PC Advice

[Woodcarver]

I'm shopping for a new PC to replace our Dell, which is old and woefully short of memory by today's standards. I plan to buy a machine with at least 4 meg of RAM.  Those I've looked at so far have been packaged with the 64-bit addressing version of Vista.  I assume 32-bit addressing will be obsolete eventually. A clerk I talked to, though, recommended avoiding the 64-bit operating systems. He said there are too many bugs in it yet (wouldn't be unusual for Microsoft).

I would appreciate any thoughts anyone might have on 64-bit vs 32 bit. Thanks.

[Warbird]

In the Windows world, I steer clear of 64 bit.  IMO, the clerk gave you good advice.  In fact, I steer clear of Vista all together.  Although it has been a few months since I last checked it out.

[isawlogs]

 I know nothing of computers ... but    My daughter bought a new lap top and she went with an Apple , that is where I will be going next time a change is needed,a learning curve is needed to operate it only due to the fact that we have been brainwashed with windows . 

[sbishop]

I'm a computer guru...i know i know...i'm not a building by trade 

For home, i would suggest staying away from the 64bit operating system, 32 bit is all you would need. XP is great, Vista is not too bad as long as anything you want to connect to your computer is not too old... I.E. if you are trying to connect your 15 year old scanner to a computer running vista...good luck!!!!

the issue with using 64bit operating system is your current devices that you have(Printer, scanner, webcam...etc..) probrably don't have 64bit drivers for it, so you would end up installing 32 bit driver...why bother with 64bit 

Sbishop

[york]

sbishop,what do you think about apple??My brother in law,tried to talk me out of getting an apple-he said they "shot themselves in the foot"

Bert

[sbishop]

apples grow on trees 

i'm really not an apple fan. IE...are all mechanics the same? diesel, gas....kinda but not really...in the computer world same thing, if a family member knows you work in computers...well you can fix anything..PC and MAC..not really...

ok back to your question 

These days Apples are using Intel processors....just like the rest of the world.

Some apples are running windows on top of their apple Operating system..just like the rest of the world..

BUT if you were into the graphic design, newspaper...etc....that's what they are good for!

For websurfing, which is what most poeple do at home...a PC i believe is the way to go....support is a big plus..you have a windows problem...do a search in google, i'm sure you will find help!

lots of my friends are running linux...but when they have a problem...not much support but it's getting better these days..more users!!!

my 2 cents!

Sbishop

[SwampDonkey]

Ah computers. I should buy me one of those new SAM440ep boards and build my own and purchase OS 4.1.


All in good fun.

[tyb525]

I'm running Ubuntu and love it, but I wouldn't recommend it for those with little knowledge of computers 
I would buy a new pc (although mine isnt bad 2.8 ghz nvidia 8200 1gb ram) but my limited income (aka minimum wage) won't allow me.

[sharp edge]

Got a new H.E. at Walmart 2 weeks ago.$850-- got 3 mb of ram, what is what I was after,SPEED. Will have to try pictures again. Also has 250 insteadof 100 backs to my solitaire cards.

SE

[Texas Ranger]

I have bought my last Dell, customer service sucks canal water, sales sucks canal water, Vista sucks canal water.  I would recommend anything other than the major box brands that offer no better service than the lessor brands.

I had a local guru build me my last one, with SP.  Far better working machine than the Dell of the same age.

[tonich]

I would stick to 32-bit OS for the time being. The downside is: the OS will be using “only” about 3,25 Gb of RAM (NOT “meg”, as you claim in your first post ).
Of course, this is not to bother you at all.

Good luck!

[IMERC]

the 64 bit is trouble prone.... stay with the 32 bit...

Vista is the pits... do what ya need to do to find a XP system or better yet go Mac...

[Don_Papenburg]

Has anyone looked into Vision computers ?  Neal Bortz is pushing them on some radio satations .   I was thinking of getting one when the Dell goes to He!!   They have teck support that speaks  english because they are based in the USA.   with an average wait time to speak to a human is five seconds.    It all sounds good and it is priced right.

[Clark]

...BUT if you were into the graphic design, newspaper...etc....that's what they are good for!

For websurfing, which is what most poeple do at home...a PC i believe is the way to go....support is a big plus..you have a windows problem...do a search in google, i'm sure you will find help!...

