Advice needed.

[Sandra]

Hi everyone,

I'm in need of some advice please.

My PC that was a few months short off 7 years old died on me last week. I need to get a new one but this time round money is tight and this is an unexpected cost. I've had a quick look on PC Specialists but I'm not up to date on components.

While I need to keep costs down I don't want to buy anything that will run slower then my old pc so I've posted my old specs.
My needs have slightly changed over time so again not really sure what would be suitable.

I will be using my pc for...
Email, surfing, streaming TV, music and music video's. Office applications, so Word, Excel, Power point, photo editing, zoom, the odd bit of gaming (streaming). I'd like to do some kind of graphics course in the future but this is not definite.

I also need to bare in mind that my monitor is almost 7 years old too and I'm not sure if cables that fit in modern pcs have changed?

What I did find on my old build is that a few of the back sockets didn't work. Not sure if that was due to the mother board etc or because the were faulty.

I know many of you will be asking what budget I have but to be honest I'd rather any replies reflect on my needs and then I can go from there if possible.

I also need some advice on Windows. I currently had Windows 10. I have my phone connected to my pc and I'm hoping that all important photos have been saved. Would it be a good idea to have Windows 10 again and then update when Windows offer 11 so that hopefully all my save stuff will be integrated?

I'm also not sure on having hard drives partitioned. I was told before that by having a partition to load programme's especially the OS to help prevent any virus's getting to them. Advice on this would be helpful to please.

Any help and advice will be very grateful.

Thank you.




Case
FRACTAL DEFINE R5 BLACK QUIET MID-TOWER CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™ i7 Quad Core Processor i7-4790 (3.6GHz) 8MB Cache
Motherboard
ASUS® Z97-A: ATX, USB3.0, SATA 6GB/S, SLi, XFIRE
Memory (RAM)
16GB HyperX FURY DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
2GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 960 - DVI, HDMI, 3 x DP
1st Storage Drive
240GB HyperX 3K SSD, SATA 6 Gb/s (up to 555MB/sR | 510MB/sW)
1st Storage Drive
1TB WD BLACK 3.5" WD1003FZEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)
DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Power Supply
CORSAIR 650W CS SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
CoolerMaster Hyper 212 EVO (120mm) Fan CPU Cooler
Thermal Paste
ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 4 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
Genuine Windows 8.1 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence
Windows Recovery Media
Windows 8.1 (64-bit) DVD with paper sleeve
Office Software
NO OFFICE SOFTWARE
Anti-Virus
BullGuard™ Internet Security - Free 90 Day License inc. Gamer Mode
Browser
Microsoft® Internet Explorer (Windows 7 & 8 Only)
Cable Management
PCS 1.5M Zip Cable Tidy - Professional Cable Management
Warranty
3 Year Gold Warranty (2 Year Collect & Return, 2 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery

 

[Martinr36]

We really need a budget and your monitor details before we can go anywhere, no point us speccing a machine that willo meet your needs if you don't have the budget for it, also reading your post it might be an idea if we have a separate monitor budget as well, so we can make some recommendations on that

 

[Sandra]

We really need a budget and your monitor details before we can go anywhere, no point us speccing a machine that willo meet your needs if you don't have the budget for it, also reading your post it might be an idea if we have a separate monitor budget as well, so we can make some recommendations on that

Hi, thanks for replying.

I couldn't spend any more then £1000 and that would have to include a monitor. Ideally I'd like to spend less if possible.

I know my monitor is a Dell DU2415 but that's about it unless I can find the instructions I had with it.

 

[JUNI0R]

Hi everyone,

I'm in need of some advice please.

My PC that was a few months short off 7 years old died on me last week. I need to get a new one but this time round money is tight and this is an unexpected cost. I've had a quick look on PC Specialists but I'm not up to date on components.

While I need to keep costs down I don't want to buy anything that will run slower then my old pc so I've posted my old specs.
My needs have slightly changed over time so again not really sure what would be suitable.

I will be using my pc for...
Email, surfing, streaming TV, music and music video's. Office applications, so Word, Excel, Power point, photo editing, zoom, the odd bit of gaming (streaming). I'd like to do some kind of graphics course in the future but this is not definite.

I also need to bare in mind that my monitor is almost 7 years old too and I'm not sure if cables that fit in modern pcs have changed?

What I did find on my old build is that a few of the back sockets didn't work. Not sure if that was due to the mother board etc or because the were faulty.

I know many of you will be asking what budget I have but to be honest I'd rather any replies reflect on my needs and then I can go from there if possible.

I also need some advice on Windows. I currently had Windows 10. I have my phone connected to my pc and I'm hoping that all important photos have been saved. Would it be a good idea to have Windows 10 again and then update when Windows offer 11 so that hopefully all my save stuff will be integrated?

