What to tell the old man...

[Ratman6161]

Well, my father in law bought himself a new computer at Walmart without asking me and now wants me to help him set it up...which I don't mind doing.

But I think he's made a big mistake and if he has I may need to tactfully try to tell him to take it back. I have not yet been to his house to see it but in his email he says its a HP 110-243wb. This isn't anywhere on the HP web site but it is on Walmart's site and from there it looks like the specs are:

AMD A4-5000, 8 GB RAM, 1 TB disk drive and a 21.5 inch monitor. The issue is that I'm not at all familiar with the A4-5000. I thought it was a chip for low end notebooks and was surprised to see it in a desktop/mini-tower system. I'm wondering if he got the model wrong or something and I'm hoping that when I see it I'll be wrong and find it was something better. But for now I'm assuming its as I saw on Walmart.com.

The big question of the day is as follows: His old system is a pentium E5300 which is an older Pentium dual core at 2.6 Ghz. Even though the A4-5000 is low end, will it at least be an improvement over his old setup? I'm thinking not. I've looked up some benchmarks on it and overall it has cpu scores a little better than the old CPU but...single threaded performance much lower which seems really bad for his usage. He uses it almost exclusively for web browsing - so I guess almost any new system would be "good enough". But I'm concerned his "new" system may be a step backwards.

Anyway, as i said I'm hoping that when I see it I'll find its not what I fear it is.

It also seems a little weird that it has 8 GB of RAM which seems like overkill for this type of system.

Thoughts on this?

Update: I did find a system on the HP web site that is close: http://store.hp.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/us/en/pdp/desktops/hp-110-210-desktop-pc-energy-star

The specs I'm finding on the walmart HP 110-243wb machine are the same as quoted on HP.com for the 110-210 linked above except it seems to have 8 GB RAM vs. 4 and 1 TB as vs. 500GB.

 

[JWade]

well the amd chip is a quad core, has 1tb hard drive space, 8gb ram, though it does run at 1.5ghz. plus side is its new, has a warranty, so if it breaks you don't need to work on it. depends on what he is going to use it for, I would say because of it being new with a warranty, keep it.

 

[NTMBK]

It's a purely marketing-based system. 4 core processor! 8GB RAM! 1TB storage! Even though each of those 4 cores is extremely slow, and that 1TB storage is an antique 5200rpm hard drive...

Got to say it sounds like junk. It's not even in a nice compact case (which might justify the netbook CPU), it's a huge tower case full of empty air. He'd be better off taking it back and buying an SSD to put in his old machine (if you can help him reinstall Windows on it).

 

[Ratman6161]

well the amd chip is a quad core, has 1tb hard drive space, 8gb ram, though it does run at 1.5ghz. plus side is its new, has a warranty, so if it breaks you don't need to work on it. depends on what he is going to use it for, I would say because of it being new with a warranty, keep it.

That's kind of what I'm thinking. It will "feel" fast because its "fresh" - a new clean install always feels fast I guess I can fire it up and see. Walmart is usually good about taking things back.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

I almost feel sorry for the generation before me, and even some of my boomer friends. I can also feel sorry for some of us enthusiasts: we thought we were saving money with DIY builds in the '90s, and now our wallets hemorrhage for top-end parts purchases.

My dentist tipped me to some Dell Xeon hex-core systems from surplus/recycling outfits, and he swears that he gave up "rolling his own" when he discovered the bargains he can get on last-gen Dell surplus models. Of course . . . he's still rocking LGA-775 . . . too . .

My old Moms can't get on the bandwagon for a replacement I'm preparing to build for her. After I put an SSD in her existing system around 2011, she thinks its really, really fast and doesn't want any "unforeseen changes" that a new system would mean for her in terms of "learning curve." It was a $90 Gigabyte board with 610i chipset, with only two RAM slots.

Even as I plan to replace it, she's happy, and I'm mostly worried about malware coming into her e-mail from Publisher's Clearing House. PCH is really, really an old-folks fetish. Me? I just buy lottery tickets!

I'd say -- investigate some possibilities, and tactfully steer your father-in-law toward a better application of his money. The SSD upgrade was also a good idea . . .

 

[sm625]

There will be several web pages that render more slowly due to the loss of clockspeed. You should tell him to return that machine, since it is NOT a significant enough upgrade from an E5300. You can probably easily and cheaply upgrade the E5300 cpu to something that is undeniably faster than an A4-5000 (such as an E8600), and also add RAM. I doubt HDD space is really an issue. I cannot see a reason to replace the old system unless is is terminally broken.

 

[Eug]

Interesting. That machine is even slower than the $399 Wal-Mart Acer Athlon II X3 435 I bought 5 years ago.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

Interesting. That machine is even slower than the $399 Wal-Mart Acer Athlon II X3 435 I bought 5 years ago.

