new computer

[jk the sooner fan]

so i'm pretty certain I have to buy a new computer for the casa......i got the blue screen of death two nites ago....i think the codes equate to a bios problem

i have a dell, and i'd go back with them, but i'm not too crazy about the whole windows vista thing as i've not heard anything good about it

if you were going to buy a new PC, where would you go?

[sooner_born_1960]

I'll probably just rebuild. Just buy youself a new motherboard, processor and memory. Probably a power supply.

[sooner_born_1960]

Either that or buy a Dell. I've been happy with my work desktop and laptop from Dell.

[jk the sooner fan]

right, but all of the dells come loaded with Vista....

[sooner_born_1960]

Buy Windows XP. Install it yourself.
Actually, Vista is probably ok.

[Turd_Ferguson]

Kim Kamando say's the Vista Home Premium and the Vista Ultimate are great. But, WTF does she know.

[Sooner in Tampa]

**** Dell, I would buy an HP. I have too many guys here at work that tell of the horror stories of dealing with dell.
I bought an HP Media Center about a year and a half ago and it is awesome. I would recommend HP to anybody.

[Fraggle145]

I would recommend buying your own version of Vista or XP. Then if you dont choose to build it yourself (which actually is a lot cheaper and easier than you might think) you can reformat the premade that you buy so that it doesnt have all of their crap on it. I think the main problem with most premade computers is all of the worthless carp that comes in the preloaded packages. My HP lap top has been pretty good, has lasted me 3-4 years.

[jk the sooner fan]

any thoughts on acer?

i'm looking at Computer Discount Warehouse, they have some pre-loaded with XP

[King Crimson]

the catalogs i get in the mail from Dell let you still buy XP (on laptops at least).

at least, recently.

[soonerinabilene]

Dell has started selling comps with xp loaded on it again because so many customers complained. I got a new gateway laptop from best buy in feb that came with vista, and once you get used to it, its great. The photo editing software is excellent, and the new windows media center is by the far the best way to keep all of your audio and video organized.

[soonerinabilene]

any thoughts on acer?

i'm looking at Computer Discount Warehouse, they have some pre-loaded with XP

I know two people that have bought an acer. One crapped out after a month and had to be replaced. The other still works, but is extremely slow when it comes to certain things like loading games and big programs like photoshop and coreldraw.

[yermom]

Acer still makes computers?

[sooner_born_1960]

The Acer Ferrari is a pretty good laptop.

[Fraggle145]

I had an Acer once. Or I should say my parents had like a 486 or something. Bad. just bad.

[soonerboomer93]

dell refurb,

pm me your e-mail addy for a coupon code

[soonerboomer93]

as an iPod owner i do have to say

windows media player > iTunes

[soonerboomer93]

Acer still makes computers?

2 or 3 years ago, you could buy them oem only, i'm not certain about now

[oumartin]

my wifes laptop is an acer. its been sent in already for new power supply which they didn't replace and screen.

we also had an acer desktop like 10 years ago that was pretty good.

can't you specify with your new dell you want xp on it?

[jk the sooner fan]

i called dell, they only sell one computer that has XP on it, and its a high powered desk top geared for gaming and video, priced above what i'd pay and not what i need

[oumartin]

would your dell recovery disks work with a new dell?

[jk the sooner fan]

i dont know!

[oumartin]

or any local computer shop could install xp on it for you for 100.00.

[yermom]

what are you looking for it to do?

you can order a Dimension onilne from Small Business with XP loaded, starting at $309 with minimal RAM (starts with 512MB. i'd probably add at least 1GB from somewhere else)

http://www.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/dimen_e521?c=us&l=en&s=bsd&cs=04

[sooner n houston]

Try http://www.geeks.com/products.asp?cat=SYS

[Petro-Sooner]

I'm also looking to purchase my first computer for the house. So it sounds like the overwhelling favorite it Dell. In laymans terms whats does Vista and XP do? Whats the difference and what problems do they have? Keep in mind I'm not a techy.

[sooner_born_1960]

Vista and XP are Operating Systems.

An operating system(OS) is a set of computer programs that manage the hardware and software resources of a computer. An operating system processes raw system and user input and responds by allocating and managing tasks and internal system resources as a service to users and programs of the system. At the foundation of all system software, an operating system performs basic tasks such as controlling and allocating memory, prioritizing system requests, controlling input and output devices, facilitating networking and managing file systems. Most operating systems come with an application that provides an interface to the OS managed resources. These applications have had command line interpreters as a basic user interface but, since the mid-1980s, have been implemented as a graphical user interface (GUI) for ease of operation. Operating Systems themselves have no user interfaces; the user of an OS is an application, not a person. The operating system forms a platform for other system software and for application software. Windows, Linux, and Mac OS are some of the most popular OSes.

[Petro-Sooner]

:eek:

ok







So I go with an XP?

[sooner_born_1960]

Or Vista, or Linux.

[yermom]

I'm also looking to purchase my first computer for the house. So it sounds like the overwhelling favorite it Dell. In laymans terms whats does Vista and XP do? Whats the difference and what problems do they have? Keep in mind I'm not a techy.

Vista is the new, bloated operating system, XP is the more mature operating system that they have been working on for years and has a lot of bugs worked out. (being a Linux/Unix/Mac guy this really felt weird to type about XP)

lots of industry people will stay away from the new Microsoft operating systems until the first Service Pack comes out. XP has 2.

what i mean by bloated is that it uses a lot of resources, and you will need a more powerful computer to run Vista comfortably

enough people complained to Dell about only being able to order pre-loaded with Vista that they are allowing XP orders now. personally i'd rather choose load my own operating system, but that is another matter ;)

[slickdawg]

Vista is hideous. I could not stand it any more last night and put XP Pro back on my Dell. There are plenty of Dell's you can buy WITH xp.

[Vaevictis]

Vista is the new, bloated operating system, XP is the more mature operating system that they have been working on for years and has a lot of bugs worked out. (being a Linux/Unix/Mac guy this really felt weird to type about XP)

I'm a Linux guy -- almost rabid -- but XP is, IMO, actually a pretty good OS.

It could use some improvements, but at the very least it's pretty damned stable.