Computer Purchase

[chinook 0]

i am looking to buy a new computer for the home, any recomendations?

i will not by a dell as i have had issues with my home cpu and home laptop.

my wife and i use the computer primarly for internet browsing, emails and personal finances.

i have had a habit to purchase the bells and whistles but with other priorities the computer thing is low. i don't play games, record music or do web designs etc...; however, with an 18 month old (pictures and home video have become apparent in my house) so i am looking for a cpu that would handle emailing pixs to the folks. nothing special. a good cpu for the buck.

help on manufacture or specifics would be great.

thanks in advance!

also, i would spend the extra money for a keyboard with the caps.

[TitanTiger 20,576]

Are you looking for a desktop computer or a laptop?

I highly recommend a Mac. For a desktop, I'd look at an iMac. For the laptop, the MacBook. They are about to update the MacBook line with the Intel Core 2 Duo processors so they will have the latest and best processors for notebooks. And since the switch to Intel processors, Macs can run Windows if you need that security blanket in the transition.

You can get a MacBook from Amazon for $999 after a $100 rebate plus no tax and free shipping. An iMac similarly equipped would be about $100 less but the MacBook has a DVD/CD burner.

Plus, you don't have to worry about spyware/malware and viruses are virtually nonexistant. And Apple consistently tops the Consumer Reports charts for quality and customer service.

[otterinbham 0]

I second TT's recommendation on the Macs. I switched from Windows a few years ago and have really been amazed by Mac's ease of use, stability, better operations, flawless interface, exposure to viruses, etc. etc. Further, it's a snap to attach any peripherals, whereas with Windows, I would cuss at my computers and puzzle through the user manuals for hours at a time.

Plus if you use any photography software, their standard software makes it incredibly easy. Music, movies, video, etc. are all effortless.

Recently, I started using their iWork software, which is basically a word processing and presentation software. It's also head and shoulders above my Microsoft Office stuff.

My only quibble with Mac is that Firefox seems to be a superior browser to Safari. But that's a free download.

[Boonan 0]

I use PCs, I support PCs, haven't really dealt with Macs, but for what you are looking to do (basically the key words were about not playing games) I would probably concur and say go Mac. I've never had too many problems with PCs, but a lot of people do... then again I know more than I really want to about PCs so I can fix just about any problem I come across if I really want to.

[TitanTiger 20,576]

My only quibble with Mac is that Firefox seems to be a superior browser to Safari. But that's a free download.

I agree. Firefox is a better browser right now than Safari. Especially since it went to version 2.0. But then again, Firefox is better than IE for Windows so that's a wash.

[Grider 1]

I have no experiences other than word of mouth and my own wants for one, but for what you described I agree with everyone else in the this thread: Get a Mac. It sounds like a near perfect match for what you are looking for.

Get an applecare plan as well. It is expensive up front, but they do not seem to suffer from the same problems and bugaboos that Windows pcs do.

[CCTAU 3,362]

Just get a new motherboard with a faster CPU. If you already have a Dell with windows XP, you'll have to call and tell them that your computer crashed and you have to reload so you'll need the keys. Don't tell them you upgraded the motherboard. To them the motherboard is THE computer. All other peripherals should be usable. Depending on the motherboard, you may need newer memory also.

Good place to start:

www.pricewatch.com

Its a little more work, but much cheaper.

[Grider 1]

I disagree with CCTAU and here is why:

You upgrade your motherboard and CPU, spending the few evening it takes most people to get windows reloaded and working like it was before.

Two weeks later, the 3 year old hard drive that came with the computer bites he big one. Now you get to do it all over again after waiting a day or two for a new drive to show up or spending a significant difference to buy a drive at a CompUSA or MicroCenter are what have you.

At some point the cost/benny meter goes to "Crap, I should have just bought a new one".

