[phillpower2]

Hello Chris,

 

Sorry if I have only added to the confusion but I did try and explain my reasoning, will be short and sweet which will hopefully clear things up a bit;

 

the Aspire XC-830 though was suggested based on its low price, it having a DVD RW + us having an insight in what the main use of the computer will be, 

 

 

 

 you are not a gamer and so do not need any add on video card which reduces the need for a full size ATX PSU, 

 

 

The two points above means that a notebook type PC would be enough for you but you will not get such a new computer with the same specs as the Acer, most notebooks no longer have an optical drive for example.

 

 

should the intended use have changed any please let us know and we will find and post the link/s to any more appropriate alternative/s.

 

 

If the intended use has not changed any then the only upgrade that is required and recommended here is as you say upgrading the RAM to 8GB, this so you can have more tabs open at the same time.

 

The above will hopefully clear up any confusion but if not let us know and likewise if you have suddenly become a prolific gamer that needs a dedicated video card.

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Hiya Phill, 

 

Thanks for your message. 

 

I understand most of what you are saying about the Acer: It is just one of those things and was probably caused by me getting the wrong end of the stick about the notebook-style power supply definitely being no good for me. 

 

I am sure you will understand though that it is an itsy bit frustrating for me, having been interested in the Acer last year but to have dismissed it entirely - only to find myself back looking at it all these months later! I have a print-out from Argos from November offering it for sale then at £329.99, so in retrospect I would happily have paid the extra £50 then to avoid being without a computer for all this time. Hindsight is a wonderful thing though - how many things in life would we do or not do if we fully understood the consequences? I suspect that for most of us the answer would be a fair number!  

 

Anyway, in the big scheme of things it really does not matter and will soon be forgotten! I am going to go ahead and purchase the Acer, though will wait until after Thursday as we are out then (celebrating me becoming incredibly ancient!) and I want to be sure that we will not be out when it arrives. After all this time, it will be really exciting to be finally getting a new computer to play with!  

 

Thank you for all your help, 

Chris.

[Channeal]

Hiya Phill, 

 

Thanks for your message. 

 

I understand most of what you are saying about the Acer: It is just one of those things and was probably caused by me getting the wrong end of the stick about the notebook-style power supply definitely being no good for me. 

 

I am sure you will understand though that it is an itsy bit frustrating for me, having been interested in the Acer last year but to have dismissed it entirely - only to find myself back looking at it all these months later! I have a print-out from Argos from November offering it for sale then at £329.99, so in retrospect I would happily have paid the extra £50 then to avoid being without a computer for all this time. Hindsight is a wonderful thing though - how many things in life would we do or not do if we fully understood the consequences? I suspect that for most of us the answer would be a fair number!  

 

Anyway, in the big scheme of things it really does not matter and will soon be forgotten! I am going to go ahead and purchase the Acer, though will wait until after Thursday as we are out then (celebrating me becoming incredibly ancient!) and I want to be sure that we will not be out when it arrives. After all this time, it will be really exciting to be finally getting a new computer to play with!  

 

Thank you for all your help, 

Chris.

[phillpower2]

Hello Chris,

 

My previous reply was my attempt at not muddying the water any further than I had done previously 

 

 

If you have not already made the purchase I would recommend contacting Box to ask if they would do the RAM upgrade for you, almost sure that they will but if not, let us know and they will get put on the naughty boys list and get a dressing down by the rest of us, levity apart Chris without doubling your outlay for little to no gain I cannot find you anything better for such a reasonable price I`m afraid.

 

PS: just a heads up, Windows 11 will not work on our old Sony Vaios and MS support for them is being phased out already

[Channeal]

Hello Phill,

I contacted Box and they said they cannot do the upgrade for me. Annoying!

Thanks for the heads up about the Vaio. (Actually I didn't even know until a few days ago that there was even going to be a Windows 11 - I am a bit out of touch these days!)

Bye for now,

Chris.

[phillpower2]

Hello Chris,

 

Poor show on the part of Box, perhaps they are only sales orientated and have no tech support of their own.

