How to purchase a New Computer

[Timber]

I have purchased 3 new PCs in the last year or so all of them HPs. I don't really think is matters what brand you buy as it is a personal choice. I happen to like HPs. Last December I bought a 17 inch laptop at Bestbuy for about a grand. It is one of the last XPs available and Vista ready and I will never change the OS (Operating System) I bought my wife a new desk top with Vista also from Bestbuy. I did however only buy the CPU there because I wanted a 22 inch monitor for her and because she is a girl she wanted a pretty keyboard and mouse so I put it together for her. So now my sisterinlaw wants my XP laptop and gives me a cool grand for it to buy a new one. Now you think thats a great deal except there is about another grand worth of software added to it but it is an easy computer to use and it makes sense to give it to her.

Ok so now I want to buy a New 17 inch laptop & off to Bestbuy I go and I look at what they have. Well now it seem popular to have a TV tuner installed on your PC. well I personally have no interest in watching tv on my computer. The problem with buying a computer through a retail establishment is they are going to put together systems that appeal to the majority of collage kids as they are probably there biggest market.

Ok so what to do. Pick out the brands you like and go on line to there website.You can usually find a link through a retail outlet & for my it was HP. Find the computer you want and then go to custom build. Now build your fantasy system and watch the price go sky high LOL but that fine. Put in all the stuff you would love to have. Now come back to earth and start putting in what you really want and really need. Don't be concerned if your not savvy with computers do the best you can & balance price with components. Now after you have what you think you want call the phone number at the top of the screen and order it unless your comfortable enough to do it on line. You will now have a person to discuss you system to ask questions about what you need & want as well as whats compatible. I recommend purchasing a system this way so you get a system you want and not one to settle for based on what is popular for the target market

Now what to buy desktop or laptop another personal choice. I do not travel for a living so these tiny laptops I have no use for. I bought my wife a desktop because that is what she wanted and now she wishes she had a laptop as well. There was a time you needed a desktop for your printer & scanner or what ever you wanted access too. These days everything can plug into your router. I think if you don't have a wireless router sooner or later you will. They are the easiest way to deal with Vista peripherals. The laptops that I have are what is called a portable desktop and I love them. I use my computer everywhere. At work, in my shop, in my pool house, the living room with the TV on. My wireless system let me use it almost over my entire property. It is all about lifestyle and what works for you

Things to consider to buy to make you experience more user friendly with a lap top. 1st is a wireless mouse makes life so pleasant I would never be without one. Next is a chill pad preferably one the also lets you elevate your PC. Also a webcam, I hang out with my wife at work all day, watch my dogs when she is at work. my employee's are so use to seeing her its like she is at work too. She is my Max headroom LOL some of you might know what I am talking about. There are also systems that you can use to watch you property through your wireless router that lets you rotate cameras to scan your property at will. The next step in computers are wonderful in how we can add resources to are lives. Life is good

 

[firedog]

I think if you don't have a wireless router sooner or later you will.

I wonder if Dewalt makes a cordless router??

 

[firedog]

I'm sorry......I couldn't help it..

 

[Bird]

Firedog, I would have thought, with your username, that you worked for Circuit City.

Timber, I've owned at least 3 Radio Shack (TRS80) computers; one of which was a portable, an IBM, a Dell, and now my first Hewlett-Packard computer, although I've owned two HP printers in the past, in addition to the new one I just bought. Now I won't really disagree with anything you said, at least for younger folks who are still "building up" and learning, but for some of us old folks who are "winding down" instead . . . well, my personal needs and preferences are quite a bit different than yours. Maybe that's the reason they make so many different models, configurations, accessories, etc.

For me, the only advantage of a laptop, portable, notebook, or whatever you want to call them is that it would be easier to carry it in for repairs when it breaks. And that's certainly not worth the extra cost, the awkward keyboard, etc. But I can certainly see how it would be for some people. In fact, when I had a portable one, I had a use for it, but not now. I don't need a computer anywhere except where I'm sitting right now.

And yep, I bought a package deal from Best Buy, although I did upgrade the monitor a bit to a 19" monitor and upgraded one notch on the PhotoSmart printers.

Like you, I have no use for a TV tuner, but I also have no need for a router, a camera, or a wireless anything, with my computer. Nice features? Sure, if you have a use for them, but I don't.

