Hi there guys , we need to replace our home computer and as I'm a bit of an ignoramus in this respect and I know some of you guys on here are computer whizzes , I thought I'd as you guys for a bit of advice.

We want it to be 'future proof', in as much as anything can be in these fast moving times , it will be used for just about everything from gaming to office applications . We've had a look and narrowed it down to two so far :-

 

General Household use these days centers around wifi and netbooks and notebooks as they are so easy to move about the house with.

However Serious Gamers and Video editing and graphics still do better with
fullblown desktops systems.

You have two okay systems there...........but we're spoiled over here we'd get
the same for 5 or six hundred bucks.

As for future proofing ...........forget it by the time you add upgrades
down the road it'd be cheaper to buy new again.

Whatever you get make sure it's Windows 7 with min 2 gigs ram.
make sure there's a webcam or the Skype Master from Melbourne will
fry your azzz

 

Do you have Computer swap meets over in the old dart,Hawk?
You can buy your own system for half the price of a Shop model..........

Dont bother with a webcam for Shyte,the Enigma machine doesnt need one.

 

3 major bottlenecks in a system tend to be CPU, Video and RAM.

How 'serious' is the gaming? Any serious gaming will need need its own graphic card. Onboard graphics chips can't push it. And a system with a graphic card is more 'future proof' than graphic chips on the motherboard. When games push the envelope past your current card, you just pop it out and put in a new one.

Chipsets (Intel vs AMD) seems more a personal preference nowadays. AMD has stepped up their game since the days when they were the cheap cpu chip. Motherboard cpu cache will matter more. Also if the CPU can be upgraded further.

RAM RAM RAM RAM... Did I mention ram? Not so much how much it comes with. More how much can you expand it. RAM is cheap, like disk space. But the limit will be how much you can expand it.

Ignore hard drive amounts. Disk space is cheap and only a USB port away if you're afraid to pop the case yourself (external drives). Have a 300 gig external connected to my laptop when its home.

Looking at the 2 you posted, the Acer.

 

But the only thing that REALLY matters is be sure you get TWO 24" widescreen monitors. You can look at FOUR pages/documents at once. Almost every computer these days will support dual monitors. Just plug and play (after you horse with the properties to use dual monitors and "extend" it to the second monitor and set the resolution correctly - which is really easy).

I'm not kidding even a little. The dual monitors are so much more valuable than an extra number here and there on the performance side. At the very least, save your old monitor and hook it up with the new monitor so you have two. You will be spoiled forever.

 

I'd say forget about "future proofing" yourself, it can't be done. You never know what kind of computer technology will be introduced tomorrow, making everything that came before obsolete. That being said, my philosophy when buying a new computer is, unless you have very clear and articulable reasons to do otherwise, is rather than thinking long term (6 or 7 years) and buying something expensive to hold you over for that time, do the opposite. That is, think short term ands buy cheap, cheap, cheap. The specs on the cheapest computers today are equal to or better than the specs of the most expensive desktops of a couple of years ago. Spend half of what you're planning to spend, with the thought that in a couple of years you'll spend the other half on a new computer if you so desire. That way, for the first couple of years you'll run a little slower, but the next couple of years you'll have something faster, more up to date (with the latest operating system), and you'll also have a spare computer to use, all for about the same amount of money.
The main reason to ignore the above advice is if you have clear reasons to go expensive. If you're doing extensive video editing and you want your machine to run super stable while doing so, or if you're a serious gamer and you want to run the latest and greatest games at their highest settings, then you'll need a high end computer. If you mainly surf the net, are only a casual gamer playing older games mostly, then a cheap box should do you just fine. Also, with a cheap box you won't be kicking yourself when you see something being sold a year from now equal to what you purchased but going for half the price.
Finally, I wouldn't sweat the onboard graphics issue. Even with onboard graphics, if you later want to upgrade your graphics you can easily disable the onboard graphics and add a separate graphics card. Just make sure anything you buy has a pci-express expansion slot (most do I would think) so you can add one of the latest cards.

 

It's true. They are almost giving them away these days on the lower end. And they all do more than I use, either for business or just noodling around.

 

Thanks for the advise guys , all of it good and Pacojoseph you certainly have a point , my laptop was a top of the range machine a few years back , now even the cheapest machine , at less than half the price wipes the floor with it!