Need computer help!

[Bullshop Junior]

I think it is about time we look into getting a new computer. This one is about 8 years old. Have upgraded to the 2000 ME edition, and it came with some programs. When we bought it, we bought what was the best of the day, finding out it was obsolete, the minute we walked out the door! I don't know anything about buying or really using a computer, we told the salesman that, the last time, big mistake! This time I won't tell them a thing. I want to know what the best is, what we need to look for, etc. Because we won't buy one again for several years, we want the most capabilty, etc. We list auctions, and use it for business and homeschooling needs. We do have a scanner, camera, and printer, will those need replaced too? We only have the SLOW internet connection availble, not sure what that is even call - dial up, i think, so it has to be compatable with that too. Please advice, and where the best purchasing places are. The only stores we have are office max, sears, walmart, sams, etc. - Would it be best to just upgrade what we already have?

THANKS!
Bull Shop Mom

[Gunload Master]

If it's 8 years old chances of upgrading it will be very slim and I would HIGHLY advise against doing that.

Office Max would be about the best choice as what you mentioned for buying one although they too sell lower end products.

Me personally, I would recommend buying a Dell PC. Many server stations out there are DELL systems, such as for grocery stores and convenient stores. So I think of the Pre-built machines I would recommend a Dell.

A few specs that I would meet or exceed when purchasing a new computer:

At least a 3.5 Gigahertz machine or compatible (AMD XP 3700+) I would recommend an AMD processer (64 bit would be nice) as my first choice, or one of the higher end Pentium processors. Stay away from Celeron at all costs.

SATA Hard Drive. (most newer computers use this serial technology in their systems, it's reliable and fast) My #1 HD is Seagate, #2 is Maxtor. I am highly against Western Digital.

1 Gig RAM (for your applications, this might be a bit overkill, but if you have lots of programs running in the background this will help speed out emensly) Kingston RAM is lower budget but works fine, Viking is a good brand as well.

Motherboard, a good motherboard helps speed things along as well. Asus makes good boards, MSI is decent.

If you are in front of your computer quite a bit, I would highly recommend an LCD monitor and they are dropping in price which makes them that much better :)

Alliant makes good power supplies that you shouldnt have to worry too much about.

Surge Protection. I would HIGHLY recommend getting a UPS (Uninterrupted power supply). If not a UPS, then get the best surge protector you can buy. A high spike in power can blow your powersupply and could blow expensive components inside your computer..

These are just a few things I can think off right off the bat.

Also, you shouldnt have to replace your printer, camera or any of that stuff.

[Bullshop]

oh yikes! Just as Ithought it really is all a different language to me! I know that Dell ships to Alaska, probably high priced, but will look at their site, and see if i can learn anything from what you mentioned. Thanks for taking the time to help! Also someone told me there is a back up system that daily backs up the hard drive, for times of crashes, do you know anything about that?

Bull Shop Mom

[OldBob]

Gunload Master has hit on all the good components for a custom built system,and I agree with him on all except ASUS/MSI, kinda like the MSI boards, maybe you have a shop or individual near you who builds computers ? If so you could get his recommendations and prices and we could have a look at them to see if you are being treated fairly ? I'd offer to build one for you, but its a looong way from here to there and service would be tough! A local source has its advantages. Really all you need is the computer, all your current peripherals should work fine if you are happy with them, the LCD monitors are nice though. Backup can be accomplished in a number of ways, I have secondary hard drives in my machines and I simply copy the My Documents file to the secondary drive for backup, the USB pen drives or flash drives make a simple and effective backup and they are quite inexpensive, some folks use a USB external hard drive.
Since you are on Dial-Up, your new machine will need a modem, some new computers do not come with one, you could use the one out of your old machine. If you go with a custom builder you could possibly use your current hard drive as a secondary (slave) drive for backup. A Dell or ??? machine will likely come with Windows XP installed, a custom builder will sell you XP or could install your Windows ME program, some folks hate Windows ME, but I'm still using it and have never had problems with it. That being said, XP will likely have drivers for the current hardware and ME may not......
Another consideration for using Dell or another manufacturer would be the fact that they will come "bundled" with a package of current software which might be a plus for you.

[Junior1942]

If it's 8 years old chances of upgrading it will be very slim and I would HIGHLY advise against doing that. . . . Me personally, I would recommend buying a Dell PC. I agree on both counts.

(1) even it it was only two years old I would recommend replacement; (2) IME, if you call Dell's help number you will soon be talking to a human.

[C A Plater]

I'm going to go counter the flow and suggest Apple. Why? Ease of use, lack of viruses, lots of good software is included that cost $$ on Windows, and peripheral for the Apple just connect and they work. Windows will require monthly updates to remain secure and the updates can be very large and take many many hours on a dial-up connection.

[Scrounger]

I agree on both counts.

