Computer advice please.

[Excalibur]

OK folks, here we go. The desktop PC is showing its age terribly. Due to a misunderstanding, it's eight months overdue for replacement on the lease, so it's time I swapped it. They'll charge me £76 to buy it, and allow me £66 for upgrading, so all in all, £10 to add to the price of the next one. I've had approval on the change, and I can walk out of PC World with goods to the value of £5,536.91 :eek::eek::eek:

Needless to say, that's over £5,000 more than I intend to spend. :D I'm looking around £350, base unit only. Now the problems start. The people who designed the operating system for the Denon HD2500 were headhunted by Microsoft to design Windows 8, because it was felt that no-one else could design such a counter intuitive, unwieldy, illogical, unhelpful, and downright frustrating operating system as these guys. And by heavens they were right! They've excelled themselves. In accordance with the principle of alternating excellent ones with crap ones, they've come up with the worst yet.

So, first up, if I buy a machine with the accursed work of Satan installed, can I revert for free to my beloved Windows 7? If not, will I have to purchase a Windows 7disk?

Second, ( and I know I've asked this before ) is there any software/cable which will allow me to copy the important bits from the old one to work on the new one? I can shift data, but programmes are usually beyond me. ( As I sit here, I don't know which ones, but I'm sure there are some. )

this one (http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/desktop-pc-monitors/desktop-pcs/desktop-pcs/acer-aspire-mc605-desktop-pc-21327140-pdt.html) seems to fit my needs. Under £400, 1Tb hard drive, 6USB ports, and WiFi built in. Nothing better seems to leap out at me. The only downside I can see on this one is the lack of USB3 .0 ports, but since I've only got one 3.0 item ( which will only be connected to update music anyway ) that won't be a problem at the moment. Or can anyone find me a better deal/machine from Currys/PC World?

Thanks folks, I appreciate your thoughts.

[Alchemy]

Peter, try these people, I have used them and they are very good. You can choose whichever op sys you want.

www.powerc.com

Steve

[Excalibur]

Peter, try these people, I have used them and they are very good. You can choose whichever op sys you want.

www.powerc.com

Steve

Ta for that. Sadly, you overlooked the bold text specifying where I have to buy the machine from. Currys/PC World. That's who the leasing company are dealing with. Since If I went elsewhere, I'd lose the £66 for starting a new one, and the old one would then cost me £76 to buy, rather than a tenner. PC World wouldn't be my first choice otherwise, but I have to say that my dealings with them in these matters has been painless so far. Thanks anyway.

[Vectis]

Does PC World extend to PC World Business? As that would open up your options considerably. If you don't already know, might be worth an ask ;)

[DazzyD]

Peter, in answer to the second part of your post, you can buy a crossover cable for transferring files and settings to your new computer. However, this is pretty pointless given that Windows includes it's own transfer utility - Windows Easy Transfer. This will make the whole process much simpler as the wizard does all the work for you.

Unfortunately, programs and software have to be reinstalled on the system - you can't simply copy them across from an old computer to a new one. This is due to the way software installs on computers - it basically puts bits of code just about everywhere!!! And it has to amend the registry so that the computer knows where to find all of the relevant bits and what it should do with them.

[Excalibur]

Does PC World extend to PC World Business? As that would open up your options considerably. If you don't already know, might be worth an ask ;)
Err, yes but.....................................:confused: :daft: :confused:Blimey, it took me ages to get the hang of this leasing lark, so I hope you're not going to suggest anything complicated.


Unfortunately, programs and software have to be reinstalled on the system - you can't simply copy them across from an old computer to a new one.
Oh poo! :(:(

[wensleydale]

Slightly off topic Peter but can you share why you lease it?

[Vectis]

Err, yes but.....................................:confused: :daft: :confused:Blimey, it took me ages to get the hang of this leasing lark, so I hope you're not going to suggest anything complicated

Nope, nothing confusing ... just that there's far more choice at PCWB and a quick drive-by shows plenty of towers that can be supplied without monitor and either with W7 installed or with downgrade rights for well inside budget.

As they primarily supply business clients they'd be daft to abandon W7 for some time yet.

[Totally Plucked]

Windows 7 ..................'Buy a disc'....................NEVER !! :D




.............Oh a blank one maybe !!

[ukpartydj]

If your old computer is obsolete just remove the hard drive aNd install it into your new computer. Transfer complete! I'd strongly advise you avoid any insurances with pc world, actually just the whole of pc world. my personal experience of them on 3 seperate occasions in 2 different stores has been appauling. Took them 2 months to change the hard drive with 5 visits from myself resulting in them losing the computer! Is just buy a bade unit from eBay as long as they are a pc seller not some wannabe computer builder. And there's nothin wrong with windows 8, much quicker once you learn how to use it.

