New Desktop PC Advise ?

[LGA777]

Hi Folks, the wife and I have decided it is finally time to retire our 7 year old Dell desktop PC. On a PC knowledge scale of 1 to 10 with 1 being retarted and 10 being an expert (actual, not self proclaimed) I am probably around a 4. Because many of you are probably in the 4 highest levels on the scale I am going to list some questions, if some of you would like to answer at least 1 that would be great. As I am a poor airline employee we only want to spend around $500-600 total for the PC and an 18-20 inch flat screen monitor. While I am impressed by Apple maybe next time when we have more funds, only windows based this time. Ready, set. go !

I am hearing a lot of programs that run on windows XP or vista do not run on windows 7. Sounds like a scam to get consumers to spend more to me, any windows 7 users care to coment?

I am reading/hearing Windows Vista was not a huge sucess? For those using Vista would u recommend to a friend or buy another PC with it ?

I am pretty happy with windows XP, have it on the old desktop and fairly new netbook. As part of me wants to stay with XP I am actually considering going the refurbished route, as I could stay with XP and be able to afford a more powerful PC. Anyone on here recently purchased a refurbished PC or have friends who have? If so feedback appreciated?

As some of you know Circuit city is still alive sort of. Another company bought the name and has a pretty big online home electronics business. If I do go the refurbished route they seem to be the leader. Anyone bought from them (the new online version, not the original) or have friends who have? Feedback, would you recommend then to a friend?

Last question. My biggest gripe about the PC's at work, to a lessor extent my netbook (1 GB 160 GB HD) and sometimes the old Dell at home (it is still the best of the 3) is problems watching videos on youtube of similar sites. You know the constant pausing/stopping during playback. What is the best thing I could do in selecting my new PC to have the best video performance possible. Minimum memory size ? Hard drive size? other?

The new PC will be primarily used for internet surfing, Microsoft office products, and photo and later video editing, no gaming.

All for now folks, thank you very much in advance for your help !

Cheers

LGA777

[cancidas]

for what you use it for ron, go dell. next time you're at work i can tell you exactly what you'll need. i paid $600 for my parent's desktop 3 years ago and it's been nothing short of reliable. i have had to reformat a few times but that takes only a few hours to do and with all the drivers supplied it's a breeze to fix.


stay away from windows 7. my cousin has it (torrent download) and he likes it but even i find it confusing and i, well i am more computer literate that you.

the youtube problem you mentioned is a combination of our internet connection at work and what is installed , or rather not installed on the computers. your home computer should not have issues if built properly.

[T-Bird76]

Ron last year I got a fully loaded HP with a 24 inch LCD for $927. While that is more then you want to spend it should give you an idea what what you will get within your budget. That being said I'd look at HP.com as they're always running deals, provide good value for the money, and a good product overall. I was happy enough with HP that I bought an HP laptop this December.

I'm running Windows Vista on my Desktop with no issues at all and Windows 7 on the Laptop. I have to say I love Windows 7, they finally made an OS that works well. It really does have some great features, plus I'm running all my Vista and XP programs on 7 with no issues.

[eric8669]

Stay away from Circuit City online. Horrible Customer Service. Waited 3+ months for a product that never came. Cancelled purchase and went elsewhere...

[emshighway]

Go to BestBuy and get HP or Dell. Chances are you won't be able to get Windows XP and go for Windows 7 rather than Vista.

You can also look at marketpro.com or tri-statefairs.com for local computer shows. You can get a good buy but you should know what you want. Even if you don't get a PC you can get software and peripherals cheap.

[Fighting_falcon_51]

For buying a computer I would shop around at places like Bestbuy and Microcenter and see if you can find a deal.

On www.newegg.com (http://www.newegg.com) they have a refurbished Quad Core Dell system with 8GB of RAM which should last you awhile.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6883155016 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883155016)

Ive used this monitor before and its cheap and not bad at all http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6824160019 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824160019)

Also to answer your questions:

1. Most of the issues are driver support and people are complaining they can't put Windows 7 on their Radioshack Tandy, most programs from the XP era will work fine.

