Computer Recommendations

[Casey]

OK guys I need a new computer what do yall recommend??

[SouthernReefer]

i'd say its a toss up between an commador64 or a cray supercomputer, i'd be leaning towards the cray, imo!

[Minnreefer]

I jsut got a refirbished Dell and I am enjoying it

Jon

[Casey]

Humm anyone have an opinion about hp or compaq?

[Geoff]

what do you want to do with it? then again i am partial to that fruity computer company. i would say a 20" imac.

G~

[Casey]

Games I love the online games Like Halo etc

[Doug1]

Casey, it seems that alot of people who can and do build computers,of course prefer that, but if pinned down on a store bought ready made Dell seems to be the prefered choice over compaq or HP

OK I only had a half a cup when I typed that originally

[Mafiaman]

Along the same lines as Doug, If you have the ability, build your own. You get the same products but don't pay the few hundred for the name on the box.

This is only my opinion.

[Casey]

If I had the time I would I will have to go store bought

[FishDaddy]

Casey,
I'm no 'puter guru by any means, but I've owned a bunch of them, going back to 286 days, from Gateway, Dell, HP, Compaq, to Brand X. I've got 6 now to keep up (including FishGirl's and the office) and my office Dell is probably the best but I like HP's; got two HP desktops and a laptop.

Whatever you decide to buy, get the fastest CPU, biggest Hard Drive, and most RAM that you can afford. I've had good luck with the AMD Athlon CPU's but my geek friends tell me that P4 is better. Ignore anything with 'Celeron' on it!!

I know you aren't in position to build (or have built) your own, neither am I, but one of the side benefits is not having all the junk software on them that comes with all the store brands.

I'm sure you know all this, but just to be sure, I'd recommend installing a good Anti-virus, Spyware blocker, and Firewall before ever connecting to the internet.

Let us know what new toy you get!

Dick

[Voyeur]

Definately stay away from Compaq.They are a pain and very expensive to upgrade when you come to that point.

Hps arent bad,Dells arent bad,I also like the pentiums better than AMD,building it is the best choice.Having someone build it for you also can be a good choice,if you know anyone that does that sort of thing.Definately stay away from celerons.

As far as the size,it all depends on what you want to do with it....Personally I like the bigger faster thing myself,but I just put one together for my wife,all she does is e-mail and cruise the web.Went with a new pentium 3 667 I got on ebay for 30 dollars,she loves it.

I play tons of on-line video games,mine is a P4 3 gig with 1024 megs of RAM,80 gig 10,000 RPM hd and an ATI 9800 video card.

Video card is very important for a gaming machine...

lol

Oh yeah,get an optical mouse too,much better for gaming,more precise.

and as far as Im concerned,for a monitor,bigger is better!!!

HTH

John

[Deborah]

I'm with Geoff - my son just got an eMac and it's pretty spiffy. (And you don't have to spend all your free time patching holes, zapping spyware and deleting worms)

But when I had to buy some windows computers for a business I chose Dell. They are resonably priced and have good service options. General wisdom at that time was stay away from the low end HPs. And the salesman at the Gateway store was so annoying that the only way I'd have walked out with one was if it was free.

[Phishnoob]

We are hard core gamers so our needs might be different. If you walk into the back of a huge computer store you might be able to find an out of box or return really cheap. Trying to keep up with the latest fast processor speed will make you spend a fortune.

One big thing to look for is to avoid all of the on board things such as video and ensure that you can pop in a card if you want to do graphics or games.

I avoid any Apple product as the software will put you in the poorhouse. It is da kine for guys like our medical illustrator guy at work but not really suited for folks that just want to do homework or play a game.

For an affordable but really nice system I would recommend:

3.0 or faster processor with an Intel pentium 4 or better (AMD tends to overheat sometimes)
512 mb of RAM
A 128 or better video card
The DVD-RW drive (think that is standard equipment now)
About 100 gig hard drive or better
AGP slots and a few more expansion slots
Speakers (should be standard...then upgrade away)

This should run you about 1000 bucks, get a two hundred dollar 19 monitor and then spam away on TRT.

We have Sony Viao's and an HP (4 computers total) and have had zero problems. We bought them all at a California chain called Fry's that is just awesome.

At work we use Dell, and I will just condemn the agonizing wait for customer service with faint praise....they are adequate.

[Casey]

Thanks for all the help guys I will keep ya posted

[ruhspolostar]

i got a brand new HP casey, its awesome...works great w/ the comcast cable i just got

and I also got a hp laptop also cool