Computer Geeks I need your help!

[Dr. Snubnose]

Need some computer advice...My son fried my Motherboard and I'm working off a laptop for now but need to get a new computer for home use....My last was an HP with XP...I got a new IMac with a 24" screen but it was burning my face (very strange) had to give it back to Apple so I won't consider a Mac...I heard Vista is coming out in June of this year...So I need some advice from the people in the know cause I know just about nothing...What would you suggest Vista or XP, which model puter?, gigs? rams? etc....what do I need?..I'll be using it for surfing the web, music downloads, opening some large artwork files...maintaining my web-site and e-mails, forum posts, etc.....Price is not an issue...I want something good...Thanks in advance for your input...Doc:D

[yablanowitz]

If price is not an issue, go to http://www.alienware.com/ and max out an Area 51. It'll only set you back about ten grand :D

Vista has been out for over a year. I still haven't heard anything good about it. I'd stick with XP Pro until Service Pack 2 comes out for Vista. That is, unless you get a maxxed out Area 51, which seems to be what it takes to make Vista work right.

I should be looking into this myself, as my current rig is several years old, and it is about time to build a new one.

[Dr. Snubnose]

If price is not an issue, go to http://www.alienware.com/ and max out an Area 51. It'll only set you back about ten grand :D

Vista has been out for over a year. I still haven't heard anything good about it. I'd stick with XP Pro until Service Pack 2 comes out for Vista. That is, unless you get a maxxed out Area 51, which seems to be what it takes to make Vista work right.

I should be looking into this myself, as my current rig is several years old, and it is about time to build a new one.

LOL I want good but not 10 grand good....Thanks Yab...Doc:D

[Agent Starling]

I got a new IMac with a 24" screen but it was burning my face (very strange) had to give it back to Apple so I won't consider a Mac...
Very strange indeed...an actual burn and not glare?...when I bought my apple display 23" 2 months ago it was so bright I got a glare filter for it, still took some getting used to, though.

Agent Starling

[Dr. Snubnose]

Very strange indeed...an actual burn and not glare?...when I bought my apple display 23" 2 months ago it was so bright I got a glare filter for it, still took some getting used to, though.

Agent Starling

Don't really want to bad mouth the Imac or get into the reasons for the burning..lets just say I'm sensitive and couldn't sit far enough away from the screen to not feel like I was under a heat lamp...The apple people made good on the two puters I got from them, took them back, gave a full refund, and I was treated very well by their customer service, so I have no beef with Apple, but any help or advice about getting a new PC...is greatly appreciated...Doc:D

[aj1985]

Need some computer advice...My son fried my Motherboard and I'm working off a laptop for now but need to get a new computer for home use....My last was an HP with XP...I got a new IMac with a 24" screen but it was burning my face (very strange) had to give it back to Apple so I won't consider a Mac...I heard Vista is coming out in June of this year...So I need some advice from the people in the know cause I know just about nothing...What would you suggest Vista or XP, which model puter?, gigs? rams? etc....what do I need?..I'll be using it for surfing the web, music downloads, opening some large artwork files...maintaining my web-site and e-mails, forum posts, etc.....Price is not an issue...I want something good...Thanks in advance for your input...Doc:D

Before I chime I would like to know will you be perusing sinful sites on this computer, :D because I do not want to get you a better computer than myself for those purposes lol. If I can't have one you can't have one:p

take care
aj

[Agent Starling]

I heard Vista is coming out in June of this year...So I need some advice from the people in the know cause I know just about nothing...What would you suggest Vista or XP,
Doc, I personally would hesitate to buy the very latest operating system, I would go with the previous one since by now they have worked out most of the bugs...don't know a lot about PCs since I've always used mac but a good friend who is a PC guru tells me the last operating system Microsoft put out was very buggy in the beginning, very difficult to use...nothing against Microsoft at all, first versions of software can often have kinks that need to be worked out. :)


which model puter?, gigs? rams? etc....what do I need?..I'll be using it for surfing the web, music downloads, opening some large artwork files...maintaining my web-site and e-mails, forum posts, etc.....
In general, you want to put as much RAM as possible onto your system, it is one of the factors that will help your computer handle large artwork files and music. Another factor is processor speed...faster is always better, although again, it is not the be-all, end-all but rather another piece of the puzzle...I'm not up on the name of the latest & greatest PC processors so perhaps someone else can chime in on this one.

Also with size of the hard drive...music and artwork take up mucho space so the more gigs the merrier...and if necessary you can always buy an additional external hard drive later if you need even more storage space, prices on those have been pretty reasonable.

Hope that helps! :D

Agent Starling

[MAT888]

First you have to question yourself what you will be doing.
Will it be a family computer. Will your children want to play games then you need a good videocard. If you do a lot of video photo processing you need a fast system

If you are opting for the latest Vista a RAM of at least 2 GB is advicable.

Do you want to have it built to your specifications or do you want an all in one ready to go system?

It won't have to cost that much. A decent desktop should set you back arround 700-800 bucks.

