Wife needs a new PC

[njpaddy]

An update:

My wife loves her Lenovo Flex. We've owned home pc's since 1994 and I've never seen her use one this much. OneDrive still drives her crazy. She doesn't like not knowing whether she's working on a document in the cloud or hard drive. She likes having her iPhone back up all photos to OneDrive, but not so much having some financial documents on the cloud. I'm still using Win7 with no cloud, so I let her drive the Microsoft Store people crazy. I think she's got it sorted for now. Pics backed up on the cloud, documents on an external T5.

As far as my 5+ yo AMD FX8350 pc, in the past month I've upgraded RAM to 16GB, added a Samsung 1TB EVO SSD as a second drive and replaced a GTS 550Ti 1GB video with a GTX 1650 4GB card. Skyrim Special Ed, which was unplayable on Low with 1GB video is now running great on Ultra. I got the SSD to install Win 10 when the time comes, but my pc is running so good I hate to mess with it until 7 ends. However, my wife asked me this morning when I'm buying and installing Win10 and OneDrive, so I can answer her questions. She doesn't want to read the 600 pg, David Pogue Win10 Missing Manual book. She wants me to install Win10 and OneDrive, read the book and set up her pc like mine, the same as I've done with every other version of Windows.

 

[RayClem]

An update:

My wife loves her Lenovo Flex. We've owned home pc's since 1994 and I've never seen her use one this much. OneDrive still drives her crazy. She doesn't like not knowing whether she's working on a document in the cloud or hard drive. She likes having her iPhone back up all photos to OneDrive, but not so much having some financial documents on the cloud. I'm still using Win7 with no cloud, so I let her drive the Microsoft Store people crazy. I think she's got it sorted for now. Pics backed up on the cloud, documents on an external T5.

As far as my 5+ yo AMD FX8350 pc, in the past month I've upgraded RAM to 16GB, added a Samsung 1TB EVO SSD as a second drive and replaced a GTS 550Ti 1GB video with a GTX 1650 4GB card. Skyrim Special Ed, which was unplayable on Low with 1GB video is now running great on Ultra. I got the SSD to install Win 10 when the time comes, but my pc is running so good I hate to mess with it until 7 ends. However, my wife asked me this morning when I'm buying and installing Win10 and OneDrive, so I can answer her questions. She doesn't want to read the 600 pg, David Pogue Win10 Missing Manual book. She wants me to install Win10 and OneDrive, read the book and set up her pc like mine, the same as I've done with every other version of Windows.

You do have to be careful with OneDrive because you are accessing file from the cloud. It does save hard drive space, but you may need Internet access to retrieve them.

For files that I cannot bear to lose (financial files, etc.) I use DropBox. That keeps a copy of the file on the hard drive of each of my computers and also keeps a copy in the "cloud" and keeps them all synchronized. I used a free version for years and finally decided to upgrade to the paid version since I found it so useful.

 

[Esox]

She wants me to install Win10 and OneDrive, read the book and set up her pc like mine, the same as I've done with every other version of Windows.

Thats what took me 3 1/2 hours after the initial install. Once you do get around to it and set up both machines, make a Windows Image of both installs and save them to an external drive. You wont enjoy doing it all again lol.

I made a single disc image with the bare necessities installed. I do not do auto backups of that image. If the day comes I need to reload my image, I want it back to my original set up.

I use cloud storage but its not a part of Windows. You can make free user accounts on any file hosting site. I use Mediafire and Mega. I believe both offer 10GB storage as a free user. I can download from either at my line speed, 22-24mbps. I also use a friends Rapidgator Premium account that gives 12 TB/year bandwidth and 10TB storage.

 

[garyg]

I tend to be low tech, never developed a desire for gaming or such, but signing in to hear what I can get for a flickering 6 or 7 YO desktop.

 

[njpaddy]

I tend to be low tech, never developed a desire for gaming or such, but signing in to hear what I can get for a flickering 6 or 7 YO desktop.

I'm no expert, but flickering sounds more like the monitor. Is there anyway that you can borrow another monitor to rule that out? I once had a monitor where I would have to push the on/off button 25+ times before it stayed on. Once on, it stayed on and worked ok, but I had to disable sleep mode.

When my oldest daughter, no longer living at home needed a new pc in 2015, I bought her a $350 pre-built ASUS pc from Newegg. She already had a working monitor, keyboard & mouse. I did have to buy and install a cheap internet card and, showing my age, installed my old Word and Excel 97 in case she needed it. It didn't cost her anything and it worked fine for her purpose, but I doubt she even uses it anymore. I don't ask. Like most people under 50, her cell phone is now her life.

