I NEED NEW COMPUTER ADVICE

[Guest jstlooknthx]

OK, perhaps I'm in the wrong forum but you guys seem to collectively know everything! I am a dial up dinosaur with a basic Emachine that has served me well for 5 yrs. I now find I can't do most the things I would like to do on computer. Burns CDs. Watch video. Talk long distance. Most likely many other things I haven't even discovered yet.

 

I am kind of in the dark on what to get. Friends rave about MAC but honestly that may be a bit pricey for me. Basic guy with basic needs here. I see great prices for Dell. Will I be happy with a Dell? Also, I'm imagining my DSL should just be with my local phone service for a better deal. Right? Or are particular services much better than others?

 

I will await and appreciate any sage advice you might have for me. Please be gentle! It's been just recently this past year that I have even been home enough to spend much time on line. Just realizing this year how antiquated my system is. Thanks for you help.

[DelawareGuy]

Folks can be very loyal to brands; just as if you asked what kind of car to buy, some will swear by Ford, others by Chevy. It's no different here; you can just as easily buy a Dell lemon as a Compaq. Personally, the last three PCs I've had have been Compaq and I haven't had a bit of trouble. My advice is: Buy as much as you can afford. As much RAM, as much video RAM (you mentioned wanting to watch video)as your wallet will allow. No doubt, there will be big sales after Christmas; use the Internet to compare prices and featues.

 

Regarding your DSL question, I'm sure your local phone provider has a bundle deal for DSL. I have Verizon and they did for me.

 

Good luck, and let us know what you get!

[+ Tom Isern]

I've owned Macs, a Gateway, E-Machines, and Dells... Here's my two balls worth: For the basic home user there is no reason, unless you love the shapely design or love to take it up the a** in the wallet, to pay the extra $$ for the Mac. If you're not sure what to buy or what your real hardware or software needs are, if acronyms like RAM wiz from ear to ear without deep penetration, I'd call Dell or any of the main PC brands and explain exactly what you want to do on your computer and let a salesperson guide you to the best machine--submit boy. I have also found the customer service guys at tigerdirect.com not only knowledgable but extremely friendly. The've pulled me out of a few knots over the years. The only real decision you have to make: How big do you want it (I mean the screen?)

[ValleyDwellerNorth]

>OK, perhaps I'm in the wrong forum but you guys seem to

>collectively know everything! I am a dial up dinosaur with a

>basic Emachine that has served me well for 5 yrs. I now find I

>can't do most the things I would like to do on computer. Burns

>CDs. Watch video. Talk long distance. Most likely many other

>things I haven't even discovered yet.

 

Before I give my 2 cents please know I am very picky with computers. Also Deej is, to me, the master and commander of all that is tech so hopefully he will chime in here for you.

 

Dell and Gateway: OK computers but technical phone support SUCKS for both! I had Dell, Gateway, Sony, etc. All so-so. I had issues with them all.

 

HOWEVER ... this past summer I went to a Staples office supply store and bought a Hewlett Packard computer out of a box for under $1,000. Best thing I ever did and I have NEVER been happier with a computer in my life.

 

It sounds to me you are at the basic level of computer operations. If you live near a Staples stop in and take a look. Make a list of everything you want to do and let them help you.

 

Good luck!

VDN

http://valleydwellernorth.blogspot.com/

[+ deej]

You've received good advice so far. Some people have fierce brand loyalty and there was a time in the industry when that was perfectly valid but there is little reason for that today.

 

One word of caution: the only maker with a less than stellar reputation at the moment is ... errr ... Emachine. I owned one and had no trouble at all with it, but talk to any repair technician and they'll grumble when you mention Emachine.

 

My last PC and my current one have been Compaq, but that's mostly because on the day I needed a PC that's what Costco had on the shelf that most closely matched my needs.