(1) even it it was only two years old I would recommend replacement; (2) IME, if you call Dell's help number you will soon be talking to a human.

...a human whose brand of English will be totally incomprehensible to you...

[Bret4207]

...a human whose brand of English will be totally incomprehensible to you...


So I get a phone call the other night. "Hello, sir. I am from ###### company. My name is Reeek, no, wait, today I am Boob." Me, "Get off my phone! You can't even remember your name!"

Someplace in Pakistan or India that night a guy must have been having a hard time....

[RugerFan]

Bullshop,
Actually Dell prices are pretty reasonable. I had a Dell Dimension E521 shipped to my house a couple months ago and love it. I would shy away from the eMachines brand. They are cheap, but you get what you pay for. I bought one several years ago and it didn't last long. Maybe they have improved by now, I don't know.

[Bullshop]

i just spent an hour trying to look at Dell - my computer keeps shutting down. I am not sure why I can't go to certain areas of the Dell site, but it causes errors and freezes up. So I guess I will have to call them.. hate that! I will look at the Apple site also, my sister had one, she said they are very user friendly. Dan just wants one that he can turn on, and use. I need something that is really easy to use, and reformat, etc, when needed. We will not be able to use a computer tech, for things like upgrading, reformatting, etc.

thanks for the suggestions and help!
Bull Shop Mom

[SharpsShooter]

Another vote for dell. I repair PC's as a sideline to feed my shooting habit and although I do occasionally get called to fix Dell machines, it is rare. I don't care for the Apple machines and generally find them to be a PITA to work on. Gunload Master is absolutely correct. Your machine is a bit aged to upgrade and he also has also outlined your best choices in hardware for the new one.

SS

[sundog]

+1 for Dell. When the wife's machine went TU with a lightening strike awhile back, I looked around for best, deal, then called Dell and had it sitting on the porch 2 days later. Plugged it in and hasn't missed a beat. I don't like all the crap they load in startup, so I did a little setup work of my own. I am a programmer/analyst in a IT dept of a financial institution and see alot of PC stuff. We have a local vendor build ours and they're good, but for home use Dell is good. sundog

p.s. look for coupons before ordering

[Duckiller]

Would vote for Dell. Sons' friends (computer geeks) fix computers and the opinion was that they see Dell very infrequently. #2 son has built his version of a custom fire breathing monster. When it works he beats other people on the internet, but he often has to fuss with it. Our dell works. If you delay a little the new microsoft operating program "VISTA" should be available. supposed to have better security.

[C A Plater]

Vista has already been compromised Vista Exploit Surfaces on Russian Hacker Site (http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,2076062,00.asp) and XP was supposed to be the "safest Windows ever" according to MS.

[imashooter2]

I am a big fan of buying second tier technology at half the price of the latest and greatest.

[Gunload Master]

Just another little side note for me, I would stray away from Windows vista for at least 6 months after full release. Let them get all the bugs out from the users submissions before upgrading...
Just my 2 cents.

[trickyasafox]

i have a dell laptop i use for college, and we just got an E machine (formaly gateway) for the house. My laptop has had some small issues, but dell's service was nothing short of top notch

i fried a lot of components, all of which were replaced without blinking an eye, and if i couldnt put it in, they sent a tech free of charge.

the e-machine seems like a great buy so far.

700 bucks got us:
2.66 ghz processor
200gig hard drive
836 mb ram (no idea why they coupled a 512 with a 256)
17in flat screen
ip1700 printer
mouse (non infrared! those cheap Ba$tard$!)
and keyboard.
dvd/cd combo burner drive as well.


all in all a decent computer. careful, a lot of the ones now don't come bundled with microsoft office. if you use microsoft word, excel, outlook, etc. you'll have to purchase them seperately.

OR

go to mozilla.org and download thunderbird. it is a outlook alternative and is all opensource *opensource = free* and is very very good. i use mozilla firefox as my browser and would never go back to IE.

for the rest of microsoft office. go to openoffice.org. thats an opensource equivilent. i just dl'ed it today, and im still playing with it, but it beats buying power point and word. seems to be a bit less flash, but the core abilities are all still there.

this is all totally free and legal software by the way, no 'torrenting' and ripping or cracking. this is totally legit.

[crazy mark]

Check your scanner, camera etc... to make sure they are compatibale with whatever you buy. My older plustek scanner wasn't XP compatible so I had to buy a new scanner. Printers aren't usually a problem. Make sure the PC comes with a good modem also and as many USB ports as you can get. Mark

[trickyasafox]

oh oh! if your printer is 8 years old it's probably a serial port connection. most new pc's dont have a serial port anymore. assuming your printer can handle the new op system and such, your probably gonna nead a new cable, serial to usb.

something to keep an eye on.