Apple is the computer to run for graphics and design programs for sure.  When it comes to simple internet browsing I don't think there is much difference.  Both get the job done and have ample support in that field. 

You'll pay more for the apple but you'll never get a virus and you can hang onto your computer longer.  I'm typing this on a 4-year old mac that has never had any sort of software problem.  I'll get another 2 years minimum out of this machine and never have a virus plus I don't have to transfer data from the old computer to my new one as often.

Since this is the forestry forum I do have to say that GIS support for apple computers is about nil unless you run windows on top of the apple system with the newer macs, but I know nothing of that.  So if you depend on up and downloading information from a PC to your GPS, get a pc.

Clark

[Woodcarver]

Thanks, Tonich.  I did mean Gig and not Meg.  I guess everyone read what I meant instead of what I typed.  That was after my mid-morning coffee, too.  I should have been awake, but apparently I wasn't.   

[Warbird]

The new Macs can run Windows natively on them.  I dual boot my work Macbook pro laptop.  Only boot into Windows when I need it, which is not often.  There are vulnerabilities for the Mac operating system, OS X.  Don't count on just being different to protect you, although currently, it is much safer to run a different OS, other than Windows.

[IMERC]

[/quote]


You'll pay more for the apple but you'll never get a virus and you can hang onto your computer longer. 
[/quote]

true on the pay more but the no virus item just means the hackers havent got to you yet...

[Clark]

You'll pay more for the apple but you'll never get a virus and you can hang onto your computer longer. 

true on the pay more but the no virus item just means the hackers havent got to you yet...

That is very true, but for now I think I'm safe.  A math professor did some research into what it would take for hackers to start making viruses for the Apple OS.  According to his numbers (which really a just a well-informed guess) there wouldn't be any until Apple's market share reached 16%.  Right now they are at 8%, so I've got plenty of time.

Clark

[SPIKER]

In todays world there are lots of machines all usually work OK if you know what you are doing, most people are now confident enough to know how to update drivers ect than there was 10 yrs ago.   I used to build computers for fun/saving $.  I built a dozen or so for myself & work & friends.  also prior to that I bought DELL (Or I refer to them as H E L L computers from lack of support even back then in the hey day.)  worst machine I ever had was/is a dell.   one I'm using now is way old outdated.  I built it in 98 or 99 I think, and am typing on it right now (Pentium III 550 processor with 256K ram Win 98SE.)   So just because it is old don't mean much or used to not. now a days MS has gotten wise and forces every software MFG to stop supporting anything older than the last version of the OS. 
This is a great business method for them (force everyone to keep upgrading every 18 months) and is key to their Monopoly they have going on. and yes I thin the GOV screwed it up when they went after MS back 10yrs ago letting them get away with what they did then...

not sure on Mac stuff while I've used it and was OK, BUT with MAC in business world it is still hard to use one, unless you are doing graphic's and or web support business.   

I'm not sure on the 64 vs 32 bit BUT if at all i would say hold off until after 1st of year..   there are going to be a lot of excess systems on market and prices are likely to fall a lot more in the next 3 months similar to a new car.  prices you will see are going to plummet due to many factors...

I plan on a NEW lap top after 1st of the year to FINALLY replace my old PC here.   BUT I will probably go with Toshiba (too bad Samsung does not make Lap Tops) as I have found all their stuff to be top notch...   I am also waiting for the NEXT ver of windows as every other ver of windows is good/bad.   this is how it has gone in last 15 yrs anyhow.  "Win 3.XX=good, Win 95= Bad, Win 98/98se = good, Win 2000/ME bad, Win XP = good, Vista = bad, win??? = good (I HOPE) and is what I'm waiting for something that is GOOD to come along otherwise I will buy & install Unix/redhat..."   

Mark M

[tyb525]

...win??? = good (I HOPE) and is what I'm waiting for something that is GOOD to come along...  

Windows 7 is the next version. It's supposed to be released in a couple years I think. From what I've heard, Vista is supposed to be the "bridge" between XP and 7. Microsoft Developers were pressured to release Vista before the bugs were worked out, so I hope they are able to take their time (reasonably) on this next version.

