The Down Range Forum
Member Section => Down Range Cafe => Topic started by: fightingquaker13 on February 20, 2011, 12:56:15 AM
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I need a new computer. In the past I have always bought pentiums because they were "better". Is this true, or can I save a few bucks? Honestly I just don't know enough to come up with an informed opinion by just reading specs and reviews. My eyes glaze over. Here's the the deal. I have about $700 in my pocket ($800 if I really stretch it). What should I buy? I am am tempted by Dell Inspirions, but if anyone who has knowledge of the "dread machines" can help me pick a particular model or brand I woud be grateful. All I need is something lightning quick on the web and that can support Adobe and Office. I've asked this before, but now I am looking for models, brands and personal experiences. I'm probably going to have to buy in the next few days as my current machine is on its last legs. Help a brother out. What do I buy?
FQ13
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Oi...
You got it all wrong right off the bat. Your thinking Intel or AMD, then you break it down to Pentium, almost non existent, or Athlon/Turion. You need to look at other factors too. I'll do your shopping for ya.
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http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834157533
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834157429
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834157466
Buy it from these guys. In order of features/performance, top being most basic, these are pretty good values. I've spent thousands with the Newegg.com and have never had a problem.
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For a self-professed low-end user, FQ can go with a Pentium dual core, which should habdle his email and surfing chores using modern software (i.e., bloated). Do not go with any single cores, nor with the Celeron which is even more low-end than FQ.
AMD has had quality and performance problems in the past, so I'd stay away from those. The Core I3 is nice and more modern than the Pentium, put probably is more money than he wants to spend.
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Thank God! I'm officially "Low Tech"....my Dell has a Celeron, 2.2Ghz, 3GB Ramm...220GB Hard Drive
It does what it needs to do, nothing more. If I had more at home, I'd get stuck working from home and I won't do that for less than 100 bucks an hour.
To do what I do for a living, I'd be out a few grand for a less than adequate machine and another grand for a decent graphics card.
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I'm not a tech-geek when it comes to the internal workings of a computer.......I don't know if what I have is considered 'OK' or not, but I bought a new machine in October '09 (I think the same month Win7 debuted) after a 5 year-old Compaq went the way of the dinosaur....... and, according to the paperwork, it has duel AMD Athlon II drives...and 750 gig of memory..............and after 16 months or so, it has done well.
It might crap out tomorrow, but for slightly less than $400 out the door, I can't complain. I back up my data on a separate 500 gig external hard drive in case of a catastrophe.
YMMV, of course.
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Yea, I have a whole 450 bucks invested in mine.
I looked at the MAC too but I can't see spending that kind of cash so I can email my buddies, store a few pictures, write a few recipes, research things, buy a few things and conversate with you rabble rousing miscreants on a daily basis. It's more like a cell phone to me and I don't invest much in those either.
I fell into all that geeky crap years ago and all I found myself doing was fixing other peoples problems so I dumbed myself back down to redneck northerner status.
;)
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For a self-professed low-end user, FQ can go with a Pentium dual core, which should habdle his email and surfing chores using modern software (i.e., bloated). Do not go with any single cores, nor with the Celeron which is even more low-end than FQ.
AMD has had quality and performance problems in the past, so I'd stay away from those. The Core I3 is nice and more modern than the Pentium, put probably is more money than he wants to spend.
FQ,
In general terms, let price be your guide. Computer makers are making some good stuff for not much dinero these days.
Before I moved onto being an analyst, I installed/supported desktop/notebooks. I pretty much line up with Path here. And I would also add that if you can upgrade the RAM (4GB on the HP notebooks) to something more, that will help. The hard drive capacities these days are just ridiculous unless you're storing alot of video, hi-res photos, working with large databases, etc; so the HD capacity is usually more than adequate.
And I know you like to support your local gun shop, so consider supporting your local computer vendor. The key thing there is getting a feel from them about their support in case something fails on your computer. And consider getting some training on how to use the operating system too....Best of luck!
