New Computer

[weekend rider]

What brand of computer do you consider to be the better? Dell. HP, Compac,etc...and what model

This would be used for home use and a lot of forum getting on

Range of price $5oo.oo to $1000.00

Getting ready to shoot this one.

 

[Niehart]

[Laptop] Toshiba Satellite A135-S4527 PC Notebook

 

[MCRIDER007]

My impression of computers is that they are the sum of their parts and those parts are made by dozens of contractors all over the world who furnish the same parts for multiple computer manufacturers. I would concentrate on the features you want the computer to have and then go for the best price.

 

[kansas transit]

I am by no means a computer geek, but I can tell you that at the office we order new ones about every 4-5 years. We have had acer, hp, micron, etc, but we always seem to come back to dell. They offer us great service, and unbeatable prices. However, we bought our last ones just before the vista system came out. If I was buying today I would request an xp download. We have had no problems what so every with it. JMHO

 

[Bike Effects]

I would say to think twice about getting a computer with Windows Vista on it. IMHO it is not yet ready for prime time and if you have existing applications they MAY not be compatible with Vista. In my case, nes t to none were. I sought out a new computer that still offered Windows XP.

 

[slapnpop]

With that kind of budget, I would assemble my own PC any day of the week!

You can't beat the price of dirt cheap PC's like dells building your own, but once you cross the mid performance line, you're going to get much better quality for the same amount of cash to build your own PC. Companies that mass produce PC use the cheapest components they can get their hands on, and the quality of peicemeal components exceeds them by far.

Let me know what you want to do with the computer, and what you're expecting to get for your budget (monitor and printer, special kind of keyboard or mouse, etc...), and I'll make you some recommendations.

It's not nearly as difficult as you might think either.

 

[kansas transit]

I would say to think twice about getting a computer with Windows Vista on it. IMHO it is not yet ready for prime time and if you have existing applications they MAY not be compatible with Vista. In my case, nes t to none were. I sought out a new computer that still offered Windows XP.

By the way Bike I'm not sure about personal use computers, but at least for office you can still specify xp. at least you could a month ago.

 

[Ari Rankum]

What brand of computer do you consider to be the better? Dell. HP, Compac,etc...and what model
This would be used for home use and a lot of forum getting on

Range of price $5oo.oo to $1000.00

Getting ready to shoot this one.

Among those, the only one I would consider would be Dell, though Dell has had their share of reliability issues in the last couple of years. We lost over 1/3 of our Dells a couple of years ago to the "capacitor problem". This year we've had a lot of drive failures. As someone else pointed out, bad capacitors and bad drives can find their way into any manufacturers machines. The reasons I would avoid HP and Compaq go beyond just supplier issues and center on design/engineering issues.

For my own use at home, I usually spend a couple of days reading tom's hardware guide to understand the state of the art when I'm ready to make a purchase. Then I decide Intel or AMD, then I pick a motherboard, usually from Asus, then I descend into the hell that is the local computer show. Man, I wish we had Frye's out here.

 

[sgoat]

I would say to think twice about getting a computer with Windows Vista on it. IMHO it is not yet ready for prime time and if you have existing applications they MAY not be compatible with Vista. In my case, nes t to none were. I sought out a new computer that still offered Windows XP.

I'd have to agree with Bike Effects and found this:

https://www.shopping.hp.com/webapp/shopping...p;v1=Windows+XP

Great box!

 

[Gary]

I had a friend order a Dell when Vista was on the verge of release, and the deal they had going was that the box would come with XP installed, and a free Vista upgrade (heh) afterward.

The box arrived with Vista installed, and no XP disc in sight, so he was stuck with it (he didn't want Vista in the first place, and this would have influenced his decision)

In the long run, he's been happy with Vista. He does a bit of video editing, and from what I gather from him, Vista seems to give a PC many of the media manipulation qualities typically touted by Apple users.

With a budget of 500-1000, I don't know that you could build a box that would run Vista well, but XP would probably be great.

 

[GunMD]

I would say to think twice about getting a computer with Windows Vista on it. IMHO it is not yet ready for prime time and if you have existing applications they MAY not be compatible with Vista. In my case, nes t to none were. I sought out a new computer that still offered Windows XP.

IMO this is almost a non-player unless you're using some esoteric software. And as for hardware, there's always XP Compatibility mode.

 

[Firedog]

Get a MAC. You wont go back.

 

[fjrchik]

Get a MAC. You wont go back.

GUNNY!!

 

[OhioFJR1300]

Get a MAC. You wont go back.

+1 on the Mac

 

[boogahboogah]

Vista glitches still being ironed out, and Vista has DRM (digital rights management, i.e. M$ attempt to keep you from unauthorized use of copyrighted material) that still screws up, to the detrement of the user. Service pack 1 is due in early 2008 and probably will not fix major issues. If it was me (and it was back in April when I got my HP laptop) I would say get XP. XP still available from HP, Dell, and other majors, just look in the business sections...

Personally, I prefer Linux. The laptop is set to dual boot Linux & XP (for those times when I just _have_ to run Window$ ).

If you're a Vista user and like it, more power to yah !

 

[Thug]

Re the Vista issue...I have Ultima 64 bit and no worries with any DRM? I don't have an issues with copyrighted material or not.

As said above build your own or get a friend to do it for a small fee (Dinner or lunch somewhere nice) better to spend the lot on good gear then spending the lot on the least!

 

[ngarider]

I buy Mac. Home and enterprise. Windows costs too much (TCO's a beeotch), and non-Apple hardware doesn't run OSX. Simple, really. Make the switch, and run your windows crap where it belongs.... in a VM sandbox where it can't hurt anything.

 

[Bob Hughes]

I bought a new PC a month ago and what I chose was another Dell. I went to their outlet store a few times a day for a week and they sent me a 15% off and free shipping coupon by email.

So I bought a mini tower with AMD dual core processor, 1GB ram, 256MB video card, 250GB hard drive, RW/DVD, 7 slot card reader and of course VISTA Home Premium. Paid $300 plus tax shipped to my door. I love Vista and use XP on my laptop so I see the differences daily. To go with this computer I have a 22 inch wide monitor which I highly recommend, there is a lot you can do with the sides of the screen and some programs require it to function well. Pay about $250 for the monitor for a total of $550.

I would spend a little more and buy Office 2007 because it kicks butt. It makes it easy to use every single one of those esoteric features that are such a pain to get to in Office XP. That is the biggest software jump that I have seen in quite a while. Vista is not that much different in appearence from XP but under the hood it is a better product and you will be using it eventually (when is the last time you saw Windows 95?) so you might as well let some one else install it and not pay for it later.

 

[Thug]

Dell have their badged Monitors at a great price I'd get their 24" or their 27" or even their 30" seems to be a good price for a quality unit (Which is strange for dell) And I say that because I know what type on MOBO's they use.