[Excalibur]

Slightly off topic Peter but can you share why you lease it?

Now I'm not up on these things, but I was told it's more tax efficient, as apparently leasing can be offset against tax. You rent the thing for 3 years, and when the term is up, you can keep on renting, or upgrade and get a new one, starting the whole process over again.


Nope, nothing confusing ... just that there's far more choice at PCWB and a quick drive-by shows plenty of towers that can be supplied without monitor and either with W7 installed or with downgrade rights for well inside budget.

As they primarily supply business clients they'd be daft to abandon W7 for some time yet.
Must have a look. Aeons ago I started a business account. Thanks Martin.

[wensleydale]

Now I'm not up on these things, but I was told it's more tax efficient, as apparently leasing can be offset against tax. You rent the thing for 3 years, and when the term is up, you can keep on renting, or upgrade and get a new one, starting the whole process over again.




In some instances I would have thought so, but on a computer which is a couple of hundred quid I wouldn't have thought it applied, plus you are tying yourself into specific retailers and timescales.

FWIW my two penneth would be to have a lookat buying one.

[DJ Jules]

In some instances I would have thought so, but on a computer which is a couple of hundred quid I wouldn't have thought it applied, plus you are tying yourself into specific retailers and timescales.

FWIW my two penneth would be to have a lookat buying one.

:agree: On the financial side from what I understand (and I'd check with an accountant as I'm not an expert) it's the difference between a business expense and a capital expenditure. CapEx you can only claim 50% of the expenditure in Year 1 and then 25% in years 2 and 3. This doesn't mean that leasing is more tax efficient (i.e. you pay less tax), it just means that you can spread the cost and offset the expenditure against tax as you go.

From memory the rules changed on this anyway for small businesses so you can now claim up to about £1k of CapEx in the year you bought the item - effectively removing the difference between leasing and buying. Meaning you should just go with whichever option means spending the least money over the life of the item - which I would expect would mean NOT buying it from Currys/PCWorld :D

If you've got an accountant I'm sure they can verify what the rules are now - or it might be worth a 10min trawl through HMRC's telephone system followed by a 30 sec conversation with someone there. Or a quick Google.

Julian

[wensleydale]

:agree: On the financial side from what I understand (and I'd check with an accountant as I'm not an expert) it's the difference between a business expense and a capital expenditure. CapEx you can only claim 50% of the expenditure in Year 1 and then 25% in years 2 and 3. This doesn't mean that leasing is more tax efficient (i.e. you pay less tax), it just means that you can spread the cost and offset the expenditure against tax as you go.

From memory the rules changed on this anyway for small businesses so you can now claim up to about £1k of CapEx in the year you bought the item - effectively removing the difference between leasing and buying. Meaning you should just go with whichever option means spending the least money over the life of the item - which I would expect would mean NOT buying it from Currys/PCWorld :D

If you've got an accountant I'm sure they can verify what the rules are now - or it might be worth a 10min trawl through HMRC's telephone system followed by a 30 sec conversation with someone there. Or a quick Google.

Julian

As far as I know, all the capital can be claimed in year 1, but aside from that the leading company will be making a profit and you have limited choice so in the long run I am certain it will cost you more.

[DazzyD]

If your old computer is obsolete just remove the hard drive aNd install it into your new computer. Transfer complete! I'd strongly advise you avoid any insurances with pc world, actually just the whole of pc world. my personal experience of them on 3 seperate occasions in 2 different stores has been appauling. Took them 2 months to change the hard drive with 5 visits from myself resulting in them losing the computer! Is just buy a bade unit from eBay as long as they are a pc seller not some wannabe computer builder. And there's nothin wrong with windows 8, much quicker once you learn how to use it.

I'd strongly advise against this unless your new PC has exactly the same hardware and specification than your old one. If not, you may experience driver and hardware conflicts and your registry won't be right. It will also mean your shiny new computer won't run as fast as and as smoothly as it should. I know it can be pain reinstalling software but it really is the best way. I wouldn't recommend taking any shortcuts.

Just re-read that post. If the suggestion is that you install your old drive as a slave in your new PC then this wouldn't work either as you'd have to assign it a drive letter other than C: so all the registry entries pointing to your old software would have incorrect filepaths.

[Vectis]

With AIA (Annual Investment Allowance) you can reclaim the entire cost in year 1, so no advantage over leasing apart from the saving in the lessor's margin.

The £25,000 AIA ceiling (currently £250,000 for the next two years (http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/tiin/2012/tiin1278.pdf)) should just about cover it :D

[ukpartydj]

With AIA (Annual Investment Allowance) you can reclaim the entire cost in year 1, so no advantage over leasing apart from the saving in the lessor's margin.

