Computer Related > New desktop choice advice - HP?	Buying / Selling
Thread Author: Fenlander	Replies: 24

New Wed 12 Feb 14 09:53   New desktop choice advice - HP? - Fenlander

I've read grammar's similar thread a bit down the page and we too are about at the point of replacing our 7yr old HP desktop. I see one of the replies on that thread links to this which a poster bought... www.car4play.com/redirect.php?https://h20386.www2.hp.com/UKStore/Merch/Product.aspx?id=E3H36EA&opt=ABU&sel=PCDT I'm quite keen on HP and was looking at one of the next models up pricewise (ignore the fact it's currently out of stock)... h20386.www2.hp.com/UKStore/Merch/Product.aspx?id=ECC_BUNDLE_4274215&opt=&sel=PCDT Feedback from anyone with interest/experience in desktops appreciated, particularly with regard to it having an AMD processor. Note: Current PC spec... Intel core 2 duo E4500 2.2ghz, Geforce 8500GT, 500gb hard drive, 3gb ram. Reply to this message | Report message

New Wed 12 Feb 14 09:59   New desktop choice advice - HP? - Dog

Novatech are worthy of a mench Fl: www.novatech.co.uk/pc/home/ Reply to this message | Report message

New Wed 12 Feb 14 10:19   New desktop choice advice - HP? - Fenlander

Thanks dog they were unknown to me so gave them a look. Unless I was failing to spot the bargains doing a website purchase build to equate to the HP took me to about £60 more... and the HP has a "free" 500GB external hard drive which we need and is worth £50+ on top. So unless the AMD processor in the HP is no good it looks a better buy at the moment. I guess you have a Novatech? Reply to this message | Report message

New Wed 12 Feb 14 11:35   New desktop choice advice - HP? - Dog

>>I guess you have a Novatech? That I do FL, bought direct from Novatech including one of their 22" monitors 3 years ago to replace my old MESH. Reply to this message | Report message

New Wed 12 Feb 14 10:39   New desktop choice advice - HP? - Focusless

>> Feedback from anyone with interest/experience in desktops appreciated, particularly with regard to it having an >> AMD processor. >> >> Note: Current PC spec... Intel core 2 duo E4500 2.2ghz According to benchmarks at www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu_list.php : Intel E4500: 1255 AMD A10-6700: 4743 The AMD figure appears to be equivalent to a mid-table i5. Depends what you want to do with it of course, but should be ok for general stuff. Reply to this message | Report message

New Wed 12 Feb 14 10:40   New desktop choice advice - HP? - Focusless

...and www.expertreviews.co.uk/processors/1300315/amd-a10-6700 : "Verdict: A great choice if you want a power-efficient high-end A-series processor and don’t want to overclock it." (5 stars) Reply to this message | Report message

New Wed 12 Feb 14 10:58   New desktop choice advice - HP? - Fenlander

Thanks for the info & links. It seems the AMD in that HP is down the tables a bit from the Intels fitted to similar priced HP models. However on those figures it is a huge leap from our current processor. In that review they comment one of the AMD strengths, and why they would choose it over the similar priced Intel, is its graphics. I assume if I have a PC with a dedicated garphics card the processor graphics don't come into play? BTW our use: Web, office, playing cd/dvds, low level photo processing and sometimes daughter edits videos but in a basic chopping/inserting way no effects... and no gaming at all. Reply to this message | Report message

New Wed 12 Feb 14 11:34   New desktop choice advice - HP? - Focusless

>> In that review they comment one of the AMD strengths, and why they would choose >> it over the similar priced Intel, is its graphics. I assume if I have a >> PC with a dedicated graphics card the processor graphics don't come into play? No, and the GTX 645 is ok - www.videocardbenchmark.net/gpu_list.php GTX 645: 1876 Radeon 5770: 1682 My son's PC has a 5770 with a lowly AMD X3 445 (approx half the benchmark of the A10) and he plays things like World of Warcraft on highest settings. Ok that's not a particularly demanding game, but indicates you should be ok if you decide to dabble. Reply to this message | Report message

