# Recommend me a good computer **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 26, 2008, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-a-good-computer/474560 "2008-11-26T15:32:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2008, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-a-good-computer/474560/1 "2008-11-26T15:32:02Z")
I’m looking at buying a new computer for Christmas this year. I’m thinking I’d like the most blazing fast box I could get with the most memory, and most of all, the best video capabilities. And I’d like to get the most bang for my buck – I’m not interested or capable of paying top dollar for a computer system. But my present system is quite old and the systems advertised on the low end at big retailers are a lot better than mine. For benchmarking I’ve got an HP Pavilion A330n that is rated at 2 gig speed but is weirdly slow at many things, and has been since I got it out of the box several years ago (hence, not a virus problem). I mean, its performance is in some respects worse than my 350 mhz Mac G3. I don’t want to repeated that mistake, I want a fast computer that is actually fast. Dopers have a lot of opinions. What’s yours? ---
**Author:** ![Duckster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duckster/32/1244_2.png) [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2008, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-a-good-computer/474560/2 "2008-11-26T15:50:18Z")
Go build one from [tigerdirect.com](http://www.tigerdirect.com/). ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2008, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-a-good-computer/474560/3 "2008-11-26T16:02:14Z")
For what do you wish to use the computer? Games? Video processing? ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2008, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-a-good-computer/474560/4 "2008-11-26T16:07:50Z")
I heard a bit about buying computers this Christmas on NPR last night. Unfortunately I can’t find reference to it anywhere. The guy being interviewed had written a column outlining the best computers to get for some specific needs (gaming, video processing, basic email/web, cheap, etc). All I can remember is that: - He thinks that prices/deals will be the same or better in stores than online (because of shipping) - Look at Sunday circulars and price match if you can - Don’t get a Vista machine with less than 2GB of RAM I looked all around for this guy’s column but I just can’t find it…sorry. ---
**Author:** ![TheScogg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a5b964/32.png) [@TheScogg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheScogg)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2008, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-a-good-computer/474560/5 "2008-11-26T17:41:45Z")
Hi Evil Captor, to help us out a little bit, how much are you willing to spend on this machine? Also, when you say the best video capabilities, do you mean a computer that is good at making home movies, etc. or a good video card for playing video games? ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2008, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-me-a-good-computer/474560/6 "2008-11-26T17:49:58Z")
Thanks for the responses. I’m thinking in the $400-$1000 price range, depending. And I plan to get two computers: one for me, for video processing (mostly just screen grabs at present, but I’d like something capable of video editing as well to make some good Youtube-y stuff. The other would be a gamer computer for my son. He likes all kinds of games, adventure, FPS, etc. He says he doesn’t really need a machine that can play Chrysis, whatever that is, but he still wants one that can handle most games easily.