What Spec PC do you use for your online business??

[Tipster]

I am investigating upgrading my current PC and wondered what you lot are currently running your online business' on????

Feel free to baffle me with mb/gb/htz ect

[peterjhale]

a Dell @ whatever the highest spec was 2 yrs ago !


Thinking of getting wireless laptops for home - seem v v cheap at the moment

Dell laptop for < £500 !!! at last, real prices in the UK

[Ian J]

Originally Posted by peterjhale

Dell laptop for < £500 !!! at last, real prices in the UK

Even cheaper if you look at sites like Hot UK Deals where there are always discount codes to be found for Dell stuff.

I looked a couple of weeks ago as I'm sick of being turfed off my PC by my wife and thought of buying her one of these laptops but although the cost is under £500 it mounts up quickly if you want any extras.

She would need a way of transferring files from the laptop to the PC which means either a wire less set up or at the least an external floppy drive at another £45.

Then for serious word processing an external mouse and keyboard start to bump the price right up and the docking station looks quite nice too.

[ConceptNetwork]

So why not buy yourself a laptop and then you can justify spending all that money on 'the business'

To be honest you should look at what you want to use the PC for and buy on required features, not speed or new technology. Any PC over 1GHz will be more than adequate for general office duties. Make sure it has plenty of RAM and then add on any essentials you will need.

I'm running a Dell Dimension 5000 at the moment. Would never really have recommedned them in the past, but they are turning out some great value systems at the moment. This is a 3GHz box with a gig of RAM and 160 gig over two SATA disks. The SATA disks are a little noisey, but other than that I have no complaints!

[datarunner]

As a PC retailer we can offer advice and NO hard sell.

You could buy a brand name like DELL, HP, Packard Bell, Compaq etc but these usually do not have very good components and if they do, the price goes way up. Believe me you are paying for the name.

I would recommend:

Budget

AMD Sempron 2600+ (Or higher CPU, making sure it's a Socket 754 for upgrade purposes, Socket A is obsolete, watch you arent conned by this)
256 MB + DDR RAM
40 GB + 7200rpm HDD
CD / DVD / CDRW / DVDRW Drive
Onboard Graphics although atleast a 64 MB card is better

Approx £200


Mid Range

AMD Sempron 64, Athlon 64 or P4 5 Series (Again check the socket type and avoid socket A or 478)
512 MB DDR RAM
80+ SATA HDD
CD / DVD / CDRW / DVDRW Drive
Dedicated 128 MB + AGP or PCI Express graphics card (AGP fastly becoming obsolete)

Approx £200+ - £400

High- End

AMD Athlon 64 Dual Core or FX CPU or P4 6 & 8 Series
1 GB + DDR
120 GB + SATA HDD
DVDRW Drive
256 MB + PCI Express graphics card

Approx £500+

Hope this helps and if you need any help, just ask.

[image Man]

CPU 2X Opteron 246
Ram 2Gb Dual channel DDR 400
6800 GT Graphics 256 Mb

It will do for my 3d work but a waste of money for office work for any business.

[the_jinj]

I'm still using my Duron 900, 512MB, 40gb + 120Gb HDD, DVD burner etc - it's old but fast enough for what I need
Also have an old Dell C600 (P3 800) laptop which I use occasionally - hopefully upgrade in the new year as I fancy the latest greatest, whatever that happens to be when I have the dosh

[image Man]

Find out if your applications are coded to run on multi CPU's before you shell out. Most apps will only use one core.

£566 AMD 64 X2 2x 2.4 Ghz cores 2x 1mb cache

£727 AMD 64 FX-57 2.8 Ghz 1mb cache is the fastest for single CPU apps.

[dmc]

well... for my office stuff i use good old P3/1GB RAM. most my work i do on powerbook G4. especially when am abroad or not at home.

[eggplant1]

Hi,
In addition to the above comments, if the computer is to be used at the home/office only, then I would definately reccomend a desktop pc over a laptop, reasons for this- easier to repair/upgrade, generally better performance, choice of screen, as mentioned, keyboard and mouse. With regards to trnaferring work from a desktop to a laptop, an external floppy drive (Assuming both dont have one) is about £15, a usb prn drive is a better option.
Whilst I dont entirely agree that larger manufacturers use not very good components, I will agree that they arnt the best, unfortunately to persons that have no knowledge of the insides of a pc, its all number, no one realises that there are diffferent speeds for memory, hard disks, and that VERY importantly, if your pc has a decent motherboard, then it will outperform systems of "equivalent" spec with an "el cheapo" board.
The prices above are very good indeed, I couldnt match those or even come close - I wont use cheapo parts at all either. Dont forget though, you need an operating system and software.
back to the original question of what is required, it really depends on what you plan to use the pc for, if its just a bit of internet/email and typig up etc then ANYTHING thats available as new today will be more than adequate.

HTH