Buying a New Computer

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Calling everyone the magic word 'moron' made it personal.

You took such effrontery to someone looking for encouragement to try something new that it seemed likely that it was detrimental to your livelihood. A glance at your age showed you are likely to young for that to be true, so I posited that perhaps another breadwinner in your household was concerned about job security.

If that was a mistake, it was only because you jumped into the topic with such vitriol and many bad assumptions.

For the truth is, if I had an agenda in advising the original poster, I would tell them to use linux, which is what I favour. Most of those that have chimed in with help favour linux too, but none of us felt the need to desperately claw for users.

^ fuzzy, you don't have to give the noob any explanation. As always, your such a gentleman.

Thanks again everyone! I think one of the key items that will finalize my decision on whether or not to buy a Mac or a new PC is to sit down in front of a Mac and play around with it myself. As all of you can relate (as Aspies) change is difficult. I never used a Mac before I always used Windows based PCs. I think if I sit down and find a Mac (maybe at a Apple Store or even a Mac Lab in the college I work for) I'll see if I can handle the differences.

By the way, not to change the topic but has anyone used Microsoft Windows 7 yet? If you have, how is it? Hopefully it's better than Vista because that was a total horrorshow.

It's based on the same core as Vista, but they cleaned it up and made it better. It is marginally faster, but not dramatically faster than Vista. Still, a new, modern machine would run it just fine. Since it's based on the same core as Vista (less of a change than from XP to Vista) the transition will be far less painful in terms of broken device drivers and incompatible software. They added several nice features from a UI perspective, but I can't comment much on that since I haven't gotten to play with it very much. Everyone I know who's tried Windows 7 has a positive opinion on it, but for me it wouldn't install properly.

On a mac? Hehe, too bad you'll have to wait for Apple to update bootcamp.
btw, they already said that only newer macs will be supported. So if your mac is > 2yrs old, you may be out of luck. I wonder what ppl would say of Dell or HP if the same thing happens.

It was before the bootcamp upgrade when I last tried- as of Snow Leopard bootcamp does officially support Windows 7, but I haven't bothered trying it again yet. Any Intel-based Mac can run Snow Leopard, and anything with Snow Leopard can bootcamp Windows 7.

Not if this article is true.

Snow Leopard sucks - no AppleTalk.

Oh well, I guess ignorance wins after all. Like the n00b I am, I am outta here!

[noobiness]Windows and Linux FTW!! ! Apple SUX!! ! LOL!! ! XD[/noobiness]

When shopping for a new computer, whether it be Mac or PC, what should one look for in a processor, hard drive and memory besides capacity? I'm aware of there's something else but I don't remember what its.

By the way, what kind of internet services does everyone here have (DSL, Cable...)? I have Verizon DSL, I'm from NYC by the way.

Thanks again for everyone's help with this!

Boy, you know how to ask a loaded question, don't you?

There is NO SINGLE BEST ANSWER for your question, and I just bought the hardware for a new system.

I wanted a powerful PC that would last me 5+ years easily. I do video production work so power is key. I went with an Intel i7 Quad because it's at the top. Didn't buy the $1,000 CPU, but the $250 one. When the high end ones come down in price, I could always upgrade the CPU with a faster one. The slowest Intel i7 Quad will blow the doors of most anything else out there.

However, if you do nothing but basic office software and web surfing, that's overkill.

Clearly, since they went to dual core CPUs to get more speed at less power, you'll want to go with a dual core CPU, but I'd need to do a lot of research to see what is more than enough BASED ON YOUR NEEDS. If you like doing PC games, you'll need something on the higher end, otherwise something on the low end might be great for many years of use.

Hard drives should be at least 7,200 rpm because that does matter. They have 10,000 rpm models, but they are pricey. SATA is the minimum interface you want because 3.0 GHz/sec transfer rates really cut lag time in loading documents and doing stuff that caches to the HDD.

Memory should be a brand that is rated as quality. You don't have to spend $$$, but dirt cheap memory is often not that good deal. If you plan to overclock your system (up the power settings to get faster speeds) you have to pay for better quality parts which will withstand the stress of that being done.

Now that Windows 7 is out, here's the skinny....

RAM - Have at least 3 GB. Under XP, having 2 GB was more than enough. If you run a 32-bit OS (Vista and Win7 come in both 32 and 64-bit platforms), you can not employ more than 4 GB of total RAM in your system. If you want to be able to use more than 4 GB, you must go with 64-bit. For Win7 and Vista, 3 GB is enough for the system to run well without exhausting the RAM on the board to do most common functions.

