Shopping for new computer

[JennyP]

Hi all!
I know enough about computers to know how to turn mine on, get my email, and find the bookmark to get to Optiboard...and how to scream to my hubby when I have problems...such as the current Compact celeron (?) 400mhz model giving me error messages and shutting down.
Question: He wants to buy a Dell, (pentium (I've heard of that) IV, 8200 series, with 1.8 ghz) system. We have a 5600 speed modem, and according to that "test your speed" thread: Ha ha ha" are you for real??? capabilities.
So: anyone have this system? Are you happy with it? Can I use my old windows or do I have to learn a whole new set of rules?? Also, we have "dial-up" internet access tho' my daughter has cable and hubby thinks we might can share that with her with a router or windows XP home version. Anyone doing that?
Feedback please!
jP
ps: He just gave me the bad news....I have to learn a whole new Windows.....HELP!

pps: And if you get too technical, I'll have to call my son, (the senior-year biomed-engineering, looking for a summer internship, planning grad school, really shouldn't be bothered right now, student who already thinks his mom is a trip!) whew!

[Steve Machol]

Dell is probably the top computer brand so you can't go wrong with it. As for Windows XP, there's not really that much new to learn unless you're going to get into networking and other more extensive applications. I don't think you're quite ready for that just yet! ;)

If hubby is up to it, I definitely recommend networking the computers so you can share the cable connection. The speed increase is definitely worth it. I've done that with our two computers and it works great.

[John R]

Any should do, Dont worry about learning "new" windowz as they are pretty much the same. Bit like chocolate bars same on the inside just a diffrent wrapper....
Is your daughter in the same house. If she is a network card in your new puter, length of cable, hub and off you go no more wwwait..... windows makes it easy to share stuff like that. Just done it with my sprog, got her shareing my 56k connection on win Me.. Talk about slowwwww when we are both on...

[JennyP]

Thanks Steve and John:
Yes, daughter is in same house, next room over, so maybe cable won't be terribly long, and hubby has been known to run lines thru the crawlspace 'tween floors, or in and back out of garage (tv cable line and telephone, etc). Her computer is a Compaq, running windows '98, same as my current computer, but a little faster.

Now hubby is saying that he might buy an extra card and put this current computer down in son's old room, and network the 3???

ok, Steve, I AM out of my depth, but at least it sounds like I will still be able to find Optiboard when he is done....

And he and I and daughter will only pass in the kitchen when we go foraging for food, since we will all be online somewhere in this dimension when we are not actually asleep or earning the money to pay for it all!

Thanks guys! Anyone else have comments??
jP

[ioconnell]

Here Dell make a computer to suit your needs, including something that would be of use to you and ommiting somethings you definetly dont need, You should check it out

[JRS]

JennyP,

I happen to own a Dell 8200 1.8gig machine myself. I have 512 megs of memory, a Nivia T500 3-D graphics card, a Turtle Creek sound card - w/ Harmon Kardon speakers & sub-woofer, a 80gig drive. I also got the DVD drive and a CD-RW drive. Finished out with a 17 inch flat screen display. All-in-all I have been quite pleased with the performance of the system.

However, Windows XP takes a little getting used to. But you can configure XP to "look" like Windows 98, if that would make it easier for you. There are some major differences. If you get a system, and it comes with XP, make sure to download the POWER TOYS for XP from their web site. You can make several of the new features work in the background and not annoy you.

I run cable modem from home to avoid the speed issues, so I can't say much about the 56k modem they are equipped with. I tested it and it worked fine, but that's it. I have an older system P3 750meg machine that I intend to network, but have not got around to it - never home long enough.
NOTE - if you do network to your daughters cable modem (and you can do just that) you need a FIREWALL. So does she now, if she doesn't she's looking for potential problems with crackers.

[Alan W]

If your system is older, XP will make a mental case out of you. It does not like the older drivers and you will ultimately be spending some bucks buying new hardware to make XP happy.

ME is just fine. But, it looks like you have some problems that need to be eliminated. Back up and reinstall Windows or upgrade, but before you do, do a scan disk and see whats happening with your hard drive.
Clear out temp and temporary internet files.
If you have lots of unrepaired errors let scan disk try to fix them. Defrag after that.
If none of that works, including a reinstall of Windows . . .

Dude . . . yer gettin a Dell!

[shanbaum]

Originally posted by JRS
NOTE - if you do network to your daughters cable modem (and you can do just that) you need a FIREWALL. So does she now, if she doesn't she's looking for potential problems with crackers.

Not exactly. If you use Internet Connection Sharing (or whatever they call the XP version), only the computer connected to the internet requires (or can benefit from) firewall software, such as ZoneAlarm, a version of which is available for free.

The computers not directly connected to the Internet are not vulnerable; their IP addresses are local to your home network.

[Steve Machol]

Originally posted by shanbaum
The computers not directly connected to the Internet are not vulnerable; their IP addresses are local to your home network.

That's true, but they're still vunerable to email viruses and harmful applications on mischievous websites. For this reason, every computer should have a virus protection program.

Alan,

Her hubby is talking about buying a 1.8 Gb Dell. Not only will this run fine with Win XP, but XP is a far more stable operating system than Win ME or Win 98.