I'm also not sure on having hard drives partitioned. I was told before that by having a partition to load programme's especially the OS to help prevent any virus's getting to them. Advice on this would be helpful to please.

Any help and advice will be very grateful.

Thank you.




Case
FRACTAL DEFINE R5 BLACK QUIET MID-TOWER CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™ i7 Quad Core Processor i7-4790 (3.6GHz) 8MB Cache
Motherboard
ASUS® Z97-A: ATX, USB3.0, SATA 6GB/S, SLi, XFIRE
Memory (RAM)
16GB HyperX FURY DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
2GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 960 - DVI, HDMI, 3 x DP
1st Storage Drive
240GB HyperX 3K SSD, SATA 6 Gb/s (up to 555MB/sR | 510MB/sW)
1st Storage Drive
1TB WD BLACK 3.5" WD1003FZEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)
DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Power Supply
CORSAIR 650W CS SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
CoolerMaster Hyper 212 EVO (120mm) Fan CPU Cooler
Thermal Paste
ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 4 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
Genuine Windows 8.1 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence
Windows Recovery Media
Windows 8.1 (64-bit) DVD with paper sleeve
Office Software
NO OFFICE SOFTWARE
Anti-Virus
BullGuard™ Internet Security - Free 90 Day License inc. Gamer Mode
Browser
Microsoft® Internet Explorer (Windows 7 & 8 Only)
Cable Management
PCS 1.5M Zip Cable Tidy - Professional Cable Management
Warranty
3 Year Gold Warranty (2 Year Collect & Return, 2 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery

Hi there! It is indeed difficult to work without a budget, but I've gone for the base spec I'd personally recommend then you can go up from there if you have more to spend

This build is based around the integrated graphics on the 5600G- which is a very compitent CPU for daily use, should be fine for the occasional editing and will give you a playable experience on some less demanding games. If you were to have some spare cash at some point and are looking for a better gaming experience, with the provisions made, you'd be able to slot in pretty much any card for a much improved experience. You could also try using your 960 and see how it goes, although I can't see the performance increasing massively.

I'd recommend transferring your copy of windows, as well as your current HDD as that should save about £120 and be a fairly simple process

Case
CORSAIR 4000D AIRFLOW TEMPERED GLASS GAMING CASE Great budget airflow case
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 5 5600G Six Core CPU with Radeon™ Graphics (3.9GHz-4.4GHz/19MB CACHE/AM4) The CPU we need
Motherboard
ASUS® PRIME B550-PLUS (DDR4, USB 3.2, 6Gb/s) - ARGB Ready! Basic motherboard that'll be fine for the 5600G
Memory (RAM)
16GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3200MHz (2 x 8GB) 16GB should be more than enough for what you've mentioned and AMD loves fast RAM
Graphics Card
INTEGRATED GRAPHICS ACCELERATOR (GPU)
1st Storage Drive
Your 1TB WD BLACK 3.5" HDD This will do just fine as a secondary drive for storing everything else
1st M.2 SSD Drive
512GB PCS PCIe M.2 SSD (2000 MB/R, 1100 MB/W) This would just be a boot drive for Windows and Applications
Power Supply
CORSAIR 750W TXm SERIES™ SEMI-MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET High quality PSU that'll allow for an upgrade to up to a 3070 if you wanted
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
STANDARD AMD CPU COOLER
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Card
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT
Wireless Network Card
WIRELESS INTEL® Wi-Fi 6 AX200 2,400Mbps/5GHz, 300Mbps/2.4GHz PCI-E CARD + BT 5.0 If you need WiFi the AX200 is a no brainer
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
NO OPERATING SYSTEM REQUIRED I'd recommend transferring your licence over which will save you about £85. You should be able to do this with an online account and a fresh install of Windows.
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
NO RECOVERY MEDIA REQUIRED
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft 365® (Operating System Required)
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Browser
Microsoft® Edge (Windows 10 Only)
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) Well worth the £5
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 14 to 17 working days
Price: £699.00 including VAT and Delivery

Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am4-gen3-pc/4pe0sV2Hrd/

 

[Sandra]

Hi there! It is indeed difficult to work without a budget, but I've gone for the base spec I'd personally recommend then you can go up from there if you have more to spend

This build is based around the integrated graphics on the 5600G- which is a very compitent CPU for daily use, should be fine for the occasional editing and will give you a playable experience on some less demanding games. If you were to have some spare cash at some point and are looking for a better gaming experience, with the provisions made, you'd be able to slot in pretty much any card for a much improved experience. You could also try using your 960 and see how it goes, although I can't see the performance increasing massively.

