What Office Computer?

A1an

Member
Had enough of using my kitchen table as my office so I'm in the middle of building one. I currently use a laptop but its a handy thing to have in the house, I use it for streaming music etc so don't want to leave it out in the office.

I will only use the new computer for emailing/keeping records and remote monitoring of the hydro and biomass schemes.

I haven't got a clue as to what I'm looking for spec wise, its all a bit confusing, not really a techno buff.

Oh, needs windows 10 and Office.

Any recommendations appreciated.
 

Clive

Staff Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lichfield
What’s the budget ?

Look at dell or ebuyer websites and just get the highest spec you can for what you want to spend

Be aware that a lot of Dells w10 is extra cost now
 

franklin

New Member
You dont need anything fancy. Dont fall into the trap of getting something that can be upgraded in the future. I figure on whatever I buy being junk in 2 years, and so budget for something new every 24 months. I store my files on a memory stick and pretty much chuck the old machine away. I have a desktop machine but when it comes to be replaced I will get a laptop.

Screen is everything. Thats what your looking at and a bobbins one will be bad for you.

You can buy a perfectly decent laptop with plenty of memory (8gb is what you want), a hard drive you will never fill, Win 10 etc for sub £400.

Tech is disposable and cheap now.
 

A1an

Member
Sorry, budget around £3-400.

You say get the highest spec but that's where I struggle, I don't know what all the numbers mean.
 

A1an

Member
You dont need anything fancy. Dont fall into the trap of getting something that can be upgraded in the future. I figure on whatever I buy being junk in 2 years, and so budget for something new every 24 months. I store my files on a memory stick and pretty much chuck the old machine away. I have a desktop machine but when it comes to be replaced I will get a laptop.

Screen is everything. Thats what your looking at and a bobbins one will be bad for you.

You can buy a perfectly decent laptop with plenty of memory (8gb is what you want), a hard drive you will never fill, Win 10 etc for sub £400.

Tech is disposable and cheap now.
It just so happens that a friend of mine has given me a nice big HDMI monitor, wireless mouse and a keyboard, I just need the tower bit.
 

Timbo

Member
Location
Gods County
400 buy you an almost top end i5 / entry i7 with 8gb ram. Personally I'd go with win7, but organise yourself with cloud storage and reliable backups rather than a totally top spec machine.
 

Clive

Staff Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lichfield
Go i5 or i7 with as much ram as you can get (this is what makes it fast)

SSD (solid state hard drive). also a good thing - no need for a big hard drive these days as filed better stored on the cloud is far better

Don’t bother re graphic / sound card specs unless you do lots of mapping / cad or gaming stuff

You should get that easy for £400 if you already have monitor etc

W10 way ahead of win7 imo
 

Boysground

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
Wiltshire
I have just splashed out on a 27inch monitor it is brilliant. The problem I was having was entering emailed invoices into the accounts. I was moving between lots of pages. Now I can have a pdf on 1 side and the accounts on the other and I am able to read both.

Spend your money on a large screen

Bg
 

franklin

New Member
I have just splashed out on a 27inch monitor it is brilliant. The problem I was having was entering emailed invoices into the accounts. I was moving between lots of pages. Now I can have a pdf on 1 side and the accounts on the other and I am able to read both.

Spend your money on a large screen

Bg

Or like I have.....two screens :)

tbh I can run decent enough email, browser, word processor and spreadsheet on a £35 raspberry pi machine.

https://www.johnlewis.com/lenovo-id...-pc-intel-pentium-8gb-ram-1tb-silver/p3260514

You can probably get more buying something non-branded, but you get a decent guarantee from John Lewis, and you can wander around Waitrose while you pick it up marvelling at how the rest of the population live.
 

A1an

Member
Or like I have.....two screens :)

tbh I can run decent enough email, browser, word processor and spreadsheet on a £35 raspberry pi machine.

https://www.johnlewis.com/lenovo-id...-pc-intel-pentium-8gb-ram-1tb-silver/p3260514

You can probably get more buying something non-branded, but you get a decent guarantee from John Lewis, and you can wander around Waitrose while you pick it up marvelling at how the rest of the population live.
That looks like it fits the bill.

Shame the nearest John Lewis is 3hrs from me and the nearest waitrose is the other side of the country
 

wilber

Member
Location
wales
is there anything special about this one? I've found similar spec for £120 less.

Could you post a link to the other you found, could do a like for like comparison and tell you whats what.

I highly reccomend an i5 CPU, but what you have to remember now is that their are 8 generations of them.

Dont bother with an i7, its basically an i5 with hyperthreading which is something you will not use, unless rendering videos, playing certain PC games or CAD type work.

I think an SSD drive should be on the shopping list, night and day difference to a pc.

Palicomp are a reputable firm from my experience and have reccomended them to plenty around here since i stopped building. Give them a call always seemed helpful.
 

Steevo

Member
Location
Gloucestershire
Could you post a link to the other you found, could do a like for like comparison and tell you whats what.

I highly reccomend an i5 CPU, but what you have to remember now is that their are 8 generations of them.

Dont bother with an i7, its basically an i5 with hyperthreading which is something you will not use, unless rendering videos, playing certain PC games or CAD type work.

I think an SSD drive should be on the shopping list, night and day difference to a pc.

Palicomp are a reputable firm from my experience and have reccomended them to plenty around here since i stopped building. Give them a call always seemed helpful.

Never heard of them before but looks a very good place to buy a PC.

For a budget PC the i5 Titanium at £499 looks pretty impressive spec for the money.

https://www.palicomp.co.uk/Award-Winning-PCs
 

Clive

Staff Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lichfield
consider an apple ?

expensive to buy but they last ! My MPB is 4 years old now and as good as the day I bought it, apple just fitted a new retina display despite it being ling out of warranty, current machine are only marginally higher spec so I reckon I will get another couple years out of it yet
 

wilber

Member
Location
wales
Buying a high spec PC will be cheaper than the equivalent Mac. I've had the same PC for 8 years, ive added some extra RAM and an SSD drive in that time, It run's perfect and i consider myself a power user when it comes to PC's.
 

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