My home computer is very, very old – more than 8 years old at this point. If I ever knew the specs, I’ve long since forgotten them, but suffice to say it’s an 8-year-old desktop PC that runs very, very slowly (and sometimes needs to stop and sulk for up to a couple of minutes if I try to flip back and forth between tabs or tasks too quickly).
I’ve been putting up with it because I don’t use it for much – mostly Internet access, emails, and relatively simple projects in Word and Excel. Also because I am freelancing (i.e., lacking FT employment) these days and my budget is very tight.
Currently, though, I’m working a temp gig where I could work at home one day a week – if I had a computer with any kind of power to it at all. Most of that work isn’t *too *terribly sophisticated – it’s editing online curricula, so mostly working in Word and html, but also running some Flash stuff, etc., and I do need to be able to bounce around amongst three or four screens fairly briskly.
So how much computer do I need? Even before starting this job I’d been thinking I could come up with $300 for a netbook, but I have no idea whether a netbook could handle anything more than modding the Dope, doing email, writing Word docs, and setting up the occasional spreadsheet.
I don’t want to pay huge amounts for a computer that could handle the the demands of the current temp gig, since it is temporary and the working-at-home day is a perk, not a requirement – but the gig is only FT till July, and after that would be PT … mostly at home, if I had a computer I could use. I’d love to be able to maintain a freelance relationship with these people going forward, and could justify the investment in a new computer against those future earnings … if the investment weren’t ridiculously huge.
Will a netbook do it or do I need a “real” computer?
Get a used desktop and couple it with a cheap/free used CRT monitor (or LCD, if power is really expensive where you live). Check Craigslist, Freecycle, local thrift stores, etc… And if you live in or near a college area, doing so right now would be great since people would likely be moving out for the summer soon.
You’ll get more horsepower per dollar than you would out of a netbook. The $300 in a netbook goes towards the form factor and the energy efficiency, neither of which sound high on your list of criteria.
I’ve been doing all my office work, web, and photo editing (of the serious amateur sort) on a netbook for the past two years… and while it works, it’s hardly pleasant. Slow and unwieldy, and many applications don’t scale well to the small screen size. If you’re using any Adobe apps for web development, for example, some programs will have buttons and toolbars hidden by the limited vertical real estate. Annoying at the least and work-stopping at the worst.
ETA: Even a used generic laptop would be more appropriate than a netbook. If portability isn’t a concern, those mainstream 15" notebooks will typically pack more power than netbooks at the same price point. You just lose out on battery life and weight.
Sorry, I shouldn’t have assumed you were tech-savvy. Hmm. That complicates things a bit… I’m hesitant to recommend any particular setup because buying a used computer is kind of like buying a used car in that you can easily get swindled if you don’t know what you’re looking for.
Post-purchase support becomes more of an issue, too, if you can’t diagnose and fix problems yourself. Buying used also exposes you to whatever the previous owner put on there (either on purpose or inadvertently, as in the case of spyware).
Maybe in this case, a new generic laptop (still not a netbook) would be better… or at least a used one from a big manufacturer that gives you some sort of warranty if something breaks.
Do you have a friend who knows computers who can help you shop in your area?
If you can increase your budget to $400-something, there are some laptop and desktop deals floating around online… but you don’t get to play with the thing first, of course.
I know many people have a hate on for emachines (pure snobbery I think but thats neither here not there) but I’ve never had an issue with them. You can get a decently powered notebook for ~ $300.
Obviously YMMV I deal with computer issues on a daily basis and know what I’m doing, IMHO
Another thing just because the machine is old doesn’t mean that’s why it’s slow. You should be able to find a tech to blow it away an reinstall the os and software for much less than $300.
I’m assuming your machine is running Windows XP.
ETA: I wouldn’t bother with a netbook at all. Unless it just suits your needs a ‘real’ computer would be much better.
The performance issues with a netbook are overstated IMO. They are undesirable as a primary computer because of their small screens and keyboards rather than performance. The computing power needs of your basic Web and office productivity environment peaked a couple of years ago.
If you’re really strapped for cash, something like a Dell Optiplex GX620 or 745 off of eBay will be great (though they won’t win any design awards). I recommend something with at least 2 GB of RAM and a 3 GHz Pentium 4 processor or dual-core processor of any type. If you want a laptop a Dell D620 is a good choice and is a better way to spend $300 than a netbook.
