New systems have gotten so powerful that pretty much anything you buy will be able to do what this person wants to do. I would go with a Pentium 4 (1.7-1.8 GHz is about the lowest speed available, which is fast - stay away from the very fastest, unless you want to pay an unnecessary premium. Get a decent video card, rather than a system with the video integrated on the motherboard, unless you're sure you're never going to be doing other than office applications and Web browsing (e.g. games, graphics work, etc.). Get a standard mini-tower case, which will have expansion slots, spare bays for extra drives, etc. 40 Gb is about the smallest hard drive there is right now. Get 256 Mb of RAM - you can always add more later i you find you need it.
Any new system is going to come with either Windows 2000 or Windows XP on it. Windows XP comes in 2 versions - XP Professional, and XP Home (which is XP Pro with some of its features crippled). XP Home is find for a standalone computer, or one on a small (less than 4 computer) peer-to-peer network, but it will not work on a larger peer-to-peer network, and will not go onto a domain (which means you can't use it on a typical larger client-server network, like the University or most larger businesses would have). Both Windows XP and 2000 are better at running multiple apps at once than Windows 95/98/ME is.
You should be able to get all of this, plus a decent 17" monitor for $1,000 or less, I think - certainly well under $1,500.
As for brand, I've been getting desktops from Dell and locally-built ones from Cyberdata in Bangor, and have been happy with both. Prices are comparable, I think the Dell cases are a little nicer and quieter, Bill at Cyberdata says the componenets he uses are higher-quality than Dell's (I can't independently confirm this). IMHO, the other major desktop brands are not as good as Dell,so why buy them?
Hope this is helpful.
Jon
At 12:10 PM 11/26/2002 -0500, you wrote:
Thanks for the replies on my previous question regarding ghost images on the screen. Here's another one that came from a third-party source. I checked the HelpNet "Answer pages" first, and advice was not there, and I put the question "advice on buying a computer" to Google - and got only 10 returns, none relevant, so here goes:Jonathan Falk
A person wants to buy a PC (not a Mac) and has a budget of $1500.
Here are the rest of the uses and requirements:
-Capacity of running large files (up to 1 MG) simultaneously in separate programs. Examples: -Word+Excel+Adobe Ability to view Bitmaps and other large pic files (not jpegs) on same screen (obviously with switching between the two or more) and burn to CD wile making notes in Word -Ability to remain on-line while running Word and burning CD's -Capability for stat packages that can run in background while performing ordinary word-processing and/or ExcelI believe what I want is speed and memory. I have never been crazy about huge hard drives (< 40 GB) because of my tendency of storing too much and not always backing it up. I would rather have two hard drives, one for storage and one for OS. I am on the verge of doing that now with my hand built system, but since its ~800 kHz slot A, I am now thinking of investing in a new machine that I don't have to tinker with and lose time. A Pentium 4 with much memory, CD-RW, Floppy, DVD possibly, 40 GB HD. Also expandability (adding another hard drive, etc..). Expandability is important. I know that these days $1500.00 is rather high end these days. I gave it to simply have a limit. Lower price with quality performance is my aim. I am always wondering about Gateways vs Vision vs HP vs IBM etc.Thanks for any advice. Paul S. **Folkschool-list archives are at: <http://www.mint.net/folkschool/helpnet/archives.htm> Sponsored by Pine Tree Folk School
Pine Tree Folk School
RR 2, Box 7162
Carmel, ME 04419
(207)848-2433
<http://www.ptfolkschool.org>
**Folkschool-list archives are at:
<http://www.mint.net/folkschool/helpnet/archives.htm>
Sponsored by Pine Tree Folk School
==^================================================================
This email was sent to: [email protected]
EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84vzQ.a9gqS3.YXJjaGl2
Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail!
http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register
==^================================================================
