Mobile Broadband

[vegyjones]

My computer is screwed, it only works sporadically and it's got to the stage where I have to do a system restore every other day because my Firefox connection says it can not be connected.

Anyway to appease the missus who keeps blaming me, a simple solution would be to get Mobile Broadband just for surfing the net.

I've seen a couple of good offers, with free lap tops, but don't know what the GB limit is and whether it is any good.

I have seen an advert for network 3

£17.50 per month with an Acer Asphire A150b Laptop but with a 1 GB data allowance per month.

Or

£20 per month with Asus Eee 904HD Netbook but with a 3GB data allowance per month.

I'm leaning towards the network 3 offer (apparently there's a good signal in my area :D ) but would a 1 GB allowance see me through and is the laptop in question any good.

IN appreciation

[Win2Win]

A simple solution would be to fix the problem!

Run a Windows fix, use another browser.

1Gb is nothing these days.

[Ada]

Vegy,

Have a look here:
http://mobile.broadbandgenie.co.uk/3g-broadband

Click on the price comparison tab.
Check out the customer reviews.

Might be of some use to you in helping make your mind up.

:thumbs

[vegyjones]

A simple solution would be to fix the problem!

Run a Windows fix, use another browser.

1Gb is nothing these days.

My computer is about 7 years old. I don't think that there's much I can do to fix it and I'm not sure I'd know how.

Ada, thanks for the link. Much appreciated.

Is the Gb allowance just for downloading stuff, do you use this up just looking at something like ebay?

[wb]

My computer is about 7 years old.

No offence Veg but you are just going to have to put the hand in the pocket and pay the bloody money!

Get a new computer. In my opinion, the best you can hope for is 5 years with a computer before it gets clogged up with all sorts.

[bigcumba]

I'm with Wayne on this one Vegy. Consider this - a 'free' laptop will cost you £20 a month with a 3Gb allowance - that would be used up by watching a handful of programs on Iplayer each month, or one album of music a day. Not a lot. You're tied into at least an 18month contract - costing you £360, or even £480 if it's 2 years. You can get a decent laptop for £360 and still use your current internet connection. No-brainer, unless you can't afford the new laptop in one lump.

[mathare]

New desktop PCs are only a couple of hundred quid

[vegyjones]

Do you use ebuyer Mat ?

Do you recommend them.

What are the basics I should be looking for?
What sort of spec machine should I be lokjing for.

Don't want to do anything major with it.

Just for storing photos and music, and fast internet.

[mathare]

Do you use ebuyer Mat ?

Do you recommend them.I get all my stuff from Ebuyer.

If you just want internet and e-mail type stuff then you just need a cheap but modern desktop PC, cheaper than a laptop and I assume you don't need to be mobile with it. I'll have a quick look on Ebuyer for you in a sec when this poker tourney finishes...

[mathare]

What monitor have you got on your existing PC?

[vegyjones]

I recently bought home from work a HP pavilion f1523 flat screen.

Thanks for this Mat!

[mathare]

And what's your budget, realistically?

[vegyjones]

Preferably sub £250, but up to £300 if it is needed!

[mathare]

They are doing a lot of systems now that don't have CD/DVD drives, almost desktop versions of the solid-state HDD laptops (EEEs). They look funky, and are cheap, but probably not what you need.

The cheapest reasonable looking desktop is probably this one for £210: http://www.ebuyer.com/product/167285
It's no world-beater by any means but it is umpteen times better than what you have at present.

The next model up in the same range comes in under £250 too: http://www.ebuyer.com/product/167286
Bigger HDD and more memory - not sure how much this matters to you though as you can always tag on an external HDD if needed and internet etc won't use much RAM (although Vista might!)

I don't know much about the Zoostorm range - I expected Acer to have some cheaper models than they stock at present, to be honest - but that at least let's you know what's out there.

Laptops start at just over £250 if you do need to be able to shift the PC about

[vegyjones]

That's great Mat, I reckon that first one would do the business.

It says that no windows CD comes with it, but I wouldn't need one if Vista is pre-installed would I.

[mathare]

It says that no windows CD comes with it, but I wouldn't need one if Vista is pre-installed would I.No, that's standard these days. It comes with a partition on the HDD from which you can recover the machine back to factory settings if required. These things usually let you create recovery CDs/DVDs too if desired. Not having a Windows CD just means you can't format the HDD (unless you have created recovery DVDs) and reinstall everything, including Windows, from scratch. Most PCs ship that way now.