Price/performance ratios have always been and probably will always be best for desktop computers. Desktop machines can get away with larger & heavier but cheaper components. The only economic downside is that desktops generally use more power.
If you have a computer shop nearby, I’d recommend taking a look at their low-end new desktops. You can probably keep the monitor you’ve got right now (and that alone will save you over $100 dollars) and unless your current keyboard and mouse are broken new ones will probably not make any difference - budget 'boards are mostly terrible and cheap laser mice are pretty much interchangeable.
Given all that, $300 - $400 or so should give you a decent new desktop with a relatively crappy on-board video setup (but you don’t really need all that much anyway). Just make sure you’ve got a decent amount of RAM. Currently, I’d say you should get 2 gigabytes. Disk storage is cheap enough that even the cheapest desktop will give you more than you’re ever going to need unless you’re downloading movies or playing games. Like the disk storage, everything else is going to be sufficient.
8 years old? So Windows 2000 or XP. But that’s no reason for a computer to be slow for what you do.
Before spending lots of money, try finding out what’s causing the slowness. From your brief description, I’m guessing it’s a lack of memory. You can verify this after having experienced the problem by bringing up Task Manager and switching to the Performance Tab. Look at the four boxes underneath the graphs. The top entry of the top right one (Physical Memory) tells you how much memory you actually have, and this should exceed the values in the bottom right box (Commit Charge). If not, then your computer will be using the hard drive as extra memory which is very slow. Go to Crucial and run their scanner to tell you what you can do.
Thanks for all the very helpful info, everyone. I’m just doing a quick lap around the Boards (been gone all day) – will read this all carefully tomorrow.
Any computer made in the last three-plus will quite easily do all you need it to. Find the cheapest new computer you can, then link to it and we’ll make sure there’s nothing glaringly wrong with it.
Okay, according to them, I’ve currently got 384 MB of memory (256 MB + 128 MB – a guy I was dating added some memory a few years ago, so I guess that’s what that means), and they recommend deleting the 128 MB and adding another 256 MB for $35, giving me 512 MB. I’m liking that price – would this do it? And would installing the new memory be something a luddite like myself be able to do? And is that a short-term solution, or will that do me for a while?
If you can handle that, installing more memory will be easy. You’ll have some “sticks” of it and the ones you have now inside your computer will look exactly the same. You cannot confused them with anything else in the computer.
Once you’ve identified where they go, you will likely take out the individual stick on the far right and put in your new ones.
They can only fit in one position so you won’t be able to get them wrong. You just have to “unlock” them from the little thingies (technical term) at the top and bottom of the memory sticks.
EDIT: As far as long-term vs. short-term, if your memory is truly what is causing your computer to be slow, adding more will be a decently long term solution provided you don’t start trying to run fancy games or movies on the computer.
A friend of mine recently came into possession of a computer with 512MB of memory. He asked around if anyone had any spare sticks of memory and I did. I had 2GB (four times 512MB) of spare memory. This sped his computer up considerably and he now practically thinks I’m God.
He said it would take it 15 minutes to start and now only takes less than a minute.
If your 8 year old computer is acting sludgy, I’d suspect something other than the age of the hardware. Short of editing videos in Final Cut Pro or rendering lots of 3D terrain in Maya, you just don’t need a computer newer than 8 years old. You might benefit but you should be able to get by without.
I’ve got a machine of that approx 8 year old vintage at home as a backup PC running XP with a gig of RAM and while it works “OK” there’s still a lot of huffing and puffing and long stalls when it has to load and unload web pages, or deal with switching between apps. Some of this is CPU based and some is simply the pokey 8 year old IDE hard drive IO speed. Kicking your RAM up will help your performance but there will still be noticeable overall slowness running current apps and IE browsers. IMO upgrading an 8 year old machine is not really an optimal strategy. The $30 to $50 spent on RAM would be better spent on an inexpensive new notebook or desktop running Windows 7 for around $400.00 or so.
There are a number of perfectly acceptable machines in this price class that will allow you to be far more productive than suffering with an old PC.
A netbook is not the best use of your money for this. I have bought several for the kids and one for myself, and while they are excellent at their primary task (ie be small net browsers that can run all day) they are not all that quick (esp with streaming flash based stuff) and have the approximate CPU horsepower of notebooks being sold 3 years ago, although they would still be considerably faster than your current unit.
This unit (on sale) has good build quality and is a good value for the money @ $380.00