So, as you said about the brands, it's a matter of personal choice.

 

[keving]

I'm a big fan of Apple. They make the computer and the OS that runs on it. The OS is stable and the hardware is quality. If you want to run a Windows OS you can use BootCamp and have a dual OS computer. Yes it costs a little more but I think it's worth it!

 

[davitk]

I'm using an apple right now, my first. Had it 15 months and 0 problems . Actually, it's a Mac Mini, measures a whole 6 1/2" x 6 1/2" x 2". Only drawback is the need to purchase otherwise useless software to read Word documents.

 

[firedog]

Well Bird, I guess trying to convince you that's my birth name is out of the question, huh?
I recently discovered during a google search that I was a computer expert Guess I should leave the firefighting alone.

We have a desktop w/XP at home, desktop & laptop (vista & XP) for the shop, our son has a desktop & laptop (98 & vista). I don't spend too much time on any of them because, one; I'd rather be outside doing something constructive (my wife say's destructive) and two; I already spend enough time at work on one ((like now) this is the other end of the fire service.)
Although I did just finish making a slideshow DVD for some friends who are celebrating their 50th anniversary. Scanned about a hundred old photos, touched up, assembled and added some Glenn Miller for background music.
turned out pretty good, I think.

Yet, I do long for yester year, when bluerays were glasses, thongs were worn on the feet and TVs had tubes. (not just the picture tube, either)

 

[Timber]

I completely understand Bird and I read your entire thread on your Photo issues. My purpose for this thread is not impose my will just to discuss option's. Computers have become part of are lives & almost a requirement. I don't think there is any wrong configuration as long as it fits into your lifestyle. I just had some thoughts that I wanted to share and nothing more.

I actually looked into purchasing and apple computer, I have friends that love them. I don't really know a lot about them. I have always used PCs I was however looking for an alternative to Vista. I did discover that I could not get the features I was looking for an an Apple. I wanted a Notebook with a 17 inch monitor and a Built in webcam. I also was looking for a large hard drive and 3 gigs of memory. I was building a computer for photo editing to handle my new hobby. I also found the apple very pricy so I will stay in the dark on the apple thing

 

[texasjohn]

Interesting thread... I did computers professionally for 30+ years, still do when somebody needs me badly enough

My current theories are:
MS provides evil software so your personal introspections can be exercised.
MS software is highly reliable: hangs, BSOD, buggy, constant downloads required, prone to virus, worms, driver problems etc.
Vista is horrid, doomed for the same fate as ME, but about all now available.
Laptops now have everything integrated, upgrades not needed, cheap enough and portability is very handy. No more desktops for me.
Add external large 22 inch display and bluetooth mouse, keyboard, USB hard drive and you are really cooking.
If you haven't tried a computer with multiple displays attached, treat in store!
I regularly use 4 displays on my last remaining desktop.

I have a non geek friend who has thrown his MicroSwear away and purchased an Apple and suffered the learning curve and extra initial cost because he's tired of fighting it and paying $200 to get it "fixed" when it hangs. Interesting to see this thought presented also on TBN... could it be a trend??

 

[Bird]

MS software is highly reliable: hangs, BSOD, buggy, constant downloads required, prone to virus, worms, driver problems etc.
Vista is horrid, doomed for the same fate as ME, but about all now available.

I'm sure hoping you're wrong about Vista going the way of ME. My last computer (Dell) came with ME "upgradable to XP" and when I upgraded, that was an unbelievable nightmare that took forever to get working, and XP (provided by Dell) still gave me problems until I spent the money to buy XP in the box from a computer store, had the hard drive reformatted and installed the new XP. And Dell lost a customer in the process.

