I Need To Buy A Computer !!!!

Unknown
Unknown
edited November -1 in HUDSON
With my work blocking my favorites like ebay and my yahoo groups and will block what ever else that is not work related soon I need to get my own. The nerve of them doing this, its not even fun to go to work. This piece of crap that I am on now is just that, a piece of %!$#@. I want a nice laptop with wireless that has a good picture and is at least a little fast. I am looking at dell but what else should I be looking for ? I will not be doing allot of fancy things like Alex Burr does just the normal things I guess. Looking to spend under $1500.00 with printer I hope? Thanks for any Info. Ron P. none computer person :)

Comments

  • Unknown
    Unknown
    I have an old Dell desk top and two Dell Laptops. They are reliable, all still working fine, and I personally would not buy anything else. I'm sure there are lots of opinions out there on what is good and bad and personnal preferences. Dell is also sold thru walmart and others now. I would think $1500 would buy a nice laptop. I bought a 15" laptop last year and Hudsonkid bought a 12". I liked the portability so much I went out and bought a 12" Dell XPS.
  • [Deleted User]
    [Deleted User]
    My wife has the two smallest Dell's they sold last year, and she loves them. Personally, I like the big heavy HP Laptop that I bought last year from Best Buy for $499. I'm not carrying it around, so I really didn't care about the weight.
  • Unknown
    Unknown
    An alternative might be this... I picked up a 4100 dell laptop at an antique flea market for $20, I bought a hard drive, CD drive (RW) a wireless card, and had some ram for it, and it surfs great, on my wireless, total investment, $65 (RAM, figure an extra $40) I gave it to my wife to use, so she stays off mine. 1 GHz and 1 gb ram, pentium 3, 40 gig HD, it works great for net surfing.



    Don't buy more than you need. I would suggest for anyone buying a new computer, minimum of 80 gb HD, 1 gb ram (especially for windows vista) a CD/DVD RW drive, and something around 2 GHZ, if possible. brand, is entirely up to you.



    However, if you are into web stuff, and photo editing, might want to look to some bigger specs...
  • hudsontech
    hudsontech Senior Contributor
    I've been using Gateway's for the past, what, at least 10 years - on my 3rd one now. Only upgraded because the Hudson files mandated something with more RAM and hard drive space.

    This one I have now is 4 or 5 years old, 80 gig hard drive and 512k RAM. I've used a little over half the hard drive scanning Hudson stuff. What I did was buy the top of the bottom line, if that makes any sense. It's only been in the past year that computers have grown bigger hard drives and RAM, so I guess I did ok.

    I have the CD/DVD drive - and I highly recommend getting this option. I can back up just about everything on a 4.7 gig DVD disk - and that's a plus.

    Way things are going I'd go for at least 1 gig RAM and a hard drive, minimum, of 120 gig. Operating systems eat a lot of memory - I'm still using XP Home, and I don't think I could get the latest offering from Microsoft on here.

    I still have my last Gateway - one of these days I'm going to network it to this computer and then I'll have some pretty hefty storage space, besides the DVD half of the CD ROM drive.



    Hudsonly,

    Alex Burr

    HudsonTech

    Memphis, TN
  • [Deleted User]
    [Deleted User]
    I agree with Alex on this one. Have had my Gateway laptop for nearly 2 years and have had NO problems.
  • rambos_ride
    rambos_ride Senior Contributor
    You really should be able to get a nice laptop and printer for 1/2 of what you are thinking of spending and it would be new!

    If you're programming or playing games you might want to spend more.

    I'd look at Dell, Lenovo, and Toshiba to do some comparisons.

    I prefer lcd desktop or laptops to have the clear optical glass over the lcd screen.

    You get a little glare - but the glass over the lcd screen provides protection and acts like a clear coat on a car - giving you better depth and color from the screen.
  • hudsontech
    hudsontech Senior Contributor
    hudsontech wrote:
    I've been using Gateway's for the past, what, at least 10 years - on my 3rd one now. Only upgraded because the Hudson files mandated something with more RAM and hard drive space.