[shanbaum]

Originally posted by Steve Machol
That's true, but they're still vunerable to email viruses and harmful applications on mischievous websites. For this reason, every computer should have a virus protection program.

Virus protection, yes, absolutely.

[Jubilee]

The system you are looking into sound great. I have many friends with Dells who are extremely happy. I personally like to build my own, much cheaper that way :bbg:

Now as far as networking with your daughter cable modem. It should run great. Currently we are on a cable modem, and with our service we pay an extra $5 a month for each additional computer over the first using the connection. As John mentioned the only extra things you would need are a hub, a network card in each computer, and some cable. Curreently we have 3 computer hooked up to it, and the only trouble we had was just recently when Comcast moved the servera, and had only assigned us one, not three seperate IP addresses.

A good antivirus is very much a necessisty though, along with a firewall or some sort of internet security. The reason being is that with cable, the same with DSL, is that you are constantly connected while your computer is on. Which can make you more prone to people sifting through the contents on your computer, hacks, and the like..

So far running with Norton Antivirus and Black Ice Defender, none of the computers has had any trouble. I have gotten several alerts letting me know though that it was good to have these programs...

If you don't want to deal with a software firewall, there are hardware firewalls available that plug into a parallel port. They aren't the easiest to find..but they are out there..


Cassandra

[Pete Hanlin]

I wasn't really in the market for a new computer (btw, I have a Dell Laptop Inspiron 3800, and besides using up all the space on my 4GB hard drive already, I'm really happy with it)...

Then I went to Sam's Club and saw this thing called an eMachine. For $599, you get a pretty nice monitor, an 80GB harddrive, a CDR (which I don't have and would like), and the rest of the usual stuff. Anyone have any experience with eMachines? Who makes them? I didn't really look that long at them, but if I'm going to buy a CDR drive for $129, I might as well get a whole new computer for the kids as well (they are currently using my old Pentium 133, and it doesn't allow them to play some of the, er, "educational" games they would like).

Thanks for the input!

[kjw1231]

Stay away from e-Machines or other white boxes. They and others use questionable parts when assemblying them. If this is a home computer stick with: Dell, Compaq, HP or IBM. Name brands with name components are the way to go. If you were using this for the office, Compaq, HP or IBM would be the only ones of choice. We have more service calls on "white boxes" (eMachine, Gateway, Micron, to name a few) than anything else. Issues arise when a bad motherboard, power supply, or hard drive needs replacing. Most will want your machine back and typically they replace it with another machine. Typically they buy the lowest price components and assemble. In most cases these are close-out parts, so good luck if something goes wrong.

Don't buy on price, buy on quality.

[John R]

Pete, eMachines while being well priced they tend to have low specs and limited upgrade potentol. They were sold over here by Pc World but they seem to have droped them now.
Have a go at building your own its not hard, great fun and best of all you get a system that suits you not what someone else thinks you want... And even better its a lot cheaper if you shop around online.:D

[shanbaum]

Originally posted by kjw1231
If this is a home computer stick with: Dell, Compaq, HP or IBM. Name brands with name components are the way to go. If you were using this for the office, Compaq, HP or IBM would be the only ones of choice.

Wow, I guess we'd best look into replacing the 500 or so Dell computers we use in our offices with Compaq, HP, or IBM. I guess we've just been lucky that they've been so reliable over the last DECADE...

[JennyP]

Hubby ordered the package last night...Thanks for all the good advice and reviews!
Hubby was concerned today after reading some so-so reviews on the Ziff-Davis (ZDnet) website, but he was happier (me too, since he ordered last night!!) with the comments from y'all. And so far as I can tell, none of you are secret Dell execs or major stockholders...Tho' I'd pay attention to you anyway since you ARE HERE on Optiboard :bbg: and I respect that!)
We should have our new toys soon after the 7th, and I'll let you know later on if we are truly "Dell-ited" with the new system!

Thanks again~
Jen & Hubby (ok, real name: Terry)

[JRS]

Hope you have a great experience with the new toys. If we can be of any help.... well you know where to find us.

[John R]

If you are changing puters and need to know serial no's etc but cant remember them all, try this little ultilty which gives you all the info .
Have fun

[JennyP]

Our Dell arrived 3 days ago, and TerryP put everything together while I was at work. It came in 3 large boxes, weighing a total of about 76 pounds. He is having the best time finding all of the new features we got.
One thing that I especially like is that we have a feeling of two separate computers, since the set-up separates his programs and documents, etc, from mine. If we were paranoid people, we could put passwords in place to keep other people out of our stuff, (that might be a good idea if we ever get grandkids!!!) But I can see some business-place applications here.
Hubby and I always used to argue about things like the position of the toolbar, and now I can position "stuff" where I like it.
We haven't connected our 3 home computers yet on my daughter's cable; still on dial up service, but plan to soon.
So far, I'm pleased with everything we got except the fact that some of the quick key combinations I once learned mean something different now, and I have to learn NOT to use them...my IM smiley controls, for example...one keeps opening my "composer" instead of making a "smile face" ...which makes me not smile.
Hm...
at least Optiboard still looks the same, tho' I think everything is much faster!
~~jP (gotta go look at some more of the new stuff!)