New Wed 12 Feb 14 11:55   New desktop choice advice - HP? - Fenlander

Gosh that GTX 645 would be an improvement for us... current graphics card shows a rating of just 142. compared to the GTX at 1876. I do like the look of the Novatech's but it seems to come down to a deal on the day and today the HP is very good value from them direct... and they can deliver tomorrow FOC as they have new stock this morning. Most important Mrs F keeps mailing from work every 20mins or so saying have you ordered it yet... don't miss out etc etc. A fail on the only thing I have to do today will make for a grumpy teatime! Reply to this message | Report message

New Wed 12 Feb 14 12:01   New desktop choice advice - HP? - Focusless

I did have a look on ebay for similar spec no-brand machines and couldn't find anything to match the HP. Does look like a good deal. Reply to this message | Report message

New Wed 12 Feb 14 12:12   New desktop choice advice - HP? - Fenlander

Appreciate that as it may have thrown up something better I could have investigated. The deal direct from HP is good because the same machine but with half the RAM is £50 more from PC World and their 2nd year warranty is 10x more than HP's own. And of course the HP deal has the free external hard drive too. The final thing is I've found a 4% voucher code for the HP website. Think I'll buy it. Reply to this message | Report message

New Wed 12 Feb 14 12:59   New desktop choice advice - HP? - Duncan

According to Which? magazine/website, for customer satisfaction scores:- Apple 94% Novatech 80% Sony 79% Medion 73% HP came in at 9th with 66%. Reply to this message | Report message

New Wed 12 Feb 14 13:08   New desktop choice advice - HP? - Fenlander

Appreciate that but remember I run an Alfa so happy to swim against the tide a bit where survey results are concerned. Reply to this message | Report message

New Wed 12 Feb 14 16:32   New desktop choice advice - HP? - Duncan

>> Appreciate that but remember I run an Alfa so happy to swim against the tide >> a bit where survey results are concerned. >> Oh Heavens! Why didn't you say that you enjoy unreliability? In that case - Emachines comes 14th and bottom in the Which? unreliability stakes, if you like unreliable Italian cars, I am sure you will be well suited! ;-0 Reply to this message | Report message

New Wed 12 Feb 14 17:29   New desktop choice advice - HP? - Fenlander

Ahh well that's the thing... they are only unreliable for the doubting owners... have faith and all will be OK. Reply to this message | Report message

New Wed 12 Feb 14 13:20   New desktop choice advice - HP? - Focusless

>> Appreciate that as it may have thrown up something better I could have investigated. I should have said that if you're on a budget, you can get 16GB RAM, 2TB HD & Win8 for < £400: tinyurl.com/lvf4jqo (ebay) But the extras you get with the HP (including of course the ext drive) don't appear to be bad value. Last edited by: Focusless on Wed 12 Feb 14 at 13:21 Reply to this message | Report message

New Wed 12 Feb 14 13:36   New desktop choice advice - HP? - Fenlander

Yep appreciate that but I don't know enough about the internals or configurations of computers to stray from the well worn path so happier starting with a known quantity from a large company. Reply to this message | Report message

New Wed 12 Feb 14 14:40   New desktop choice advice - HP? - rtj70

The A10-6700 is a decent AMD CPU with very good embedded GPU for the money. Not as good as many Intel CPUs but it's a cheap part. The A10 7700K which is obviously a faster/more powerful part is only £120. If you're not into bigh end gaming this CPU should be fine. The GPU being a 'GTX 645' is probably an OEM specific part as you cannot buy such a card in retail. Probably similar performance and price to a GT 640 which is about £70. The GTX 650 with 2GB RAM is about £100 so guessing a 'GTX 645' sits between the two. Both the 640 and 650 have 384 cores. You do realise the desktop doesn't come with a monitor? But you probably have one that's still okay. Not sure it comes with keyboard, mouse, speakers etc. either. Last edited by: rtj70 on Wed 12 Feb 14 at 14:41 Reply to this message | Report message

New Wed 12 Feb 14 14:43   New desktop choice advice - HP? - rtj70

Depending on what you'll use the PC for, not sure you'll benefit so much from the GTX645 graphics card...the CPU has reasonable GPU performance. Reply to this message | Report message

