Guest Tony n Terrific Posted March 1, 2009 Report Share Posted March 1, 2009 Yea though I walk through the valley of cyber death, I will fear no evil shredder: for the motherboard art with me; thy hard drive and thy RAM they comfort me." I am needing some info on buying a computer. I am no expert in this field. The person who built my old one is in the hospital now for surgery and can not possibly build me a new one for sometime. She did a great job. I enjoyed and it gave me good service for 7 years.What are some good computers on the market and what type of system should I look for? IE Ram, Gig etc.I use my puter for business, chatting, web cams and emails.I do not want to under buy or over buy.Any info would be greatly appreciated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
usaRichard Posted March 1, 2009 Report Share Posted March 1, 2009 (edited) Yea though I walk through the valley of cyber death, I will fear no evil shredder: for the motherboard art with me; thy hard drive and thy RAM they comfort me." I am needing some info on buying a computer. I am no expert in this field. The person who built my old one is in the hospital now for surgery and can not possibly build me a new one for sometime. She did a great job. I enjoyed and it gave me good service for 7 years.What are some good computers on the market and what type of system should I look for? IE Ram, Gig etc.I use my puter for business, chatting, web cams and emails.I do not want to under buy or over buy.Any info would be greatly appreciated.Tony having a custom built is always good, maybe if you have an established business in your area that could build one for you, that way you can pick your components and have a warranty too. If you can still get XP I would, 2GB of RAM is plenty, and SATA hard drive and optical drive. Many motherboards have built in graphics cards that are okay, but I would go for an independent one, and no need to spend a lot of money for the graphics card. < $150 Edited March 1, 2009 by usaRichard (see edit history) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
george lee Posted March 1, 2009 Report Share Posted March 1, 2009 tony, motherboard with build-ins: audio, nic.independent video card with 216mb ram, 2 ouputs for dual screencpu core2 dual quad2 to 4 gigs ram, memory is cheapsata drivedvd-rw28 inch wide screen or dual 18 or 22 screensxp professionalwireless mouse/keyboard Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christopher Posted March 2, 2009 Report Share Posted March 2, 2009 Tony, no reason you can't do it yourself. You should be able to reuse a lot of the parts your old computer has, like the case and keyboard. It takes me about 45 minutes to build one, and about 1.5 hours to install an OS. Check this link out: http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/the-idiots-gu...r-own-computer/ Good luck whatever you do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sebastian Posted March 2, 2009 Report Share Posted March 2, 2009 I personally recommend the Lenovo W700-DS. Test drive one, lemme know what you think ? [disclaimer, I own stock in the company] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest ShaQuaNew Posted March 2, 2009 Report Share Posted March 2, 2009 (edited) Computers are cheaper today than ever before. In the 80s and early 90s, one can easily buy parts and build a computer themselves and actually save a lot of money. Today, you can find just about any brand name computer with a large hard-drive (350-GB or larger), fast chip; today it's the Intel Core 2 Duo, 4-GB RAM (or more), for under $800 USD. Previously, I always preferred having a desktop at home. I had to lose the desktop when I moved to China however, as they won't let you bring it here. You can bring a laptop, which is always better to buy in the US by the way. Buying a computer in the US is cheaper than buying one in China. The other advantage of buying an off-the-shelf computer, is that it comes with an operating system, MS Office, and other add-ons. Of course, buying a computer is a highly personal thing, and everyone has their own personal preference. Edited March 2, 2009 by ShaQuaNew (see edit history) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sebastian Posted March 2, 2009 Report Share Posted March 2, 2009 Tony - 7 years ago, when you bought that computer - there was a wonderful resource for study - Computer Shopper magazine. You could study about what to buy, where to buy, specifications, options, etc etc. Those days are long gone. I don't even know what resource to recommend to you, to 'go study' - these days, there's way too many options, is potential to 'break yer brain' . Can you shift a bit, find another PC expert locally ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
