Advice please on buying a PC?

[moonjiver]

Thanks very much. Intuitive remark! I have learnt (had to learn) so much in the last few weeks that I am indeed aiming for something greater than my current needs and easily expandable/upgradeable in the future.

However, the sort of mentality I'm up against: An unhelpful PC World salesman said yesterday that "most computers these days don't have graphics cards and, even if they do, they are not necessarily upgradeable". And "full-size tower units don't have significantly more space for upgrading components, so not really worth the extra expense". Judging by the contrary advice offered by others, I suspect that some people would hotly dispute those sweeping statements!! He then (under pressure) printed out details of three Acer pcs for me from their website - all "small form factor" computers! Only one had a separate graphics card.

I'm having to take a break from it because the last few weeks have been an exhausting battle with ill-informed and grudging salesmen. They keep telling me to search on the PC World website - if I knew what I should be looking for, why would I walk into a shop filled with computers and ask for advice?!

I do now know roughly what I should be aiming for but it needs more weeks of research, so return to it shortly.

[Geoff]

You've got to bear in mind that PC World staff are salesmen and not necessarily computer experts. This becomes pretty obvious if you approach them with any in-depth knowledge of your own.

I had one telling me that slow printing through my local network was down to my ISP. Err, I think not.

I would take whatever advice they give with a large pinch of salt.

[moonjiver]

Yes, a lot of rubbish coming from sales guys!

Amongst other things lately: "You need a quad-core processor for Photoshop" and "quad-core is much faster than dual-core".

They know so little about the technology that they chiefly try to push whatever computers happen to be on show at the time, your particular requirements don't come into it!

[Richard]

MJ,
Perhaps you really need to find what part of your system is slowing you down - the 'bottleneck', for any given task you will heavily depend upon.
The one piece of hardware that is bogging your system down above everything else, it is often the Hard Drive.
Benchmark tools may help if you do a search.

How to determine 'bottlenecks' would be more important in Geoff's realm, I suspect.
I wonder what he uses?

[moonjiver]

Well, there are "bottlenecks" - not quite in the way you mean , I think!

My needs are fairly straightforward and it shouldn't have been so difficult to identify a suitable pc. But my lack of knowledge and the hopelessness of the shop staff (completely different advice every time I walk into PC World) have made things much more complicated.

I need to clarify one issue - others have told me to pay heed to upgradeability, space for added components etc. But many PCW computers, even those online, are compact or "small form factor" machines with integrated graphics, no spaces (I think) for separate graphics cards. Is this actually the way things are going? I've found a few full-size tower units but they are considerably more expensive than the mini pcs.

Do I really need to worry about this aspect? I'm fairly sure that Photoshop, certainly Elements of course, will run fine on many basic computers and I can't at the moment see myself needing vast upgrades for professional tasks.

I know of course about speed, RAM etc.for Photoshop to run smoothly.

[Richard]

MJ,

You need the equivalent of 'Richer Sounds', where the staff are very knowledgeable, but for computers.
The following sounds hopeful, and all the better when you can discuss the system you already have, are not seeking a blatant sales pitch, and I believe they can offer 'honest' advice.

https://www.disking.co.uk/

[moonjiver]

There are of course online shops which will build things for you - Disking was recomnended to me. But with lack of knowledge , to a large extent I have to buy off-the-shelf. Anyway, when I tried to view the Disking website on Android, it kept jumping about and throwing me back to the Home page + so many pop-up offers and ads came up that I gave up!

The problem is ill-informed salesmen instead of people with knowledge. The one who told me that most PCs in the shops now were compact units was right .. up to a point. But what he should also have told me was that full-size tower units are around still - but largely for gamers and business users; and I really don't need that sort of powerful pc at present, just a good middle-range computer with the right minimum specs for programs like Photoshop .

Someone on PCAdvisor has pointed me towards an exceptional offer from John Lewis - never used them before but a 3-year warranty is very tempting! As well as the PC being an Acer Aspire XC-705 with fast processor and massive RAM and HD storage. All for £340! I hope not "too good to be true" . Wonder what the catches are?

One or two others I'nm looking at. But what a slog.

[Richard]

The John Lewis 'offer' looks good indeed even if it does end soon - I'd always go for a tower like that and stick it on the floor out of the way.

[Geoff]

It does sound reasonable for the spec, especially with the three years warranty.
I notice it's marked as "out of stock" though so either MJ just got the last one or it's bad news.

[moonjiver]

Guys, I'm really obliged to you! I hadn't actually noticed the "out of stock" bit. But I phoned John Lewis, the PC is in a few stores still, not at the warehouse, can be delivered.

Obviously it's been knocked down in price because of being discontinued. But the specs and the long warranty are too good to sniff at, so I think I'll go for this one. Hoping for a bit of luck atlast ..!