New Computer Advice

Catatonic

Nine Lives
Anyone have advice on a good desk top computer for under $1,000?

Anyone who answers that question should ask you a few questions first (your not interested in what they need but what you need):

What do you do on your PC?
Surf Internet mostly, some document processing, some Spreadsheet?
Basic PC with most input/output devices incorporated into motherboard. Lowest priced but limited in flexibility.

Do you run other programs? If so, what kind?
Image processing? (ie - Photoshop)
Need lots of memory, large hard drive, good quality video card (Turtle for instance) and good quality monitor.

Do you now or plan to become a gamer? Online gaming? Need more processing power, more fast memory, really good and fast video card (Gforce as example). Monitor needs to be good quality with fast refresh rate.

I've had good luck buying PCs through Office Depot when they had specials (40 -60 % off) but you have to wait and monitor until they have one of their sales. The best buys are when you select the model and features in store and the PC is shipped directly from manufacturer.
 

over9five

Moderator
Staff member
The only thing I know about computers is how to post at Brown Cafe!


But I have wondered if my desktop ever died, wouldn't I replace it with a laptop? Don't laptops do everything that desktops do AND they're portable?

Is there any reason to buy a desktop anymore? Bigger screen I guess?

I really don't know, just asking!
 

dilligaf

IN VINO VERITAS
I really like my Acer. It has a 200GB Sata hard disk, 1GB DDR memory, 3400+ AMD Athlon Processor. It does more than everything I would ever need. I can put in another hard drive if I needed to.


Over, I saw the smallest laptop the other day. It was an Acer as well. Couldn't have been more than about 8". I think if my desktop died I would go to a laptop as well. So much more convenient.
 

evilleace

Well-Known Member
A laptop is my choice but if you do things like play games or use photoshop you need a powerful laptop that can easily top $1500 and weigh 8 to 10 lbs. so it is not so portable anymore. As far as the computer you should get let me know what you do on it and I will recommend a few. Newegg would be a good place online to look for a cheap computer.
 

UPSNewbie

Well-Known Member
I really like my Acer. It has a 200GB Sata hard disk, 1GB DDR memory, 3400+ AMD Athlon Processor. It does more than everything I would ever need. I can put in another hard drive if I needed to.


Over, I saw the smallest laptop the other day. It was an Acer as well. Couldn't have been more than about 8". I think if my desktop died I would go to a laptop as well. So much more convenient.

That would be a netbook. Those are quite nifty.

If you or someone you know knows how to put together a computer (it's not that hard), do it. Sometimes it can be so much cheaper.
 

Jones

fILE A GRIEVE!
Staff member
Anyone have advice on a good desk top computer for under $1,000?
You don't have to spend anywhere near $1,000 to get a pretty nice rig unless you're a gamer. If you don't have a specific task in mind, you can probably pick up an HP at Costco for a lot less than that. If you mainly just surf the net, email, and print out a few things you might want to consider what a few people have already said and get a laptop, but recognize that in general you will pay more for a laptop than a desktop with comparable specs because companies charge a premium for making it small and portable. Asus and Acer both make good, affordable laptops. If you go with Dell, check out their outlet store, there's no reason to pay full price :wink2:.
My wife has this Asus netbook and loves it, but there's a limit to how long I can stare at a 10 inch screen, plus it's got no cd/dvd drives. You might like it though, and the price is right.

If you don't mind a little construction project, check out this system buyers guide from AnandTech. Tells you exactly what parts to buy and where to buy them, all you have to do is snap'em together :happy-very:.
 

scratch

Least Best Moderator
Staff member
What a time for this thread. My HP notebook's motherboard went out the other day, so my wife gave me her HP notebook. I am currently looking around for a motherboard. The first one I found was $375, but I may have found one on E-Bay for $150. i will just have to wait and try to fix it myself when I can.

Anyways, I just set up my wife's new Dell Inspiron 530 desktop. We had an old Dell that was about five years old, I had already replaced the hard drive, added a video card, and upped its RAM. The new Dell has a Intel 2.5 GHz processor, 4Gb memory, 500Gb hard drive, 19" monitor, and Best Buys threw in a cheap Canon all-in-one for $679.

This was a heck of a lot cheaper than the first one I bought for home back in 1994. It was an IBM Aptiva with a Pentium 100 processor and a big 1 Gb hard drive for $2700.

Notebooks are great for sitting back in the recliner and surfing the net. But it is still good to have a desk top for all the extra stuff it will do.
 

Jones

fILE A GRIEVE!
Staff member
What a time for this thread. My HP notebook's motherboard went out the other day, so my wife gave me her HP notebook. I am currently looking around for a motherboard. The first one I found was $375, but I may have found one on E-Bay for $150. i will just have to wait and try to fix it myself when I can.

Anyways, I just set up my wife's new Dell Inspiron 530 desktop. We had an old Dell that was about five years old, I had already replaced the hard drive, added a video card, and upped its RAM. The new Dell has a Intel 2.5 GHz processor, 4Gb memory, 500Gb hard drive, 19" monitor, and Best Buys threw in a cheap Canon all-in-one for $679.

This was a heck of a lot cheaper than the first one I bought for home back in 1994. It was an IBM Aptiva with a Pentium 100 processor and a big 1 Gb hard drive for $2700.

