How to purchase a New Computer

[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.