My wife never games (except solitaire). Her 8yo Dell (Win7) desktop is what pushed us to get the Lenovo 2 in1 Flex ($900 on sale at the Microsoft store). Her old Dell was making us nervous. I had already replaced the power supply once, and it was acting up again. As Microsoft is discontinuing support for Win7 in Jan, we thought it was a good time for replacing her Win7 pc for a Win10 pc. She does all our bill paying on-line and has spreadsheets for our credit cards, monthly bills, IRAs and other financial information on her pc, so she needed to upgrade. With the Lenovo 2 in 1 (16GB RAM), she can use it like a laptop in any room in the house or plug it into the Dell monitor at her workstation if she wants a bigger screen. The Lenovo keyboard is backlit, which she likes, but we splurged for a Microsoft bluetooth keyboard and mouse. She, like I, hate mouse touchpads.

I don't know what your price range is, but NZXT has a low-end "so-called" basic gaming desktop pc (w/o monitor), for $900 which looks really nice for even a non-gamer who wants a good desktop pc.

This morning I was looking at a $9,000 gaming pc on youtube, but my wife said if I ordered it, I'd be living in our backyard shed (without power) until she sold everything and moved out of the house.

 

[Esox]

I tend to be low tech, never developed a desire for gaming or such, but signing in to hear what I can get for a flickering 6 or 7 YO desktop.

If you're looking for a new PC, it pretty much comes down to how much you want to spend.

This morning I was looking at a $9,000 gaming pc on youtube, but my wife said if I ordered it, I'd be living in our backyard shed (without power) until she sold everything and moved out of the house.

For that much money it better be wireless. You'd just need one of these and you'll be good to go! lol

 

[riverstyxxx]

Please do not buy Lenovo. My last two laptops were Lenovo, the $700 one died last year and the other one is on it's last life. Dell is much better.

 

[sneefy]

Please do not buy Lenovo...Dell is much better.

Having supported many Dell and Lenovo products over the years, my experience has been exactly the opposite. I've gotten more use out of Dell warranties than anybody else.

Granted, I'm not talking about consumer lines.

How many years did yours last? There's no info in your post about model, specs, lifespan, what the issues are.

Generalizing about brands doesn't really work in this space. Each brand has their better and lesser models. Comparing comparable product lines is better. e.g. Thinkpad vs Latitude vs Elitebook.

Within Lenovo, Thinkpads are excellent. Their low end Ideapads are nothing special. Dell's Latitudes are pretty good, their low end stuff is doorstop material.

 

[garyg]

Thanks Mike & Brian for the guidance. I have an old desktop that I use for perusing shaving forums, etc., plus Quicken for checking & other financials, a bunch of Excel spreadsheets that track exercise, diet, & inventory other stuff, a copy of Photoshop Elements 2 that goes back to circa 2001 .. my version of Office XP is 2002

The use of flickering was ill-advised, I was being figurative, as in like a fire going out .. I had heard WIN 7 was kaput early next year. Does that mean it won't operate after January or just that they wouldn't answer calls for Help anymore? Right now everything is running as well as usual, which is likely a bit on the Troglodytic side, but then again so am I.

The machine I am using is as said 6/7 YO, the monitor was replaced last year (the old one shorted out & went up in smoke), mouse is maybe 3? the keyboard is for two PC's back I think. Last tower only was around $400 I think, and I see WIN 10 machines on Amazon & at Best Buy for around that much

 

[Esox]

Thanks Mike & Brian for the guidance. I have an old desktop that I use for perusing shaving forums, etc., plus Quicken for checking & other financials, a bunch of Excel spreadsheets that track exercise, diet, & inventory other stuff, a copy of Photoshop Elements 2 that goes back to circa 2001 .. my version of Office XP is 2002

The use of flickering was ill-advised, I was being figurative, as in like a fire going out .. I had heard WIN 7 was kaput early next year. Does that mean it won't operate after January or just that they wouldn't answer calls for Help anymore? Right now everything is running as well as usual, which is likely a bit on the Troglodytic side, but then again so am I.

The machine I am using is as said 6/7 YO, the monitor was replaced last year (the old one shorted out & went up in smoke), mouse is maybe 3? the keyboard is for two PC's back I think. Last tower only was around $400 I think, and I see WIN 10 machines on Amazon & at Best Buy for around that much

Microsoft support for Windows 7 will end. There will be no more MS Service Packs or updates for it, but that doesnt mean its dead and you need a new operating system. Win7, like WinXP, will still be a viable OS for many years, just that if something happens to your install, you wont have any Microsoft support.

