Thoughts or recommendations

[bluenose1940]

From previous experience, I am aware that there are some members on here who are well versed in all matters computers.

I am thinking about replacing my quite old computer which is a Dell Studio XPS 7100, I think that it must be about 10 or 12 years old now.

I have spotted this during my scanning of the internet and am wondering if someone would be kind enough to let me know how it compares to my old one. I am not very good at processor and GHz details and would appreciate any thoughts that anyone might have.

https://www.dell.com/en-uk/work/shop/cty/pdp/spd/optiplex-3070-desktop/s014o3070mt

I am constantly on the internet and, the other main uses are for my work as treasurer of a local club and so a lot of word processing and spreadsheet work is done. I also keep lots of records on file.

I am wondering if I purchased it, could I change the hard drive to an SSD?  Would this invalidate the warranty if it was done within that period?

I will be most grateful for any thoughts, good or bad. Thank you.

[DanD]

My recommendation would be to switch to a laptop, and to back your files up to the cloud.
You then gain the portability of a laptop, which would be plenty powerful enough for its intended use, and your saved files would safe, without any reliance on local hardware. Furthermore, you would be to access your files from any computer, just by looking into your account.

The days of desktop computers are gone and the emphasis is all on portability and ease of access.

Sent from my Galaxy Note 10 Plus using Tapatalk

[bluenose1940]

17 hours ago, DanD said:

My recommendation would be to switch to a laptop, and to back your files up to the cloud.
You then gain the portability of a laptop, which would be plenty powerful enough for its intended use, and your saved files would safe, without any reliance on local hardware. Furthermore, you would be to access your files from any computer, just by looking into your account.

The days of desktop computers are gone and the emphasis is all on portability and ease of access.

Sent from my Galaxy Note 10 Plus using Tapatalk
 

Thank you for your input DanD, much appreciated.  I do have a laptop (an Acer Aspire) but I am not a fan of them and I only use it when I have run into a problem with my pc.  I didn't buy it, it was my wife's and I hung on to it when she moved on to just using an iPad.

I also use it if I am sat in my armchair with my feet up and my wife is watching something on the TV.  Again this is only very occasional.

[Shahpor]

Hi Geoff,

That looks like a decent spec.  i can't imagine it would be a problem to change to an SSD, although you would have to reinstall Windows and new PC's generally don't come with a product key anymore.

The alternative is to look at something like this:

https://store.hp.com/UKStore/Merch/Product.aspx?id=9HH77EA&opt=ABU&sel=DTP

A bit more expensive, but overall I think a good option given the better specification.

Hope this helps.

[Herbie]

Just to throw my tuppenceworth in.....

Specs look fine for what you need Geoff, so I'd say yes, go ahead.

Shahpor is correct when he says that computers don't come with product keys for the Windows system, but you don't need them.

As long as you run the new comuter and connect it to the internet at least once, the Windows system 'phones home' as it were, to the Microsoft licencing servers. The system looks at the hardware of your machine (motherboard, hard drive, graphics card etc) and assigns a unique value or 'key' to your machine that is then stored on the server.

The operating system software is basically tied to that one machine and only that machine. If it was completely destroyed and you replaced it with a new one, you would also have to buy another copy of Windows to install on it. However, you are allowed a certain number of changes (I think it's three if I remember correctly) to the hardware, just in case something goes faulty or, as in your case, you want to install an SSD as the boot drive.

After installing the new SSD and installing Windows 10 on it, the first time you connect to the internet the machine will call home to the servers again. Even though the unique value wil have changed, it will still be recognised as your machine and the licence will activate again without a problem, but with a change logged against it.

In other words, don't worry about it, it's fine to change to an SSD

[bluenose1940]

Thank you Herbie, very useful info.

I was getting close to reaching my decision and was then pointed at this one

https://www.dell.com/en-uk/work/shop/desktop-and-all-in-one-pcs/dell-vostr-3671/spd/vostro-3671-desktop/s112vd3671btsukie01_r2005_22nm#features_section

Does this look a better bet and is it worth £110.00 more than the Dell?

[Cotswold Pete]

Bluenose,

All the machines look good, IMHO the Dell kit direct from Dell is always good value.  

If it were me I would then add a small SSD and just put  the Operating System stuff on it, then all you normal data on the HDD.

That means you get superfast startup time, which is where SSD wins out, and then normal date reading/writing on an HDD is not a problem of speed (unless you  are doing some serious photo or music editing).

SSDs though reliable, are more likely to fail the more you read from them, and just having the OS on a small SSD keeps your cost down and then you can backup the OS to a partition you can create by splitting the 1TB hard drive into different logical drives.

All this reminds me I must get of my backside and spend some cash on upgrading my 12 year old PC, which is creaking a little.

 

 

[bluenose1940]

Hiya Pete, I have taken delivery of the Dell Vostro 3671 and am now in the process of setting it up.  I have always put my O/S and programmes on one disk and all of my data on another.

I have transferred the WD 1TB drive from my old pc into the new one and so I will continue to put my data onto that and will use the pre-installed SSD in the Vostro for my O/S etc.

I purchased an additional 8GB of matching RAM for the new machine and I have just installed that.