I work on these things for a living and most days the last thing I want to do is come home and reinstall an operating system and a crap-ton programs. (which is why I have automated install cds, but that is beyond the scope of this question) There are numerous benefits to having a computer "just work" out of the box and most every time you go to use it. And not having to worry about oldish hardware dying and taking your baby's pictures with it.

[chinook 0]

i got to say, i never thought about a mac.

so tonight, i began reading up on the imac. much like everyone has said, it seems to be the right fit for my desires and relief of pc hassles. i get so frustrated with lock ups and unexpected shut downs. i feel lost with the pc and all the add ons for photo editing, virus protection and such.

i appreciate cctau comments as i have thought about it but do i really won't do go through that hassle. plus, i am not a cpu guru and i would rather not deal with the potential headaches and worries.

again, thanks for the advice.

i will never by another dell. our work uses dell and we have nothing but problems. i have owned three (including 2 right, now) and i am convienced after 2 years of use, dell releases a program to begin the demise of the cpu.

[Grider 1]

i will never by another dell. our work uses dell and we have nothing but problems. i have owned three (including 2 right, now) and i am convienced after 2 years of use, dell releases a program to begin the demise of the cpu.

I have decent to good luck with Dells, but i mainly buy and use their corporate grade stuff (optiplex and latitude).

There has been a run of stuff over the last couple year or more with bad capacitors on the motherboards causing all kinds of strange problems. It really has been felt by every PC maker. I just recently had 5 computers of the same vintage that all got new motherboards under warranty because the capacitors had gone bad and caused all kinds of problems.

http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=5878 is a story from 2002 about the problem. The article date is old, but I've found stuff that was assembled as late as 2005 that has the problem.

[saniflush 0]

Get a Gateway. I think they come with coupons for Chik-fil-a.

[otterinbham 0]

i got to say, i never thought about a mac.

so tonight, i began reading up on the imac. much like everyone has said, it seems to be the right fit for my desires and relief of pc hassles. i get so frustrated with lock ups and unexpected shut downs. i feel lost with the pc and all the add ons for photo editing, virus protection and such.

i appreciate cctau comments as i have thought about it but do i really won't do go through that hassle. plus, i am not a cpu guru and i would rather not deal with the potential headaches and worries.

again, thanks for the advice.

i will never by another dell. our work uses dell and we have nothing but problems. i have owned three (including 2 right, now) and i am convienced after 2 years of use, dell releases a program to begin the demise of the cpu.

Let me put it to you this way. I have been using my PowerBook for a year and a half now, and have NEVER had a system crash. I've occasionally had an application shut down and have to be started up again, but that's a minor annoyance compared to the almost daily crashes I had with Windows.

[johnwegl 11]

Everyone I work with have Macs and love them.

I work in the tv production world where's it's mac's or nothing.

Personally, I would just build your own. Go to a privately owned store, tell them what you want and go from there.

[CCTAU 3,362]

I disagree with CCTAU and here is why:

You upgrade your motherboard and CPU, spending the few evening it takes most people to get windows reloaded and working like it was before.

Two weeks later, the 3 year old hard drive that came with the computer bites he big one. Now you get to do it all over again after waiting a day or two for a new drive to show up or spending a significant difference to buy a drive at a CompUSA or MicroCenter are what have you.

I've had that happen before but it was my fault. If you buy a new hard drive at the same time (office depot has 100gig for about $20 at times, after mail in) then make your old one a slave, you save your goodies and have an extra drive for storage. Usually my main hard drive only consists of the OS and few apps.

I have not bought a new computer in about 8 years. I have bought MBs, memory and other peripherals. Yes sometimes it is a pain. But all my kids have working computers without a huge overhead. I do not work on these every day, but with a little practice, it can be done fairly efficiently and inexpensively.

