Buying a new computer

[mamculuna]

Well, the ancient desktop (bought in 1999? 2000?) is just not able to handle much--all we really need it to handle is Word, internet access, and a few other things. I have all the pictures and music on my laptop, and we aren't much on games. So we think we'll pass it along to someone with a little more patience with slowloading pages, and get something a little speedier.

This will be the computer I share with Bill, so can't switch to Apple, and wonder if I'd rather stay with XP or go to Vista. Also, how much computer do I really need? The problem is that over the years just the basic programs seem to get to be too much. I know there are probably things I could do to clean up and speed up this a little, and I've done some, but it always seems to need the maintenance just when we're trying to do something really important, and need it now. Bill's been pretty content with the Dell we got in Chicago a couple of years ago, and I'm thinking to go in the same direction, but thought I'd see if anyone out there has any other thoughts. I've thought that it's worth it to spend a little more and get one with an Intel processor rather than Celeron or whatever else they have on the really cheap ones--any thought on that, too, would be welcome.

Here's the choice I'm currently considering (of course it's going to wind up being more expensive):

for $699:
Processor:
Intel® Core™2 Duo Processor E4500 (2MB L2 Cache,2.20GHz,800 FSB)
Memory:
1GB10 Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz- 2DIMMs
Hard Drive:
320GB5 Serial ATA Hard Drive (7200RPM) w/DataBurst Cache™


for $499:
Processor:
AMD Athlon™ 64 X2 Dual-Core 4000+
Memory:
1GB10 Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz- 2DIMMs
Hard Drive:
250GB5 Serial ATA Hard Drive (7200RPM) w/DataBurst Cache™

Comments

[kalimeg.livejournal.com]

The Athlons are being phased out, if that matters to you.

Avoid Vista like the plague!

[mamculuna.livejournal.com]

Thanks. I'd sort of heard that about Vista. I've paid the extra for Intel in the past and been glad I did.

[lakrids404.livejournal.com]

I don't think you would have any problems with the cheapest version. But they recommend that, if you use Vista, to have at least 2 gb RAM in it. I would also recommend that you get a extern cheap directX 9 or 10 compatible graphic card

[mamculuna.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I didn't look closely at the video card. I will see what they offer.

[usedtobeljs]

I wish I could help -- I'm always a lost lamb when it comes to buying computers. Like you, however, I'm always looking for *less* -- enough for wordprocessing, email and surfing the web, basically. May you find it!

[arielblue.livejournal.com]

My new laptop is running Vista and I haven't really had any problems with it yet. I do have 2GB RAM though, which probably helps. And apparently "haven't had any problems" is not the norm for Vista. (But if you're going to want to keep this computer for more than 3 years or so, you might want to consider Vista anyway, or at least a Vista-capable machine you can upgrade later; 4-5 years down the road it's going to be harder to get support or software for XP, probably.)

If you can wait two weeks, there will be tons of post-Thanksgiving sales! Even if you don't show up before dawn for the "door-buster" sales, I bet you'll be able to save at least $100 on an acceptable machine by waiting till then.

[kalimeg.livejournal.com]

You kno, decent, stable software doesn't *need* support. I am still running Windows 2000 pro on two machines, and they just don't screw up. That is the way software should behave. I hear XP is that way. OTOH, I hear Vista horror stories all over.

In 3 years XP should still be running fine. "Support" is a pitiful reason to make yourself crazy.

[arielblue.livejournal.com]

I guess that depends on what sort of stuff you're using. I spend a lot of my time working with library databases online, and I'm guessing some of those will be less than optimal with XP a few years down the road, just as some of them don't work with earlier versions of Windows now (yeah, we have faculty members still limping along with Win95).

And none of the university resources I use (email, dialup, etc.) work with Win95, 98, or Me now; they pulled support for that a year or two ago (it won't work with the ADS authentication they use), so my old Win98SE desktop is dead in the water for any of that stuff. In my experience it's not so much a matter of whether XP will still be running fine 3-5 years from now -- my old Win98SE machine still runs fine, for that matter, even if it does seem slow compared to newer machines -- it's whether the stuff you want to use on it will play nicely with it.

But again, it just depends on what sort of stuff you do.

[mamculuna.livejournal.com]

I teach online and realize that before too long, the platform for that is probably going to want to work with Vista. But I use my laptop for that, and it's in its third year now, so by the time I need to move up to Vista, I'll probably also be ready for a new laptop.

[mamculuna.livejournal.com]

And actually, the software that's the deciding factor on our old computer is Norton. When I've had to disable it for any reason, the old one moved along at a bearable speed. What kind of antivirus and antispyware do you use on your old computer, or do you keep it completely offline?

[mamculuna.livejournal.com]

Waiting until after Thanksgivng is a good idea--but I really like to buy computers online so I can get them put together the way I want without having to argue with a salesperson who's telling me I really *must* have expensive stuff I don't need.

[atpo-onm.livejournal.com]

I'd recommend you get XP while you still can-- sooner or later it'll be Vista-only, and unless you intend for really heavy duty multi-media/entertainment tasks, it has no real advantage over XP for most users. I built a pretty high-end (desktop) machine for myself this last January, and I elected for XP.

The Intel Core 2 Duo processors are excellent-- among many benefits are that they run way cooler than previous processors, which makes for a quieter PC. If you can afford it, add some extra memory for 2 Gigs total. You can't have too much memory. Vista demands it, but XP still likes it.

One item I strongly recommend is getting dual hard drives, and having them configured in what's called a "Mirrored RAID Array". This provides seamless, automatic backup of everything on the primary hard drive. If one drive fails, you replace it, and the system copies everything back onto the new drive. Our shop is selling the bulk of our PC builds with this feature now.

Unless you intend to do a lot of video work or use the PC as a DVR ("TiVo"), 250 Gig hard drives should be plenty. You can always add an external one in future if you need extra space.

Opt for a larger, quieter case fan. The extra cost is very small, and a quiet PC is something everyone appreciates.

BTW, if you have any questions about whether a given feature or option is useful or not, e-mail me with your vendors' build sheet and I can run it by the PC guys at work. They'll give you the straight story. (We build our own.)

[mamculuna.livejournal.com]

Thank you so very much for the excellent detail--you're a savior, as always. I will go back and look in detail at what options there are. Weirdly, Dell's making XP available only on the more expensive one, but also that's the one that has the Intel Core 2 processor, so I was leaning that way any way.

I may well send you the build sheet, because I don't understand some of the options well enough.

Many thanks, again.