Need Help

[StupidGirlllll]

hello board I need help or advice with purchasing a new computer! What is the best? Thanx

[Don Stugots]

i just ordered a dell inspiron lap top. Bad Monkey suggested it to me.

[thelyonhart]

yeah just get a dell, i mean, i could tell you what the best stuff to buy would be, but it would be seriously geeky, and nothing you would probably need, and couldnt provide the support that dell does...

[EliSnow]

I think my wife and I will probably get a laptop for the new house as well, for our kitchen computer with our desktop in another room. I'm struggling between Mac and Dell. Any thoughts?

[StupidGirlllll]

I was looking on line @ best buy and they had a compaq everything was included for like 900. Is compaq a good name?

[Ritalin]

I just bought a Macbook Pro, and when I turned it on, it asked me if I had another Mac. I said "yes".

It asked me if I wanted to import files and programs from my other Mac. I said "yes", and it told me to connect the two computers with Firewire, and reboot my other Mac while holding the "T" key.

45 minutes later, every file and program that I wanted on the laptop was on there, fully funtional and ready to go. Everything. Every bookmark, email, preference. Everything.

I converted my entire business from a desktop to a laptop in 45 minutes.

I'm just saying...

[JPMNICK]

I was looking on line @ best buy and they had a compaq everything was included for like 900. Is compaq a good name?

compaq is very good, they and HP are now the same company.

post what you want to use it for, what kind of comp you currently have, and what you are into (like downloading music, movies, or making your own movies). that will let people here know how fast you need and how much RAM to suggest.

my recomendations right off the bat are make sure you get windows XP and not Vista, as a lot of people are having trouble with it. Make sure the processer you get is 64bit, you should get 2GB of RAM and at least 250GB hard drive.

I usually recomend Dell to people because in my experience, most people do not have trouble with them.

if you want, you can post the link to the bestbuy computer so we can check it out

[MadMatt]

compaq is very good, they and HP are now the same company.

post what you want to use it for, what kind of comp you currently have, and what you are into (like downloading music, movies, or making your own movies). that will let people here know how fast you need and how much RAM to suggest.

my recomendations right off the bat are make sure you get windows XP and not Vista, as a lot of people are having trouble with it. Make sure the processer you get is 64bit, you should get 2GB of RAM and at least 250GB hard drive.

I usually recomend Dell to people because in my experience, most people do not have trouble with them.

if you want, you can post the link to the bestbuy computer so we can check it out

I have to disagree with you RE: HP/Compaq - I have had more trouble with HP/Compaq computers than any other computers in the company. They are prone to hardware failures (esp. hard drives) and getting support for them is a pain in the butt.

Plus, they load all sorts of proprietary software and extra crap the system doesn't need. One of the few positive aspects is the pre-configured recovery partition, which is a nice feature to have (unless the hard drive fails).

HP is great for printers and peripherals, but I am not impressed with the laptops/desktops - especially if they are used long and hard.

Your other suggestions are pretty solid - Stick with XP. I am a fan of Dell, but I would also suggest you purchase the "Gold Level" support option(s).

[mildly amusing]

i had a sony vaio laptop which was good while it lasted...but i made the jump to a macbook in january and i don't think i'll ever look back...if, like me, all you've ever used is a pc there's a little bit of a learning curve, but once you get used to it you'll love it...

[JustJon]

I think my wife and I will probably get a laptop for the new house as well, for our kitchen computer with our desktop in another room. I'm struggling between Mac and Dell. Any thoughts?

Mac :smile:

I happen to like OSX alot and most of the things are comparable. If there's anything you can't run on the mac, you can run a pc emulator like Parallels or have a dual boot.

[Death Metal Moe]

Fuck Dell. Horrible outsourced tech support manned by unwashed savages. I'd sooner hook a garden hose up to my computer than call Dell support.

I would suggest going to an actual store where you can take your computer back to under warranty. Best Buy probably isn't the best priced, but it's local to you and that's good.

You're gonna hear different people say they don't like this or that brand. In my experience over the past few years scavanging computer parts and throwing together makeshift comps, they're like cars. Sometimes they break, sometimes they don't. It's not really the brand as much as just luck of the draw.

So my advice is find a computer that will do what you want it to, has room to expand in the future a little and is in your price range. Then just get it.

[StupidGirlllll]

Now I am just all about confused...every1 has a different opinion...this is what I want my computer to do..play games download songs from I tunes( my old computer suxs at that)& watch tv shows I missed the night before& research for my kids reports & stuff like that.. I am not by any means necessary doing anything that great on it, but I need it for every day living.

[badmonkey]

i just ordered a dell inspiron lap top. Bad Monkey suggested it to me.

Actually DizzyDog suggested it, I just passed the hardware configuration suggestions along for you. The only thing I know about laptops is my sony vaio ran horribly and I hated it, and my prostar pentium 3 w/128 RAM and win98 hand-me-down from mom seems to be lasting longer but can't handle much of a workload.

Best advice is figure out what you wanna do with the machine, then call somebody like Dell or a custom builder and tell them what you wanna do with the machine. They will recommend a machine configuration that will do what you want it to do. They will also be able to tell you where you can cut corners on hardware to reduce cost without reducing functionality on the things that are most important to you.

Badmonkey