[TitanTiger 20,576]

I think this debate comes down to the the difference between tinkerers and users. It's like cars...there are people who love to work on them, tweak the engines, replace the carburetor and exhaust. Put better engines and suspensions in them and so on. And they could build a little hot rod or even a good basic car for cheaper than you'd find the finished product on the lot. They enjoy it and save money in the process. Then there are others who want a car to do a few simple things...be reliable, be comfortable, drive well and so on. Different people have different priorities but the bottom line is, they want it to work like its supposed to, get them from Point A to Point B and have a few amenities that fit their personal preferences. They either don't have the knowledge, the technical skill, the time or the desire to be able to "build their own."

The former group is vastly smaller than the latter one and always will be. When it comes to computers, some folks love building their own, or buying a basic system then upping the specs by replacing various parts more cheaply than buying a tricked out system to begin with. Most people just want the thing to do what they need for it to do with a minimum of problems or fuss.

[jared52 4,354]

Hey WC, you may not know this but the new Intel based Macs can run Windows XP as a seperate operating system. There are a couple of ways to do this, I use Bootcamp which is in Beta from Apple but the beta is only for the drivers and Windows runs amazingly well. If you get an iMac the only thing that won't work is the camera in the display (called the iSight). I have the MacMini and I love it. I play Final Fantasy XI on it and it runs well, so don't let the "it won't play games" thing scare you, if you're even remotly interested in that. You have to have a legal copy of Windows XP SP2 (the full version) which can be had for less than $100 (don't go to Office Whatever and buy it, get it online from a reputable website and save $$). It's nice to have both at times but for pictures, email, video, and the like you cannot go wrong with a Mac. I have a 2.5 year old eMac (I'm using it now) and while a spiffy new 24" iMac would be awesome, it runs as good as the day I bought it. When Vista comes out, some of the computers running Windows XP won't be able to run Vista very well. When I went from OS X 10.3 to 10.4 my system ran BETTER.

This isn't a Windows rant by any means, just a glaringly positive review of Mac. Feel free to PM me questions you have about the OS or hardware.

[CCTAU 3,362]

Those who can, build. Those who can't, buy Macs.....

[TitanTiger 20,576]

Those who can, build. Those who can't, buy Macs.....

Booooo.

More like, those who can, build. Those who can't and are masochists buy Windoze. Those who can or can't, but won't need to, buy Macs.

[otterinbham 0]

Those who can, build. Those who can't, buy Macs.....

Actually it's "Those who want to actually get work done rather than screwing around with their computers all day buy Macs."

Honest to God, I never realized how much time I spent just screwing around with my PC before I switched over. Everytime I installed a program, added a peripheral, blah blah blah.

Need another example? We bought a new digital camera last Christmas. The PC instructions for the driver software were SIXTEEN PAGES. The Mac instructions were simply "Plug It In."

. My brother-in-law is an electrical engineer and he's always monkeying around with this two-year-old Dell. Changing boards. Adding peripherals. And he can never get the thing to work properly. Part of it is the execrable Windows software. Part of it is the way PCs typically are designed. It's kind of like guys who are perpetually fiddling around with their cars. The damn things work better when you leave them the hell alone.

[CCTAU 3,362]

Those who can, build. Those who can't, buy Macs.....

Actually it's "Those who want to actually get work done rather than screwing around with their computers all day buy Macs."

Honest to God, I never realized how much time I spent just screwing around with my PC before I switched over. Everytime I installed a program, added a peripheral, blah blah blah.

Need another example? We bought a new digital camera last Christmas. The PC instructions for the driver software were SIXTEEN PAGES. The Mac instructions were simply "Plug It In."

. My brother-in-law is an electrical engineer and he's always monkeying around with this two-year-old Dell. Changing boards. Adding peripherals. And he can never get the thing to work properly. Part of it is the execrable Windows software. Part of it is the way PCs typically are designed. It's kind of like guys who are perpetually fiddling around with their cars. The damn things work better when you leave them the hell alone.

Yes, but us privileged few cannot afford the MAC. Besides, if I don't use the old boxes, what will I do with them?

[TitanTiger 20,576]

Those who can, build. Those who can't, buy Macs.....

