What should I look for in a new PC?

[Mandieta6]

My PC died. It's entirely possible that it may be resuscitated but even if it is, it won't last long and I'm going to get a new PC. Thing is, I don't know anything about computers, I'm as bad, if not worse, than Sir_Didier_Drogba. Basically, I want to know what I should be looking for when getting a new one.

The main caveat is that until I'm notified as to the current PC's potential survival, I won't know what exactly to look for. If it survives, then a relatively cheap, smaller, serviceable laptop that I can use in class and not have to get out of bed when I want to post on SG and wank would be good. Or, maybe one of those bigger (and I assume better everything since they're more expensive) would be good too. If it doesn't survive, then I might be looking at a normal desk-PC to replace it with. But, I assume that at this time I could get a good laptop that performs just as well as a tabletop, so so long as the price is good it is probably preferable.

Basically, my requisites are:

- easy internet use (I assume this is mostly down to the wifi, but if there's anything I can look for in the PC specs that insures quick and painless web-surfing, I'd like to know what that is)

- nothing fancy (I'm not looking for a gaming PC. At most I might get one that is good enough to play FM comfortably, but this is not a requisite, so if the price isn't right fuck it)

- cheap (yeah, I know, but I'm not looking for anything extravagant, just something durable and serviceable)

- good battery life (the longer, the better)

So, what are the specifications that I should be looking at when I go out to searching for a good PC, so that the one I do get fulfills my above-mentioned needs. Also, FM users, what specs do you have and how comfortably can you run FM (how many leagues can you load and how fast does it process, for example)? If you can recommend a particular model or brand, that would be good too, but I prefer to be educated on what to look for so I can judge and compare myself.

 

[Sepak]

get a Mac

 

[Mandieta6]

Yes, one of the options I have is to take my father's mac laptop and he gets a new one. But I don't get along with macs and can't really be bothered to get used to using one unless you can convince me that it would benefit me much more, and fulfill my needs better, than a PC.

 

[Sepak]

with those 4 requisites, you're basically describing a mac, it has an easy interface, fast internet browsers, the battery can last like 10 hours and you still can play FM.
If it were me I would built the PC by my own, buy the pieces separately, assemble them myself and install an ubuntu partition(it's the best os for a student, or at least for an engineer), and if you find the right prices it can cost almost the half of what you normally would buy.

EDIT: I forgot to mention that you have to deal with viruses neither with Mac nor Ubuntu

 

[4ndr3i]

Oh man, are you in luck or what? God must really love you, Mandieta6! It just happens I have the perfect supercomputer for you. This supercharged beast has 512mb of RAM, a staggering 15GB hard drive and a GeForce 5200 video card. It also comes with a Windows XP CD.

And you haven't heard the best part yet. Being FB friends and all, I'm letting you steal this juggernaut from me for just 699.99 €!! Yep, you saw it well, JUST 699.99€!!!!!!!!

I'm awaiting you to PM me the shipping info. I'll probably have it there by next week.

 

[Mandieta6]

I hate you guys.

 

[Sir Didier Drogba]

Do you want PC or laptop? When I bought a laptop the way I bought it was to go into the store and pick the one that had the best stats on the little label thing at the lowest price. I went into multiple stores and wrote down the stats of their best value models, then I worked out which was the best in terms of GB/RAM/Processoretc per euro and bought that one. Other things I considered were size and battery life.

 

[yoyo913]

Dude if you don't need a gaming computer then basically any cheap/moderately price new computer will work for you.

I bought a toshiba laptop a year ago for 650$ and it runs fm13 smooth, I've had 6-8 leagues loaded and it works fine.

It has 8gb ram, 2.3Ghz processor. Most new computers come with this now...

 

[Back Door Skip]

Dude if you don't need a gaming computer then basically any cheap/moderately price new computer will work for you.

I bought a toshiba laptop a year ago for 650$ and it runs fm13 smooth, I've had 6-8 leagues loaded and it works fine.

It has 8gb ram, 2.3Ghz processor. Most new computers come with this now...

Basically this. If you're not looking for anything high end, then fork over about 500 bucks (dunno if laptops are more expensive in Europe) and buy any laptop really.

Good brands, in my experience are Asus, Acer and Toshiba. I'm sure there's more.

 

[O-car]

I bought a cheap Packard Bell laptop about 2 years ago and it still works plenty good. Had good stats, fairly cheep considering I got it in Iceland, I can even play games on it, although I don't since I've got a PS3. cost me about 500-600 pounds I recall

 

[Zlatan]

I hate you guys.

 

[Mandieta6]

Thanks guys, that's more helpful.

 

[Sir Didier Drogba]

Note how the change from sarcastic to helpful posting started with my post

 

[Filipower]

get a Mac

is what you shouldn't do.

 

[Alex]

with those 4 requisites, you're basically describing a mac, it has an easy interface, fast internet browsers, the battery can last like 10 hours and you still can play FM.
If it were me I would built the PC by my own, buy the pieces separately, assemble them myself and install an ubuntu partition(it's the best os for a student, or at least for an engineer), and if you find the right prices it can cost almost the half of what you normally would buy.

EDIT: I forgot to mention that you have to deal with viruses neither with Mac nor Ubuntu

You have to deal with viruses on Mac, that's a load of crap.

And as for ease of use, for somebody that isn't familiar with MacOS and has always used Windows, your suggestion of a Mac certainly doesn't meet the criteria there either.

Az isn't a science or computer student, so no Linux distribution makes sense in my eyes - again this is something else for him to learn, and also can make some simple tasks harder, as he has to find versions of software he may want for Linux.

Building a machine is usually definitely the most cost effective. I don't imagine Az has the tech nous required, so I would suggest having one built from a PC retailer, rather than getting a pre-made PC from one of the big companies.

 

[Alex]

Do you want PC or laptop? When I bought a laptop the way I bought it was to go into the store and pick the one that had the best stats on the little label thing at the lowest price. I went into multiple stores and wrote down the stats of their best value models, then I worked out which was the best in terms of GB/RAM/Processoretc per euro and bought that one. Other things I considered were size and battery life.

A lap top is a PC?

 

[Back Door Skip]

I had a PC built from cyberpower PC. It was close to 1k after all the addons. Not even a year later it was already outdated.

 

[Sir Didier Drogba]

A lap top is a PC?

No but I am guessing you could apply the same different purchase method, and he may have meant either/or.

Are PCs better value than laptops?

 

[Back Door Skip]

No but I am guessing you could apply the same different purchase method, and he may have meant either/or.

Are PCs better value than laptops?

Desktop PCs more customizable and if you have no budget you can build a monster desktop, whereas laptops are more limited, but the obvious pro for a laptop is that it's portable.

 

[Sir Didier Drogba]

Yeah I prefer PCs and in fact the laptop I now have is the first I ever owned but with my current nomadic lifestyle it is essential.