Recommendations Please

[Coyote_Bandit]

Looks like I'm computer shopping. Just doesn't make sense financially to repair this one. So I'm looking for recommendations regarding its replacement.

I'm not a gamer and don't need a high end system. I mostly run office apps, some writing software and some drawing and photo-editing programs. I have a preference for AMD chipsets rather than Intel chips. I also would prefer an XP Pro operating system rather than a Vista system. These are preferences rather than absolutes. Doesn't matter whether the system is a desktop or a notebook. However, physical limitations of its placement do limit the height of the tower to 18 inches or less.

Thanks

[wildhorses]

1. i have no advice but i will give your thread a kick

:kick:

:hi:

[Coyote_Bandit]

3. Thanks n/t

[Kutjara]

2. From your description, it looks like the biggest demand on your system will...

...come from your photo-editing software. That being the case, it makes sense to go for a system with a dedicated graphics card (rather than the "shared memory" graphics systems typically found on cheaper systems). Go for a system with a 128MB graphics card or better. 256MB would be better still and many new desktop (and some laptop) systems include that as standard.

It would also be a good idea to make sure you have sufficient RAM. 1GB is probably OK for WindowsXP, but given that RAM prices are so low at the moment, it's probably worth bumping that up to 2GB. That will allow you to have more applications open at once and will make photo processing run more quickly.

Finally, get the biggest hard disk you can afford. Nothing runs out quicker than storage space and photos can quickly fill up a drive. If you make home videos, you'll fill the drive even faster. In a laptop, 160GB is the current maximum (with one or two systems beginning to introduce the very new 200GB drives). On a desktop, your budget is the only limit, but 500GB drives have become much more affordable this year.

Aside from that, it really doesn't matter all that much what brand you buy. It doesn't seem like you'll be making any outrageous demands on the system, so just about any PC on the market will work just fine. Brands like HP, Acer and Toshiba give you pretty good bang for your buck, while Sony makes some sweet Vaio laptops, but they are very pricey. You can cruise the web for smaller manufacturers (especially for desktops) and get fantastic deals with more flexibility regarding components, but these companies sometimes don't stay in business for very long, so you're taking a bit of a risk on the warranty.

I hope this helps.


Notice I didn't once say "get a Mac." As a Mac-addict, I'm pretty proud of myself for resisting the temptation. :)

[Coyote_Bandit]

7. I like Macs

I despise Microsoft. Unfortunately I will need to run several industry apps that are Windows specific. I will envy your addiction.

I have a pretty good idea of what I want: AMD platform, dual core processor, 2 GB Ram, 256 MB video card, a 160 GB SATA II hard drive with capability to add additional drives.

Guess I'm just a little gun shy. I prefer to think whatever I buy will be good for the next two to three years. Last computer I bought had a motherboard failure within the first month, has had several other comparably minor hardware issues, and just a few days ago gave me a "disk failure is imminent" message. The hard drive is getting noisy and a surface scan does reveal a lot of bad sectors and slow seek time. If I disappear for awhile you'll know why. Computer before that never worked right. Both were major brands. Service was lousy. So were the repairs. Computer before that was a custom build and performed well. Little place that built it is long gone.

[Clintonista2]

8. You can get a program that lets you run windows on your mac

[Coyote_Bandit]

10. You still have to

install a windows operating system right? And no hard drive partion is required, right?

[Kutjara]

19. There are two ways of doing it.

You can install virtualization software like Parallels or VMWare under MacOS and then install Windows within the virtualization environment. This lets you switch relatively seamlessly between MacOS and Windows, even to the extent of being able to drag and drop files between the two OSes. Using Windows doesn't require you to reboot, you use it just like any other MacOS app. The downside is that this setup is only really suitable for office productivity application. You wouldn't want to run a game or other processor-intensive app using virtualization.

The second way is to download the Bootcamp disk partitioning and Windows drivers tool from the Apple website. You install Bootcamp under MacOS and let it partition your disk between MacOS and Windows. You then install Windows in the new partition and install the device drivers Bootcamp provides. The advantage of this is you're running Windows natively, as if the Mac is a PC. The disadvantage is that you have to reboot to switch between MacOS and Windows.

You will need a copy of Windows to use with either of these configurations.

