PC for the Parents

[tpp_uk]

Old machine getting a bit long in the tooth, hence looking for something reasonably priced for the Parents - just email, bit of browsing / few excel sheets. Not having bought a PC for a while, is the below ok for light usage?

http://www.dell.com/uk/p/inspiron-3847-desktop/pd?...

Personally I prefer the look of the smaller form factor machines, but that only comes with a celeron dual core, and I'd prefer something a little more future proof.

Anyone have either machine?

Edited by tpp_uk on Tuesday 14th October 14:18

[tpp_uk]

bump

[Mr Will]

chromebook?

[tpp_uk]

A route I had considered, however the vagueness of rural broadband makes it a little dubious - lots of photo's and stuff to back up, and would prefer local storage.

[Walford]

Mr Will said:

chromebook?

can it do skype now, think that was the big issue

[grumbledoak]

Lenovo ThinkCentre M, or Acer Aspire X - both do a small form PC with i3. I'm sure both will work.

http://shop.lenovo.com/gb/en/desktops/thinkcentre/...
http://www.acer.co.uk/ac/en/GB/content/model/DT.SR...

[ZesPak]

tpp_uk said:

A route I had considered, however the vagueness of rural broadband makes it a little dubious - lots of photo's and stuff to back up, and would prefer local storage.

Chromebox (allows big screen and big keyboard/mouse) or chromebook, attach USB drive.
Job jobbed.

[Walford]

ZesPak said:

tpp_uk said:

A route I had considered, however the vagueness of rural broadband makes it a little dubious - lots of photo's and stuff to back up, and would prefer local storage.

Chromebox (allows big screen and big keyboard/mouse) or chromebook, attach USB drive.
Job jobbed.

what about the 300,000,000 skype users, are they job joby

or still waiting, i know someone who was sold a chromebook a year ago, and told they would get skype very soon

[ZesPak]

Walford said:

what about the 300,000,000 skype users, are they job joby

or still waiting, i know someone who was sold a chromebook a year ago, and told they would get skype very soon

Agreed, but the OP never mentioned skype and about 1 billion users don't use skype.

[LordFlathead]

Ebuyer were doing dual core 4gb pic's with win 8 installed and built for £179 delivered last week

Edit: £129 after trade in !

m.ebuyer.com/643320

Edited by LordFlathead on Wednesday 15th October 13:10

[TheExcession]

I'm in a similar situation, the old man's PC is about 12 years old now and has practically grinded to a halt!

I was looking at this Dell/http://www.dell.com/ie/p/inspiron-3646-small-desktop/pd?ref=PD_OC, no need for monitor etc, just want to get him a base that is quicker than what he has.

He's recovering from a stroke though, so I'm super scared of dropping Windows 8.1 on him!

Essentially all he does is the odd email, bit of browsing and watching the odd youtube video that we send him.

Any thoughts?

Thanks!

[grumbledoak]

TheExcession said:

http://www.dell.com/ie/p/inspiron-3646-small-deskt...

He's recovering from a stroke though, so I'm super scared of dropping Windows 8.1 on him!

Essentially all he does is the odd email, bit of browsing and watching the odd youtube video that we send him.

Any thoughts?

I struggle to recommend less than an i3 these days, but otherwise that will be fine. My father is in the same boat and has picked it Win8.1 up no problems - despite the howls of protest from people who thought they understood things, the Start Screen is a very good launcher for beginners.

ETA i3/8GB/1TB £320 - http://www.dell.com/uk/p/inspiron-3847-desktop/pd?...

Edited by grumbledoak on Wednesday 22 October 16:16

[TheExcession]

grumbledoak said:

I struggle to recommend less than an i3 these days, but otherwise that will be fine. My father is in the same boat and has picked it Win8.1 up no problems - despite the howls of protest from people who thought they understood things, the Start Screen is a very good launcher for beginners.

ETA i3/8GB/1TB £320 - http://www.dell.com/uk/p/inspiron-3847-desktop/pd?...

Edited by grumbledoak on Wednesday 22 October 16:16

Thanks for that, I'll show him the options this weekend and let him decide what he wants to spend.

My worry is the support calls, I'm still on XP here with an old P4, I'm more of a Linux man these days so I dread having to talk him through something when I can't follow the steps locally.

(Just hoping that I won't inherit it too soon!)

Thanks again.

[grumbledoak]

TheExcession said:

Thanks for that, I'll show him the options this weekend and let him decide what he wants to spend.

No worries. Don't forget the Dell Outlet when the time comes.

[davepoth]

TheExcession said:

Thanks for that, I'll show him the options this weekend and let him decide what he wants to spend.

My worry is the support calls, I'm still on XP here with an old P4, I'm more of a Linux man these days so I dread having to talk him through something when I can't follow the steps locally.

(Just hoping that I won't inherit it too soon!)

Thanks again.

Been there with relatives.

"What buttons can you see?"

"None"

"erm..."

[tank slapper]

TheExcession said:

Thanks for that, I'll show him the options this weekend and let him decide what he wants to spend.

My worry is the support calls, I'm still on XP here with an old P4, I'm more of a Linux man these days so I dread having to talk him through something when I can't follow the steps locally.

(Just hoping that I won't inherit it too soon!)

Thanks again.

Install teamviewer on both your machines. It's very easy to set up, and gives you remote access to the other persons computer. They won't need to describe anything, apart from giving you a short password to allow you to connect.

[TheExcession]

tank slapper said:

Install teamviewer on both your machines. It's very easy to set up, and gives you remote access to the other persons computer. They won't need to describe anything, apart from giving you a short password to allow you to connect.

Does that work through the multiple NAT levels that we have over here in Ireland on 3 broadband?

[TheExcession]

Given that I fookin hate it when I read an internet thread where there is no post to follow up on advice given or the final outcome, I thought I better post what I preach.

I was looking at this Dell, no need for monitor etc, just want to get him a base that is quicker than what he has.

He bought it, and it arrived this morning to my place as I want a couple of days playing with it before I hand it over to him.

First thoughts on powering it up were just 'get me out of this Microsoft signup ste'.

I've never really used Win 8.x before, but once I twigged that the Start Screen is just a full screen version of the Start Menu button, plus the fact you can right click and uninstall 'Apps' or un-pin-them, I soon got the hang of it.

So far, I've just removed half of the cr4p that was there, installed chrome and open office etc.

I know one issue is going to be a problem and that is the fact that Apps occupy the full screen - PDF reader being one example.

Fortunately the old ALT-TAB seems to get you out of it.

I was chatting with the old fella yesterday and told him 'It's arriving with Windows 8.1 - it's not XP but should be ok for you'. His reply was 'I'm quite looking forward to having to learn something new...'.

To be honest, I've only been playing with it for a few hours, but I quite like it. It's plenty quick enough for browsing and doing doc or spreadsheets.

Hardware wise it is a cheap as chips [see what I did there?] utterly silent, very small form factor PC, the PSU is inline which was a surprise (think laptop).

Performance wise it will knock his old system over the horizon, so I'm really looking forward to the handover (and getting his printer to work, and getting his 3 Internet dongle to work).

Value for money wise - about three tanks of car diesel or less than one tank of house heating oil. I'll report back on the hand over

[grumbledoak]

Excellent.

And, yes, if you give it a chance the Start Screen is actually really good. Try Windows key and left, right, or up too.

[wolves_wanderer]

Bizarrely, in my experience it is the casual users who are more willing to give Windows 8x a chance while the "power users" throw their hands up in disgust. My old lady had an iPad but with a bit of effort setting up a simple start menu she has a new toy.