I Need to Purchase 2 Computers for the Children Monday and Need Freeper Imput

10.040.03 | mlmr

[Fraulein]

I have an e-machine that looks like an I-Mac. I got it before they were sued by McIntosh and they were all pulled off the market. I've had it for many years, and I LOVE IT, though once I did have to get the hard drive replaced...

[Dasaji]

The Dell is going to be the best bang for your buck. For $699 on eBay, there are new Dells w/ flat screen monitors all over the place. We just bought a Dell for our company in March - it is a good, solid machine and runs smoothly.

[Malsua]

The best bang for your buck will come from these things in order.

1. 7200 RPM Hard Drives.
2. At least 256mb of Ram.
3. 32mb Ram on a video card.

Processor speed won't make nearly as much of a difference as these things will, although, you don't want to skimp on processor. Athlon 1800 or better or a P4 2GHZ or better.

I won't buy a drive under 40gb in size but frankly, 40gb is a whole bunch of space. 120 is overkill.

512k Ram is great! Gig is better! It boils down to your cost point. 256mb is enough if you run XP. 128 is bare minimum for XP an I wouldn't recommend it. It will run fine at 128, but performance will take a hit if you run alot of things.

As others suggested...Dells are good if they fit the criteria listed above and most do. E-machines can run great but you can get lemons. I've had vendors provide equipment driven by E-machines. The biggest issue is proprietary case and proprietary and substandard power supply. Generally the Emachines work ok, but I've trashed 2 of 5 within a 18 months. They stopped working and I just replaced them rather than deal with it. Of course, I deal with hundreds of PCs at work so it would cost more to bother with them than to replace(Down equipment can run into the hundreds of $$ per hour lost production).

As another suggested, you might find a local PC house that can build to order. You'll get your best bang for the buck there and if it breaks, you can go there, flop it on the counter and say "fix it".

Don't get the 3 year warranty from anyone. If you computer lasts a year, it's prolly good for 3 and by the time 3 years roll by, you'll want to upgrade anyway.

My .02.

Good luck.

-Mal

[xrp]

OpenBSD is more secure "out of the box".

[visualops]

2 things there jump out at me-
#1 that's not a good choice of HD, at 5400 it's slow and practically obsolete.
#2 Intel integrated 3D graphics are terrible.
Also, nowadays 256 MB ram should be standard. 128 is just enough to run XP, never mind today's applications (bloatware).

[Green Knight]

Huh. Had no idea. Thanks for the heads up. I'm still not certain how much funds I'll have available in the near future to buy a new comp, but I guess I ought to be considering a Dimension 4600? That has 256MB, though it's $1,000. Anything beyond that is right out, though. Next in line is the 8300, with 512MB, and that's $1,900. No chance of my getting that.

Though I'm looking at the catalog, and under the 2400 it says that I can upgrade to, and I quote "256MB Shared DDR SDRAM at 333MHz" for an additional $60. Will that upgrade solve the problem which you mentioned?

[Leroy S. Mort]

You can trash them all you want but like I said I have had no problems whatsoever.

I hope you continue to have good luck with yours, because if it ever needs significant repairs, you've got a doorstop.

[Old Professer]

Post the website, please.

[JohnSmithee]

"#2 Intel integrated 3D graphics are terrible."

Running XP with 128 Megs of RAM you are probably right, but after upgrading the memory to 512 Meg everything ran smoothly. However, to play games on the internet I need to turn off most other applications in order to get a smooth gaming experience.

[JohnSmithee]

"I hope you continue to have good luck with yours, because if it ever needs significant repairs, you've got a doorstop."

The same can be said of every computer out of warranty.

[xrp]

Not my kicking 486DX/80 from circa 1993! It's still running strong with OpenBSD.

[Iris7]

I don't really have enough experience with OS X to have an opinion worth much, but I trust the source code of OpenBSD pretty well, as it has been public for a long time. I am pretty sure there are no back doors. Actually OS X is probably the best factory OS stability wise.

Running W2K here, but any computer yet made is never secure, anyway, especially if connected to the internet and you download stuff on whim, as there are wormy programs in abundance. I have W2K source disks, and have reformatted four times in the last year! I hope I have learned my lesson!

[Sabertooth]

Can't help you.

I'm a Mac fan, but I'm advocating a boycott of them until they fire Al Gore from their Board of Directors.

[Hillary's Lovely Legs]

I just built a Dell online and got a great deal with their rebates.

Please stay away from the E machine.