    This one I have now is 4 or 5 years old, 80 gig hard drive and 512k RAM. I've used a little over half the hard drive scanning Hudson stuff. What I did was buy the top of the bottom line, if that makes any sense. It's only been in the past year that computers have grown bigger hard drives and RAM, so I guess I did ok.

    I have the CD/DVD drive - and I highly recommend getting this option. I can back up just about everything on a 4.7 gig DVD disk - and that's a plus.

    Way things are going I'd go for at least 1 gig RAM and a hard drive, minimum, of 120 gig. Operating systems eat a lot of memory - I'm still using XP Home, and I don't think I could get the latest offering from Microsoft on here.

    I still have my last Gateway - one of these days I'm going to network it to this computer and then I'll have some pretty hefty storage space, besides the DVD half of the CD ROM drive.



    Hudsonly,

    Alex Burr

    HudsonTech

    Memphis, TN



    I know we aren't really still on this subject, but I'd like to pass along a little something about Gateway computers.



    Couple weeks back, the 14th to be exact, I accidentally hit my knee on the tray of my DVD/CD ROM, quite literally destroying the unit. The tray got totally whacked.

    The next morning (the 15th), I went to the Gateway site and ordered a new DVD/CD ROM drive - got notice on Friday the 16th the unit had been shipped (later found out from Jonestown, PA and it would be 4-6 days delivery.

    Saturday morning, the 16th Fed Ex shows up with my drive!!!!

    Now, my friends, that is service. From Gateway, in the process of this transaction I got two emails telling me (1) the unit would be shipped shortly and (2) telling me the unit had been shipped.

    Last week, having nothing better to do, I went to Gateway.com and in the search box, just for fun, typed in my computer serial number. Up came a page with all the specs for my computer - and that this thing is 5 years old, in about a month. From that I was able to download a driver for my sound system and, after a year of being out (because I just never got around to doing anything about it) I know have my sound system back.

    I get around to replacing this computer, I think I'll go Gateway again.



    Hudsonly,

    Alex Burr

    HudsonTech

    Memphis, TN
  • Unknown
    Unknown
    you can do the same with Dell.
  • Browniepetersen
    Browniepetersen Senior Contributor
    I am impressed with all you tec-geeks and the ram mega bite talk. I do well just to work my way through a normal day and my word processing chores. If it were me I would see two choices. Turn over the purchase to my son-in-law (Masters degree in web-design) or as I did purchase a matching home computer to my work computer from Dell. I do not have to worry about compatibility or any of that other teck stuff and my Information Systems people at work can remote and solve all my home/work computer problems. this is a long way from when I got my first Underwood manual typewriter as a young 'single-striper' in the Air Force decades ago....
  • Unknown
    Unknown
    I went to Best Buy and talked to the geeek and he told me i need to call my phone company Verizion in my case and get DSL. I looked on line at Verizon and several options come up that could have a wirless router and a modem in it at a price per month depending on option. The geek at Best Buy was going to sell me a wireless router because I told him I wanted wireless. I am confused about all this. Is Verizon going to be my internet carrier or will I be able to get aol. msn, or what ever for another fee per month ? HELP !!!!!!!!! Bottom line...When I call Verizon my phone company for DSL what do I want from them ??? And besides a computer and printer from Best Buy or where ever what do I want from them ? The Geek also talked about installing firewalls and other safety downloads for a price ??
  • Unknown
    Unknown
    Ron, Verizon will supply you with high speed internet connection for a fee per month. You can use a wired connection from your house to your computer through a modem which you will have to buy. This is the fastest and most secure connection. Or you can go wireless in which case you have to get a wireless router and a receiver in your computer ( a lot of computers come with the reciever built in these days). This wireless can be a bit slower and also let others latch on to your wireless signal from your neighborhood unless you block the signal with a firewall. Hope this helps a bit.
  • Unknown
    Unknown
    Also , Aol or Msn etc are free sites you can access once you are connected to the internet. For a good internet connection I use Firefox ( as opposed to Internet explorer ) which is free to download once you are connected. As far as buying...I would only buy the computer with a printer and and if you decide to go wireless you can get firewalls off the internet for free, might even have a firewall in your operating system as well. Operating system is Windows xp or whatever the computer comes with these days.
  • 50C8DAN
    50C8DAN Senior Contributor
    I am going to be the contrarian here. I would look at switching to a Mac. I switched long ago and have never been sorry. No viruses, no spyware attacks. Always seems to work and everything I connect up to it works out of the box. Yes, it might cost a bit more but in the long run there are less headaches to deal with and that in its self is worth the money. If you already have a monitor and key board you can pick up a Mac mini for about $500 and use your other parts with it. You can also run Windows (XP or Vista) if you need to with an $80 add on program, Parallels. We use Parallels in the office and it works like a charm run Windows right on the Mac desktop and it is virtually as fast as a Windows box. For longevity, we have a 7 year old Mac laptop running the latest software at home for my son without a bit of problem. 7 years in the computer world is an eternity.
  • [Deleted User]
    [Deleted User]
    I am with you Dan I took a look at Vista and switched my whole company to Mac. Thats a 160 MacBook Pro's here and 35 MacBook Pro's in Brazil and Europe. My software developers wanted the MacBook Pros so we all went with those with 4Gig of ram, best purchase I ever made wouldn't change back for any reason. We have Leopard which is just plain awesome.