New Wed 12 Feb 14 15:00   New desktop choice advice - HP? - Fenlander

Thanks for flagging the lack of monitor... if I'd made a mistake it would have seriously skewed the deal! Yep we have a fairly recent 23" HP monitor plus a 5:1 amp/speaker set. It's a bit hidden but the HP spec does mention a wireless mouse and keyboard as standard. The only thing I want to upgrade is our old webcam (vga) which is years old and a bit fuzzy. Last edited by: Fenlander on Wed 12 Feb 14 at 15:01 Reply to this message | Report message

New Wed 12 Feb 14 15:02   New desktop choice advice - HP? - Fenlander

>>>not sure you'll benefit so much from the GTX645 graphics card...the CPU has reasonable GPU performance. So does the dedicated graphics card only come into play when gaming? Reply to this message | Report message

New Wed 12 Feb 14 16:06   New desktop choice advice - HP? - rtj70

>> So does the dedicated graphics card only come into play when gaming? No idea how HP might have done this. I would guess they are just using the CPU as a CPU and connecting the monitor to the discrete GPU - therefore not using the GPU on the CPU. Laptops with inbuilt GPU and discrete often switched between them on the fly. But you need hardware and/or software to do the switching. Apple's laptop were good at doing this. Desktops I cannot really comment on, all I know my home built desktop can be setup to switch from the inbuilt GPU on the Intel CPU and the discrete GTX660. In theory saves electric but in practice it didn't save much. It relied on some software that came with the motherboard called Virtu MVP from Lucid Logix. Worked well but I had another issue.... ... my desktop also runs as a 'Mac' with OSX Mavericks and couldn't get it to use my old VGA monitor properly when connected to the inbuilt GPU. But that's a Mac thing with them not supporting analogue monitors. If I got a new monitor it would be okay. P.S. I only said I didn't think it came with a monitor because it lists one as an accessory. Reply to this message | Report message

New Thu 13 Feb 14 09:19   New desktop choice advice - HP? - Fenlander

Oh well the deed is done... our HP desktop of choice arrived 30mins ago. Now starts the stress in moving 7yrs of files across! I always remember the old school joke about the definition of a gynecologist being someone who could wallpaper the hall, stairs and landing through a letterbox. It seems trying to find any of your stuff inside the new pc through Windows 8 home screen will have some similarity. Last edited by: Fenlander on Thu 13 Feb 14 at 09:19 Reply to this message | Report message

New Mon 24 Feb 14 12:24   New desktop choice advice - HP? - Fenlander

I see Grammar updated his PC thread and I always like to read a thread result so... The HP seems to be exactly what we wanted performance wise. Very very fast compared to our old one but only time will tell about customer satisfaction issues as flagged above. Mind you I have to say the setup guide and instructions were almost non-existent... if it was a first PC you wouldn't know where to start. After an hour or two of cold sweat not knowing where I was with Windows 8(now 8.1) suddenly it clicked and it's like second nature after a week... actually really like the ability to work traditionally in desktop mode and with one click go into app mode for news, weather, TV etc. Sadly the old PC collapsed during my attempts to recover to factory condition so that's been scrapped. As a spin off on something of a whim we also bought daughter a new PC for her bedroom. At the budget end of the market John Lewis looked best balance between value and backup so bought a Lenovo H515s from them. In truth the Lenovo's looks, instructions and setup from first turn on were better than HP so slightly wishing I'd looked harder at them for our higher spec main PC. Last edited by: Fenlander on Mon 24 Feb 14 at 12:26 Reply to this message | Report message

New Tue 28 Apr 15 14:17   New desktop choice advice - HP? - Fenlander

Just an interesting update... Well just a month out of warranty the hard drive started failing on this HP... failing to spin up so a g e s to do anything. Managed to get all our files off to date onto a USB hard drive so relief there. Due to the speed of the drive though it was taking an hour to move files that should take 5 mins. Decided not to hassle HP for any FOC repair as it was easier to go to the guy in the village who fitted a new hard drive and re-loaded 8.1. Also he gave me the choice and I decided to have it loaded as a generic machine leaving off all the rubbish HP normally includes when new. Not thrilled to spend out after 13mths but these things happen. Original drive was a Seagate... guy fitted a Toshiba. Last edited by: Fenlander on Tue 28 Apr 15 at 14:18 Reply to this message | Report message