I'm going to buy a computer. Will you help me?

[holyzombiejesus]

PC/ desktop thingy. Just want it for browsing, itunes and working from home. Don't play games but might if it's capable and my wife leaves me. Won't bother watching films on it, apart from youtube videos and stuff like that. Basically, the kind of things that an 8 year old might use it for. I know fuck all about this kind of thing and I've got a  maximum of £500. Whaddya think?

[Steven]

For doing what you've said, except playing more modern games, you could get a decent PC or Laptop for £150 or less, if you want to play the latest games you'd need to spend at least £350+

[syntaxerror]

Buy a Mac.

[The Region Legion]

http://uk.pcpartpicker.com

[holyzombiejesus]

Don't want a mac and stuff like the link above, whilst I'm grateful, are pretty useless as I just want to go in to a shop and walk out with something I can use. I wouldn't have the faintest idea what to ask for, spec wise. I just need someone to recommend a decent deal really.

[syntaxerror]

Have a look at ebuyer, PC's with an OS starting around £160 will cover all of your needs by the sounds of it, no idea what the build quality of these cheaper units is like but you can do your homework on that.

[holyzombiejesus]

I just want to buy one, ready made from a shop. Surely there must be a decent recommendation somewhere?

[Uncle TechTip]

Buy this one.  http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/laptops-netbooks/laptops/laptops/asus-x550ca-15-6-laptop-21836943-pdt.html

Trouble is, they all come with Windows 8 now, do you think you're ready for it? Or can you face a wipe and reinstall of 7? The difference on budget may be eaten up by buying this unless you know someone who can help you out.

[syntaxerror]

I just want to buy one, ready made from a shop. Surely there must be a decent recommendation somewhere?

If you're going to whinge about it, just go to PC World and buy whatever they sell you.

[Steven]

Yeah, PC World do a decent line in refurbs. How about this one?

[holyzombiejesus]

Buy this one.  http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/laptops-netbooks/laptops/laptops/asus-x550ca-15-6-laptop-21836943-pdt.html

Trouble is, they all come with Windows 8 now, do you think you're ready for it? Or can you face a wipe and reinstall of 7? The difference on budget may be eaten up by buying this unless you know someone who can help you out.

Don't want a laptop. Want a desk top or whatever they're called. My laptop has Windows 8 on it, I think. Is that the shitty thing that's more like a phone than a PC? I can handle it.

Failing that, is there a link to somewhere that shows decent offers on PCs?

[Johnny Textface]

http://outlet.euro.dell.com/Online/SecondaryInventorySearch.aspx?c=uk&l=en&s=dfh&cs=ukdfh1&puid=6bb9c9ae

http://www.johnlewis.com/lenovo-h520-desktop-pc-intel-core-i3-4gb-ram-500gb-black-silver/p615256?s_afcid=af_47868&awc=1203_1414763389_b3325cec25f5b024b582b50cff3b0c8d

[Too Many Cochranes]

This plus a mid priced monitor (ask a guy in PC World for advice) will run smooth as you like with an installation of Ubuntu on it, rather than using Windows.

Download Ubuntu 14.04 LTS 64-Bit for free and burn it onto a DVD and away you go.

Don't be scared of using Ubuntu Linux instead of MS Windows. It's come a long way and the latest LTS (Long Term Support) version is steady as a rock and will do everything Windows can do if you aren't gaming.

[falafel]

That will run smooth as you like WITH Windows. Ubuntu is great, i put it on my dad's laptop and now he evangelises for it, but if you're working from home and your work PCs use Windows, you might bump into some problems.

[Too Many Cochranes]

Yeah, it's capable of running Windows too, but assuming that holyzombiejesus isn't nerdy enough to be installing Windows bootloaders I was wanting to save him a few quid on a Windows licence fee.

He says he just wants to walk out of the shop with something that he can use and the Ubuntu install DVD is so easy to set up he could manage that no problem. It really is a piece of piss to install Ubuntu using the graphical install interface these days. I'd say it's easier than installing Windows. Just choose "install Ubuntu to my computer", click the button to use the entire disk and do its own partitioning, tell it what country you're in (if it hasn't already guessed from your cable internet connection) and choose a user name and password.

Then he's got more money to spend on a monitor that he would have otherwise spent on a copy of Windows.

[syntaxerror]

Ubuntu is fine until something stops working, or you encounter an unexpected error.
What it can do for what it costs is impressive, but it can be a total pain in the arse, and I wasted a lot of time with it in the past, relying on the goodwill of community support and blindly cutting & pasting lines of code into terminal to try and fix something that would be a piece of piss in Windows. The apps and software available are all crap too. Windows is pretty hassle free these days and I can't see the point in saving a few quid on an OS, for a badly supported free alternative that has a very steep learning curve.

Edit - I just remember why I got so pissed off with linux/ubuntu - driver support. a new version comes along and everything goes tits up. I know this happens with windows and mac setups, but support for devices and hardware usually gets added eventually. With linux, the is really on you to make sure you're compatable. Buying a peripheral or upgrading a component? You *really* need to do your homework. It makes you take for granted buying a new piece of hardware and seeing a little sticker on the box saying "windows/mac compatible" and you know you're not going to waste an entire evening trying to get a wireless mouse to work.

[Blumf]

Yeah, driver support is the biggest PITA with Linux. But for most mainstream stuff it's pretty good, it's just when something is missing.

However, it's not all sweetness and light with Windows. Try installing from a plain copy on a random PC, you need a whole bunch of drivers pulled over from random places (hopefully the relevant device maker still keeps the relevant driver on their site, if not, it's awkward). Need a driver for that old widget you got a decade+ ago? Maybe the XP driver works in Win8... maybe[nb]Just checked if a parallel port Zip Drive (90's retro baby!) I still use (on a Slackware box) works with Win 8, seems you can, impressive[/nb]

Meanwhile most modern Linux distros boot straight into the desktop and work with everything, before you even install it, no effort.

BTW: Pretty much all the problems I've had with Windows, and there have been a lot, far more than with Linux, have been solved via the community. MS's support structure is pretty much worthless unless you're big multinational.

[Too Many Cochranes]

Yeah, Ubuntu does have its flaws. Since I'm using an AMD APU I end up compiling the graphics drivers myself, which only takes about ten minutes but needs a bit of command line know how. I suspect it works a lot better with integrated Intel graphics, though, which is why I thought it would be a doddle for holyzombiejesus on a recent i3 system.

I also recommended he uses version 14.04.1 LTS too, as it's a lot better then 14.10. I reinstalled with 14.10 the day it came out a week or so ago and I've had about three random hangs where I've just had to wait a minute until I'm sure the HDD isn't active, hit the reset button and hope for the best. It's always rebooted fine but I reckon it'll be a few more weeks of updates before it's as solid as the LTS version.

Apart from my graphics drivers I've had no problems with hardware though. I highly recommend PC World's Advent C312 wireless mouse/keyboard if you want something cheap and decent to type on. It even works with my Rasperry Pi.