[Channeal]

Best Answer

Hello Phill,

 

We have at long last got our new computer! It took me some time to order it, mainly because I had some problems paying for it. It kept saying my credit card had been declined, even though I knew the card was okay as I had been using it elsewhere. In the end, I used Paypal for the first time for years and it accepted the payment - even though I used the same card with it that had been refused before.

 

I have set up the computer and speakers without any real problems. So far, I have only loaded two programs: my printer and Microsoft Word. Everything seems okay, except that the computer does seem to be quite noisy. It reminds me a bit of a toilet cistern filling up! 

 

I haven't even thought about upgrading the memory yet...................

 

Is it a common thing for a new computer to come with the disk split into two drives, as shown in my attachment? It seems to me that the C Drive for the system files etc is pretty big and that perhaps it would have been better for drive D to have been made bigger. Oh well!

 

It is a bit of a bugbear of mine actually. Looking back to when we first got the Dell, we were told we had got two hard drives but were given no idea how to use them. It occurs to me that anyone buying this Acer without much computing knowledge would just put all their data onto Drive C without even knowing about the existence of Drive D. Why on earth don't they provide at least some basic info about it?! Reminds me of when we got our very first computer and had no idea what on earth to do with it!

 

Anyway, thank you very much for your help with this. I will be back if I run into any problems!

 

Have a good weekend (that's if you aren't working).

 

Chris.

 

[123Runner]

On the hard drive. You have a 1 TB drive. You only have 1 physical drive. It is broken in to 2 separate drives (C and D). In other words the 1 TB is broken into 2 partitions (C and D).

Generally the OS and programs install to C and your data (files, pictures, etc) you save to D. That way if the OS becomes corrupted you only have to reinstall to C and would not lose any data.

[Channeal]

Sorry 123Runner, but you have missed my point completely . I am fully aware of everything you have said. I was merely saying that they have made the CD Drive very large and taken space that could have been used to make the data drive larger. Both drives are 465.20 GB. C drive has 88% remaining free.

 

EDIT My old C Drive was only 149 GB and was plenty big enough for Windows 10 and all my programs.

Edited by Channeal, 30 July 2021 - 09:14 AM.

[123Runner]

Sorry. I guess I walked right by that one. Apologies.

There are programs that you can use to decrease C and increase D. I will let Phil give you that info since he has been working with you exclusively.

I don't want to step on his toes.

[phillpower2]

Hello folks,

 

Glad to hear that you have the new computer and that with the exception of the WC flushing sound things are going ok, you may find that the noise will settle down as the cooling fan wears in.

 

The HDD could have been partitioned better but it has most likely been done the way that it has been to give you the option of creating another partition out of the C: partition at a later date, something to keep in mind for the future but not worry about at the moment.

[Channeal]

No problem, 123 Runner - computer terms can be confusing!

You don't know anything about  webcams, do you? I want to buy one to use for Zoom and Phill said he didn't know much about them.

 

Phill....... going back to the Sony Vaio laptop now, are you keeping yours? I need to do something with mine as it is so slow now, it just drives me crazy!

 

Have loaded all my music onto the new Acer and am a very happy bunny now that I can play it all again. I didn't realise just how much I had missed it!

 

I think I am going to miss having two hard drives though. I loved having my clone on the other drive.....

 

Chris

[phillpower2]

Yes keeping it until there is no other choice other than to let it go, will just have to forego Windows 11.

 

Is your Vaio slow to boot and then slow to open programs etc, having the new PC wont help as it will just emphasize just how slow the notebook is.

[Channeal]

Hello Phill,

 

You are so right........ the new computer is spoiling me! I have only really been using the Vaio for Zoom meetings recently anyway, which is why I want to get a webcam to use with the new computer. When I have done that, I need to do some serious maintenance on the Vaio. I guess I could still re-install Windows 10, could I not? Maybe that would speed things up again.

 

Thank you once again for all your help in finding the new computer; I am very grateful, as always.

 

Have a good week,

 

Chris

[phillpower2]

Hello Chris,

 

Glad to hear that you are enjoying the new computer 

 

If everything is safely backed up from the Vaio you could try a reset and choose the keep nothing option to see if that speeds things up for you.

 

 

You are welcome and likewise have yourself a good week.

[123Runner]

As for a web cam see my answer on post # 9.