 

One word of advice: avoid retailers like BestBuy unless you know EXACTLY what you want and are willing to browbeat the salesman to give it to you. They are obnoxious, generally don't know what they're talking about, and will try to talk you into whatever gives them the biggest commission even after you've decided on something else.

 

For DSL, check with your phone company. And then compare prices with your cable company's high speed internet.

[+ deej]

One more thought.

 

The single biggest consideration when buying a PC is RAM. Get LOTS of it!

 

For some reason, manufacturers seem to be soaking the marketplace with computers with 256MB of RAM running Windows XP. 256 MB is the minimum for Windows. You'll need more if you expect to run anything else IN Windows.

 

A large amount of RAM will also keep an older machine going longer as new versions of programs come out that need more resources. In other words the more RAM you have, the longer you're pushing off the replacement date.

[+ deej]

>Deej is, to me, the master and commander of all that is tech

 

<blush> Much appreciated, VDN, but undeserved.

 

I'm just a schlub who's been building 'em, fixing 'em, supporting 'em, and yes, swearing at 'em, for 20 years. ;-)

[Guest Tristan]

>

>One word of caution: the only maker with a less than stellar

>reputation at the moment is ... errr ... Emachine. I owned one

>and had no trouble at all with it, but talk to any repair

>technician and they'll grumble when you mention Emachine.

>

 

Interesting. I was told by a salesman that E-machine is now owned by Gateway, which in my experience has gone down the tubes.

[Barry]

Well after my Espon QX10 Z80 box (don't ask), I've had 1 Gateway (it sucked), 5 Dells (all good) and now an HP Pavilion which has been good as well. Back in my corporate purchasing days we had a relationship with Compaq and had remarkably few issues with over 3,000 desktops. IT loved them. I don't know if it's true but when HP and Compaq merged, HP boxes were supposed to have Compaq innards.

 

Barry

[FourAces]

I just want to add to the good advice others have given to you.

 

The 3 most important things sre

RAM

Processor

Graphics card.

 

I would stick with 512 to 1 gig of RAM. It is cheap these days and no reason to have less.

 

Intel is the best processor in my opinion. However stay with from their Celeron chip. It is cheaper but not as solid as the others.

 

Graphics card should not be shared and should have enough memory to support streaming video.

 

I've used several brands of computers and seem to be happiest with Dell. Gateway, Sony, IBM were all pretty bad.

 

The biggest problem with Dell is their custome support. Though they have streamlined it.

 

Also, get a flat pannel monitor they are standard with many systems anyway. Pass on the cd burner and get a DVD burner that also handles CDs.

 

For $1000. - $1200. you should be able to get an amazing system.

 

Good luck and let us know what you decided on.

 

Dell has some good deals on their web site and you can customize to get exactly what you want. I would start there.

[+ deej]

I could quibble with sticking to Intel. AMD is doing some fine things with chips these days. (see below) And the Celeron has known incompatibilities with some functionality (mostly network file handling). A home user will likely never hit them, but if you do there is no workaround.

 

But that's just from trying to support the damn things. ;-)

 

> For $1000. - $1200. you should be able to get an amazing system.

 

Your price range might be a little high, even. About a month ago I needed a new PC immediately so stopped into Costco. Got a Compaq with Athlon 64, 1GBRam, 250GB HD, CD/DVD-RW for just under $900 including a 17" LCD monitor. It's a pretty cool system.

 

I did go to the Dell site, and pricing similar did bump up the price by about $500-$1,000, depending on options chosen. (They didn't *have* an Athlon box yet.) But I couldn't wait for mailorder. I needed a box NOW.

 

For the record, I worked for a consulting/training company that had 12 training rooms. The entire company, and all training rooms, were Dell. We never had any problems. I did have a Windows meltdown that coincided with discovering the CD and Floppy on my notebook were not working.

 

This happened late at night, the night before I was leaving to make a presentation at a conference. The Dell support people were on the phone with me until we at least had my machine running so I could set up the presentation, and they FedExed the replacement parts to my hotel so they were waiting when I arrived. They were GREAT.

