And computer geeks, need help from you too!

[The Unknown Gomer]

My mom is in the market for a new PC since the old hand-me-down that she got from me is crashing a lot (oh, dread "blue screen of death", how I don't miss you at all!) and starting to make some really weird noises. Plus since she's still running Win 98SE, even some of the new low requirement games that she likes to play are starting to not work, since they require at least XP to run.

She essentially just uses it for those low end, low system requirement games, email, and surfing, and doesn't use it all that often, so she doesn't need a super heavy duty powerhouse PC.

She's contemplating an eMachine, since they're a little less expensive than the major brands, which I was initially thinking that she should avoid, thinking they were just TOO cheap. But someone I worked with had one and liked it just fine, never had a problem with it, so I figured since she doesn't use it that much, it might be a decent PC for her. Anyone have any experience with eMachines, good or bad, that they'd like to share?

Also, these processors have me befuddled. When I bought my Vaio many years ago, it was a pretty straight forward thing, it told me that it was a 2.8gHz processor. Period. I understood that.

Now, for Mom's new PC, it's like trying to compare apples and oranges.

One PC says it's got an "AMD Athlon 64 Processor 4000+".

The other one says it has an "Intel Celeron Processor 420".

:eek: :confused:

That's all geek - er, Greek - to me! Which one of those is better/faster? I have no clue.

Any assistance from the smart computer people out there would be greatly appreciated, since while I know PCs pretty well, all these different processor types confuse me greatly.

Thanks!

~ Karen ~

[SmileyFreak1981]

I'm not a hardware expert by any means, but I think the AMD Athlon 64 is the faster processor. (I have an AMD Athlon 64 3500+ in my PC.) A quality graphics card and a nice amount of RAM is also a good investment.

And if you have the option, just say no to Windows Vista and have it loaded with XP. :cool:

[hochspeyer]

Try www.pricewatch.com.

I'm in the market for a (relatively) new pc, and they have business-quality name-brand pc's (reconditioned) for ~$300, delivered.

[danbos]

Personally, I would stay away from Celeron processors. I would stick with either a Pentium or AMD. I really don't know anything about AMD processors though, but I've heard they're just as good as Intel now.

I've never had any experience with eMachines, but I've heard that they're as cheap as the price indicates...but that's just hearsay.

[ibanez_player]

I have had a good deal of bad experience with Emachines. Not horrible, but you will get what you pay for. Their build quality is not very good.
I do also believe the AMD is faster, but not sure.
Definitely stick with XP and ditch Vista.

[The Unknown Gomer]

So eMachines not great, but AMD good. Good to know.

I just checked the ads, and well, what do I do if the eMachine is the one with the AMD processor? :confused: :P

The two choices we've narrowed it down to - assuming we actually get one while they're on sale this week - was the eMachine with the AMD, or a Compaq Presario with the Celeron. The Compaq is only $50 more than the the eMachine, but actually has a slightly smaller hard drive, so I know you're just essentially paying more for the brand name. But it's a name I can vouch for, my laptop that I've been using for the last several years is a Compaq and it's worked great for me.

Basically we're looking for the least expensive desktop tower that we can get, since she doesn't really need a whole lot of space or much processing power, with a history of being a decent brand.

And Vista would probably be okay for her, since I've heard that the biggest problem with it is that it doesn't like old printers, scanners, etc. and she doesn't have any of those, it's just her and her computer. She's very low computer maintenance. The only issue might be her wireless networking card. But I've seen that Vista seems to like Netgear, and seems to play nice with another PC on the network that still runs XP (we've got that kind of set up at work) so we may be okay there too.

[middletree]

I'd take the AMD over the Celeron, although if she isn't doing something graphics-intensive, she may not notice.
And the biggest issue with Vista is the slowness of it. I hate it. You better have 2 Gb of RAM, or she will hate it, too.

[Jason]

And the biggest issue with Vista is the slowness of it. I hate it. You better have 2 Gb of RAM, or she will hate it, too.

Not that this helps Karen, but how does Vista run on 4 GB?