And now I've got Vista. The good part is that I like a lot of the features. The bad part is that it malfunctions regularly. I can have several tabs, or windows, open when I get a brief dialogue box that Internet Explorer has to shut down, and it does and restarts, then I have to restart whatever I was doing. Or the screen can go completely black, come back in 2 or 3 seconds without losing anything and say the driver for the monitor quit responding and has recovered. Yesterday evening at 5:30 p.m., the AntiVirus was running a full system scan, incredibly slowly. At 5:30, it had scanned 7,999 items, by 7:04 p.m., 9,605 items, at 7:25 a.m. this morning it was still running and up to 22,522 items. Three hours later, it showed to still be scanning, but hadn't changed from the 22,522 items. So I tried to "stop scan" (several times) and it wouldn't work. I finally tried to "restart". That didn't work either. So I tried the "Shut down" and it never would work either. I finally gave up and turned the computer off. Then I turned it back on, ignored the option of starting in "Fail Safe" mode, started Windows normally, downloaded a couple of virus definition updates, ran a "quick scan" with no problems, then ran a "full system scan" (210,965 items) while I ran to the grocery store and came back to find it finished with no problems found.

Oh well, some of us are hoping that Service Pack 1 in another month or two will fix it.

 

[BarryinMN]

My thoughts are simple since hardware mfg moved off shore.

Buy the cheapest that fits the purpose. Wanted a 17" laptop found it a BB for $599 last week.

Anybody want to discuss the XP/IE7 or Vista LCD cleartype blurry fonts autoenabled?

Makes my razor crisp 22" CRT monitor look like those cheap consumer grade LCD's being sold now.

 

[firedog]

The bad part is that it malfunctions regularly. I can have several tabs, or windows, open when I get a brief dialogue box that Internet Explorer has to shut down, and it does and restarts, then I have to restart whatever I was doing

Have noticed that as well. solved part of it by disabling the screen saver, but still have some issues with IE shutting down at will, which inturn takes DoveNet offline and we lose money. Not a good thing.
The two latest ones we bought (w/vista) have Norton in addition to Windows Defender, I'm not a real big fan of Norton, using ZoneAlarm at home, but it has it's quirks too.

 

[MossRoad]

... I have always used PCs I was however looking for an alternative to Vista. ...

Did you know that your Vista license may cover any back O.S.'s like XP, 2K, 98, 95 and even 3.1? You can downgrade your Vista box to XP legally in many cases.

Another alternative is to run a virtual PC under Vista. Boot up in Vista and launch VMware or Microsoft virtual PC and run another O.S. in a program window. This option is the wave of the future for servers and robot PC boxes that perform repettative tasks.

As for buying a new PC, and you want to get your money's worth, you have to decide what tasks you want to do. If you just want to surf the internet, watch videos, store family photos and play a few games it is hard to beat something like this... Tiger Direct el cheapo PC. It is used HP/Compaq PC off of lease. With a 2.8G P4, 512M memory and 40G hard drive with WinXP PRO included for $200.00! Then get an external DVD burner for backup storage and movie watching and for under $300.00 total you have a pretty nice PC for everyday tasks. Download yourself a FREE version of Open Office and you have a great setup for a kid, student or adult. Add a new monitor if you need it, but most foks already have a monitor.

 

[Bird]

I'm not a real big fan of Norton

On the advise of an old friend and bank computer expert, I started using Norton utilities before we ever heard of Windows, so I've stayed with it. I'm using Norton AntiVirus and Norton SystemWorks.

 

[Timber]

I very much disagree that Vista is anything like ME or that it has the same future. Trust me I have dealt with Visa problems through work. I am no Geek by any means and I have spent a lot of time with tech support Through Dell, Verizon, My corporate IT till I was Pinged to death. That said Vista is a great OS it just has not completely evolved yet. By the way Bird and everyone else that is crashing your Vista OS. (DO NOT GET BUSY WITH THE MOUSE) Let the program run. Vista has a bit of a delay starting programs and opening windows. Vista is a muscle car. Its not quick off the line but 1st at the end of the race. If you get to busy clicking the mouse you confuse the system and it closes. I was looking at Apples because I could not because I hate Vista but more because to is friendlier today as is XP. Xp will go away and new software will be written for Vista so as we go into the future Vista is what we will all have to use. Apple of coarse will also evolve as well

 

[texasjohn]

Hmm... this thread may become as wonderful as the ones on welders or what's the best transmission, or dyno/synthetic oil, or

My most beloved software that I use every day and keeps stuff kinda working.. on XP anyway..

Zonealarm - free
Avast! antivirus - free
Memeo automatic backup - came free with a USB external drive
xplorer2 - free
copernic desktop search - free
copernic desktop basic - free
spybot search and destroy - free
weather watcher - free
firefox - free
spambayes (spam filter for Outlook) - free

Also, wireless router with firewall... and I have locked security down tight.