All that I have to do now is reinstall all of my programmes and it should be all systems go.

I have got two USB 3.0 slots on the front of my new machine but only USB 2.0 on the rear.  On the basis that most of the connections are on the rear of machines, I wonder why they don't include a 3.0 there, seems odd to me.

Thank you for your input.

 

[Herbie]

43 minutes ago, bluenose1940 said:

I have got two USB 3.0 slots on the front of my new machine but only USB 2.0 on the rear.  On the basis that most of the connections are on the rear of machines, I wonder why they don't include a 3.0 there, seems odd to me.

USB 3 is a very fast transfer protocol and really comes to the fore when transferring data to/from flash drives, external hard drives and suchlike, so it makes sense to put these ports on the front for regular and easy access.

Peripherals such as keyboards, mice, and other stuff like that don't need to have fast data transfer speeds and once they are connected they tend to stay connected for years. So USB 2 ports go on the back because the rear of the computer is usually awkward to get to, maybe at the back of a cupboard somewhere, and the ports don't need to be accessed that often.

[Cotswold Pete]

20 hours ago, bluenose1940 said:

I have got two USB 3.0 slots on the front of my new machine but only USB 2.0 on the rear.  On the basis that most of the connections are on the rear of machines, I wonder why they don't include a 3.0 there, seems odd to me.

This always bugs me the lack of USB sockets and the fact that fast ones only on the front.  I guess they suspect you only plug your USB sticks in the front (which is true, but then I have fast scanners connected as well).  I could not live with just 4 USB ports, currently running with 8 USB ports (which is a bit excessive) and my machine like yours has 3 of the fast ones only on the front.

Sounds like a fun day with a new toy, whereas I have just found out my laptop needs a complete reload to cure some odd user conflicts, so that will be a few hours letting it tick away doing that. 

At least I will have a stripped back O/S (as it is not going to be used for Internet Browsing), and it should run nice and quick for the Audio recording stuff I am panning to do (which is going through my 600 cassettes and working out what I need to turn into MP3 - as in those cassettes are some rare old BBC recordings from 1980 onwards, that would be a shame to loose when mylatest  cassette deck eBay purchase packs up - my other good deck just packed up after 30 years of sterling service))

[bluenose1940]

Hi again folks, well I've got my new pc up and running but, I seem to have run into a problem with the hard drive.  I have removed the 1TB Western Digital Drive that I had in my old pc and have installed it in my new one.  I use this drive purely for all of my personal data, no programmes etc, they are all on the SSD along with the O/S.

Now this drive is not appearing in 'File Explorer' and 'Disk Management' but, it can be seen in 'Device manager'.  Does anyone have any thoughts on this please?

Also, I am wondering if there is a list stored anywhere of all of my 'Favourites' that I can import or, have I simply got to start from scratch again?

I have (hopefully) attached some images of 'Device Manager' and 'Disk manager' and also one of Macrium Reflect which is showing a long red line on the SSD drive and I am wondering if anyone knows what this might be.

Thanks for the input and help chaps, as always, much appreciated.  I have to go out now and so if there is a reply that I don't respond to for a while, I'm not ignoring you!

 

 

[Herbie]

I've got to go out myself so just a very quick reply.

Don't worry about that red line, it's just informing you that that partition is full.

I may be wrong but try putting your 1TB drive on one of the other SATA channels, maybe SATA 3 or 4 and it'll probably show up. I think the NVMe and the other disk are sharing the same channel at the moment.

[bluenose1940]

4 hours ago, Herbie said:

I've got to go out myself so just a very quick reply.

Don't worry about that red line, it's just informing you that that partition is full.

I may be wrong but try putting your 1TB drive on one of the other SATA channels, maybe SATA 3 or 4 and it'll probably show up. I think the NVMe and the other disk are sharing the same channel at the moment.

I have connected the 1TB Hard Drive to the power and data cables already fitted in the machine and so I can't imagine that it would be sharing.

[ColinBarber]

I'm assuming the disk not appearing correctly is disk0 in disk manager? Just right click in the left box (where it has the text) and select import.

[Herbie]

2 hours ago, bluenose1940 said:

I have connected the 1TB Hard Drive to the power and data cables already fitted in the machine and so I can't imagine that it would be sharing.

Depends on the motherboard Geoff.

The one I'm using here at the moment has an M.2 slot (that's the NVMe) and the manual states that if you have something in that slot then you can't use SATA 1 as they share the same bus or something along those lines; can't remember the exact wording.

[bluenose1940]

3 hours ago, ColinBarber said:

I'm assuming the disk not appearing correctly is disk0 in disk manager? Just right click in the left box (where it has the text) and select import.

No ColinBarber, the disk showing in there is the SSD (NVMe.2)

[Herbie]

5 hours ago, ColinBarber said:

I'm assuming the disk not appearing correctly is disk0 in disk manager? Just right click in the left box (where it has the text) and select import.

Colin wins the prize because that's the answer as you'll see from this screendump:

[bluenose1940]

You are absolutely spot on ColinBarber, I did exactly as you suggested and Bob''s your uncle etc., and it's all working a real treat now.

Thanks to all for the help with my new pc, much appreciated as always.