[SuperFreak]

I am intereted in buying a new computer. My current emachines 633 celeron is pretty slow now.

Here are my needs

1. How much memeory and hardrive do i need to keep it running for digital photos and storage. I plan on buying a cdrw to keep the photo on it but plan on keeping 50-100 photos at a time on the computer.

2. Other than microsoft word and some dial up net surfing i wont do to much.

thanks

 

[MowHoward2210]

Superfreak

If that's all you are doing, then a 40-80 gig hardrive is all you will need. You wont even put a dent in the storage capacity with 200 photos.

Since your machine will come with Windows XP, you need at least 256 mb of ram. I would double that to 512 if possible.

Have you considered a Mac? An eMac is very competitive with the lower priced Windows boxes machines. It will come with everything you will probably need. It is ideal for Digital Photography and Video. Also, Microsoft Office is available for Macintosh.

Apple has the best Support and Reliability record according to Consumer Reports.

 

[Argee]

I just picked up a new hp pavillion a335w. It offers the Pentium 4, 80 gig HD, cd burner, floppy drive.....I added a DVD player and an 8 in 1 media reader so I can plug in the disc from my digital camera.....I'm pretty happy with it so far.

 

[Argee]

As far as support goes. I was having trouble installing the DVD and called their support #. I ended up talking to someone in India...the language barrier was significant as I had to repeat myself several times.....I finally gave up.

So if support is important to you, you might want to go the route Mow Howard suggested with the Apple.

 

[guest]

if you are looking for a basic cheapo but decent pc.. id go to dell.com

I know of 5 people in the past few months who got dells all pretty cheap all without problems..

 

[Chris]

just get matched pairs of memory....

HAHAHAHA

:furious:

 

[guest]

Originally posted by admin
just get matched pairs of memory....

HAHAHAHA

:furious:

thanks Muddy!!

 

[Stewart]

Originally posted by admin
just get matched pairs of memory....

HAHAHAHA

:furious:

Good one!!!:hide:

 

[MowHoward2210]

Originally posted by simple_john
if you are looking for a basic cheapo but decent pc.. id go to dell.com

I know of 5 people in the past few months who got dells all pretty cheap all without problems..

I had a local guy with a small PC business build me a no-frills PC tower with Windows XP Pro. He actually told me before hand that I could get a similar PC from Dell for less money!

I considered his advice, and went with his services for 2 reasons. One, I would be supporting a local business, and two, he speaks English and is close by!

 

[guest]

definetly benefits of buying from a local shop.. I do the same.. you can specify the type of hard drive and/or video card you like versus at dell you can say what size but not specify a western digital vs a samsung or maxtor..

But for someone who is looking for a good deal.. dell has some pretty competitive prices.. plus your local computer store is closed after 5-6PM, if you have a problem you can call dell - and yes it may be dell suport guy in New Dehli, but there is someone there..

I always buy local, but when someone asks me about a pc.. i steer them towards dell... otherwise i end up being the support person if i help them get it locally..

 

[MowHoward2210]

The fact that the guy was honest about the pricing was a big influence, too.

 

[parts man]

The thing I see about Dell (in Canada any way) is that the basic machine they advertise has half enough memory, to small a hard drive, etc, etc. By the time you get all the needed upgrades, they cost as much as going to the local PC shop.

 

[Argee]

Price wise I got a great deal on my HP. I purchased at clearance priced from Walmart.

 

[tisenberg]

Memory and processors are the important factors when viewing the images. Space is obviously required, but most people want to back up the pictures to CD or DVD, so you may not need to have a huge drive to keep them online.

(To continue on with Undy, as for the memory, put 60ns in slot 1 and 80ns in slot 2... JK)

I remember buying a system with a TSENG 4000 and the biggest decision was with.. or without memory on the video card. The dealers wanted an extra $40 to be 256K on it. LOLL

 

[Chris]

Good advice and memories there, Tuba.
Ahhhh, I could down the stretch from old CGA, EGA then VGA cards ---- dont forget the original mono cards with the amber or green IBM screens...from full length cards to Matrox VGAs with
64K then 128K, then 256K or maybe even 1MB if you wanted to really push the envelope. Then the Diamond Viper cards, Monster 3D and 3D-2s, TNTs, TNT ultras, man the list goes on and on. I
have been video craZy for too long. I must admit that I got some of the best bang for the buck out of my Nvidia Geforce 256 card.
Loved the Geforce 2 and 3s ------

Now my Radeon 9800XT has 256MB


I digress...

:furious:

 

[tisenberg]

OMG... you forgot the Tridents!!! Your list made me laugh, what a blast from the past.

 

[Live Oak]

This question is related to this post subject. I was talking to Andy about this yesterday. My Dell Demension XPSR400 is getting to where intermittently the Window 98SE system stops loading up on boot up and I have to shut down and reboot again. Sometimes several times. It works fine once it loads all the way.

Andy showed me some excellent choices with the e-machines packages that I am definitely considering. I have a spare 40 Gb hard drive that was thinking about replacing the 8.6 Gb C: drive with on the Dell. Andy was suggesting that I could duplicate the 8.6 Gb HDD over to the 40 Gb HDD using Ghost, but if the operating system is going in the toilet; I wonder if that would be throwing good money after bad. Is there a way to address the Window 98 SE age deterioration issue without starting everything over from scratch on the hard drive?

I guess the question I am asking is..............if I purchased a Windows 98SE CD and reinstalled it over top of my exhisting Window 98SE; would it restore all of the screwed up or corrupted files and make the system run like new again??? The Dell pretty much meets all of our needs right now even though it is a pretty old machine. The technology changes so fast; I hate to fork out money for a new machine if I can fix the problems on this machine without spending a lot of money.

I may end up buying one of those e-machines anyway but it would be nice save the Dell computer as a spare for the kids.

 

[guest]

chief if your old pc is powerful enough, why not just get a windows XP update CD I was running 98 on a pc that had enough RAM and disk space and was having probs with 98 so i put XP on.. much cleaner.. i did a XP complete install so i did not update but i had all my data backed up prior..

with your spare drive.. toss it into your machine.. i have 3 drives in my pc i do backups of my data (documentss/outlook files/work files/mp3's/videos ect) from my c drive to my D and E drives.. so if my drive were to crash.. at least i would have all my data backed up and current.. theres too much to back up to CD's


the reason i was running 98 so late was i had sites i was
connecting too that the connection did not work with XP initially..

i am pretty happy with XP its real stable.

 

[Chris]

Well his box is a Pentium II-400mhz PC going back to about 1998. Nothing wrong with older, slower PCs --- and actually does meet specs for minimum requirements for XP Home --- but I would throw good $ after bad. A new install of 98SE over is not to rectify all of your issues since it is still going to rely on the existing registry entries/drivers/problems ---- unless you choose a brand new install. Best bet --- go for the E-machines 3085T Athlon 3000 XP processor with 512MB, DVD+RW, 180GB HD Nvidia
graphics for $600 and be done with it ---- Comes with XP and Microsoft suites software installed. Use your existing monitor or upgrade to 19-21" non-LCD flats for really cheap these days.
For less than $1K easily, you will brand new system that will carry you through another few years of service. BTW, that E-Machines is Editors Choice 2004 from C-net.

Have fun --- HTH,
Andy

 

[guest]

180 GIG HARD DRIVES.. thats scary.. i remember it used to cost 200$ for a 200 meg, yes, meg not Gig hard drive.. I paid 1000$ for my 1st pentium motherboard i think it was a P90 when all there were was 486's around..


if cars came down in price like PC's and their parts did.. we would be able to spend about 5,000 for a mercedes S class...