Haven’t bought a PC in while, but it used to be that most home PC’s came bundled with Microsoft Works instead of Microsoft Word. Since OP specifically mentioned Word, he should make sure that he gets Word bundled with the PC, because the prices for purchasing the software yourself are pretty outrageous.
That did, indeed, used to be a problem. However, these days Works includes Word.
When did that happen? I love my HP, but it’s a little over three years old, and I’m thinking it’s going to be retired in the late fall. Since this has been the most stable computer I’ve ever owned, I was going to get another HP pavillion. Now I’m wondering if the change went into affect before or after I bought mine. If it’s after, I’ve got no complaints, but if I bought mine before…
DON’T get a Gateway
Yes, Dell has had a whitebox program for a year or two now. I wouldn’t say that they’re “insanely cheap”, but I can see where a decent PC could be bought from their CPP program and resold on eBay for a small profit. I don’t know if the agreement between Dell and the reseller forbids selling on eBay - you think it would - as I wasn’t abel to see the agreement my boss signed with Dell.
I believe it happened about 2 years ago. It looks like Pavilions are still around and I doubt they’ve changed much from the Compaq merger. Try not to associate “Compaq” with “Junk”. Presario is an entirely different animal, and it really is JUNK, but most of what Compaq sells is Deskpros, workstations, and servers and they are probably the best engineered computers in the world. It’s just that your average consumer doesn’t see all the business-line stuff, so their only knowledge of Compaq comes from the el-crappo Presario. Presarios are designed/built by completely different people in a completely different factory. They’re probably put together from leftover Packard Bell parts. (joking - but as bad as Packard Bell was, I think Presario is worse)
So, I’m always seeing the late night infomercial for this Systemax Tiger TV Computer for $1199.00 (Sony Vaio).
http://www.tigertv.com/
It seems like an unbelievable deal, but I’m not really up on the cost of other comparable systems. It seems to have everything you’d need plus all of the software.
Is this a good system and as good of a deal as it sounds?
I’m surprised no one has mentioned Toshiba yet. I bought my first Toshiba less than a year ago and I am, so far, very impressed with it. I’ve worked with Dells and Macs and Compaqs, and owned a Gateway (bleargh!) and HPs and others (including one that my husband has replaced so many components in that it’s a completely different machine) and I must say I love my Toshiba the most.
If you know what you want look around the internet and order. You can get very good prices that way.
It sounds like you just want a word processor. Someone suggested buying a simple computer a few years old. Don’t do that! You never know what sort of ickyness is in that thing, and it might be more of a headache than it’s worth. It also would be tempting for you to go with a Celeron processor, but I would say don’t bother – stick with the higher performing processors because you never know, she might want to play some games some day.
My advice would be to get a basic Toshiba desktop, and search the web for the best price.
As long as we’re on the subject, I hope nobody minds if I stick in a related question or two. I’m thinking of a new computer myself; I don’t want to do anything hugely fancy with it, and I’m not a big fan of upgrades. I tend to keep computers a while (my current one is probably 5 years old), but I don’t care whether they have the newest bells and whistles. However, a flat-panel monitor on the next one would be nice, and I’m feeling rather hampered at my inability to burn CDs, and down the road I may finally buy a digital camera, so it would be nice to be able to store and copy those files as well. So yeah, it’s time to start from scratch, computer-wise.
If I don’t want to watch movies on my computer, is there any reason I should care whether it has a DVD drive? Or will a CD drive be the norm (or at least one of the major norms) for a while? Anything else I should know about photo files, etc.?
I’m no computer whiz, but i do have a digital camera, and let me recommend that you get a pretty decent-sized hard-drive if you’re going to be at all serious about doing digital photography.
This is particularly the case if you want to store and work with your digital pictures using Photoshop (as i do), because Photoshop’s layered .psd files are pretty damn big, and a few hundred pictures can start to eat into your hard drive space, especially if you only have 20gig, like me. Of course, if you’re just taking snapshots, aren’t too worried about post-processing, and are happy just to have your pictures in jpeg form, this shouldn’t be an issue.