[TheOldhamWhisper]

If your budget is £250, you really should go for the second option - 1GB memory is going to be problematic within 6 months using Vista!

[vegyjones]

Is Vista something to be avoided at present then?

Would I be better off going for something that still has XP?

[barrelmaniac]

I paid about 150 pounds for a reconditioned dell laptop off ebay, its great never had any issues with it apart from the battery conking out which fixed itself eventually after I realised I was accidentally using my dads laptop charger instead!

But its v fast and does everything required. So could be an option if yoir looking for something cheap.

[Win2Win]

£22.50 a month you get 15GB & a laptop. Don't expect the laptop to be able to play the latest games, though it should manage Pong which is about your level :D

Comes with XP: http://threestore.three.co.uk/dealsummary.aspx?offercode=24LP15GD69&id=1183

[mathare]

Is Vista something to be avoided at present then?
No, not at all. Vista is fine but it can be memory hungry so as Oldham says going for the 2GB system may be a better option.

[TheOldhamWhisper]

XP even struggles with just 1GB these days.

[Win2Win]

Always worked fine on 1GB for me, but a laptop is easy to expand to 2GB for about £30.

[mathare]

To upgrade any PC though you need to open it up and doing so usually invalidates the warranty

[Win2Win]

To upgrade any PC though you need to open it up and doing so usually invalidates the warranty
Not with laptop memory, you have a little department at the bottom. If it does go AoverT at some point, you just take that out before sending it back.

[Fkwe]

No, not at all. Vista is fine but it can be memory hungry so as Oldham says going for the 2GB system may be a better option.

I second that, Vista is a good OS. Windows 7 is a lot better though.....

[vegyjones]

I have seen this one on ebuyer http://www.ebuyer.com/product/176488
It looks the biz, but with no OS, how much is it likely to end up costing me gross?

An alternative is this, http://www.ebuyer.com/product/173627

And lastly, with a bit less memory is this acer http://www.ebuyer.com/product/172706
although it doesn't look like a regular PC, does it work the same?

All advice welcome.

[Win2Win]

I got a cracker on Ebay for £155 for friend, but you need to check what you are getting the majority are a rip-off.

You can get a Netbook with a 10" screen for £200 new.

[mathare]

I have seen this one on ebuyer http://www.ebuyer.com/product/176488
It looks the biz, but with no OS, how much is it likely to end up costing me gross?If you buy that you can buy a legit copy of Win XP for around £70 from Ebuyer


An alternative is this, http://www.ebuyer.com/product/173627Less memory than the previous, a smaller HDD too. With that version of Vista you could really do with more memory to get the best out of the machine.


And lastly, with a bit less memory is this acer http://www.ebuyer.com/product/172706
although it doesn't look like a regular PC, does it work the same?It doesn't have a CD/DVD drive, which seems to be the major difference. Makes it more awkward for installing new software or backing data up to CD/DVD plus sharing data with others.

[Win2Win]

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/161005 You have to buy an external DVD rewriter for it for about £20

[barrelmaniac]

Just a word of warning for that strange looking pc, the first pc my family bought was an ''oddball'' looking pc, repair shops etc didnt undertsand it but they all said that it looks great a quirky, but anyway in the end it was a bit of a nightmare..... In my opinion go for a conventional looking pc that already does everything that you need.

[vegyjones]

After all the advice, I think I've decided to go for the first one, which would appear to me to be good value, just a couple more questions.

Does this look legit and coshure - http://www.ebuyer.com/product/173791

With the machine and this OS, would I be able to get up and running straight away?
Is it everything I need?

And finally, it's about £300 altogether for the base and the OS. Is that good for what I'm getting?

Sorry for being a numpty, just want to make sure I don't get something that's no good to me - especially when it's quite a lot of money...

[TheOldhamWhisper]

The OS is genuine - but does the machine you are looking at support it (i.e. will the supplied drivers work on Windows 7 or will you need to get them off the internet? And if so, will you be able to if the network card is not Windows 7 compatible?)

[Win2Win]

W7 compatability isn't an issue like older versions, but check if it is the 32 or 64 version.