[vampyrewolf]

I built 2 and fixed/upgraded 3 in the last month, have another one coming in a week to build up to my spec.

My main one ran me $500 cad... but thats for media/ftp.
*Antec NSK2480 case (380w psu, 2x 120mm fans)
*Asus M2N-MX SE Plus mobo (on board 256mb vid, 7.1 sound, 10/100 ethernet)
*AMD Athlon64 4200+ cpu (dual core 2.2)
*4GB of ddr2-800 OCZ ram
*500GB Seagate SATA2 harddrive
*18x dvd-rw/dl

The other one I built from scratch with an old AMD athlon xp 1800+ cpu as a base, so it's all older parts for $200 total.
Fixed up a socket 478 (pentium 4, $60), 462 (socket A, $100), and working on a socket 7 (pentium 2, $80 so far) right now.

As far as building your own... the motherboard defines the specs for the rest of the system. Socket AM2/AM2+ and socket 775 are the usual ones out there, supporting both dual and quad core, ddr2 ram (most will do up to 1066 ram). Quite a few of em have onboard sound, vid and ethernet.

For something that's day to day usage, a dual core 2.6-3.0GHz with 4GB ram and 256MB vid should do it for a few years yet. Most of the recent (matx and atx) motherboards require 300-400w minimum, so a 460w will have no problem with a dvd burner and a couple hard drives.

As far as price goes... I know I can build a core 2 duo 2.2GHz, 2GB ddr2-800 ram, 256MB vid, 160GB HD, dvd-rw/dl, 460w psu and 8 usb2.0 ports for $350 from my local supplier.

I can also build a quad core 2.5GHz, 4GB ddr2-1066 ram, dual 500GB drives, 1010w psu, 1GB vid for around $1.7k for a gaming rig...

'Course, if you told us what you had for either a mobo or cpu in the tower that got fried, and didn't want to upgrade, it's cheaper to rebuild a system.

[Simple Man]

Definitely go with XP Pro over Vista. Vista is just not worth it.

[tonydahose]

IIRC microsoft said they won't be selling more new computers with XP in it very soon. are you going to be building it yourself or buying off the shelf? here is a thread (http://forums.slickdeals.net/showthread.php?t=798731) on getting good deals if you build it yourself...i can't do it myself and wouldn't know what a good deal/product was so i will let others help you there...i would go to the last page and because the thread is a little old. GL

[ozspyder]

I have many XP Pro machines in the office and at home. And a few Vista machines as well. I would HIGHLY recommend you get XP Pro as your operating system as most things will work with it....much more than I can say with the Vista O/S !!!

A XP Pro PC will run twice as fast and is half as expensive as a comparable Vista PC that will not work 100% of the time with most everything out there (shame on you MS :()

Spend the money on RAM and storage (HDD), a large LCD screen and quality mouse and keyboard will see them last longer than your PC in some cases.

And yes, building it yourself or getting a computer store to build according to your specs would be better. Package deals are seemingly better value, but compromises on them are inevitable.

[huugh]

In general, you want to put as much RAM as possible onto your system,


Just a note: unless you are using 64bit operating system (of course you also need 64bit CPU) then you won't be able to address more than 4GB. Given the fact that upper 0.5-1GB is reserved for device addressing you are left with around 3GB RAM.

BTW Doc, if you were comfortable with Mac, why didn't you just lower the brightness? :confused:
I often see people using warm colors settings and then boosting the brightness to extreme values. You (usually) want lower brightness and higher contrast (+ cold colors are better for text reading).

[huugh]

Spend the money on RAM and storage (HDD), a large LCD screen and quality mouse and keyboard will see them last longer than your PC in some cases.


Sorry, but spending on memory (that is RAM and HDD) is almost the worst option - prices of these are constantly falling. So I'd rather suggest buying "just right", and if you happen to find you need more space then buy another HDD (I wrote above about RAM capacity limitation on non-64bit OS).

[kimjune01]

...need to get a new computer for home use so I need some advice from the people in the know cause I know just about nothing. I'll be using it for surfing the web, music downloads. maintaining my web-site and e-mails, forum posts, etc.....

Price is not an issue...I want something good...
For a price range of less than $10,000, you can get an octocore. Aside from that, you'll do just fine with dual or quad core and it should last you a long time. Asus provides great motherboards and Asus P5B (http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/408) should not be a limiting factor for a few years to come.

Now, into the specs..
What would you suggest Vista or XP?
I have no problem with either since Vista SP1 came out. You can tweak it to make it do nothing more than what an XP does and it's going to be more compatible than XP in the near future.

