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New computer purchase advise.

Started by Dana, February 24, 2008, 11:16:19 AM

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Dana

I am looking to purchase a new computer. I want to get a Dell as I have had 3 and no trouble out of them. I have $800.00 to spend including the monitor.
Here is the link to their spec page.http://www.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/inspndt_530?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs&~tab=bundlestab

A few questions do I want XP or Vista home edition? Is 2 gb memory and a 500 gb hard drive ok?The one I'm looking at is on the far right of the page. Walmart offers the system for one dollar less than Dell. I don't know if Walmart includes any software. I don't know if Dell is charging shipping.

Is there a less expensive place to purchase a similar Dell system?

Any and all advise would be appreciated.

Grass-fed beef farmer, part time sawyer

Norm

Dana that looks like a good one to get. The memory and hard drive are about the right size. I'd recommend XP over Vista. I use both and find that although Vista has some nice features there's too many things that just work better with XP.

Stump Jumper

If you go with Vista do the updates one at a time and make manual go back points before you install each one.  We have went through 4 HP Presarios before getting one that works. (Purchased through WalMart) This was last Nov - Dec.  Some of the updates conflict with the Vista software and the computer will not operate properly.  If you do start having problems make sure you get it returned within the 15 days.  I went from Windows 98 SE to Vista that was a big change.  When looking for a new computer I was told that you can no longer purchase a new one with XP that they only come with Vista.   There are different versions of Vista there is Basic - Home Premium etc. 

Depending on what you want to do 2 GB ram should be good that will handle pics.  500gb Hard Drive should be good as well.  You will need to check out the processor as well this is the speed at which the hard drive runs.

I make movie DVD's with 50-400 pics for the family and people that we do jobs for.

I have 1 GB Ram and 250 GB HD  and the 2.8 GHZ processor

This thing rocked Stump Jumpers world

Mrs. Stump Jumper
Jeff
May God Bless.
WM LT 40 SuperHDD42 HP Kubota walk & ride, WM Edger, JD Skidsteer 250, Farmi winch, Bri-Mar Dump Box Trailer, Black Powder

Dakota

The last two Dell computers I bought were from their reconditioned supply.  They come with the same guarantee plus you get all the extra software that was sold with the computer when it was new.  The savings are great.  Be ready to buy when you see what you want as they go fast.

Dakota
Dave Rinker

logwalker

I don't know what your computing needs are but that is an awful lot of computer. What are you using now? That would give an idea of what your needs are. I would go with the XP also. Joe
Let's all be careful out there tomorrow. Lt40hd, 22' Kenworth Flatbed rollback dump, MM45B Mitsubishi trackhoe, Clark5000lb Forklift, Kubota L2850 tractor

Dana

My current computer is a Dell with a pentium iii at 731mhz, 127.26 physical mem., and 2.0 gb virtual memory. It is using the ME operating system.
I will go with the xp operating system based on all your recommendations.

My last computers were pretty well loaded with software, dictionary, norton, microsoft small business, microsoft office and a few more. The current ones don't seem to have this have they cut back on the software being pre loaded?
Grass-fed beef farmer, part time sawyer

GHRoberts

Dell seems to be reasonably priced for what you get.

I don't know what you intend to do with the computer but 4GB of memory might make VISTA perform better.

beenthere

I've bought two Dell in the last year...the first had XP but was Vista compatible.
The second was Vista.  The Vista has been a very frustrating system..that which can easily be done on XP with files, cannot be done easily with Vista...files are 'hidden' and only with a lot of work, can be found (but not with a search-for-file function, as with XP and previous Windows operating systems).

Went back to Dell, to see if the Vista could be changed to XP.  Yes, was the answer, but they would exchange the computer with a reconditioned one that was XP.  Or, I could just pay $200 and buy the XP operating system on a CD.

At the moment, dear wife is managing to use the Vista system, and I cringe when asked to help with a lost file problem.  
I don't understand the reason for changing the OS the way they did from XP to Vista...

For a short time, Dell is selling both systems...but told me that May was the end of their offers, as such.

The Business Vista versions, Dell was making a free exchange back to XP for their customers. Not with the Home Vista users.

Times do change, and we just try to adapt.  ;D
south central Wisconsin
It may be that my sole purpose in life is simply to serve as a warning to others

tonich

One more vote for $799 + WinXP!  ;)

beav39

i have a dell also ,i would go with the xp as well tryed the vista just didnt compare to xp
sawdust in the blood

rebocardo

> We have went through 4 HP Presarios

HP and Compaq are not what they use to be, premium quality purchases. Just a name now for Staples and Office Depot to put out.