I'd recommend transferring your copy of windows, as well as your current HDD as that should save about £120 and be a fairly simple process

Case
CORSAIR 4000D AIRFLOW TEMPERED GLASS GAMING CASE Great budget airflow case
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 5 5600G Six Core CPU with Radeon™ Graphics (3.9GHz-4.4GHz/19MB CACHE/AM4) The CPU we need
Motherboard
ASUS® PRIME B550-PLUS (DDR4, USB 3.2, 6Gb/s) - ARGB Ready! Basic motherboard that'll be fine for the 5600G
Memory (RAM)
16GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3200MHz (2 x 8GB) 16GB should be more than enough for what you've mentioned and AMD loves fast RAM
Graphics Card
INTEGRATED GRAPHICS ACCELERATOR (GPU)
1st Storage Drive
Your 1TB WD BLACK 3.5" HDD This will do just fine as a secondary drive for storing everything else
1st M.2 SSD Drive
512GB PCS PCIe M.2 SSD (2000 MB/R, 1100 MB/W) This would just be a boot drive for Windows and Applications
Power Supply
CORSAIR 750W TXm SERIES™ SEMI-MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET High quality PSU that'll allow for an upgrade to up to a 3070 if you wanted
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
STANDARD AMD CPU COOLER
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Card
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT
Wireless Network Card
WIRELESS INTEL® Wi-Fi 6 AX200 2,400Mbps/5GHz, 300Mbps/2.4GHz PCI-E CARD + BT 5.0 If you need WiFi the AX200 is a no brainer
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
NO OPERATING SYSTEM REQUIRED I'd recommend transferring your licence over which will save you about £85. You should be able to do this with an online account and a fresh install of Windows.
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
NO RECOVERY MEDIA REQUIRED
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft 365® (Operating System Required)
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Browser
Microsoft® Edge (Windows 10 Only)
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) Well worth the £5
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 14 to 17 working days
Price: £699.00 including VAT and Delivery

Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am4-gen3-pc/4pe0sV2Hrd/

Hi thanks for replying.

I appreciate your suggestions but I'm pretty clueless when it comes to doing anything inside a pc.

I am surprised that I don't need a dedicated graphics card though. Have processors improved so much? If so as the processor I had was an i7 4th generation would a more recent generation i5 or i3 be equivalent or doesn't it work that way?

I also need to have a silent case.

Thanks again.

 

[sck451]

Hi thanks for replying.

I appreciate your suggestions but I'm pretty clueless when it comes to doing anything inside a pc.

I am surprised that I don't need a dedicated graphics card though. Have processors improved so much? If so as the processor I had was an i7 4th generation would a more recent generation i5 or i3 be equivalent or doesn't it work that way?

I also need to have a silent case.

Thanks again.

You need a dedicated graphics card if you're going to be doing serious gaming (and even more if you're going to be streaming your gameplay). However, this will add at least £300-400 more to your build. So the best solution at your price point is the integrated graphics of the 5600G, which are just about the best integrated graphics there are going. It's a very decent entry-level gaming system.

And then the added advantage of @JUNI0R's build is that it's got plenty of room for a graphics card upgrade. It will be a very simple operation to buy a graphics card in a year or two and then you'll have a very powerful system.

If you don't want to transfer Windows and the hard drive over, it will add around £150 to the build.

That said, your monitor seems pretty OK. It's only 60Hz, but you won't be getting more than that in gaming anyway, and it seems pretty good otherwise. I wouldn't consider upgrading it till you upgrade the graphics card.

Oh, and a modern Ryzen 5 CPU is way ahead of the i7-4790. Each individual core is way faster, and you have six of them on the modern chip rather than the four on the old Intel. It's miles better in every way: night and day.

 

[Sandra]

Hi
Thank you for your reply and explanation. I really appreciate all replies. I'll give it some thought.

In the mean time. I've looked inside my pc. The power comes on for a second or two, green light comes on motherboard, all fans turn, pc tries to boot but power goes, then turns on again and repeats.

Does it sound like the power supply? If so could I replace it myself bearing in mind I don't know what I'm doing. Would I need to go into the pc's bios after replacing the power supply?

Thank you

 

[sck451]

Hi
Thank you for your reply and explanation. I really appreciate all replies. I'll give it some thought.

In the mean time. I've looked inside my pc. The power comes on for a second or two, green light comes on motherboard, all fans turn, pc tries to boot but power goes, then turns on again and repeats.

Does it sound like the power supply? If so could I replace it myself bearing in mind I don't know what I'm doing. Would I need to go into the pc's bios after replacing the power supply?

Thank you

Could be power supply, could be the motherboard. Honestly I wouldn't spend much on trying to fix it: it's a fairly old platform now and relatively near the end of its lifespan.

 

[Sandra]

Could be power supply, could be the motherboard. Honestly I wouldn't spend much on trying to fix it: it's a fairly old platform now and relatively near the end of its lifespan.

Ok, thank you.