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How important are the RPMS on the hardrive? Say, 5400 vs 7200? Is faster better, or does it decrease life expectancy?
Thanks
FQ13
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How important are the RPMS on the hardrive? Say, 5400 vs 7200? Is faster better, or does it decrease life expectancy?
Thanks
FQ13
For typical stuff for which most people use a PC, not much if any difference. But if you can get a 7200 rpm drive for the same price, go for it.
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How important are the RPMS on the hardrive? Say, 5400 vs 7200? Is faster better, or does it decrease life expectancy?
Thanks
FQ13
A hard drive isn't a single disc. It's a stack of them little pieces of plastic stuff. One file could be spread all over those discs so the speed will effect the time it takes for the read head to find all those little pieces of the file.
For the average user, it's negligible. For what I do at my job, it's huge. Solid modeling files are very large, very mathematical and tend to drag a slow system to a crawl.
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FQ,
The main things you need to look for are non performance features, because it sounds like your needs are pretty basic. Four gigs RAM and one of those dual cores is going to do you good, but do you need a ten key pad? Web cam? How much storage? My guess is no but it would be nice to have on all those. The HP Pro on the top of my list, that is what I'd buy, or set as my shopping benchmark.
Decent size screen, four hour battery, ten key pad, and solid performance.
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Bryan, Path and FA are giving you sound advice.
I opted for an eight hour battery pack for mine but nothing else. Heck, I bought mine for about 450 and today it's listed at 379 with a better processor. These things change before you send in the warranty paperwork.
Path is right on the bloat software that gets canned on big box store machines too. Some of it is damn hard to get rid of if you try.
Anyone ever try and completely remove AOL?
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Bryan, Path and FA are giving you sound advice.
I opted for an eight hour battery pack for mine but nothing else. Heck, I bought mine for about 450 and today it's listed at 379 with a better processor. These things change before you send in the warranty paperwork.
Path is right on the bloat software that gets canned on big box store machines too. Some of it is damn hard to get rid of if you try.
Anyone ever try and completely remove AOL?
I put a clean OS of Windows 7 on all my machines, don't even mess with the factory one. Look for Professional Editions of Windows, less junk, though not completely without it.
Got three desktops sitting in my place and not one of them has bloatware. Its also one of the reasons I prefer to build by own machines.
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FQ,
The main things you need to look for are non performance features, because it sounds like your needs are pretty basic. Four gigs RAM and one of those dual cores is going to do you good, but do you need a ten key pad? Web cam? How much storage? My guess is no but it would be nice to have on all those. The HP Pro on the top of my list, that is what I'd buy, or set as my shopping benchmark.
Decent size screen, four hour battery, ten key pad, and solid performance.
What exactly is a ten key key pad, is it diffrernt from a five or fifteen key pad (Honest question, I just don't know)? I get the battery life, and I will pay extra for it, but I can live without the Web cam unless I want to pull a Rob Lowe, and I couldn't afford it if I wanted to. ;D Seriously, I made these things my hobby, many, many moons ago when you needed to worry about megahertzes and the BUS link to the mother board. ::). Now, I don't want to go through the learning curve, I just don't like them that much. If I were a newbie posting a gun quetion like this about an SD handgun, most of us would say buy a Glock or a J frame, at least you won't hurt yourself with it. That's kind of like me with computers. Model advice? Anyone?
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What exactly is a ten key key pad, is it diffrernt from a five or fifteen key pad (Honest question, I just don't know)? I get the battery life, and I will pay extra for it, but I can live without the Web cam unless I want to pull a Rob Lowe, and I couldn't afford it if I wanted to. ;D Seriously, I made these things my hobby, many, many moons ago when you needed to worry about megahertzes and the BUS link to the mother board. ::). Now, I don't want to go through the learning curve, I just don't like them that much. If I were a newbie posting a gun quetion like this about an SD handgun, most of us would say buy a Glock or a J frame, at least you won't hurt yourself with it. That's kind of like me with computers. Model advice? Anyone?