Jeff

We buy our computers from walmart now.  Unless you are very, very computer illiterate and need regular tech support then the big names in my book, is a waste of money. The computers we have here were bought at walmart for $399 on sale 4 years ago.  We bought two new machines for the price of one Dell or Gateway. Since we are networked, we ended up with a spare printer as a backup form the package.  These machines are now getting small compared to todays standards, but they are on all the time, everything I do related to the Forestry Forum and other web work, is done by these computers and so far, knock on wood, they have given us minimal trouble.  I have upgraded my monitor to a flat screen, but sold the old one in a yard sale. I have also bought extra memory to help with my graphics work, but I still have far less into them then a big name computer.

https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php/topic,5667.0.html
Just call me the midget doctor.
Forestry Forum Founder and Chief Cook and Bottle Washer.

Commercial circle sawmill sawyer in a past life for 25yrs.
Ezekiel 22:30

Corley5

Have you looked at laptops  ???  They're as powerful as a desktop, take less space and can go with you 8) 8)  I'll never buy another desktop  :) :)
Burnt Gunpowder is the Smell Of Freedom

johncinquo

On the Dell site check into the bargain basement or whatver they call it.  Returned or reconditioned ones.  Somebody ordered  th eone I have and it did not come with a CD burner installed, so they returned it.  I saved a bunch.   I think 2 gb is about the minimum nowadays.  Anything less seems to run slow with so much baloney that gets loaded on.   It makes power surfing that much better too!
To be one, Ask one
Masons and Shriners

Dana

Jeff, I am computer illiterate thats why I think I need a Dell. Not for the customer support but for the fact that they don't seem to need any.
Corley, aren't laptops more money and what about the battery need to be replaced every few years more cost there? There is wireless internet in our area if I had a laptop do you get this for free. Thats right, I am cheap. ;D
John, won't be any power surfing here. If you have followed another of my post on the alt energy side you would find I have 56k dial up. I am still waiting on my internet provider to "fix" the problem of reaching the biodiesel.infopop site. :-[
Grass-fed beef farmer, part time sawyer

solodan

I run both XP and Vista. I like them both. Rumor has it that the XP licences will end soon for the cumputer manufacturers, so everthing will come with Vista preinstalled. :-\  I do like my wifes Dell laptop, and would buy a Dell with XP if I bought a laptop. I have always built my own Desktops though, and my next one, I may run dual OS on Dual hard drives. XP and Vista. With those two OS you can swap files from one to the other. :)

Brian_Rhoad

I started withCompaq and had many problems. I have a HP now and haven't had any problems with it in 3 years. I also have a HP laptop that has given me no problems. 3 HP printers with no problems either. If/when I buy another computer it will be a HP.

I haven't heard much good about Vista. I know several people with Vista who have major problems with software not working properly.

Larry

Two thoughts...in big bold capitol letters for your system it says "DOES NOT INCLUDE MS WORD".  That would kill the deal for me.

Second thought...when I bought my last Dell near two years ago customer service for the home division was in India while for the small business division customer service was in the USA.  I don't hear broken english/India very good...so I buy through the business side.

I've bought two systems from Dell and my only problem was when I screwed up the order and had to correct it later...not a problem.  I also bought a digital camera from Dell...they shipped with DHL who promptly lost the camera.  One call to Dell and they had a replacement camera shipping via Fed Ex overnight.  One of the kids had a problem with out of stock...again the results were super customer service with excellent results.

If you do much printing check out the Dell lazer printers...we have one that has printed reams of paper with zero problems...it's not color though.
Larry, making useful and beautiful things out of the most environmental friendly material on the planet.

We need to insure our customers understand the importance of our craft.

tcsmpsi

I am currently running, basically, the HP equivalent of what you are looking at.  2gb memory, 500 gb hard drive, and Vista Home Premium.

If you're going to run Vista, I wouldn't go any less on the memory.   I've run all the Windows programs since they began (to make IBM formats so as to compete with the ease of Macintosh operation), and I find Vista no more difficult or 'unique' than any of the others.  There are always compatibility issues at some juncture or another, most especially in the early versions.   Frankly,  I find the Vista easier to resolve issues than previous Windows.  

I'm on dial-up connection (56K), and I can run multiple windows simultaneously, perhaps not real fast, but not frustrating either, and I do it without issues.  Right now, I've got 4 other windows going, waiting for me to get through writing this.  I see they're already loaded, and waiting on me.

However, this week, they're supposed to come and hook me up with 128K for $8 more a month, AND, I can drop the designated phone line which costs about $30 a month.  Hoot man...I ought to be zinging!!   :D

I'm pleased with Vista.