Depending on the hardware in your current PC, you may not even need an upgrade. It might need some general cleaning and tidying up and it might respond very well to a new SSD as your main drive and some extra memory but its hard to say without knowing what you have.

With that said, you can do worse than BestBuy. The problems with buying a PC from there and other big box stores are, few machines they sell are expandable or upgradeable and you'll, maybe, get what you pay for. The other thing they do is cram the hard drive full of software you'll never use while charging you for it.

A better option would be to find a local independent PC repair shop. The local shop I deal with always has machines being rotated in and out of local businesses. He sells them for $300 - $350, loaded up, ready to go and under warranty.

As far as a mouse & keyboard, if you're looking for a new set for a casual user, the Logitech MX800 is a good one.

Logitech Business MX800 Wireless Keyboard and Mouse Combo - https://www.logitech.com/en-ca/product/11681

You'll notice I used the word "casual". I have two of those keyboards here with broken keys. The plastic hinge is the weak link.

Neither has survived me for three years but I'm far from a casual user. I killed the first one in less than a year using it for gaming and liked it so much I bought another combo when on sale for $99. That keyboard lasted nearly 3 years before it crapped out. As long as you're not prone to bashing keys out of frustration or while trying to stay alive in the heat of battle like I so often do, and fail lol, it should last quite a while.

Both mice are still working perfectly and I use them both even with the original rechargeable batteries.

A friend has been using her K800 keyboard, the same as in that set, for 6 years. The only issues shes had with it is the rechargeable battery had to be replaced. She uses regular AA Duracells now in both her keyboard and mouse.

The Logitech MX Performance mouse in the MX800 set is a good mouse. They're well built and have survived many years of abuse from me as a hardcore online gamer and heavy daily user.

I changed to the new Logitech G810 Orion mechanical keyboard hoping the keys would survive my heavy handedness. They have, but that comes with its own frustrating price. I type quicklyy, accurately too, but not with this keyboard. Not even with the Keyboard Chatter Fix software running. It's constantly double stroking keys or not typing some keys at all and tthe best part of that is, its completely random! See the worrds in bold.

When typing in the forum as much as I often do, its aggravating. When typing in documents, its intolerable. When gaming, its maddeningly frustrating but I havent broken a key yet! lol

 

[ZJ68]

I had heard WIN 7 was kaput early next year. Does that mean it won't operate after January or just that they wouldn't answer calls for Help anymore? Right now everything is running as well as usual, which is likely a bit on the Troglodytic side, but then again so am I.

No more security updates. I think that should be reason enough to upgrade to 10. I don't think there are many good reasons not to upgrade a Windows 7 computer to 10. You have 30 days to roll it back if you don't like it. Although the free upgrade program supposedly ended, in my experience Windows 7 & 8 COAs will still activate Windows 10.

 

[njpaddy]

I know people who used XP for years after support was discontinued. I used XP for almost a year, but I was always paranoid of security holes. When a surge fried my motherboard, and I rebuilt my pc, I upgraded to Windows 7.

After hating Windows 8 on my wife's old laptop, I dreaded that 10 would be worse than 8. It's not. After tweaking 10 on my wife's new Lenovo, and getting rid of the idiot tile screen, it ain't bad at all. 10 is not 7, but I'll probably install Win10 on my old pc sooner than planned. You can always download and install Win10 for free and skip the product code on install. I think you get 30-40 days of use before having to enter a code. You supposedly can roll it back to an earlier version, but I've never done it in 25 years. Once I decide, I live with it.

If you stick with Win 7, keep your free or paid antivirus up to date, occasionally run the free Malwarebytes and SuperAntispyware programs, and keep important documents backed up on a flash or external drive. I'm a old fan of Superantispyware, because years ago it detected and got rid of a nasty virus on one of my daughter's pc's, when no other program I tried worked. Can't beat free, especially if it works.

If you have a Microsoft Store in a mall near you, talk to them. Install a free software program called Speccy. It will tell you what's in your pc. Copy and paste the first page results into a document, print it out and bring it to the store and ask them if they think your pc can run Win 10. If they're not sure, they may request that you bring the pc in to test. I wasn't about to cart my heavy beast of a full tower thru the mal, so I did my own research and determined my motherboard BIOS needed an upgrade, but not to the lastest one. Apparently simple online tests that say it's good enough to install, may not tell you that it won't run worth a crap.