Apologies in advance, I know we get loads of these threads and I know there's an awfrul lot of Mac love on here but I have a computer on its way out (old Dell 5150) and need to sort something reasonably quick-ish.
It needs to be relatively future proof (assuming the world doesn't end in Decmeber
), reasonably priced (as wifey is working next to zero hours at the moment so income is somewhat limited) and reliable as it will be used a lot by my kids for homework.
I've been browsing an awful lot lately, checking out hotukdeals and the cashback sites almost non stop for a month or so as the computer has slowly declined in health. It is now struggling to perform at all so I think action will be needed soon.
I'm not into computers at all, I work with two microsoft ones at work all night, have a microsoft netbook for VAGCOM and a bit of internet browsing so am comfortable with Windows applications.
But I know a bunch of you will be trying to sell me on a Mac and I must admit I've been looking at the iMac refurbs from Apple which apprear a couple of times a month for £749 and upwards, and the same ones appear on DSG websites for about a hundred quid less but don't hang about as they're normally sold by the time I've done a quick bit of research on each model.
The main thing that attracts me to the Mac is that my kids have an iPod and an iPhone (which was picked up on here in excellent condition for a very good price
), so syncing iTunes would be nice and easy (not that they use it much).
And then there's the Mac loving on here that has gradually brainwashed me!!
On the flip side, my boys need to be able to work on various programs for school and college work, so the documents and powerpoints need to be able to be easily swapped from one computer to another without lots of editing and fiddling about so they can be used on Microsoft computers at school.
Plus I can get Microsoft products for virtually nothing via my father in law's business, so don't really have to pay for any programs and upgrades, but that's only for Windows computers, he can't get Mac software cheaply via his contracts. I don't really want to start paying through the nose for computer programs that I've been used to getting for next to nothing or even nothing (all legit too!) just so they'll work on a Mac.
Plus I don't want to spend ages going through all the crap on my current computer and converting it to work on another system. I just want to drop it into my external hard drive and dump it onto the new computer and it still works. There's five years plus of stuff on there and I really can't get motivated to sort through it all!!
Sorry for the log and boring essay, here's my requirements: Internet browsing obviously, some movie and music downloads but not masses. Skype to talk to my step brother in Oz. Excel, Word and Powerpoint use (lots). DVD burning occasionally, a bit of video editing when I'm not too busy or lazy to do it. Basically general home use. No gaming.
Main stipulation is that I don't mind buying car mods when the mood takes me, but I hate spending money on computers so it needs to be decent enough quality to last me a few years without having to constantly think about updating internal components to keep abreast with ever more greedy programs using up all my graphics and memory.
Help!!