\\\"In the end, it is a moral question as to whether man applies what he has learned or not.\\\" - C. Jung

Corley5

Laptops don't cost as much as they used to  8) 8)  I've had mine for over a year and never use the desktop that's Dee's machine now  ;)  Mine is almost always plugged in.  The only time it runs on batt is if the power goes out.  Just recently the  batt lasted for about 4 hours of surfing  :) :)  You can get wireless cards for desktops also.  It'd be worth it for free internet  8) 8) 8) 8)
Burnt Gunpowder is the Smell Of Freedom

Dana

Greg, If I buy a wireless card I will be able to get free internet? Even out in the sticks/ country?
Grass-fed beef farmer, part time sawyer

Radar67

Only if there is a wireless service close by. One that also allows unrestricted access, as in not password protected.







1701
"A man's time is the most valuable gift he can give another." TOM

If he can cling to his Blackberry, I can cling to my guns... Me

This will kill you, that will kill you, heck...life will kill you, but you got to live it!

"The man who can comprehend the why, can create the how." SFC J

Jeff

No, you wont get free internet.  Its a monthly charge on your cell phone plan or wireless carrier.

The only "free" wireless you may find are Wi-FI hotspots offered by some businesses and municipalities. Short range areas that offer internet connections without a key to connect.
Just call me the midget doctor.
Forestry Forum Founder and Chief Cook and Bottle Washer.

Commercial circle sawmill sawyer in a past life for 25yrs.
Ezekiel 22:30

Furby

To add to that, there are some subscription services that are not tied to your cell phone plan.
They are just like any contract service that you might sign up for, but are stand alone and put out via wireless towers.
I had it here for a while as free trial.
The tower was about 4 miles from here and it covered a fair sized area.
I belive they couldn't get enough folks to sign up, so the project was dropped.

Corley5

I thought you were close to a hotspot  :)  I had Alltel service through my cell phone but switched it to a separate service from Alltel that uses it's own USB high speed modem instead of the phone.  Works good, now, it was a little rocky for a time at home but the addition of a Wilson signal amp helped a bunch and they got the tower dialed in better  8) 8)  It's a little more than I'd like to pay but is way faster than dial up at home and is high speed in some parts of the country  8) 8)  The startup costs were much less than satellite service.
Burnt Gunpowder is the Smell Of Freedom

Radar67

Dana, Dell laptop on business side for 549. I think it meets all your wants and then some.
"A man's time is the most valuable gift he can give another." TOM

If he can cling to his Blackberry, I can cling to my guns... Me

This will kill you, that will kill you, heck...life will kill you, but you got to live it!

"The man who can comprehend the why, can create the how." SFC J

logwalker

I have not had the best luck with laptops. Too much stuff in a small space and heat can be a killer. If you don't need the portability stay clear of them. Second the advice to check the Dell closeout section. Can be some amazing deals in there.
Let's all be careful out there tomorrow. Lt40hd, 22' Kenworth Flatbed rollback dump, MM45B Mitsubishi trackhoe, Clark5000lb Forklift, Kubota L2850 tractor

Bibbyman

Well,  I'm not giving or asking advice on buying a PC.   We done bought one. 

Yesterday we got all bored and decided to go PC shopping.  We have one PC that's a real Frankenstein and still not right.  So we headed out to a PC store north of us.  They handle Dell, HP, and ACER and maybe some others.  They are not much of a retail store but mostly deal with commercial and school accounts.  They are the repair service people for the brands they sell.

Anyway,  we "kicked the tires" on what they had in store and walked out with a ACER unit minus monitor.  It was loaded with Windows Vista.  The XP machines were the same price but had far less memory and much smaller hard drive, etc.  We talked it over with the salesman.  If you could call him a salesman,  he was there tech guy and you could tell he just wanted us to take a copy of the list of features and be gone.

The reason he gave for the machies loaded with Vista being such a bargain compared to the XP machines was that they where having a hard time getting rid of the Vista machines.

Well, good or bad, that's what we bought.  Got it home and copied off some files we wanted to keep off the old box and pulled it.  Put in the new box and hooked it up.  Came up fine but the internet would not fire off.  Two hours on the phone with the tech guy back at the store.  Still no internet.   I put the old PC back in and the internet came up fine on it. The internet was running on two other PCs in the house.

We took it back this morning and he plugged it in.  Said the internet connection said it was connected but there was some software glitch.  He'd have to "wipe it" and reload it.  Said we could come back in the afternoon or take another box.  We opted to take the unit on the floor that they had been running and was connected to the internet.

Got this one home and ....,  you guessed it....,  it would not connect to the internet.  Call back to the tech support guy.  Somewhere in the conversation he mentioned the cable had to be Cat5e.  We checked the three cables we'd tried and none were Cat5e.   But the cable to son Gabe's PC was a Cat5e.  We stole it and the new box connected to the internet. 