[Old Professer]

Apparently you haven't developed the "stare your floor manager in the eye and threaten to camp for the duration" sort of frustrated customer relations stance with your local Best Buy store.

So, your dad got a lemon, if what you say is correct, but that can happen to any company at any time.

The E-Machine we bought for my daughter has only been turned off when the furniture was moved and has survived two power outages with no ill effects.

I'm typing this on an old Packard Bell C115 that never gets turned off except for the occasional reboot when this poor old thing gets confused.

As far as being disposable is concerned, I'm sure you have read or ought to read, The Wastemakers by Vance Packard, especially Chapter 6.

Too many towers get placed down low where they can be kicked about by the user and this can result in a fatal hard-drive error.

If I had my way, every customer would be allowed to "test-drive" the unit he/she is buying in the store before they ever hand over the paper or plastic.

Take care of your dad, he will grow to like you one of these days. :)

[Leroy S. Mort]

"I hope you continue to have good luck with yours, because if it ever needs significant repairs, you've got a doorstop."

The same can be said of every computer out of warranty.

If that was remotely true, I couldn't make a living.

[Iris7]

Sure will. I would ask them to put in 512 megs. and maybe an 80 gig drive, although 40 is actually plenty. The machine I leave connected to the internet and do foolish stuff with is only 8 gigs.

I bought a 2400 Dell for my daughter in college with an 80 gig drive, 2.2 meg clock rate, P4, CD-RW, DVD (for movies), floppy. Plenty good enough. Insides are decent. Easy to work on. Lots of techs (I am a little far away) work on them OK. (The school has a support operation that is very used to Dells.)

[Old Professer]

I'm not sure how much you want to spend, but Cyberpower has a weekly special on their AMD Athlon XP-2200, 256MB DDR RAM, 80GB hard drive, no monitor, no OS, for $399.

Or for $599, you can get their AMD Athlon XP-2100, 256MB DDR RAM, 40GB hard drive, 19-inch ViewSonic monitor, CD-RW 52x24x52, Windows XP Home Edition. This one won a c|Net Editor's Choice Award. My brother owns one of them and likes it.

So, The O/S and a cheap monitor added while 40GB of HD capacity is eliminated and a slower processor is used makes the price $200 more than the box?

Most people want a computer that they can actually, "Plug and Play"; they don't want to balance the bells and weigh the whistles.

[Old Professer]

I was all over the Dell websites yesterday and that's not what I found; post the site addr(URL), please.

[TheBattman]

I agree on the Mac point - and lots of educational software out there to boot....

I am a bit puzzled at the specs listed....

I am thinking that 512K and 120MB would do it.

512 K of what? There's not much measured in modern computers at 512 K, other than the L2 cache, which is not a huge consideration.

And if you are referring to the RAM with the 120MB figure, I think you mean 128, and that is WOEFULLY inadequate for the latest operating systems, including XP. I cannot imagine buying even a basic PC with less than 512MB of ram, regardless of the brand or operating system used. This is particularly important if you will be using any video components.

If you absolutely MUST have a Windows based PC, here are the specs I would suggest you look at (and stay away from E-machines. There is a reason they are cheaper...):

Pentium® 4 Processor at 2.20GHz
256MB DDR SDRAM at 333MHz BARE MINIMUM, if the machine has a separate video card, (512MB if "shared memory" is used for video, which I strongly discourage).
40GB ATA/100 Hard Drive - bigger if you can afford it - the more empty space on the drive, the happier the OS is....
DVD/CD-RW combo drive - you will want the CD burner portion for back-ups and other recording needs. The DVD side would be helpful for watching movies and some software titles..
32MB NVidia or Radeon video card as MINIMUM, 64MB would be preferable.
Windows XP Professional - especially if you plan on a home network.

You really don't want to scrimp on RAM - it is one of the most cost effective "upgrades" to a computer and it's performance. Even if you think you will never use a lot of ram, the computer will run appreciably faster and more stable if you have extra.

As I stated to begin with, I highly reccomend a Macintosh for your purposes - it will be easier to network, and simpler to operate. For education and kids, it's hard to beat an eMac or iMac (flat panel). Both can be had reasonable inexpensively.

Also, the Macintosh platform enjoys the longest "useful life" of any platform. I have a 9 year old PowerMacintosh 7200 in my band room that still kicking and working.

If you truly have to have a Windows based PC, then I strongly urge you to get as much machine as you can (the minimums I listed should get you headed in a reasonable direction).

Good luck.