[Scrounger]

Does anyone mind if I hijack this thread for my own computer question?
What I want to do is take a picture of one of my guns, add the serial number and other necessary description and what it should sell for. I would want to be able to print out this page to have a hard copy backup. I would want to collect this file and its cohorts into a separate folder NOT encapsulated in any particular program in my computer, so I could copy it to CD or transfer to another computer or send as an email. Is that too tall an order? I have a program, New Mexico Gun Collecter that allows me to pull all that information and more into its storage vault but the information here is stored on several different pages, not printable or accrssible on one page for someone not too familiar with guns or computers.
I have Windows XP, a digital camera (HP) and software, Paint, ACDSee, Picasa 2, Irfanview, Adobe, ArcSoft, Ulead, FotoCanvas, FotoAngelo, FotoSlate, and maybe some others I don't recognize as photo software programs. On some of them I can add a caption or description; only problem is it works only within their system, I cannot transfer the altered photo back into My pictures or print it without losing the description I have added to it. Anybody know what will work the way I want it to?

[imashooter2]

Any MircoSoft applications? PowerPoint sounds perfect. There may be some equivalent presentation software in MS Works.

[454PB]

Scrounger, Picasa will do what you want to do. If the pictures are stored in a folder, it will add the text, then allow you to either modify the original or create a new file without alteration of the original. I've recently been using Image Stone, which is a free open source photo program. I haven't tried yet, but I think it will do what you want as well.

Bullshop and jr., you could probably get your old computer back to normal with some cleanup (Toni Easy Cleaner, Spybot, etc.), but it only delays the inevitable. My computer is 5 years old this month, and is a dinosaur compaired to my wife's one year old computer. I'm an HP guy, I've owned 5 of them now with no mechanical problems. It doesn't matter who makes the computer, without proper protection and maintenance, they will cause trouble eventually.

[Texasflyboy]

only problem is it works only within their system, I cannot transfer the altered photo back into My pictures or print it without losing the description I have added to it. Anybody know what will work the way I want it to?

I think I may know one, or more of your issues. Most digital camera formats store their photos in jpeg (.jpg) format. When you use one of the common photo editing softwares and try to add text, your actually adding a layer over the existing photo. If you don't merge all the layers into a single layer before you save, you will lose all the added layers, except the original layer.

I call this the pizza analogy:

A .jpg photo is like a raw pizza. You start with the dough (the original photo) and add a layer of tomato sauce (the second layer on top of the first, let's say a line of text "My 30.06 Rifle"), then you add cheese (The third layer), and pepperoni (the final layer). You now have 4 layers. When you place the pizza in the oven (or save the .jpeg file) you are melting all the layers into one homogeneous layer. If you change your mind right before you put the pizza in the oven, and remove the pepperoni, you've subtracted one layer. Photo editing software works this way.

You start with the first layer (the crust or dough). Each time you add an element to the original photo, the program adds it as a layer, so you can go back and forth editing the photo. Say you want to add a text statement with the serial number, that's layer 1. Then you want to add a red circle around the serial number, using MS Paint, that's layer two. So on and so forth. You need to collapse all these layers when you save the photo, and some of the photo editing softwares will do this. I use Paintshop pro, and it has a "combine all layers" function built in.

Once you have collapsed all layers into a single cohesive layer, and saved the file, any program that reads .jpg files can read your now edited .jpg file.

So if you want to take a photo of each of your weapons, and then add text, captions, or other artwork, you need to add what you want to each photo, then collapse all the layers, save it as a .jpg, and then you should be good to go. Your edited photo will now contain all the additional information you added, as layers, merged together into a single layer.

Hope this helps...

[Scrounger]

I don't imagine I was missed but I sure missed the internet the last 4 days. Saturday morning about 4 o'clock I was happily reading away here on Cast Boolits when the electricity went out. Not the first ime it happened but this time it zapped my computer good, damaged the motherboard the repairman said as he licked his chops counting the $175 I gave him. I don't seem to have lost too much in the way of saved data but he had to transfer my data to a new home and format the hard drive before re-installing Windows, so all the files are scrambled and in different places than where I normally found them. I'm mad enough to zap the company (just kidding) but alot of other people have reason to hate them more. I was only without power for 2 hours but most of the valley had none till late Saturday evening, temperatures in the 30s, down to 10 degrees at night. They claim someone had shot the line with an AK47; unless they saw it, how would they know what kind of gun, if any, was used? And for some reason they can't seem to repair it yet. They supposedly have us on rolling blackouts for awhile. I was blacked out yesterday from 5 AM till noon. What a great pleasure, wakening to a 40 degree house, no coffee, no hot shower, no television, no computer, and the knowledge you only have so many flushes in the bathroom before the tank runs dry/ You know, it wasn't too bad living in California.

[Topper]

I cannot build a system for less than I would pay for a Dell.
True, Apple is a fairly stable OS, so is Linux for that matter, but the vast majority of applications and games are written to be Microsoft compliant.
Not saying that's a plus as far as stability, just the path the market has taken.