Technical Test Thread

No its not Tiger is it, not unless you can ship him up to Scotland LOL.....

Hazel b said:

Mary    Good that most of the data is safe.  One operating system that I think you should consider is Windows 7 professional. I understand that you can run virtual XP on this and that would ensure that you could use your old programmes.

Mind you I have not done this but I understand it can be done.

 

Thanks Tiger, will keep this in mind.   Any that we have looked at has Windows 8, but surely we should be able to find a Windows 7 one somewhere.  

Unknown said:

No its not Tiger is it, not unless you can ship him up to Scotland LOL.....

My advice to people for over twenty years is to buy from someone  who makes computers as local to you as possible.

OK Tiger will have a look and see if we can find a fixit man like you have lol....

Its been an eventful three days, feel like I have been through the wringer LOL....  

Night!!!

Unknown said:

Thanks Tiger, will keep this in mind.   Any that we have looked at has Windows 8, but surely we should be able to find a Windows 7 one somewhere.

I think they still do Windows 7. There was one much loved programme (viz sidekick) which I could not get to run on Windows 7 but other than that it was fine.

Other decisions

1. What processor to buy....how many core? (i5 or i7?)

2. How much RAM  (You can never have enough RAM) (I have 16 GB)

3. Size of hard drive  (no problem nowadays)

I am so pleased to hear that most of your data is safe Mary. What a relief.

I have bought from various places over time. PCWorld is NOT recommended by me at all, not if you have to take something back with a problem anyway. Their after sales service is appalling.

To be honest I haven't had to take anything back that I bought from other places. Had some decent laptops from Staples. Also my Acer Ferrari One netbook from Argos worked out to be a good buy, had no problems with that at all.

Right now I wouldn't touch Windows 8, prefer to stick with Windows 7 which I am happy with.

As Tiger says, go for as much RAM (and the best processor) you can afford.

Hard drive space is not really a huge consideration as you are better to store most of your stuff separately on external hard drives and memory sticks.

Morning all..

Phew! Mary,pleased you have most of your data, as Tiger suggested, a local Guy/Gal, who works at new re builds is best bet, or a local agent stocking one of the Brands, Acer etc.

Everyone has their own suggestion, so you have to be happy that if something goes wrong or you have a query, ask yourself " what is their support/aftersales pitch".

Some suggested recently that Dell have upped their support.

As long as hardware is solid and total backup, then all software problems can be covered with good housekeeping daily, WOT,Sandbox for unknown websites, Cleaning, Backup and running weekly SAS/Malawarebytes.

Just my thoughts,

Good luck and let us know how you are doing and what you buy.

Kate2   A sandbox, that is something for the kitties? :)

Seriously I have come across this word a few times but have never really studied it. It is some sort of  "decontamination room" to protect your computer. So do you have any thoughts on sand boxes and if  it has proved useful? After all we already have firewalls, virus checkers and malware shields.

One comment regarding specification of new computers it is useful to check that they have USB 3. 

Hazel b said:

Seriously I have come across this word a few times but have never really studied it.

Actually it is Sandboxie,:) all I would say is as I moderate several groups, I have to obviously to vet links, and, By using Sandboxie, I know if it is an unsafe link ,it will not get into my computer and when I close down all trace is removed , so it is an extra arm against nasty virus.

WOT is one line but that is only as good as the persons who rate it. Sandboxie is up to you

Hi Kate, will look into Sandboxie, thanks :)