    Got Macs for the whole family as well. Very shallow learning curve.
  • Unknown
    Unknown
    DELL LATITUDE D810,1.73G,1024MB,40GB,CD-RW/DVD,WIFI,XPP

    Fast Memory 1GB,Hard Drive40GB,15.4"WXGA LCD SCREEN

    You can get one on ebay for less than $500

    I have 4 of these and they work great.
  • rambos_ride
    rambos_ride Senior Contributor
    Ron P wrote:
    I went to Best Buy and talked to the geeek and he told me i need to call my phone company Verizion in my case and get DSL. I looked on line at Verizon and several options come up that could have a wirless router and a modem in it at a price per month depending on option. The geek at Best Buy was going to sell me a wireless router because I told him I wanted wireless. I am confused about all this. Is Verizon going to be my internet carrier or will I be able to get aol. msn, or what ever for another fee per month ? HELP !!!!!!!!! Bottom line...When I call Verizon my phone company for DSL what do I want from them ??? And besides a computer and printer from Best Buy or where ever what do I want from them ? The Geek also talked about installing firewalls and other safety downloads for a price ??

    Ron - did you buy into anything yet?

    Do you have cable? If so look into Hi Speed Internet through your cable as opposed to DSL, cable speeds are much faster for comparable pricing - and -

    To be honest I've had so many bad dealings with Verizon I will NEVER use them for any type of service again...you can PM or email me offline and I can tell you how much money they cost my business.

    Don't let the Geeks sell you too many extras - wireless routers already have a firewall built into the software/hardware that runs them. WindowsXP ships with a software firewall that you can enable and configure in addition to the router software.

    You do want some type of resident Anti Virus program running in the background like McAffee or Norton that is a wise investment.

    Speeds

    Primer: MB = Megabyte ; Mb = Megabit

    1MB =1024000 Bytes
    1Mb =12500 Bytes (aprox 82Mb = 1MB)

    Now - the biggest thing to remember when talking about going to wireless or wireless vs. hard-wired in that your fastest speeds are still limited by your network hardware - not your internet connection.

    The best wireless network connection is 100 Mbps (megbits per second) 100Mbps is roughly 1.25 MBps (megabytes per second) = but currently the typical wireless connection runs about 53 Mbps

    A Typical "Power" Cable Internet Speed is rated Up to 10 Mbps download/768 Kbps upload (and higher)

    Verizons "Power" DSL Internet Speed is rated at up to 3 Mbps download/768 Kbps upload (this was the fastest home connection)

    So for most home use - wireless or wired makes no real difference.

    If you run a hard-wired ethernet cable instead of a wireless connection you can get speeds of up to 1000 Mbps per second. But you need network Speeds T1 or higher - then you get onto a hole 'nother discussion on the the technical differences between Cable and T1+ which is more than you want to know - trust me!
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