My computer is three years old, and it has a DVD player on it, but i think i’ve only used the DVD function twice in all that time. I mainly use my CD-RW for burning music and data (mainly photo) CDs. If you are going to get a DVD drive, i’d recommend paying a bit more and getting a DVD writer, because DVDs store more data than CDs. Just having a regular DVD drive though, especially on a desktop, seems to me like a bit of a waste of time. At least on a laptop, you can take it with you and watch movies on a plane, or whatever.
Did you buy it used? Toshiba stopped making desktops and servers about 2 years ago. They still make laptops.
All this has gotten em thinking … remember a few years ago, when there were tens of popular, well-respected computer brands? There was Dell, Compaq, HP and Gateway, of course, but also Acer, Quantex, Compuadd, Micron, and a bunch of others.
There are some boutique brands of gamer-oriented computers – Alienware, Falcon Northwest, Voodoo and Hypersonic.
I think we’re at a point where DVD writers are pretty reasonable costwise. I just burned up 20 gigs of data yesterday and I only used 5 DVDs (compared to about 30 cds). It’s worth the extra few bucks upfront for the DVD burner in the long run.
Argh! Duh! :smack:
No, I thought they still make desktops. Silly me! But their laptops are extra awesome to make up for it.
Does anyone have any experience with IBM-brand desktop machines?
I’ve got an IBM laptop that has served me well. I’m planning to replace our elderly, assembled-from-scratch-by-former-owner, wonky desktop machine, so I’m consdiering getting the IBM desktop also.
A few years ago, our non-profit organization bought an IBM Aptiva machine for our secretary. She used it for years, and liked it much better than the previous machine. In fact, she liked it so much that when we replaced it with a newer one recently, she bought the old one for personal use by her family.
The IBM Aptiva was a very solid, reliable machine. A bit expensive, but we bought it during a Best Buy year-end sale, plus with IBM rebate, plus a rebate for the printer, etc. so the price was comparable. And not having any service calls on this machine made it a good value.
Another vote for getting a Mac here.
It’s Moody’s first computer, and I know that if I were getting my first computer, I’d want it to be as worry-free an experience as possible, and they don’t come much more worry-free than a Mac.
As has been said earlier, the virus threat when you’re running a Mac is virtually nil. Plus, while I’ve had/seen numerous instances of a Windows machine just crashing for no obvious reasons, my Mac can run for, literally, months without me turning it off. Individual applications may crash from time to time, sure, but they never bring down the whole system with them.
The Mac OS (Panther) isn’t that hard to learn. Mac OS and Windows have been copying off eachother for some time now, so adapting to a Mac shouldn’t be hard. As for software availability, that’s not a concern anymore. Usually the best of any given type of application will be available for a Mac, along with several more. PCs, meanwhile, have more software, but much of it is mediocre. And, of course, Microsoft makes a very good version of Office for the Mac.
And, these days, if there isn’t a decent Mac version available, Apple will just make one their own damn selves. For example, their browser, Safari, is the best I’ve used on either platform. And iTunes was so damn good that PC users are readily embracing the Windows version Apple has put out.
Two reasons not to buy a Mac (at least one that isn’t a G5): You really want to do a lot of upgrading down the road, or you want to play a lot of games. Macs are not designed as gaming machines. They’re there to help you manage your life and your lifestyle. They do this very well.
But if you want to use your computer for e-mail, IM, web browsing, some light office-oriented work, organizing/playing music, managing digital photos (though I assume you don’t have a digital camera) and even making your own home movies, the Mac is a great option. And if you have any aspirations on creative design work, the Mac is your best option.
So no BS about how “cool” or “pretty” they are, no spiel about the fanatic devotion… they’re just good machines and, these days, the prices aren’t too far off from the equivalent PCs. And don’t be scared by the lower processor speeds: The G4 and the G5 generally process data more efficiently than a Pentium IV, so the speed difference is negligible, sometimes non-existent, and especially in the case of the G5, often flipped around. That thing’s a screamer.
That would drive me nuts real quick. 