Computer help.

Lawless

Member
Ok not computer savvy so need help.
We need a new computer for the farm office. It needs to be a laptop.
Probably need Microsoft office.
Will be running farm accounts and other farm data programs.
Bit confused on what processor I should be getting - what power?!
I really am not a computer person and don’t want to buy something that is either to powerful or not powerful enough.
Also what proctection software do I need?
 
Ok not computer savvy so need help.
We need a new computer for the farm office. It needs to be a laptop.
Probably need Microsoft office.
Will be running farm accounts and other farm data programs.
Bit confused on what processor I should be getting - what power?!
I really am not a computer person and don’t want to buy something that is either to powerful or not powerful enough.
Also what proctection software do I need?

You really want one with an intel i5. Don't go mad and get the i7 unless there is a silly deal on one. It will not make any difference to your everyday running. I would try to get one with 8GB of RAM in all honesty.

Microsoft office is available as a yearly subscription or a standalone and can be downloaded at home.

Do you want a conventional laptop, or how about a Microsoft surface pro which can do laptop and tablet in one?

https://www.johnlewis.com/microsoft...b-ssd-12-3-inch-touchscreen-platinum/p3801251

John Lewis do deals on them and 2 year accidental damage cover is only £80. You can also buy a protector case for it and take it with you when out and about etc.

You can still connect these devices and any laptop to larger monitors in the office at home if you so wish. I used to use mine with a full size keyboard and mouse.

If you just want a basic laptop, then go for a Lenovo or Acer or Asus.

I would not particularly worry these days about hard drive capacity because you can buy external HDDs for reasonable money and you should be backing them up for business use anyway.

If you do subscribe to the posh version of MS office as I do, you will get free space on OneDrive to go with it, ie cloud storage.

It might pay to go to John Lewis and try the laptops and surface pros they have there, they have good sales staff in these places. Microsoft also do a very smart Surface Laptop but they are not cheap.

You really should have an antivirus suite on any PC these days. I use Norton and have for years. There are others. Generally a free one is not good enough. Don't use Kaspersky- its Russian....

Hope this covers all your questions.
 

Bob c

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Cotswolds
just looking mesh computers have,...could do with a new desk top and see this
upload_2019-3-12_22-23-32.png


never had a amd processer,.....all way gone for intel
 

rollestonpark

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Burton on trent
its really up to you, but I refuse to pay for any software these days (unless it's a special business type) because there is so many open source alternatives.

For example:
microsoft office (free) alternatives:
Google docs, sheets etc
If you prefer an installed application, then Libreoffice.

Windows 10, wow what a joke for an operating system.
Linux Mint all the way, used on the farm for a number of years now (since win xp got binned by ms), great OS.

Obviously linux won't work for you if you have special windows only applications, but otherwise it's the way to go.

Also I believe AMD CPUs are immune to spectre meltdown attacks. All intel's are susceptible even the new ones.

Chris
 
I have no problem with W10. If you dont like what it offers then you can use alternatives. Linux is fine in my view but will not suit all users.

LibreOffice is very very good but it is not a patch on Office 365 due to the sheer amount of features in it. It really has been a huge help in my studies. I also use Evernote and that has been a revelation because of how it can capture documents and the like. I really should explore OneNote as well.
 
You really want one with an intel i5. Don't go mad and get the i7 unless there is a silly deal on one. It will not make any difference to your everyday running. I would try to get one with 8GB of RAM in all honesty.

Microsoft office is available as a yearly subscription or a standalone and can be downloaded at home.

Do you want a conventional laptop, or how about a Microsoft surface pro which can do laptop and tablet in one?

https://www.johnlewis.com/microsoft...b-ssd-12-3-inch-touchscreen-platinum/p3801251

John Lewis do deals on them and 2 year accidental damage cover is only £80. You can also buy a protector case for it and take it with you when out and about etc.

You can still connect these devices and any laptop to larger monitors in the office at home if you so wish. I used to use mine with a full size keyboard and mouse.

If you just want a basic laptop, then go for a Lenovo or Acer or Asus.

I would not particularly worry these days about hard drive capacity because you can buy external HDDs for reasonable money and you should be backing them up for business use anyway.

If you do subscribe to the posh version of MS office as I do, you will get free space on OneDrive to go with it, ie cloud storage.

It might pay to go to John Lewis and try the laptops and surface pros they have there, they have good sales staff in these places. Microsoft also do a very smart Surface Laptop but they are not cheap.

You really should have an antivirus suite on any PC these days. I use Norton and have for years. There are others. Generally a free one is not good enough. Don't use Kaspersky- its Russian....

Hope this covers all your questions.

Can't disagree with much of that, but make sure you get an SSD, not 'old fashioned' HDD
You don't need to pay for Anti Virus
You can buy MS Office off E Bay for less than a tenner - I suspect that the 365 is much more than that!
 

Spear

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
North Devon
If you’re worried about spyware then gmail should be avoided.
Saw a notification on my daughters tablet for her birthday present being delivered that I’d ordered.
I use my google account to buy games on it for her but am signed out and there’s no email/gmail set up on it yet I found all my details including EVERYTHING I’ve purchased online since 2013 listed on her tablet in the settings, even every song I’ve bought on iTunes.
Only way they could have all that is by harvesting data from my emails.
To delete info you have to delete each item individually can’t find any other way and this is on a device I’m not even signed in on. Take about security issues.
 

Spear

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
North Devon
I don’t think people have to worry about the legitimacy of google as a company ....... :confused:

No but having all that info easily available on a device not even signed in to my account.
Why was it even sending package delivery notifications to that or any device. Apart from gmail I don’t even use google sign ins for anything.
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

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Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

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As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
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