As much RAM as possible
not true..
An analogy: a computer is a cake. It needs the necessary components to make it delicious; however, putting extra sugar in a good cake won't make it tastier, even though sugar is tasty. For your needs, 2GB of RAM will keep you from wanting more for at least 2 years. 4GB will last you at least 4. Keep in mind that 32x systems can only utilize up to 3GB of RAM, whereas 64x systems have virtually no ceilings as of now(one reason to get Vista over XP).

opening some large artwork files...
the icing - the graphic card. If you want something that will process anything that you throw at it, then go with 8800 from ATI. Generally speaking, anything between 7300 and 8800 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GeForce_8_Series)will do you fine.

which model puter?, gigs? rams? etc....what do I need?
When considering parts that do not directly affect your specs(I'm assuming that you are building a comp to your specs), do not cheap out. Get a CPU fan with a large radius and lots of surface area.. such as this one (http://www.zalman.co.kr/ENG/product/Product_Read.asp?idx=164) for low noise and prolonged processing. I'd suggest a 550W power supply with a big fan. That way, you can add extra components without any problem. As for peripherals, get a good 'gaming' mouse from Logitech that does not use cylindrical batteries. Keyboards are generally made equal, so no worries there. As for optics, go for the cheapest one - they all burn DVDs by now.
To sum it up, 2~3GHz CPU, 2~4GB RAM, 7300~8800 Graphic card, good case/power supply/CPU fan and a new mouse should run you about $1,000~$1500. Be price-concious so that you have more money to buy Spidies :D or give to starving children in Africa.. or BOTH! :D:D:D

I suggest that you try here first: http://www.ncix.com/
they have up-to-date prices with assembly services and no BS

[A.P.F.]

I have always put together my own computers and so far you have been given some good advice. That said, unless you are prepared to build your own, just get a Dell. Dell is one of the best values for the buck that I have seen. Oh yes, use XP Pro if you can. Vista is a POS, IMO. ;)

[Agent Starling]

Just a note: unless you are using 64bit operating system (of course you also need 64bit CPU) then you won't be able to address more than 4GB. Given the fact that upper 0.5-1GB is reserved for device addressing you are left with around 3GB RAM.
In my experience with Mac computers, maximizing the RAM has always yielded positive results.

Having also spoken with knowledgeable PC people, that has been the case as well. Note that I had qualified my statement with "in general"...


BTW Doc, if you were comfortable with Mac, why didn't you just lower the brightness? :confused:
I often see people using warm colors settings and then boosting the brightness to extreme values. You (usually) want lower brightness and higher contrast (+ cold colors are better for text reading).
It doesn't sound like brightness was the problem...a glare filter will take care of that, along with adjusting brightness and contrast.

Again, this has been my experience...YMMV.

Agent Starling

[Dr. Snubnose]

In my experience with Mac computers, maximizing the RAM has always yielded positive results.

Having also spoken with knowledgeable PC people, that has been the case as well. Note that I had qualified my statement with "in general"...


It doesn't sound like brightness was the problem...a glare filter will take care of that, along with adjusting brightness and contrast.

Again, this has been my experience...YMMV.

Agent Starling

Yep as Agent Star has said it wasn't a brightness issue with the Mac,something else going on...Doc:D

[Agent Starling]

not true..
An analogy: a computer is a cake. It needs the necessary components to make it delicious; however, putting extra sugar in a good cake won't make it tastier, even though sugar is tasty. For your needs, 2GB of RAM will keep you from wanting more for at least 2 years. 4GB will last you at least 4. Keep in mind that 32x systems can only utilize up to 3GB of RAM, whereas 64x systems have virtually no ceilings as of now(one reason to get Vista over XP).

...the new Mac Pros can accommodate 32 GB of RAM...PCs have some catching up to do!

[Agent Starling]

Before I chime I would like to know will you be perusing sinful sites on this computer, :D because I do not want to get you a better computer than myself for those purposes lol. If I can't have one you can't have one:p
does knife porn count? :p

[zenheretic]

Funny I heard they were gonna scrap Vista...

[tonydahose]

i guess it was Dell that wasn't going to offer XP anymore in their computers clicky (http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=118506) but i guess they changed their minds after minds after alot of poeople complained.

[MAT888]

I also heard trouble concerning the Xp versus Vista matter.
Especially on the all package deals where people formatted a vista all in one factory one trying to install XP Pro.

Somehow the new ones refused XP as the hardware parameters could not cope.:confused:
I find this somewhat strange as if they built in something in new pc's hardwarecomponents to refuse xp drivers:confused:

Did any of you guys had trouble formatting a new vista one into the older Xp system???

[huugh]

Yep as Agent Star has said it wasn't a brightness issue with the Mac,something else going on...Doc:D

Can you elaborate? I don't really understand the "burning" of your face then...:confused:

[Dr. Snubnose]

huugh I'll send you a PM sometime tonight...Doc:D

[cgjones]

...the new Mac Pros can accommodate 32 GB of RAM...PCs have some catching up to do!

Actually, Windows can handle more then 32 GB of memory, depending on a few different factors.

[Ian UK]

Dont know about in the "states" but Vista is a nightmare in the UK avoid it like the black dead ....we should know...lol:)

[A.P.F.]

...Somehow the new ones refused XP as the hardware parameters could not cope.:confused:
I find this somewhat strange as if they built in something in new pc's hardwarecomponents to refuse xp drivers...:confused:

That is exactly what has been done. Many new laptops contain proprietary hardware that has drivers written only for Vista. When you try to load XP onto the system, it coughs up a hairball.