PC advice

[scibby]

A phd too? Gosh...


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[Kevy427]

Why does it need to be Windoze based...?


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[Jack Hughes]

Why does it need to be Windoze based...?


Sent from my dungeon

So you can spend hours and hours trying to work out why something that worked fine 15 minutes ago, now goes weirdly wrong and opaquely wrong. Thus providing a guilt-free displacement activity from learning for MSc PHD etc.

[Bopomofo]

If you do need it to be Windows - ie cheap and OK for home use - then I guess you'll be wanting to 'do stuff' on it as well. You probably need office? The Home & Student edition is under £100.

I assume you do not feel confident enough to build your own? You could build a cracking machine within your budget, and while it isn't hard to do - just like lego for grown ups, if somebody gives you a parts list - it isn't for everybody.


Looking at the spec of the machine you linked to... The i5 processor isn't massively expensive, but you could save money with an i3. It looks a little pricey to me, but I suppose you get it all in one delivery.

If you are VERY impatient, you could look to get a Solid State Disk (SSD) as well as a hard disk. I paid about £100 for a 250GB SSD which I installed Windows and Office on. My PC starts up in seconds and Office apps open with a bang.

Dropping to an i3 and 4GB RAM (which is OK) you can get thisfor £230!

Here's an ASUS box with a fast AMD processor and 8GB of RAM for £300.

Lots of other options on ebuyer. Also try scan.co.uk.

Of course, with these systems you need a monitor, keyboard and mouse. If there's lots of homework to be done, I'd suggest a 24" HD jobbie... pick up an Acer one for under a hundred quid. Keyboard and mouse are basically free.

[Bopomofo]

...and re-reading your original post: you linked to an all-in-one system and said 'no massive hard drive'. Does that mean 'no massive computer tower', or do you just have an aversion to large data storage???

[Jack Hughes]

If you want to throw even money at a load of bloated f'tards, then make sure you do it with the Student Licence, as bopo says.

For practical use, Libreoffice or apache open office are just as effective at word processing/spreadsheeting/presentationering

[Jack Hughes]

My advice is to spend as little as possible.

Nothing you should be doing will be demanding.

It will be crap whatever you do. So best to waste as little as possible.

[Bopomofo]

I suppose there's always Google Docs, too.

[Jack Hughes]

I suppose there's always Google Docs, too.

True. And the advantage of having them ranked by xkeyscore, too.