Ten key pad? You know that cliddy thing with the numbers so you can fast typed numbers with out chicken peckin the top of the letters, lay out like a phone pad. That one at the top of my list didn't have a web cam, but had solid performance, no frills, get the job done setup, with Windows 7 Professional. Appeared to have an all aluminum case, so it should be pretty durable. Buy an HP, or ASUS, for the best value.
And I don't know who Rob Lowe is...
In closing...
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834157533
...just buy it.
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Ten key pad? You know that cliddy thing with the numbers so you can fast typed numbers with out chicken peckin the top of the letters, lay out like a phone pad. That one at the top of my list didn't have a web cam, but had solid performance, no frills, get the job done setup, with Windows 7 Professional. Appeared to have an all aluminum case, so it should be pretty durable. Buy an HP, or ASUS, for the best value.
And I don't know who Rob Lowe is...
In closing...
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834157533
...just buy it.
A
Thanks for the advice. I'll probably follow it. And Rob Lowe? He's a pretty boy actor (most recently on West Wing) who got busted for statutory rape for video taping himself having sex with an underaged prositute. I guess its a generational thing. Personally, I have never contemplated comitting a felony and then saying, "You know, I really should film this and then post it on the net. Yeah, that's the perfect crime"! ::) Anyhow, thanks for the feedback, more reponses welcomed.
FQ13
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go one of the Intel i5's or i3's
I just got a new Work MacBook Pro and it has a i5 in it
also has a 5400 rpm drive,
for what you would use it for FQ it would be all you need
my home Lappy is broken atm and I am waiting on the new Mac Laptops that will be out soon ;)
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I'm no computer whiz, but this has been my experience. I HAD, as in past tense, a HP Pavilion with what was supposed to be a "top of the line" AMD Processor. I had nothing but trouble with it from the first day I plugged it in and booted the thing up. I did all sorts of weird, crazy things I never had happen on a PC before. I finally got totally fed up with blue screens, "crash dumps", lock ups, and about a dozen other things I'm forgetting, and bought the exact same model HP with an Intel Quad Core 2 Processor and it runs like a dream without an issue or problem. I've heard the Celeron is the only thing to avoid from Intel. It is known as the "Ford Fiesta" el cheapo model of their line.
Now, perhaps it was something else other than the Processor. I don't know. But all I do know is AMD = FAIL, and Intel = NO PROBLEM. At least in my book. Because of that I will never own another computer with AMD anything "Inside". Your mileage may vary. Bill T.
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I'm no computer whiz, but this has been my experience. I HAD, as in past tense, a HP Pavilion with what was supposed to be a "top of the line" AMD Processor. I had nothing but trouble with it from the first day I plugged it in and booted the thing up. I did all sorts of weird, crazy things I never had happen on a PC before. I finally got totally fed up with blue screens, "crash dumps", lock ups, and about a dozen other things I'm forgetting, and bought the exact same model HP with an Intel Quad Core 2 Processor and it runs like a dream without an issue or problem. I've heard the Celeron is the only thing to avoid from Intel. It is known as the "Ford Fiesta" el cheapo model of their line.
Now, perhaps it was something else other than the Processor. I don't know. But all I do know is AMD = FAIL, and Intel = NO PROBLEM. At least in my book. Because of that I will never own another computer with AMD anything "Inside". Your mileage may vary. Bill T.
It was something else. I'm running one Intel based desktop with a Core 2 Quad Q6600 over clocked to 3.2Ghz, and two AMD base server boxes, one Sempron and on Athlon with zero problems. Got an HP laptop running AMD Turion as well.
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Office Max is running a sale on laptops, great looking ones for $400-$450. Pentium dual core P6200's as well as AMD-based ones.