Mary went to Radio Shack and got the same cable except 30" long instead of 30' long.  Plugged it in and....,  you guessed it....,  no internet.  Pulled it and put the old 30' cable back on and it worked.

We got any experts out there on Cat5e cables?



Wood-Mizer LT40HDE25 Super 25hp 3ph with Command Control and Accuset.
Sawing since '94

Bill

My memory on cables is a little fuzzy but I'll see if I can remember as I type.

Cat 1/3 I believe is 10mb/s
Cat 5 is 100mb/s
Cat 5e/6 I think is 1000mb/s ( in the neighborhood of fiber speeds I think )

or some such thing . . .

( I seem to recall there are some standards for the rate of twist of the wires and the shielding to keep the good signal in and wrong signals out and the ends have to be put on just right too as I think about )  Now that's probably more than I really know  ???

Warbird

Sounds to me like the cable she bought is either not really Cat5e or it is a crossover cable.  This site prolly has waaaay more info than you want but here you go: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CAT_5

Bibbyman

Thanks guys.  I did some studying in the wee-hours of the morning and I think we'll call the PC place again and talk to their geek guy and let him have one more shot.  Looks like maybe we need to go to a Cat6 cable. 

Seems odd how this works.   Got optic fiber to the phone switch station at the end of the road.  Got some kind of regular underground cable to the house.  Got plain old telephone cord coming in from the little box outside to a wall outlet.  Got an .89 cent phone extension cord running from the outlet to the modem box.  Got some kind of old Cat something cable going to the wireless box/splitter.  Then now we need a super cable going from the splitter to the new box?
Wood-Mizer LT40HDE25 Super 25hp 3ph with Command Control and Accuset.
Sawing since '94

Bibbyman

I thought I'd report that the new PC is up and running and we are connected to the internet. 

This morning Mary talked to our internet provider for about an hour.  They went through a lot of the same stuff but couldn't get the new Cat5e cable to work.  Mary got some suggestions and went to town.  She came back after 11:00 with a wire-less connection deal that plugs into a USB port.  She plugged it in and followed the directions to install the software.  The software locked up on her.  After some frustrating moments,  she called the support number for the wireless adapter.  About another half hour on the phone with some guy with an East Indian accent,  he hit on something that worked. 

Whaaa!  I have a happy woman..... for now.  8)

I don't know why this has to be so complicated.
Wood-Mizer LT40HDE25 Super 25hp 3ph with Command Control and Accuset.
Sawing since '94

tcsmpsi

Some things are just not meant to be understood, bibbyman.   :D

The fellow just left here after hooking up my non-dialup connection.  I was trying to watch, but he did everything so fast, I couldn't keep up. 

The only thing I really got to see well, was his installing a splitter on the outside phone line connection box.  Anyhow, this being my first use of the new hookup, it seems to work.

Since 'they' hooked it up, if I have any trouble, I'll call 'they' to come fix it.   :D

The installed dialup modem in this new HP unit was having a problem, and I had ben using a USB dialup modem I borrowed from another unit, while going to the elimination processes with HP  (which I had already done before contacting them...but, they have to have their own protocol).  Now, I can forget fooling with that. 
\\\"In the end, it is a moral question as to whether man applies what he has learned or not.\\\" - C. Jung

Dana

I ordered the one I was asking about in the link on page one. Thanks for the advise everybody. It's scheduled to arrive the 12th of the month. The price has dropped $50.00 from a few weeks ago. :) I guess thats because it's already obsolete. ::)

One thing to watch with Dell now. They offer to do a free search of the best possible internet provider. At first I said I wasn't interested. The sales man said it was a really quick check and no obligation to switch. The sales man put me on hold and another guy came on the line he ask my phone number and wanted to verify my name and address for availability purposes. He came back on with one recommendation for a provider. At&T Yahoo broadband for $30.00 a month. I said I wasn't interested so he offered the same company at a reduced speed for $20.00 a month. Still not interested and thank you for checking I said. No problem he said. No get this, I check my email later in the afternoon and have two emails confirming that I ordered broadband. One from At&T and one from this guys company www.broadbandnational.com I called At&t to cancel and they said I have to wait until the order is processed to cancel. Regardless I won't be paying/ switching. The Dell salesman didn't return my call to him about this.
Grass-fed beef farmer, part time sawyer

Norm

That was the way they used to switch your long distance service. It is not illegal to do what they did but is darn close in my opinion. A quick letter to your state AG would be a good idea....make sure to send a copy to Michael. >:(

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