[middletree]

Not that this helps Karen, but how does Vista run on 4 GB?

Huh? If 2GB is fine, wouldn't 4GB be even better?

[The Unknown Gomer]

I'd take the AMD over the Celeron, although if she isn't doing something graphics-intensive, she may not notice.
And the biggest issue with Vista is the slowness of it. I hate it. You better have 2 Gb of RAM, or she will hate it, too.

I figured that if she turned off all of Vista's pretty system hogging graphic effects, that would speed things up substantially; if she did that, would 1gb still not be enough to keep things running quickly enough? Keeping in mind that she's currently running Windows 98SE on a 700mhz machine with probably 512MB ram. Coming from this computer, I'd think that even Vista with all the effects turned ON would seem lightning fast to her. :) Even if it had the Celeron processor.

But I figured we'd try it with the available ram, and if it was too pokey, just add on more memory.

It almost sounds like the Compaq might be the way to go. Better brand, and since the most graphics intensive thing she does is play Scrabble on it, the Celeron might be okay for her.

[middletree]

Coming from this computer, I'd think that even Vista with all the effects turned ON would seem lightning fast to her. :) Even if it had the Celeron processor.


You'd think that, but Vista takes up much, much more RAM than Windows 98, or even Windows XP. I have had it running here at work, where we have access to all OS's, on a 1GB machine, and it was sluggish.

[Jason]

Huh? If 2GB is fine, wouldn't 4GB be even better?

I misread. I thought you said it was slow on 2 GB.

[middletree]

I misread. I thought you said it was slow on 2 GB.

1GB is gonna have slow results, but 2GB should be fine. 4 is even better.

[Jason]

1GB is gonna have slow results, but 2GB should be fine. $ is even better.

Cool. I currently have 2 GB, but I recently bought another 2 GB that I'm waiting to have a friend install.

[middletree]

Cool. I currently have 2 GB, but I recently bought another 2 GB that I'm waiting to have a friend install.

Well, I'd come install it for you, but by the time I got to Phoenix....

[The Unknown Gomer]

...by the time I got to Phoenix....

Isn't that a song title? ;)

Looks like we're going to go with the eMachines tower after all. It's got the better processor, and a larger hard drive, and she really doesn't use it all that much, not like I do, so even if it breaks down quicker than a Compaq, given how little she does use it, it'll probably still last plenty long for her...

Big mistake? Or worth a try? :)

[middletree]

They sell eMachines at Fry's here in TX, and I bought one for a friend (I mean she paid for it, but I set it up). It was slow at first, but I added RAM and it works fine.

[The Unknown Gomer]

Oh, Fry's. *sigh* I miss having one of those around. We had one right around the corner from where I used to work in CA, it had this whole Egyptian theme going on, and it was just a very cool place to shop. I'd walk around the store and just drool. :cool:

Sounds like the eMachine should be the way to go then. I just added RAM to my PC not too long ago, so if we need to bump hers up from 1 to 2 GB, it should be a piece of cake since I've just done it recently to mine.

[Jason]

Well, I'd come install it for you, but by the time I got to Phoenix....

*sings along with James*

[rossid]

At work they just swapped my laptop, or CC(corporate computer), from a Gateway 450 to a 475.

[The Unknown Gomer]

The hunt for a new computer has been delayed here for a while; our TV seems to be going on the fritz all of a sudden, so it looks like instead of replacing the PC, we'll be investing in a new HD set to replace our old standard TV set in the next month or so, so as not to have to mess around with one of those funky HD converter boxes when they actually come out with those. Yay! :cool: We've got a 32 inch Westinghouse here in our lobby and it looks absolutely great.

Here's hoping the old PC holds up until she's actually financially in the market for one...

[rossid]

There are several economy sets that I'd try - Westinghouse among them - but that may be taking a chance too. How can you argue with all of the savings over something like a high end Sony Bravia?

