[NJJ]

I've just moved to a new office and I'm already getting sick and tired of the outdated software and hardware here.

It's all cheap ****e that keeps breaking and was obviously set up by an amateur on a Friday afternoon, sometime between 4:55 and 5:00pm...

Basically I'm using a machine which is supposed to be running structural building analysis programs but is running a Athlon 64 3200+ and 1Gb of hilariously old RAM. From that Gig of RAm the computer snaffles a measly 64Mb for onboard graphics (despite the fact that it's also supposed to be able to run AutoCAD...). To top it all off, I'm staring at a 15 year old CRT monitor which is glaring like a mothertrucker back into my face and I'm writing all my documents on Word 97...

I wanna rock the boat and try and get my boss to invest in some new hardware and software but I need something to back my case up. I wanna know how often we should be looking to upgrade the hardware in the office. I had a look online and found that the 3200+ chip is over 6 years old now! I figured to myself that that's a tad ridiculous.

Anyone fancy pitching in?

Cheers,
Nick

 

[greenbrucelee]

you should have replaced that rig about 4.5 years ago to be running anything like AutoCAD on it.

if you want a good system then you will need a quad core cpu (expect your boss to opt for core 2 duo) and you definetly want 4GB ram ddr 2. You will also want a pretty decent graphics card too.

what sort of budget do you think you can use for the system? and we could tell what to get for that budget

 

[NJJ]

I imagine he'll want to get something for less than £500 (sorry, I'm English, gonna be doing things is pounds stirling...), I also think we'll need a monitor with this.

How much future proofing can you get for that budget? He's a cheapskate so it's going to be difficult to get much more out of him.

 

[greenbrucelee]

I'm English too so don't worry about that.

If you could get the budget up to £800 you could get a decent system for that which would be suitable for atleast 3 years

Have a look at this http://www.techsupportforum.com/f24...-are-6-suggested-models-with-spec-367415.html

 

[NJJ]

I tried and tried and tried but he's gone budget again...

He wants some software on it which has banged the price up a tad.

He's gone for a HP with a E5200 CPU, 2Gb RAM, a 256Mb 8400GS... all for £350... SIGH.

I suppose it's a decent step up from the piece of **** I'm using at the minute but still. We're getting Adobe Acrobat Pro for me too cos I do a lot of PDF handling/editting etc, that's costing the best part of £300. Bloody expensive software..............

Cheers for the reply anyway greenbrucelee, I'm definitely going to get back into my PC repair and maintenance. I like this community here. Very friendly!

 

[greenbrucelee]

the pc he has chosen might last a year if your lucky.

 

[Tyree]

From a business owner's perspective I would have also went with a prebuilt.