Actually it's "Those who want to actually get work done rather than screwing around with their computers all day buy Macs."

Honest to God, I never realized how much time I spent just screwing around with my PC before I switched over. Everytime I installed a program, added a peripheral, blah blah blah.

Need another example? We bought a new digital camera last Christmas. The PC instructions for the driver software were SIXTEEN PAGES. The Mac instructions were simply "Plug It In."

. My brother-in-law is an electrical engineer and he's always monkeying around with this two-year-old Dell. Changing boards. Adding peripherals. And he can never get the thing to work properly. Part of it is the execrable Windows software. Part of it is the way PCs typically are designed. It's kind of like guys who are perpetually fiddling around with their cars. The damn things work better when you leave them the hell alone.

Yes, but us privileged few cannot afford the MAC. Besides, if I don't use the old boxes, what will I do with them?

Really? You can't afford a $599 Mac Mini, or a $999 iMac or a $1099 MacBook? Those are the entry level prices for a Mac if you don't find any discounts or rebates (such as the ones Amazon's offering right now). And aren't stripped down machines with crappy Celeron processors either. That's dual core processors (either Core Duo or Core 2 Duo). And that doesn't even count the used market like eBay.

Sorry, the price issue doesn't wash since the switch to Intel processors.

[otterinbham 0]

Those who can, build. Those who can't, buy Macs.....

Actually it's "Those who want to actually get work done rather than screwing around with their computers all day buy Macs."

Honest to God, I never realized how much time I spent just screwing around with my PC before I switched over. Everytime I installed a program, added a peripheral, blah blah blah.

Need another example? We bought a new digital camera last Christmas. The PC instructions for the driver software were SIXTEEN PAGES. The Mac instructions were simply "Plug It In."

. My brother-in-law is an electrical engineer and he's always monkeying around with this two-year-old Dell. Changing boards. Adding peripherals. And he can never get the thing to work properly. Part of it is the execrable Windows software. Part of it is the way PCs typically are designed. It's kind of like guys who are perpetually fiddling around with their cars. The damn things work better when you leave them the hell alone.

Yes, but us privileged few cannot afford the MAC. Besides, if I don't use the old boxes, what will I do with them?

Really? You can't afford a $599 Mac Mini, or a $999 iMac or a $1099 MacBook? Those are the entry level prices for a Mac if you don't find any discounts or rebates (such as the ones Amazon's offering right now). And aren't stripped down machines with crappy Celeron processors either. That's dual core processors (either Core Duo or Core 2 Duo). And that doesn't even count the used market like eBay.

Sorry, the price issue doesn't wash since the switch to Intel processors.

Titan. He just doesn't want one. He's suspicious of change.

[CCTAU 3,362]

Those who can, build. Those who can't, buy Macs.....

Actually it's "Those who want to actually get work done rather than screwing around with their computers all day buy Macs."

Honest to God, I never realized how much time I spent just screwing around with my PC before I switched over. Everytime I installed a program, added a peripheral, blah blah blah.

Need another example? We bought a new digital camera last Christmas. The PC instructions for the driver software were SIXTEEN PAGES. The Mac instructions were simply "Plug It In."

. My brother-in-law is an electrical engineer and he's always monkeying around with this two-year-old Dell. Changing boards. Adding peripherals. And he can never get the thing to work properly. Part of it is the execrable Windows software. Part of it is the way PCs typically are designed. It's kind of like guys who are perpetually fiddling around with their cars. The damn things work better when you leave them the hell alone.

Yes, but us privileged few cannot afford the MAC. Besides, if I don't use the old boxes, what will I do with them?

Really? You can't afford a $599 Mac Mini, or a $999 iMac or a $1099 MacBook? Those are the entry level prices for a Mac if you don't find any discounts or rebates (such as the ones Amazon's offering right now). And aren't stripped down machines with crappy Celeron processors either. That's dual core processors (either Core Duo or Core 2 Duo). And that doesn't even count the used market like eBay.