The £25,000 AIA ceiling (currently £250,000 for the next two years (http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/tiin/2012/tiin1278.pdf)) should just about cover it :D

I was talking about this with my accountant recently, so basically if you're not earning enough to pay tax then go down the WDA allowance route which is like 18% a year now (I believe) if you are ... which I assume you are then AIA.


I'd strongly advise against this unless your new PC has exactly the same hardware and specification than your old one. If not, you may experience driver and hardware conflicts and your registry won't be right. It will also mean your shiny new computer won't run as fast as and as smoothly as it should. I know it can be pain reinstalling software but it really is the best way. I wouldn't recommend taking any shortcuts.

Just re-read that post. If the suggestion is that you install your old drive as a slave in your new PC then this wouldn't work either as you'd have to assign it a drive letter other than C: so all the registry entries pointing to your old software would have incorrect filepaths.

Sorry didn't explain myself - I was just thinking along the lines of transferring files as this would be what takes up most of your hard drive space, rather than programs and drivers which I don't think you can get around having to re-install everything. Although I get the feeling the computer user in mind may not feel confident with this method :D

[Excalibur]

First up, many thanks to Vectis, whose advice to deal with the business arm was brilliant. I'm tied to dealing with PC World, since I'd lose a lot of money by not upgrading the kit with them. So, I've just returned from PC World, where I've had success of sorts.

The windows 8 one I'd decided I'd have to get wasn't in the store I went to. The very helpful ( if somewhat inept ) staff member informed me they don't sell many desktops now, cos it's all laptops and tablets, so they only have a limited range in store, but everything is available online.

So, he suggests we might go and browse the website. I suggest we try the business one, cos we can get a windows 7 one there. Turns out there's one machine with acceptable specs, and an acceptable price, so I say I'll have that, along with a couple of extra bits.

Then, the wheels fall off. :( We can find the items on the business site, ( where I already have an account, so that should make it a doddle, shouldn't it? :whistle: ) but we can't order them, even though I've got a piece of paper worth over 5k in my hand. The codes for the business site don't work on the shop site. After involving every member of staff in the shop, and ringing a lot of other places, we find a way round it, and place the order. Whoopee.

Except that the order wouldn't go through the system, and when we rang the department dealing with it, the persons authorised to process it had just gone home! Ah well, the dedicated business team will have a crack at it tomorrow. Let's see how they fare. I suspect it only neds one click to sort it. Watch this space. :D

[DJ Jules]

I can't believe you're still dealing with PC World after all that :censored:

Just how much money do you stand to lose by walking away? And, out of curiosity, if you lease a PC worth £300 - £350, how much is it going to cost you over it's 3 or 5yr life?

Julian

[Excalibur]

I can't believe you're still dealing with PC World after all that :censored:
Business makes strange bedfellows. :D

J
ust how much money do you stand to lose by walking away? And, out of curiosity, if you lease a PC worth £300 - £350, how much is it going to cost you over it's 3 or 5yr life?

Julian

How much to lose? Too much. Way too much. How much over the odds am I paying? Not enough to make it unworkable. I'm paying for convenience ( yea, there's a laugh, and not paying upfront, but doing so as I earn it. )
Yes, if I had a spare £400 in my pocket/bank account, it would be nice to build the machine of my choice, but without a lottery win bigger than a tenner, that ain't gonna happen. :( One cuts ones coat according to ones cloth.

[DJ Jules]

How much to lose? Too much. Way too much. How much over the odds am I paying? Not enough to make it unworkable. I'm paying for convenience ( yea, there's a laugh, and not paying upfront, but doing so as I earn it. )
Yes, if I had a spare £400 in my pocket/bank account, it would be nice to build the machine of my choice, but without a lottery win bigger than a tenner, that ain't gonna happen. :( One cuts ones coat according to ones cloth.

Fair enough then :D From my personal experience of leasing business equipment, you usually pay for the item a few times over during the length of the lease - which has always made easy credit a better option for me when I haven't had the cash up front.

Julian

[Excalibur]

Update: Well, after many false starts, frank exchanges of views, tearing out of what little hair I still have, and the feeling that I was :bang: eventually we got there. This morning, I got an email sayingit had set off from somewhere, and might be at the shop soon. Here's where I got lucky. We had arranged that one of the store staff who lives in the village would bring it home, to save me a costly journey. Good plan. But it gets better. :)

By pure chance, the day job took me to the seaside today, and guess what, the route runs right past the store. Swung in on the way home, and joy of joys, there it was. :banana: Along with it, I'd ordered a cable to run both old and new base units through one monitor, keyboard and mouse, an external hard drive, and a WiFi dongle. So far the KVM cable is running both/either units just fine, the dongle is still in the box, and I'm about to see what I can do with the HD. So far, so good. :)