[Coyote_Bandit]

23. Got it

I know a guy here that is running a pc with multiple drives and multiple operating systems. Basically he has a different operating system on each drive and has set the drive he uses most often as the default main drive. When he wants/needs he changes the boot drive. Ar least that's what he was doing last I talked to him. He's probably changed out components and reconfigured since then. His wife considers his computer to be "the other woman" in their marriage.

[Kutjara]

11. You can always run Windows on a Mac.

The Intel Macs let you dual boot MacOS and WindowsXP (or Vista). I have a small Windows partition with the few applications I need on it. I use it a few times a week when I need to use clients' proprietary Win apps.

Regarding PC brands, the reason I hesitate to recommend one is because people's experiences differ so widely. I've had horrible experiences with Dell and HP, yet other people swear by them. I've had great Vaio machines but know people who will never buy another Sony product as long as they live. I think you're right to be skeptical about the value of warranties. The only company I've encountered where the warranty is worth a damn is Apple. They have come through for me on several occasions. But then again, I have heard nightmare reports about them from other people, so it really seems to be pot luck.

[Coyote_Bandit]

13. Interesting

If 90% of what I run wasn't Windows based I'd be re-thinking those Macs.

I'll second your opinion of HP. My observation is that the pre-merger Compaqs (which certainly were not high end systems by any measure) were as good or better than some of the current HPs. Guess that shouldn't be a surprise.

Warranties? I'd be delighted if I could get a 6 month warranty. That's ample time to determine whether or not the computer is defective. After about a year I usually find something that "needs" to be added - and that voids alot of the warranties.

[MrScorpio]

18. If you won't say it, I will

GET A MAC!

[Coyote_Bandit]

21. .

:)

Ahhh, yes, feed my Mac envy....

There is nothing about Windows (or Microsoft) I will defend. Nothing. But if 89% of what you run is exclusive to a Windows based platform it's hard to make the switch.

Loved the Macs when I used to work in graphic design though. Have to admit.

[sir_captain]

4. Out of curiosity

why do you prefer AMD? Intel processors are both more powerful and a better financial value at the moment.

There aren't too many big computer manufacturers that are not installing Vista at this point, but you could take a look at Lenovo (IBM's old computer division) since they still have XP as an option. Their thinkpads are terrific notebooks as well. The T-series thinkpads have graphics options that would be more than suitable for any photo-editing you might want to do.

[Coyote_Bandit]

12. I'm sure you're probably right

I've had better performance in the past from AMD systems - but admittedly some of that was probably hardware related.

I saw somebody online selling a Windows Vista PC running XP Professional. I'll have to find that again. It's a curiosity. Didn't know there was such a Vista incarnaiton....

[UncleSepp]

15. It was probably logoed for Vista, but with XP Pro installed n/t

[Blue-Jay]

5. I recommended this thread!

Were you looking for something else?

[wildhorses]

6. they asked for it didn't they??

:rofl:

:think:

:evilgrin:

[Coyote_Bandit]

9. Very Good

:) :) :) :) :) :) :)

Yeah, I had that coming.....

Been a long day.

[UncleSepp]

14. Decide your budget and then go buy

The best advice I can give is that - decide how much you want to spend, and go spend all of it.

That being said, don't spend it on stuff you already have that still works. Reuse what you can. If you're happy with your monitor, don't buy a new one. If you're happy with your speakers, keyboard, and mouse, don't get new ones. Monitors aren't cheap, the rest is... but every little bit adds up. If the hard drive is still good in the old machine, add it to the new machine. Make sure to back up the files that are on it, though. Hard drive life is usually about 5 years, so you don't want to depend on that drive working for the life of the new machine.

Don't spend it on stuff you don't need, either. For what you do, onboard audio is going to be good enough. Onboard video might not be, depending on how hard you are pushing the drawing programs. You can always go with the onboard video and then if it doesn't work as well as you like, put in a video card later.

If you still have your XP Pro installation CD's and license key from your old computer, it's OK to install that on your new machine, provided it's not also on the old machine at the same time. That could save you some money if you can get a system without an OS pre-installed, or if you get a good deal on a machine with Vista preinstalled and you don't want it, you can wipe it and put XP Pro on it.

Try to get a minitower and not one of the horizontal configuration compact cases. The horizontal cases tend to be a pain in the butt to work on if you ever have to. If you don't intend to crack the case, then that doesn't matter.