george lee Posted March 2, 2009 Report Share Posted March 2, 2009 dell.comyou cant go wrong with it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest ShaQuaNew Posted March 2, 2009 Report Share Posted March 2, 2009 dell.comyou cant go wrong with it. When Dell was at their peak several years ago, they provided great service, good cost, and rapid rebates. What's happened to Dell? They began offering large rebates to people ordering computers, and then made it so difficult to collect the rebate, that many people filed lawsuit. I bought computers from Dell at least three times, and after my last experience, will never use them again. http://www.consumeraffairs.com/computers/dell.htm http://www.statesman.com/business/content/...3/0113dell.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smitty Posted March 2, 2009 Report Share Posted March 2, 2009 I would recommend against using the old case. Chances are, it's not really designed for the way modern motherboards are designed. While I'm sure it will hold a new mobo fine, you might find the CPU right up next to the PSU, and other things might be really tight. I used an old steel case that I picked up from a friend. It's very plain, ie - not some ghastly monstrosity that they make now, but it's designed around the era of the P3, and the P4 that is in it now it right up on the PSU, and the video card it right up against the PSU shelf also. Otherwise, unless you are challenged in the dexterity department, it really isn't hard to build a system. Did your old computer come with a Windows install disc, or an a system recovery type disc, which has Windows as a part of it along with quite a bit of other bits of junk? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smitty Posted March 2, 2009 Report Share Posted March 2, 2009 If you are a Costco member, this computer combo is pretty sweet. If the link doesn't work, go to Costco.com -> Computers -> Desktops & Servers -> Refurbished Or this system might be what you need. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
usaRichard Posted March 2, 2009 Report Share Posted March 2, 2009 Tony - 7 years ago, when you bought that computer - there was a wonderful resource for study - Computer Shopper magazine. You could study about what to buy, where to buy, specifications, options, etc etc. Those days are long gone. I don't even know what resource to recommend to you, to 'go study' - these days, there's way too many options, is potential to 'break yer brain' . Can you shift a bit, find another PC expert locally ?No, it's still there. http://computershopper.com/ If you do buy an off the shelf system it will come with inferior components, that's why it seems so inexpensive. If you have one built it'll still be reasonable, do some footwork. And the computers that come with MS Office are 60 day trials. For a free full featured MS Office compatible suite see here http://www.openoffice.org/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christopher Posted March 2, 2009 Report Share Posted March 2, 2009 (edited) Tony - 7 years ago, when you bought that computer - there was a wonderful resource for study - Computer Shopper magazine. You could study about what to buy, where to buy, specifications, options, etc etc. Those days are long gone. I don't even know what resource to recommend to you, to 'go study' - these days, there's way too many options, is potential to 'break yer brain' . Can you shift a bit, find another PC expert locally ?No, it's still there. http://computershopper.com/ If you do buy an off the shelf system it will come with inferior components, that's why it seems so inexpensive. If you have one built it'll still be reasonable, do some footwork. And the computers that come with MS Office are 60 day trials. For a free full featured MS Office compatible suite see here http://www.openoffice.org/ I remember the old computer shopper. It couldn't rightly be called a magazine, it was at least an inch thick, crammed with thousands of ads.Anyone remember "Treasure Chest" computers? In any case, useless unless you know what you want, and are doing comparison shopping. It sounds to me like the OP is your standard user: web, email, light word processing, maybe some bookkeping and taxes. I'd say get a low end laptop in the $600 range and be done with it. You can hook up a nice monitor and mouse/keyboard to it and you are good to go. PS. I forgot: If you can wait for Windows 7. It seems not to be the lipstick wearin' pig that Vista is. Edited March 2, 2009 by Christopher (see edit history) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Tony n Terrific Posted March 2, 2009 Report Share Posted March 2, 2009 I can buy a reconditioned HP for $340 with a year warranty from Microcenter. It has 3 Ram and 320 GB and Windows Vista. I have been hearing alot about Wndows 7 and if I can wait a year for it. However I can not. My wife will not let me. I am wondering if this is a good deal. It sounds good compared to the brand new one for $600. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
usaRichard Posted March 2, 2009 Report Share Posted March 2, 2009 I can buy a reconditioned HP for $340 with a year warranty from Microcenter. It has 3 Ram and 320 GB and Windows Vista. I have been hearing alot about Wndows 7 and if I can wait a year for it. However I can not. My wife will not let me. I am wondering if this is a good deal. It sounds good compared to the brand new one for $600.Well the price can't be beat, and if you're getting a warranty to boot. Do you have any programs to install that could be incompatibale with Vista?Search here http://www.microsoft.com/windows/compatibility/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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