2. Windows Vista was not stable at release (just like Windows XP) but they've did some work on it and its a good OS.

3. The re certified PC's on newegg have had pretty good reviews they also have a good RMA service just in case something goes wrong.

4. Like I said above http://www.newegg.com is one of the best online electronic retailers.

5. The youtube playback issue does sound like your internet connection, go to http://www.speedtest.net and see what it says.

Also the minimum memory size I recommend is 2GB and the minimum hard drive size is 250GB.

If you have anymore questions PM me or ask.

:)

[Matt Molnar]

I second Newegg.

Also, if you decide to buy something at Best Buy (sometimes they do have good deals, and sometimes people, including myself, do like to buy things in a store rather than online) they will try to convince you to buy their Geek Squad "computer optimization" services for $40 or more. DON'T DO IT. It's a waste. Also, beware that some of their sale prices actually require the purchase of one of these optimization scams in order for them to honor the price.

[Fighting_falcon_51]

I second that also.

I wont not let Geek Squad touch my computer with a 10 foot pole.

[emshighway]

I second that also.

I wont not let Geek Squad touch my computer with a 10 foot pole.

I wouldn't let Geek Squad either nor do I have too but they do have good buys. If you can get what you want through New Egg go for it. If you actually want to touch and get a look at what you will by stop by BestBuy even to get an idea.

[LGA777]

Well it took longer than I had hoped but we finally got the new PC last night and want to thank everyone for the
intelligent help and advice. Since we where both paying for it convinced the wife to go a little more than originally
planned as the difference in price was much less than the differance in the amount of computer we got.

Here is the exact package below, think we got a good deal, and if the price goes down for Presidents weekend
we can get the differance (hopefully it will go down, good time to buy electronics usally).

http://www.staples.com/HP-Pavilion-a431 ... 9:CL161746 (http://www.staples.com/HP-Pavilion-a4316f-b-Desktop-PC-Bundle/product_845699?cmArea=SC3:CG71:DP4119:CL161746)

I had narrowed it down to Dell or HP, and Best Buy or Staples, and after visiting multiple Best buy stores and several
Staples stores I was surprised how BAD the cust svc has gotten at Best Buy and how GREAT it is at Staples.

Was all set to buy a nice Dell for $509 (w/o monitor) with a dual core processor, 6GB of RAM and 640GB HD and then
only $99 for a Dell monitor. But in recent store visits the Dell Monitors had a flat or dull look to them while the HP's
looked awesome. Was going to mix the Dell PC and HP monitor but after several more bad Best Buy experiances yesterday
and the opposite at Staples the differance for the quad core 1TB HP bundles made better sense. Little things like 2 months
of free Anti vs 1 month at BB and we needed the MS Office which was $50 off w/purchase at Staples and $20 OFF at BB
made the price differance even smaller.

Got everthing up and running easily and so far I LOVE it.

Thanks again everybody

LGA777

[T-Bird76]

Congrats Ron! I love my HP desktop and laptop! Enjoy using it.

[Mayi757]

That looks like a great PC Ron, good choice.

I have a laptop that came with the bare minumum 1GB of Ram to run Vista and it got super-slow. Don't be afraid of Windows 7! My hard-drive quit on me after 2 years and with the replacement hard drive I installed Windows 7 a friend gave me. 7 runs so much better! There are programs that won't run right on 64bit Windows 7 that I have BUT most spyware and viruses are made for 32-bit and so don't affect me. Windows 7 has a Windows XP environment where you can set it up to run XP programs.

Also, on Vista I had a recurring ALPS device pointer driver error that'd make the cursor jump backwards sometimes and delete letters, typing was a nightmare at times. After installed Windows 7 problem solved!

[LGA777]

My inital first 4 or 5 hours with Windows 7 went great, really like it and had no problem re-installing my printer and other softwares with it, mine is the 64 bit version.

Thanks

LGA777