Finally, where you buy can be important. Don't buy used. Buy new. You'll almost always get overcharged for a used machine. Factory rehabilitated computers from the manufacturer are fine, but a used computer from some guy or some repair shop is going to be a bad deal almost all of the time. Shop around online for your computer and compare prices and configurations, and don't forget to check the non obvious places like Wal Mart. Wal Mart often has really good deals on garden variety home computers, where the price matches the competitors but there is extra hard drive capacity or memory in the configuration. They also are one of the few low end retailers who sell machines with no OS installed or with Linux installed, and who sell bare bones machines. I'm not a fan of Wal Mart and I'm not a Linux user, but I like what they've done with providing more OS and hardware choices to regular users at lower prices.

[Coyote_Bandit]

16. Wow

I didn't realize Wally World was selling barebones systems and systems without operating systems.

My current version of XP Pro is an OEM version that has always resided on the current system restore disks. However, I thnk I saw that either Tiger Direct or NewEgg still had XP for sale.

Yes, I'll definitely have to keep the monitor. It has become an experiement of sorts to see when it will finally give up the ghost and die. It is over ten years old. It's a 21 inch short depth monitor that was high end eleven years ago. It's already outlasted three computers. Still works well and is adequate for my needs. Have to say I am looking forward to replacing it with a nice thin screen though.

I really like the small form factor cases. I hadn't really given much thought to how difficult it might be to work inside them. Makes sense though. I'm guessing that for the same space related reasons some of them have trouble venting heat adequately.

Thanks for the advice.

[UncleSepp]

17. Uh oh, I can't find them now

Crap, I spoke too soon about Walmart's barebones systems. They were selling them last time I looked, but now I don't see them. Still, they have some decent deals.

Every small form factor case I ever used broke. They're cheaply made. The little plastic clips break, the stamped aluminum pieces bend, and you end up having to run the stupid thing topless because the lid won't go back on. To be fair, I was in and out of it a lot more than normal swapping cards for hardware detection testing, but still... ugh. Lots of bloody fingers just from swapping cards, too :-(

[Coyote_Bandit]

20. Blood, heat and cramped quarters

Doesn't sound very attractive on second thought. Something else to put in my "cute but impractical" file.

I think Wal-Marts vary alot more in their merchandise than most folks assume. Local store here sells lots of religious stuff including lots of books. They even hosted a book signing by a nationally broadcast televangelist. Partly because of that somebody I know was of the opinon that the company was "Chrstian" 0 or at least trying o portray itself that way. We had occassion to take a short road trip to a nearby state and I made sure we went to Wally World. Wanted to be sure those two aisles of hard liquor available 24/7 were observed. Little town we were in was rural and I'm sure Wally World had better selection, prices and inventory turnover than any local mom and pop liquor store could hope for. I'm also told that the Wal-Marts and Sams in northwest Arkansas carry some high end stuff. I'm heard from an area resident that the Bentonville Sams Club sold a $20,000 digital piano and a $5 million diamond in the same month. Why would anyone buy a $5 million diamond from a discount wholesale store?

[UncleSepp]

22. A 5 million dollar diamond?

Wow. That's really, really weird.

I've noticed that too, that the stores do vary from place to place. One of the stores near where my mom lives carries a really wide variety of non-American food with non-English labels. On the weekends, you can see why. It looks like It's A Small World in there, except that everyone has a nose. It's really fun :-D The nearest store to my sister has none of that, but the shoppers in her store all look vaguely like the Children of the Corn. They do seem to have the flexibility to adapt inventory to local markets.

(I have stayed up too late, and gotten silly :-P )

[Coyote_Bandit]

24. Be interesting to know

how detailed their data records are - especially those with identifiable customer information. I would not be the least bit surprised to find out that they had a record of every person who had written a check or used a credit or debit card or returned a gift item to a store. Keep those kinds of records over a period of time and compile them and you should have a good idea of what folks will want to buy.

Yes, late....I would kind of like to see the Children of the Corn Wally WOrld edition though....

[tkmorris]

25. I honestly wouldn't recommend those Walmart systems

I've seen the ones you refer to on the shelf there, and every time I do I stop to marvel at what they could possibly be selling at their (admittedly low) price.

They have always been cheap junk. Cheap, underpowered power supplies, cheap memory sticks, unidentifiable motherboards with cheap looking components, and so on. Often you will find a model there that is sold nowhere else from a name manufacturer, indicating to me that it is made especially for Walmart distribution, and as cheap as possible.

I'd try Newegg for a barebones, or complete systems. They have some awesome deals and their customer service is top notch.