Considering the age of the computing industry, one should not still be anticipating that repeated major operating system failures will be fixed at a point in the future. Testamonials, other than mine, to Vista's behaviour and reliability on this thread already speak volumes. And, if MS operating system folks can't figure out how to set the thread priority properly for mouse motion versus applications... well, they've proven they need to study operating system fundamentals.

I know... let the flames begin... because your experience and opinions may well vary from mine, and that's OK because we are a free country and it's a free forum

 

[MossRoad]

I very much disagree that Vista is anything like ME or that it has the same future. Trust me I have dealt with Visa problems through work. I am no Geek by any means and I have spent a lot of time with tech support Through Dell, Verizon, My corporate IT till I was Pinged to death. That said Vista is a great OS it just has not completely evolved yet. By the way Bird and everyone else that is crashing your Vista OS. (DO NOT GET BUSY WITH THE MOUSE) Let the program run. Vista has a bit of a delay starting programs and opening windows. Vista is a muscle car. Its not quick off the line but 1st at the end of the race. If you get to busy clicking the mouse you confuse the system and it closes. I was looking at Apples because I could not because I hate Vista but more because to is friendlier today as is XP. Xp will go away and new software will be written for Vista so as we go into the future Vista is what we will all have to use. Apple of coarse will also evolve as well

Vista, as all of Microsoft's other O.S.'s, with the expecption of DOS, is an inellegant dog of an operating system. It is code piled on code piled on code to correct errors in poorly written code. Just look at how all of Microsoft's OS's fragment the hard drive over time. Then look at a 30 year old unix system that runs at 0.02% file fragementation. The GUI interface is the cause of most of the problems. They have never mastered it. The only reason it works today is because they had to get Intel to build muscle car processors to handly the poorly written and performing GUI.

The only reason the world uses Windows OS's is because Microsoft is better at marketing than they are at OS writing, much like the Betamax was much better than VHS, but lost the marketing war.

 

[Bird]

Next question is where's the best place (just north of Dallas, TX) to dispose of an old computer. My old one is a 6.5 year old Dell Dimension 8100, to which additional memory was added. It has a 3.5" floppy drive, a zip drive, a CD-R drive, mouse, keyboard, 17" CRT monitor, and cables. There's also an HP G55 printer (print/copy/scan). Everything was working and I even have all the paperwork. But I've removed the hard drives from the computer. Someone might get some use from the printer or monitor, but I doubt that anyone would want to put a hard drive in the computer.

I know of a place in Denton that will take it, supposedly to crush it, that will charge me $15 to dispose of it, but it'll be the 8th of next month. But if there's anything at all that can be used, I'd be glad to give it away and even deliver it within a reasonable distance.

 

[MossRoad]

Next question is where's the best place (just north of Dallas, TX) to dispose of an old computer. My old one is a 6.5 year old Dell Dimension 8100, to which additional memory was added. It has a 3.5" floppy drive, a zip drive, a CD-R drive, mouse, keyboard, 17" CRT monitor, and cables. There's also an HP G55 printer (print/copy/scan). Everything was working and I even have all the paperwork. But I've removed the hard drives from the computer. Someone might get some use from the printer or monitor, but I doubt that anyone would want to put a hard drive in the computer.

I know of a place in Denton that will take it, supposedly to crush it, that will charge me $15 to dispose of it, but it'll be the 8th of next month. But if there's anything at all that can be used, I'd be glad to give it away and even deliver it within a reasonable distance.

There are some organizations in some towns that will take them and make themm work, then donate them to boys and girls clubs. Goodwill or St. Vincent DePaul Society would take them, too, if they work. If you are concerned about your data being on the hard drive, get a program like ERASER and tell it to wipe all free space and then write 1's all over the drive 20 or 30 times. That virtually assures that all the data is gone forever and could only partially be retrieved by someone with an electron microscope, which most criminals can not afford.

 

[Bird]

Yep, David, I found some ways to get rid of all the personal information, but then I'd never taken a hard drive apart or seen the magnet discussed in the Chalkley Cup thread. I had two hard drives; a 20 meg and an 80 meg in it and I've already taken them out and torn them apart.