and see if there's anything you like.
What condition are your keyboard, mouse etc? maybe you can just buy the cpu?
I got my pc from these people and have been impressed with it.

 

[MacB]

You don't need to open the case to connect the 5v up on a harddrive. Just use one of these which uses 2 usb connectors to get the required 5v.
Try this for £191 if you have the OS and a non OEM installion cd and key.

Ian, like the look of that one on the link you supplied, could be on order tomorrow...thanks....Al

 

[MacB]

Bit mor help please folks, looked a bit further, Daves DinoPC seems good and I also need it to have wireless card. So this one:-

http://www.dinopc.com/shop/pc/20-005-Intel-Core-2-Quad-PC-95p487.htm

comes in at £315........I don't really know if the parts etc are good but was attracted by the free wrranties they offer.

Anyone fancy having a uick look at the site and telling me if there are better options I could choose?....thanks.....Al

 

[marinyork]

There's nowt wrong with some of those specs at all for what you asked for. Quad might seem a bit nuts for that system.

 

[peanut]

You don't need to open the case to connect the 5v up on a harddrive. Just use one of these which uses 2 usb connectors to get the required 5v.
Try this for £191 if you have the OS and a non OEM installion cd and key.

thats a nice PC at a good price ian but its total overkill for Macs purpose isn't it
however all things considered it the best option so far.

Mac I'd say that the Dino PC is a bit high spec for your stated basic needs of surfin and word processing , photo editing etc.
The only thing I would say about the warrantee is that it would be for hardware failure only. The majority of PC failures are software and that won't be covered.

The windows operating system and disk costs an extra £70 plus you'll need the wireless card an extra £15.00 etc etc.

now you are looking at £400+ when a couple of posts agon you were concerned at the cost of postage ??

doesn't equate really

 

[marinyork]

Shame you don't live nearby to any of us, could have rustled up a PC as was said.

 

[MacB]

thats a nice PC at a good price ian but its total overkill for Macs purpose isn't it
however all things considered it the best option so far.

Mac I'd say that the Dino PC is a bit high spec for your stated basic needs of surfin and word processing , photo editing etc.
The only thing I would say about the warrantee is that it would be for hardware failure only. The majority of PC failures are software and that won't be covered.

The windows operating system and disk costs an extra £70 plus you'll need the wireless card an extra £15.00 etc etc.

now you are looking at £400+ when a couple of posts agon you were concerned at the cost of postage ??

doesn't equate really

DinoPC do cheaper models than the one I linked to, I just don't know enough to select, I will give them a call. The only extra would be the wireless network card, I have XP on disc and the relevant licence keys, also office. I have no fear of entering the bios etc to fix settings to optimal

Bearing in mind I'll be replacing the existing home PC, which is probably a laughably low spec. For example it is 256mb ram and I upgraded to the maximum the motherboard could take, which was an extra 512mb. I have a decent flat screen monitor, printer, speakers. I could even remove the woreles card from that and install in new one, but it's relly old as well.

This is almost worse than trying to choose a new bike, so many options, so many views. What I need:-

Base unit with wireless network card, for surfing, e-mails, office type applications. No gaming or heavy graphics, but I'd like it to be quite zippy. Reason for wireless is that we remodelled downstairs and I haven't gotten around to moving modem etc to the best place yet. When I do this pc will be hooked up via LAN.