Notebooks are great for sitting back in the recliner and surfing the net. But it is still good to have a desk top for all the extra stuff it will do.
Never say die, Scratch! I always try to squeeze every viable upgrade out of a comp before I take it out back and put two in it's head :happy-very:. I just breathed another life cycle into an old Sony Vaio, it had a 1.6 Pentium 4 processor which I replaced with a 2.2 that I found on Ebay. The Sony bios doesn't really like it and runs it slightly under clocked, but it's still a huge improvement. I upped to 1gb of RAM from the original 256mb, ideally I would like to put 2gb in but it only has 2 RAM slots and 1gb sticks of pc133 are hideously expensive.
I remember our old i386 that ran at 10 mhz. It had a "turbo" mode that bumped it up to 12....
 

over9five

Moderator
Staff member
Notebooks are great for sitting back in the recliner and surfing the net. But it is still good to have a desk top for all the extra stuff it will do.


And there's my question. What will a new desktop do that a new laptop will not do? What's the extra stuff that a desktop does?


And Jeez, Scratch why wait till you have time to fix it? Bring it over to Hoax!!
 

bubsdad

"Hang in there!"
Thanks for all the responses. My wife has a business website and she does alot on the computer as far as listing items, pricing, selling etc. She also does alot of photo uploads and sharing. I pretty much just surf and check schedules, read news papers etc. We don't really want a laptop at this time. We currently have a Dell and really liked it until it started going crazy about 4 months ago. Took it to the computer doctor and had everything wiped out and started over but recently it has gotten very bad. She has to "fix" it 3 or 4 times a day just so that we can do anything at all. Thanks again for all the responses. Oh, yeah, my son goes on Nickelodeon and sites like that and plays games.
 
Last edited:

Catatonic

Nine Lives
My wife has a business website and she does alot on the computer as far as listing items, pricing, selling etc. She also does alot of photo uploads and sharing. I pretty much just surf and check schedules, read news papers etc.
have a Dell and really liked it until it started going crazy about 4 months ago. Took it to the computer doctor and had everything wiped out and started over but recently it has gotten very bad. She has to "fix" it 3 or 4 times a day just so that we can do anything at all. Thanks again for all the responses.
Oh, yeah, my son goes on Nickelodeon and sites like that and plays games.

What did PC Doc say the problem was?

Are you running Windows Defender (assuming OS is Windows XP)?
Are you running McAfee for Virus protection?

It sounds suspiciously like you have a problem with third party software, malware or viruses running on your system and clogging it up.

Unfortunately, surfing the Internet and believe it or not Nickolodean will put all kind of crap on your system.

You could try setting the browser to not accept cookies, and put you Internet Security setting on Medium-High or High to keep the crap off.
 

bubsdad

"Hang in there!"
What did PC Doc say the problem was?

Are you running Windows Defender (assuming OS is Windows XP)?
Are you running McAfee for Virus protection?

It sounds suspiciously like you have a problem with third party software, malware or viruses running on your system and clogging it up.

Unfortunately, surfing the Internet and believe it or not Nickolodean will put all kind of crap on your system.

You could try setting the browser to not accept cookies, and put you Internet Security setting on Medium-High or High to keep the crap off.
Took off Windows Defender because it was using alot of CPU.
Currently using Windows Live Care.
Were using McAfee then was using AVG before Windows Live Care.
Keep getting a pop-up that says ods.exe was blocked from installing. Got through today and wife had to remove it.
We will set browser to not accept cookies and our setting is on high.
Could I just send it to you for an attitude adjustment?:happy-very:
 

Solidarity413

Well-Known Member
Took off Windows Defender because it was using alot of CPU.
Currently using Windows Live Care.
Were using McAfee then was using AVG before Windows Live Care.
Keep getting a pop-up that says ods.exe was blocked from installing. Got through today and wife had to remove it.
We will set browser to not accept cookies and our setting is on high.
Could I just send it to you for an attitude adjustment?:happy-very:


You can get a great comp for under a grand. No prob. Hoax has got this one covered but I would say it is a lot of fun to build your own comp and WAY cheaper. You can even learn on Youtube in under a half hour. If you can memorize all the crap UPS makes you do I have faith it will take you under an hour to get you a comp up and running. Check out newegg for parts if you're interested. They also sell built PC's there as well. And they ship UPS!
 

Jones

fILE A GRIEVE!
Staff member
Took off Windows Defender because it was using alot of CPU.
Currently using Windows Live Care.
Were using McAfee then was using AVG before Windows Live Care.
Keep getting a pop-up that says ods.exe was blocked from installing. Got through today and wife had to remove it.
We will set browser to not accept cookies and our setting is on high.
Could I just send it to you for an attitude adjustment?:happy-very:
It's been a while since I've used IE, but if I remember correctly the optimal setting is to accept 1st party cookies, and block 3rd parties cookies. Blocking all cookies is probably more trouble than it's worth. It really does sound like you have a spyware/malware problem, if you don't want to run Windows Defender try using either SpyBot or Ad-Aware. In my experience Spybot is a little more thorough, Ad-Aware is a little more user friendly, but they both do a great job.
And stay away from those porn sites.....
 
Last edited:

bubsdad

"Hang in there!"
Thanks again for all the responses. Came home today and wife had computer running very well. Seems she got a CD from her mom and did a bunch of witchcraft type stuff and burned candles and incense and chanted several things. Lo and behold I can come on BC without having to jump through hoops. Life is grand again. Thanks everyone.
 

over9five

Moderator
Staff member
My laptop seems to have STB. Thinking of replacing it with a Mac. It's a Dell, 3 years and 4 days old. Loved the big 17 inch screen....
3 years is not enough for the amount I spent on it. Time to try something other than Dell.
 

moreluck

golden ticket member
Thanks again for all the responses. Came home today and wife had computer running very well. Seems she got a CD from her mom and did a bunch of witchcraft type stuff and burned candles and incense and chanted several things. Lo and behold I can come on BC without having to jump through hoops. Life is grand again. Thanks everyone.
She'll need to replace her 'eye of newt', so take her shopping.
 
Top