OS - Might as well go Win7 on a new system. Get the 32/64-bit version based on the amount of RAM you plan to install.

HDD - Have at least 500 GB. 1TB might be overkill and impossible to backup. Unless you have LOTS of music, video, etc. on the HDD, 500GB is quite a bit to fill up.

VIDEO - You didn't mention this, but video is tied to what you plan to do. Gaming requires a better card than most MBs will come with if the video is integrated onto the board. How good a card depends on how much you like in terms of quality and what size monitor you are using. LCD displays have fairly fixed resolutions and a more powerful card is needed to get quality on a larger display.

If you post up what kind of purposes you have in mind for a PC, we can better suggest what type of hardware you should look for.

Right now I have a Intel Pentinum 4 1.9 GHZ in 8 year Dell Computer. I have a 80 GB Hard Drive and 512 MB of RDRAM. I'm currently using Windows XP Home Edition SP3 and have Verizon DSL. I'm not too sure of the specifics of the processor and the hard drive. I use my computer daily when I'm at home. I surf the web on various different types of websites, I do play games (on-line games in particular), I do use Microsoft Office from time to time, I look at PDF files, I'm not too much into pictures and videos but do occasionally look at short movies on the web, I do listen to music on-line, I look at my work e-mail using a Novell based system. As stated in previous postings I'm looking at getting a new PC or maybe even a Mac. If I get the new PC I will definitely get one with Windows 7 since Vista is a horrorshow. If I decide to go with Mac I'll probably get a Imac with the new OS system in it, I would have to play around with one before I make a final decsion.

I hope this helps.

Well, in your case, any number of the dual-core CPUs will probably be a massive improvement but that you'd likely never take advantage of what the quad-cores will be doing. Which one to go with? I can't say as they've been out for so long. It is wise to say you should get the most powerful one your budget will afford because that extends how long your new PC will be able to run stuff in the future.

Windows7 will need at least 2 GB of RAM for optimal performance. Be safe and get 3 GB.

HDDs are cheap nowadays. 500GB is not that expensive.

Video cards are hard to go by. Sounds like you don't do too much serious gaming, so perhaps onboard video will be good enough (a MB with the card built in). Or you can just buy any number of the gaming video cards that are 2 or so years old (been in the market that long). You could get a video card you never will outgrow for under $50 because a state of the art card is around $500.

If you aren't building the PC yourself, there are many places the custom build (perhaps in your own town) and if you give a budget and what you want to be able to do, they'll pick what they know to be good parts and put it together for you. It's better (my 2 cents) than buying online because most online shops save you money by using cheaper components, and you're supporting a local business.

It's really hard to give advices without knowing your rough budget.

Generally at the low end, AMD platforms (CPU+Motherboard) give better value than Intel's, especially with integrated GPU. As the target price goes up, AMD becomes less and less attractive.

If you do any gaming, then add-on GPU is almost a must. AMD currently has better product than NVIDIA at every price point but you still have to decide how much you want to spend on it. And if this aspect is important, you'll also want to balance the $ spent on CPU vs GPU.

Harddisk is pretty boring nowadays. Just buy one large enough for you. That is unless you want to go SSD.

RAM is always the more the better. However, if you plan to use 32-bit OS then 4GB is the max you can use. That figure includes the amount of RAM on your display card if you buy one.
(There are unspported ways to really use PAE or use the extra as RAM disk, but that's additional work)

If sound quality is important, then there are also plenty of high quality sound cards available.
(Auzentech and Asus are famous in the HTPC world)

Brand name PCs may actually be cheaper than DIY if a model happens to fit your needs exactly. Once you customize though, it tends to be more expensive but still not as much as Apple. And of course DIY gives you all the options in the world.

Yup.




Yup.




I think nvidia gives better performance though. And the price isnt that much more.



Yup. Non issue. As long as its 7200 rpm, one brand is the same as another.



Just get 64 bit. Plain and simple. 32 is going away.




Most motherboards have nice sound cards built in. Unless you are an audiophile, dont worry about it. And you can always add one later. Differ this cost I say.



Agreed, tentatively.

True, but brand does matter. Some have an awful reputation for HDD failure without warning. The few $$$ you save isn't worth it. Western Digital and Seagate are among the better ones currently.