[OneFinger]

You've got great advice so far about getting as much as you can afford when it comes to RAM, video card, processor, etc.

 

But, I've got kind of a different perspective on the Windows vs. Mac environment. I have a personal preference for Windows because every company I've worked for since Windows was invented uses that platform. I personally like having a system at home that is similar to my work environment.

 

Now for brands. At work I've had HP, Compaq, and Dell. At home I've generally bought from local stores that build their own. (I like the idea of getting exactly what I want and not what generally comes "standard" out of the box at a store.)

 

By far I've had the best performance and upgradability with Compaq. I believe Dell, Gateway, and HP hardwire many of their components to the motherboard. That makes upgrades, repairs, and expansions more costly and difficult. Compaq, on the other hand, was easy for me to upgrade and add "plug and play" devices on my own.

 

For the past 3 years my work computer has been a Dell and I've been very satisfied with performance. But, I've heard horror stories about working with their customer service people.

 

For printers I have a real preference for HP. In my book they have the best ink jet and laser equipment. Plus, drivers are always available for them and I consider them the industry standard that everyone else is trying to imitate.

 

I currently have DSL from my local phone company and it is great. But, I'm seriously considering switching to my cable company because they do offer faster speed. But, both companies offer package deals where DSL is less when bundled with other products.

 

Hope that helps.

 

-------------

"We need to have more respect for each other. Things have just gone really crazy, out of control. ... We're on a very weird kind of cycle." Stevie Wonder

[ValleyDwellerNorth]

FOUND IT!

 

http://babydb.male4malescorts.com/m4mdc/dcboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=4&topic_id=70125&mesg_id=70125

 

This is a thread from long ago about this very topic with a lot of GREAT advice! The late Hoo also gave his input as well.

 

VDN

[+ deej]

>For printers I have a real preference for HP. In my book they

>have the best ink jet and laser equipment. Plus, drivers are

>always available for them and I consider them the industry

>standard that everyone else is trying to imitate.

 

I'll second that, with a few comments. ;-)

 

HP Laserjets last FOREVER. I know several high volume production sites that are still using the original Laserjet III. They've occasionally had to replace a part here or there but it just keeps chugging along.

 

Inkjets are inherently more fragile, but I draw the line at ANY multi-function machine (printer/fax/copier/scanner). They're never particularly good at being any one of those things.

 

And HP printer drivers are LEGENDARY in the software world for their ... how do they say this delicately? .... SUCKINESS. ;-) The good news is that if the newest driver causes problems, you can always download and install the immediately previous driver, even if it's for a previous printer model, and they'll probably work.

[JT Brooklyn]

Deej. BUT the "Sales Boys" are so cute at the Best Buy on 23rd St in Manhattan! I would Luv to plug into a couple of the USB Ports they have...I guess this isn't Techie advice though huh?

Sorry Apologies to you and VDN...:+

[Guest zipperzone]

>It sounds to me you are at the basic level of computer

>operations. If you live near a Staples stop in and take a

>look. Make a list of everything you want to do and let them

>help you.

>

 

My local Staples store is staffed by a bunch of overweight teenagers who make it clear that the customer is just one great big pain in the ass who takes them away from their main function of discussing last night's reality TV program. And trust me...... the management isn't much better. They just don't give a shit.

 

Spend mega bucks on a computer there? Not in a million years. I can hardly bring myself to even buy pencils there!

[Guest Tristan]

>

>This happened late at night, the night before I was leaving to

>make a presentation at a conference. The Dell support people

>were on the phone with me until we at least had my machine

>running so I could set up the presentation, and they FedExed

>the replacement parts to my hotel so they were waiting when I

>arrived. They were GREAT.

 

Times have changed in Dell support land. Most tech support calls are routed to India, where the support has been notoriously bad. People are frustrated and disgusted with their support. The tech support people don't understand Americans, and Americans don't understand them. It can take me 20 minutes just to get the tech rep to understand how to spell my e-mail address. Before I know it, it's 45 minutes before we've even addressed the problem.