[IMERC]

I know nothing of computers ... but    My daughter bought a new lap top and she went with an Apple , that is where I will be going next time a change is needed,a learning curve is needed to operate it only due to the fact that we have been brainwashed with windows . 

if you get the book... "The Missing Manual" to go with yur Mac OS life will be so much better during the learning curve...

[IMERC]

I'm shopping for a new PC to replace

and if anyone tells you can load XP on a vista machine in any way shape or form run away....

you won't have the drivers you need and vista will fight you evey inch of the way....

[Ianab]

I'm shopping for a new PC to replace

and if anyone tells you can load XP on a vista machine in any way shape or form run away....

you won't have the drivers you need and vista will fight you evey inch of the way....

Thats is true for some laptops where the standard chipset drivers dont work and the manufacturer just gives you are 'rescue' disk or recovery partition.

But 99% of hardware still has XP support you can download, and Vista wont cause you ANY difficulty once you have removed the partition and reformatted 

Most Corporate companies have resisted installing Vista and forced MS to keep selling XP, hence their rush to get Windows 7 released. Hopefully it will be something that people actually want.

Ian

[IMERC]

Thats is true for some laptops where the standard chipset drivers dont work and the manufacturer just gives you are 'rescue' disk or recovery partition.

changed the CMOS

But 99% of hardware still has XP support you can download, and Vista wont cause you ANY difficulty once you have removed the partition and reformatted

 did that...
didn't work at 100%
when all was said and done I still lacked a pair of drivers..

Most Corporate companies have resisted installing Vista and forced MS to keep selling XP, hence their rush to get Windows 7 released. Hopefully it will be something that people actually want.

thru (can we say wasted) a lot of money at that program...

[Toolman]

Don't know a whole lot about computers. I've had my Toshiba laptop for over a year now with XP. It's been working great . No viruses yet. However, my wife bought an Acer with Vista and has had nothing but problems. Three times taken to local shop for virus problems, three keys fell off and on her second power cord now. She bought hers the same time I bought mine. She is now shopping for new computer. She's going with Toshiba.

[tyb525]

Keep in mind that getting viruses isn't (usually) because of the quality of the computer. It has to do with the quality of the virus software you have, if any. My sister has also had bad luck with Acer. The plug on the power cord is going bad. All of the extra Acer "performance" programs just made it run real slow. I uninstalled all of the acer software, defragged, installed AVG, and it runs great now.

[clearcut]

To get back to the original question 32 or 64 bit - Leopard, the current Macintosh OS is 64 bit compatible and the Mac Pro machines have 64 bit processors. So if you want a true 64 bit computer with a stable 64 bit operating system Mac seems the way to go.

Yeah, I am a Mac fan and have no hesitations recommending them. When you compare hardware to hardware the Mac comes up just a bit higher in price and often about equal depending on configuration. One exception, Apple installed RAM is ridiculously expensive.

When you compare Operating Systems - for me the Mac OS X is so far superior to Windows 2000 or XP (I have not tried Vista) there is no contest. The Mac OS just works, and works well. I get to work WITH my computer rather than work ON my computer. 

Unless you have a specific application that you must use a PC for, there is essentially no reason to not consider a Mac.  I have yet to find a an application that does not have a comparable if not superior Mac version. The only major GPS company that does not support the Mac is Magellan. There are third party solutions or modern Macs can either boot into or run Windows on a virtual machine.

The other thing that the Mac has all over Windows is the user community. I have no problem getting advice when the odd strange problem creeps up - yes Macs can get wonky now and then. Its rare but when it does happen, a large number of Mac fans will come to my rescue. With Windows due to the large number of hardware and software combinations  I just do not find the level of user support.

[J_T]

Well I got a Dell running Vista home preminum I don't know zip about puters It has wireless everything more ports than I know what for  Hasen't missed a lick in almost a year  it was a present from Son  Got one those flat screens and all

[DouginUtah]

 When Brian Livingston says "do it right now", I do it.

http://WindowsSecrets.com/comp/081024

Small patch and easy to do.

[Warbird]

 When Brian Livingston says "do it right now", I do it.

http://WindowsSecrets.com/comp/081024

Small patch and easy to do.

Here is more info on it:  http://secunia.com/advisories/32326/

I'm not sure it could be as bad as Blaster was but better to be safe than sorry.