Help design a computer system for the kids homework

[Mark Chase]

I need help.

I am in the market for two compute systems for the girls to use every day and do homework on. They must have Internet connection, Ill be going for Vista to future proof them I want good screens so they don't do their eyes in and they need to be solid reliable units.

I was thinking of DELL as thats what i use but i am open to suggestions as I don't particularly think my PC is any good and the USB ports on the front are a sod to access.

Q1: is 250meg memory enough?

Q2: how much ram do i need to run Vister adequately

Q3: What processor should i go for (they seem to be pushing the 4500 in my price bracket

Q4: should I get an internal wireless network card should these also do hard wire networks as standard (wireless doesn't work well at my house)

My budget is £1000 for two computers with 19" monitors. However i have two 17" monitors now which would suffice if i need to spend a little more on the computers for now.


One of the computers in the bedroom is on a 30m network cable. Can i some how connect both computers to this single network cable? or do I need another 30m cable back to my broad band conected main computer?

All help gratefully received.

ATB

Mark

[DannyB]

Originally Posted by Mark Chase

I need help.

I am in the market for two compute systems for the girls to use every day and do homework on. They must have Internet connection, Ill be going for Vista to future proof them I want good screens so they don't do their eyes in and they need to be solid reliable units.

I was thinking of DELL as thats what i use but i am open to suggestions as I don't particularly think my PC is any good and the USB ports on the front are a sod to access.

Q1: is 250meg memory enough?

Q2: how much ram do i need to run Vister adequately

Q3: What processor should i go for (they seem to be pushing the 4500 in my price bracket

Q4: should I get an internal wireless network card should these also do hard wire networks as standard (wireless doesn't work well at my house)

My budget is £1000 for two computers with 19" monitors. However i have two 17" monitors now which would suffice if i need to spend a little more on the computers for now.


One of the computers in the bedroom is on a 30m network cable. Can i some how connect both computers to this single network cable? or do I need another 30m cable back to my broad band conected main computer?

All help gratefully received.

ATB

Mark

A1: I think you mean 256Mb of Memory, if so then no it's not enough for vista, if however you mean 250Gb of Disk then yes it's plenty ;-)

A2: The more the merrier, personally I'd go with 1GB or more.

A3: I like the AMD Athlon X2 64 bit processors at the moment.

A4: I'd stick with wired, its a fair bit faster and more reliable. You can put a switch on the end of a single cable for not a lot of money and will allow multiple computers attached to it. See Extra Value 8 Port 10/100 Switch - Ebuyer for an example.

Reccomendations, well a few months ago I was in the market for a new PC and bought one of these Acer T180 Athlon 64 4000+ Dual Core 250GB Hdd 1GB Ram DVD+RW MS Works Windows Vista Home Premium - Ebuyer I was impressed enough with it that I bought another one for Mrs B. They are £250 each so that leaves a fair bit of budget to get those monitors.

Again personal preference, I'd steer clear of Dell machines, a few years ago I used to reccomend them, quality over the last 2-3 years seems to have dropped considerably in the ones I come accross.

HTH

Danny

[thehappychappy]

Personally id buy cheap systems that have at least 512 mb ram, preferably 1gb+ and treat them as disposable over 18 months.

If you buy high end equipment you pay a premium,where is in 18 months what you paid a fortune for is bottom end.


If its kids Id probably go for cheap dell dual core laptops.

If they last 18 months each then you got a bargain, you can easily get two dual core, modern laptops for £800 or less.

you could also buy desktops of a close spec to the laptops for about £200 each without monitors.

Even cheaper, even more disposable they just take up far more room and dont let the kids do homework at teh baysitters, grannys etc.

Davie

[PeeBee]

A few thoughts Chasey

I find Vista needs 2Gb of ram, 1Gb isn't enough
I also find that a lot of add on stuff isn't quite Vista compatible yet so be careful what you download.
Hardwire is better than wireless if the girls are going to be working in a fixed place.
flat screens take up a lot less space.
Dual core processors are definately better than single core get the fastest your money will buy.
Intel always release new machines in the new year and dump old processor machines during the run up to christmas, january sales you will find the same spec machines far cheaper than now.

[colinicky]

Would agree that if you want to run Vista you would be alot better with 2gb of ram, 250 gb hard drive should be plenty ,
Personally I would go for 2 smaller hard drives in each machine & use one solely for storing pictures photo's & more importantly school homework/course work or have the pc shop set them as Raid something or other (means it saves files to both hard drives so if you lose one you still have a back up ) . Believe me it hurts to lose a hard drive ,I lost mine with 3 years worth of photo's & the daughters GSCE course work on & guess who hadn't made a back up .
Wired is definitely faster & is also more secure .
Monitor size I personally would go for using your 17" unless they are going to be sat a reasonable distance away .
HTH

[DecoWarrior]

what about a laptop, some stunning deals around at the min, youll pic a pretty speced up system for that budget, and it will take up less space and still have the same performance, it could have woreless built in but you could still manually connect best of both worls, i have a laptop running vista wirelress etc and that was only 350 a pop, leaving you some funds to slot a few dives in!

[Mark Chase]

Originally Posted by DecoWarrior

what about a laptop, some stunning deals around at the min, youll pic a pretty speced up system for that budget, and it will take up less space and still have the same performance, it could have woreless built in but you could still manually connect best of both worls, i have a laptop running vista wirelress etc and that was only 350 a pop, leaving you some funds to slot a few dives in!

The school provide lap top computers (ok we have to pay but this way all the kids have the same computer and software) I looked at the pathetic key board and rubbish little monitor and decided homework would be done on a big screen with a proper mouse and Keyboard.

I cant see the point of a large LT for home and a small one for school.


The Schools LTs have wireless networking but its crap and wont work at home.


So at the moment they are driving me and ling mad using our proper computers in the office. We have to get them out of here before they wipe out my last months accounts or something equally daft.

ATB

Mark

[divingniknaks]

Mark,

Dell have some cracking laptop deals on at the moment 279 + VAT, for an awesome spec.

I have the guff in the office, if you want the links drop me a mail tomorrow I'll dig them out for you.

HTH

Ahhh, forget it, just seen your post

[Ferg3333]

I'd vote for Dell, to future proof yourself you want:

2.0Ghz Dual Core Processor
2 Gb Ram
120Gb Hard Drive

This is a little overkill for homework, but vista is resource hungry and there are some excellent deals on laptops around 500, infact I would recommend The Dell inspironTM 1520 for what you need. Its 529 at the moment.

Ferg

[Robski]

There are some great deals to be had on desktop machines at the moment, just looked up a Dell Inspiron 531 with a Dual-Core Athlon, 2GB RAM, Vista Home Premium, 160GB drive and 19" monitor for £422.
Opinions differ on Dell, but I've got a lot of experience with their kit (ship about £500k's worth a year of them out of my office) and have no complaints.
That said, the price above is just a guide and, if I'm honest, when I wanted a new home PC I eschewed Dell in favour of building my own....
Novatech Barebone Systems : Computer Supplies from Novatech do some shockingly good deals at the moment and give you more scope for building the PC to your exact spec. If I was looking to source a cheap pooter and didn't mind putting a bit of work into it, that's where I'd be looking, specially as you already have a couple of monitors.