 

Most of the reps sound like they were given a bunch of manuals and told to put the customer on hold while they try to find the answer in one of their manuals. I know one person who was so put off, she returned her Dell. They all are given American names and a course in American idiomatic usage of English. The whole thing is so transparent.

 

If you give them a problem they can't handle, and stomp up and down, they'll transfer you to a Level 2 Tech Rep in the US. The job of the Level 1 people is to prevent as many customers as possible from talking with US technical people. AOL and other large companies have also resorted to outsourcing to India because they pay people there a fraction of what they would pay a rep in the US. I understand why they are doing this, but it's still a huge mistake. Dell was once known for great tech support, and it's sad to see that after the sale is made, to a large extent, Dell abandons its customers without whom it wouldn't be #1 in PC sales.

 

The last time I called Dell Tech Support, I was told that they are no longer supporting the OS for free, just hardware. Support for software would cost me, even though I had a service contract including support for hardware and the OS. Nobody else will support the OS. It's OEM once Dell touches it. A supervisor there told me they've had so many complaints that Dell was rethinking restoring free support for the OS for people still under warranty. Note that I'm not talking about software applications, for which Dell is not required to help. I haven't called back since then. Hopefully, they have changed their policy.

 

Please, please understand that what I have written are the facts. My statements do not represent any kind of ethnic prejudice. So please don't read something into my comments that isn't there. It's just a matter of record that the support people in India and American customers can't communicate well enough to solve anything but the most basic problem. And even that is extremely tedious. This inhibits Dell customers from even calling tech support, but rather try to get help from someone they know or some other source.

[+ deej]

Support is a nightmare for everyone.

 

Companies really should put their most savvy engineers on support but they can't afford to pay the salaries they command so we end up talking with someone who likely has never seen the product and can only follow a script.

 

And follow a script they do. Infuriatingly. Before I got rid of my DSL circuit, I knew their support script better than they did. Everything they'd ask me to do I'd respond "done that", until I got to tier 2. I'd often say "You skipped a step, didn't you?" ;-) It's quite maddening for someone who knows the product better than they do to get asked the equivalent of "Is there gas in the car ma'am?"

 

Last time I stayed at the Westin in Seattle, I had to call the support line for their broadband provider. (A call the hotel charged me for!) The American I talked to was so rude and script-bound I hung up on him.

 

The offshore phenomenon goes in cycles. It was big 20 years ago, but then companies realized the repercussions and started bringing operations back. The same will happen this time around. (Dell has already pulled corporate support back.) My own employer was a victim. They spent a God-awful amount on offshore software development and didn't get Jack for it before bringing it back in-house.

 

It will get better. Or it won't. :+

[Guest jstlooknthx]

Just got back to this post since I wrote it. THANK YOU so much for all your advice. I am thinking Dell is the way for me to go. They have a store on the west side here in LA. I thought you could just order them on line. I still like to try something out myself and talk to the salespeople before I buy. I think I will drop by the Apple store at the Grove also. They say if you are really a closet MAC person you will know it when you enter that store.

 

The tech support stories are horrible to read about. Thankfully, I have never had any sort of problems with my Emachine. Never had to call for help. Perhaps I will have the same luck with Dell.

 

Thanks everybody!

[FourAces]

RE: IMAC

 

I was in a CompUSA this evening and began playing around with a new IMAC. I believe it was a G5 19" monitor 180 hard drive and 512RAM I forget the processor speed but it was about the top of the line for IMACS.

 

To my surprise I really liked it. It ran smoothly, surfed the Net well with Apple's Safari browser and was quite intuitive. Even the mouse had a scroll wheel something I hadn't seen prior for Apple computers. Bottom line I was really impressed, it ran really smooth, and the price was about right at $1,300 for the entire package including the DVD burner.

 

Anyone using this IMAC version?