Mainstreamers old and young seem to trend toward budget desktops, while they throw more and more money into mobile devices. Well, not so much that for the older cohort. I guess. I'd say, in a statistical sample, they may be "less mobile." I am! Even though I can watch TV on my cellphone during the morning routine in the crapper!

 

[Charlie98]

He'd be better off taking it back and buying an SSD to put in his old machine (if you can help him reinstall Windows on it).

^^^ :thumbsup:

 

[frozentundra123456]

I agree. Return it. I hate the trend to pass off atom and kabini tablet chips in full size desktops. With a clean install, and especially with an ssd, the core 2 system will be preferable in day to day use.

If he decides to get a new system anyway, get a big core Pentium or i3.

 

[janeuner]

On top of terrible components, it is an HP. It is junk. Return it.

You could also propose a new-to-him alternative. Pick out a Dell or a Lenovo refurb, add a big monitor or small TV (because advanced age sometimes means worse eyesight) and pitch that. Those old commercial systems are generally much better (and often cheaper) than the consumer junk you find in Wal-Mart.

 

[Eug]

Mainstreamers old and young seem to trend toward budget desktops, while they throw more and more money into mobile devices. Well, not so much that for the older cohort. I guess. I'd say, in a statistical sample, they may be "less mobile." I am! Even though I can watch TV on my cellphone during the morning routine in the crapper!

Well, my comment was because that desktop I bought was a mainstreamer machine, and low budget with a mediocre CPU even for the time: It was a $399 Acer... bought four or five years ago. It was slimline BTW.

It was just a secondary machine to keep a Windows desktop in the house and to run Quicken for Windows. My main desktop from that era is a Core i7 iMac.

I'm shocked you can buy a tower in 2015 with much lower performance 4-5 years later, esp. considering my machine was $399 back then, and actually included a 20" monitor. Mind you my machine only had 4 GB RAM, but still...

 

[postmortemIA]

Sounds like he bought cheapest he could get his hands on.

 

[melloyellow]

http://www.walmart.com/ip/HP-110-243...s-8.1/34083876

Is it this one? $480? That seems way too expensive for what you get...

 

[crashtech]

This happens all too often these days. A low-end notebook CPU does not a desktop make. The single-threaded performance of that A4 is only half the E5300 it replaces. Only under full load is the A4 faster. It's so disappointing that PC makers are inflicting these terrible desktops on consumers that are doing due diligence to the best of their ability.

 

[Jimzz]

Yea its a Jaguar based system. They have their place but not in a full size desktop.
I would return and if not then get a SSD for it at least.

If he can return get a SSD for the old system and a video card if its using onboard. Even a cheap 128gb SSD and 6450 would make the E5300 pretty quick.

 

[Enigmoid]

Overpriced junk tends to reside at walmart.

 

[Eug]

I actually never bothered putting an SSD in my old Acer Athlon II X3. With a 7200 rpm desktop hard drive, it actually runs OK for what I need it for. I'd probably be less satisfied if it had an A4-5000 in it though, I'm guessing.

I used to say that for average mainstream users, the CPU speed is probably one of the least important factors. More important is having adequate RAM and fast storage. However, given the specs of this A4-5000 CPU, I'd have say this is an exception.

 

[waffleironhead]

Tell him to return it and get this

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboD...2136474&cm_sp=

 

[Byte]

Its incredible how slow even A10s are when you have them side by side to i3s.

 

[SPBHM]

I've seen a lot of cheap ivy bridge based stuff being replaced with slower bay trail...

same for things that used to have Athlon II going for Bobcat and now Jaguar...
they can surely save some money with the lower power requirements... but it feels like the consumer is not paying less but it's getting less...


this A4 should be OK for web browsing, and if the old E5xxx had a bad IGP (like GMA 4500 or GMA 3100) it might be a nice upgrade in terms of video acceleration and even the UI smoothness, not to mention going from possibly 2GB to more ram...

 

[VirtualLarry]

Got to say it sounds like junk. It's not even in a nice compact case (which might justify the netbook CPU), it's a huge tower case full of empty air. He'd be better off taking it back and buying an SSD to put in his old machine (if you can help him reinstall Windows on it).

This. Sorry, OP.

 

[crashtech]

Haha, if Larry thinks it's junk:

/thread

 

[Piroko]

It'll feel faster for now due to Win8.1 and it being a fresh install, but it's mediocre compared to what he already has - and junk compared to what he could get.

 

[VirtualLarry]

this A4 should be OK for web browsing, and if the old E5xxx had a bad IGP (like GMA 4500 or GMA 3100) it might be a nice upgrade in terms of video acceleration and even the UI smoothness, not to mention going from possibly 2GB to more ram...

Nope. I have a 19.5" AIO with an E1-2500 in it (half of an A4-5000), and web browsing with Waterfox in Windows 8/8.1 is SLOWER than using a refurb C2D with GMA4500 (and Win7).

Kabini's IGP is NOT fast. Not like their A10 Kaveri.