[The Unknown Gomer]

I'd LOVE to get one of those huge expensive monster sets that doubles as works of art on the wall, but that's a little out of our price range. :P

Actually, Best Buy had that 32 inch Westinghouse on sale this week for $579, so we jumped in and ordered it online for in-store pickup sometime after the weekend after we make sure the thing will FIT in our wall unit. Put it on my Best Buy card and got 3 months same as cash on it. Nice deal.

Normally I'd like to have maybe gotten a Panasonic (I LOVE Panasonic stuff, 90% of my AV equipment is Panasonic), or a Samsung, my boss says both of those are good, but following a year's worth of research before taking the plunge himself and getting a HDTV to show off our DVD demos in our lobby, HE picked the Westinghouse himself. So after seeing it playing back both standard and HD dvds for 8 hours a day, 5 days a week for the last 4 or 5 months with an absolutely outstanding picture and without a single glitch, I HAD to go with the same Westinghouse for the house. (Plus the Panasonic was about a half an inch too wide to fit into our wall unit, so short of closing the doors and hanging it on the FRONT of the entertainment center, that model was out anyway.)

Now we just need cables. BB was offering them 15% off with the purchase of a TV, but even at 15% off, Wal-Mart still had MUCH better prices from what I could see online. So now I'm free to get them anywhere once I figure out which ones I need. The VCR/DVD burner has an HDMI connection, but it's our backup DVD player, we always run our movies on the Panasonic player, whose best connections are component. And our Sony VCR doesn't have anything better than RCA connections. I still have to check the JVC receiver, I have NO idea what kind of connections it will accept. :o :confused:

Should be an interesting next couple of weekends while we first make sure it fits this weekend, then actually hook it up and get it running NEXT weekend. Be afraid, be very afraid...:eek:

[The Unknown Gomer]

Woot! Installed the new HDTV this afternoon. I was a little concerned, since 60 Minutes had a thing a month or so ago saying that about 80% of people who buy an HDTV have to call someone to help them figure out how to make all the connections.

Whew. Fortunately I found that I fell under that other 20% who can do it on their own. :cool: It TOOK me a while, since I was trying to work a VCR (with RCA connections), DVD player (component connections), DVD burner/VCR combo (HDMI connections), and a home theater receiver (with RCA and Digital Optical Audio) between the two DVDs to get the surround sound, into the equation. :eek:

Alas, the only problem is, we're getting the best DVD picture and sound with the DVD burner/VCR combo, that we weren't really wanting to use for everyday DVD playing, preferring to burn out the standalone DVD player with regular usage. So we'll probably switch around, playing things like Planet Earth on the GOOD player, and something like Seinfeld episodes on the older one. Or do like my boss suggests, go out and buy a now cheap obsolete Betamaxed HD-DVD player, just for it's upconvert capabilities on regular DVDs, and use THAT one as the primary player.

And we have to learn a whole bunch of different channels if we want to watch the HD local network broadcasts that we're now picking up, instead of the SD broadcasts (ie: NBC here is normally channel 6. Their HD version is on 17.1.) But I guess we'll figure them out eventually.

Picture on the new set is fantastic. So glad that our old standard TV went kaput on us just in time for us to get this one. :cool:

[The Unknown Gomer]

Aaaand, Mom bought her new PC tonight. She's going to be full time retired in about a month, and knows that she won't want to spend the money on it once there's no paycheck coming in, so since Office Depot (http://officedepot.shoplocal.com/officedepot/default.aspx?action=detai l&flashbrowse=y&storeid=2563719&rapid=530579&pagenumber=3&listingid=-2091800249&ref=%2fofficedepot%2fdefa ult.aspx%3faction%3dbrows epageflash%26storeid%3d25 63719%26pagenumber%3d3%26 rapid%3d530579%26prvid%3d OfficeDepot-080406) had a decent one on sale this week that wasn't one of these package deals with a monitor and a printer, neither of which she needs, we went over there after dinner tonight and picked it up for her.

Its only flaw that I could see is that 1GB RAM, but again, given that she's coming from an old 700mhz, I'm thinking that it, at 2.2 ghz, might still be plenty fast for her. And if it's not, I'll just pop in more RAM and get her up to speed. But no sense in getting extra RAM until we find out if she needs it.