Sorry, the price issue doesn't wash since the switch to Intel processors.

I already have everything I need. If I want to go faster, I just buy a new MB and processor. ZOOM, ZOOM, ZOOM.

[TitanTiger 20,576]

Those who can, build. Those who can't, buy Macs.....

Actually it's "Those who want to actually get work done rather than screwing around with their computers all day buy Macs."

Honest to God, I never realized how much time I spent just screwing around with my PC before I switched over. Everytime I installed a program, added a peripheral, blah blah blah.

Need another example? We bought a new digital camera last Christmas. The PC instructions for the driver software were SIXTEEN PAGES. The Mac instructions were simply "Plug It In."

. My brother-in-law is an electrical engineer and he's always monkeying around with this two-year-old Dell. Changing boards. Adding peripherals. And he can never get the thing to work properly. Part of it is the execrable Windows software. Part of it is the way PCs typically are designed. It's kind of like guys who are perpetually fiddling around with their cars. The damn things work better when you leave them the hell alone.

Yes, but us privileged few cannot afford the MAC. Besides, if I don't use the old boxes, what will I do with them?

Really? You can't afford a $599 Mac Mini, or a $999 iMac or a $1099 MacBook? Those are the entry level prices for a Mac if you don't find any discounts or rebates (such as the ones Amazon's offering right now). And aren't stripped down machines with crappy Celeron processors either. That's dual core processors (either Core Duo or Core 2 Duo). And that doesn't even count the used market like eBay.

Sorry, the price issue doesn't wash since the switch to Intel processors.

I already have everything I need. If I want to go faster, I just buy a new MB and processor. ZOOM, ZOOM, ZOOM.

Well, that's great...but it isn't what you said. You made it sound like owning a Mac was something only the well-heeled could afford, which isn't the case.

[WarTiger 3,947]

Those who can, build. Those who can't, buy Macs.....

Actually it's "Those who want to actually get work done rather than screwing around with their computers all day buy Macs."

Honest to God, I never realized how much time I spent just screwing around with my PC before I switched over. Everytime I installed a program, added a peripheral, blah blah blah.

Need another example? We bought a new digital camera last Christmas. The PC instructions for the driver software were SIXTEEN PAGES. The Mac instructions were simply "Plug It In."

. My brother-in-law is an electrical engineer and he's always monkeying around with this two-year-old Dell. Changing boards. Adding peripherals. And he can never get the thing to work properly. Part of it is the execrable Windows software. Part of it is the way PCs typically are designed. It's kind of like guys who are perpetually fiddling around with their cars. The damn things work better when you leave them the hell alone.

Yes, but us privileged few cannot afford the MAC. Besides, if I don't use the old boxes, what will I do with them?

Really? You can't afford a $599 Mac Mini, or a $999 iMac or a $1099 MacBook? Those are the entry level prices for a Mac if you don't find any discounts or rebates (such as the ones Amazon's offering right now). And aren't stripped down machines with crappy Celeron processors either. That's dual core processors (either Core Duo or Core 2 Duo). And that doesn't even count the used market like eBay.

Sorry, the price issue doesn't wash since the switch to Intel processors.

I already have everything I need. If I want to go faster, I just buy a new MB and processor. ZOOM, ZOOM, ZOOM.

Exactly...and CCTAU...have you heard about the overclocking of Intels core 2 processor. I have a friend that is the general manager at a local computer store here, and those core 2 processors run so cool, that he took a 2.1 core 2 and overclocked it to 3.6.... That is next on my buying list. New motherboard/CPU/memory combo. Of course this may lead to a new graphics card(PCIe) which will lead to a new power supply...LOL... well, you get the idea.. I love building my own...+ i have everything I need with a dual layer dvd burner w/lightscribe and a tv tuner card for DVD recording...Yes, that is specifically for Auburn football...Lol...