1. DDz Quorum Friar Posted March 10, 2012 1. DDz Quorum Report Share Posted March 10, 2012 Hi, A friend who has recently lost her partner wants to upgrade her pc (current one is about 7 years old). I have previously helped her sort out issues on it which is why she has asked me about replacing it. I have had a look on the Dell site this morning and found what I think is a machine that would suit her needs. Kids need it for home work and social media stuff and a bit of simple gaming (has got teenage girls so nothing too heavy) (Inspiron 570mt) My question is about processors, I am a bit out of touch with these. It comes with an AMD® Sempron™ 150 (2.9GHz, 1MB Cache) Where does this sit in the scheme of things, should I be looking at Intel, I3,5, or 7 Obviously budget is tight and the above machine is going for £294 4gb ram, 500gb hard drive Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium, 64bit, English 4096MB Dual Channel DDR3 [2x2048] Memory DVD +/- RW Drive (read/write CD & DVD) with DVD Burn software Integrated ATI Radeon HD4200 Graphics Integrated 7.1 channel audio 19-in-1 Media Card reader 500gb (7200rpm) SATA Hard Drive Any thoughts against buying this machine? Cheers Friar Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1. DDz Quorum FoolTrottel Posted March 10, 2012 1. DDz Quorum Report Share Posted March 10, 2012 If indeed it's just for everyday use, as far as I can tell, it's a good buy. (http://dell-inspiron...views.r-tt.com/) Sempron 150 cannot be compared to i3, i5, i7, as it's a single core one. See here: http://www.cpubenchm...AMD+Sempron+150 (Money saver tips: leave out that expensive OS, go for Ubuntu. You won't be needing 4GB as well then, 2GB will do fine, however, it will probably make the machine harder to use for them, as it's so different from MS windows stuff... and they will probably not be familiar with it, and then have to change all the time. I'm starting to blabber now, please ignore...) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DD_Arthur Posted March 10, 2012 Report Share Posted March 10, 2012 Does this come as a complete package with monitor/keyboard. If so it's an absolute steal. If not then it's still a bargain. We tend to think in terms of masses of ram, mega graphics cards and huge HD's 'cause thats what modern games demand but if you're looking for a general purpose pc then this would be more than adequate. Do the kids have a camcorder? If so they might get into video editing in the near future which would be this machines only draw-back so far as I can tell. FT, as a Dell it will almost certainly come with Win7 pre-loaded but you do make an interesting point. I've got a couple of friends who have bought Toshiba laptops in the recent past that were preloaded with MS Windows O/S and a whole heap of garbage proclaiming the wonders of Toshiba and this that and the other on start up and have managed to get themselves into a big pickle by not doing updates, installing aps off the internet which would further confuse things, etc, etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1. DDz Quorum Friar Posted March 10, 2012 Author 1. DDz Quorum Report Share Posted March 10, 2012 Hi, @Arthur - Its just the box and keyboard+mouse (it does include £20 for a purple box, so the price is a little inflated) I dont think they would be into video editing, so no problem there. @FT - Ubunto not an option. I will pick up office from Software4students for them though. If it is to last a similar time, should I really be thinking about at least duel core? Regards Friar Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DD_Brando Posted March 10, 2012 Report Share Posted March 10, 2012 Hi Colin A tricky call. Reviews I have read suggest that while its low power draw (45W only) and budget price are good - its single core structure means it is not well suited to multi-tasking and it will be relatively slow. However, it should do OK for the kinds of activity that you've listed. The comparative Intel processor is the Celeron http://www.amd.com/u...comparison.aspx and I think the Sempron is better. It sounds as if the budget price and low running cost may win out? It is an AM3 socket, so it would be possible to fit a dual, or even a quad core processor in there if required later. Ross Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1. DDz Quorum FoolTrottel Posted March 10, 2012 1. DDz Quorum Report Share Posted March 10, 2012 Future proofing is very difficult... One thing I know is that - in my experience - updating existing / few years old Processors is hardly worth doing. Either get it right the first time, or suffer a bit for the latter part of three odd years, and buy a new system. JMO. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1. DDz Quorum B16Enk Posted March 10, 2012 1. DDz Quorum Report Share Posted March 10, 2012 I'd go for black, add £10 and get the dual core one: http://configure.euro.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?oc=d005705&c=uk&l=en&s=dhs&cs=ukdhs1&model_id=inspiron-570& Or if budget allows: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=FS-265-OK £333 + delivery Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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