Computer Question

[Guest Sundancefisher]

My computer was getting really slow on the internet. No viruses...no malware. Searched it high and low. It is a pentium 166. 8 ram. almost 4 years old.

 

Now I thought to wipe it and reinstall windows. Thought I had all the drivers but apparently I did not back up the internet driver. Took it to Future Shop to get it running again. Cost $40...oh well.

 

Now is this computer just getting too old...on line and program needs are starting to exceed the requirements? Or is something breaking? Hard to tell.

 

If is is breaking...is this a good deal below for $1000 after tax?

 

Components

Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium, 64Bit, English

AMD Phenom™ II X6 1055T + ATI Radeon HD 5450 1GB

McAfee SecurityCenter, 15-Months

Microsoft® Works 9.0

6GB Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM at 1333MHz - 4 DIMMS

1TB - 7200RPM, SATA 3.0Gb/s, 16MB Cache

23.0" Dell ST2310 Full HD Monitor with VGA cable

16X DVD+/-RW Drive

No Modem Option

Dell USB Entry Keyboard

Dell Studio Optical Mouse

No speakers (Speakers are required to hear audio from your system)

Options

1 Year Limited Warranty w/1 Year Next Business Day On-site Service

Essentials

Also Includes

Studio XPS 7100 Minitower

Integrated 10/100/1000 Ethernet

Adobe® Reader 9.0

THX® TruStudio PC™

[cheeler]

It is a pentium 166. 8 ram. almost 4 years old.

 

That would be more like 14 years old and shouldn't run anything past Windows 98.

[headscan]

I don't think a motherboard supporting a Pentium 166 would be able to address 8GB of RAM, so I'm guessing it's actually a Pentium 1.66Ghz.

[ericlin0122]

I love computer as much as I love fishing.

as for price, do a little math

Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium, 64Bit, English = $129.99

AMD Phenom™ II X6 1055T= $219.99

ATI Radeon HD 5450 1GB = $74.99

6GB Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM at 1333MHz - 4 DIMMS = $229.99

1TB - 7200RPM, SATA 3.0Gb/s, 16MB Cache = $89.99

23.0" Dell ST2310 Full HD Monitor with VGA cable = $179.00

16X DVD+/-RW Drive = $29.99

 

total = $955, not includes other things

I would say $1000 is a good deal for this setup.

 

That CPU looks alright.

One thing to keep in mind. see that 6GB memory costs $229.99, i would say 4GB is more than enough for regular usage, 6GB is kind of an over kill.

I assume you don't play game, so that video card ATI Radeon HD 5450 is good choice.

Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium, 64Bit, English. Be careful about 64bit, not all old softwares you have will run on 64bits. The old software mostly run on 32bits (aka x86).

 

my honest opinion, if you have $1000 to spend on computer, this one is great. however, if I would pick one computer for my friend, I will try to put the cost down to $800.

 

[birchy]

Looks like a pretty decent deal to me as well.

 

The one thing I've been suggesting to people that ask me, is to pay the $30 extra and get Windows 7 Professional instead of Home Premium. It comes with Windows XP Mode and will be able to run any old software that ericlin0122 mentions above. It also adds some more networking features that I think the average user would benefit from.

[headscan]

And just because someone has to do it...

 

I'd spend the extra $300 and get a 21.5" iMac instead.

[Nick0Danger]

And just because someone has to do it...

 

I'd spend the extra $300 and get a 21.5" iMac instead.

 

And do what with it use it as a paper weight that surfs the internet? I really don't think sundance wants to edit high end video. And im sure his kids want to play games on it.

[ÜberFly]

x2

 

 

And just because someone has to do it...

 

I'd spend the extra $300 and get a 21.5" iMac instead.

 

[midgetwaiter]

The "nice" part about buying a Dell is that you get to talk to "Bob" in Mumbai when it breaks.

 

By "nice" I mean annoying and useless.

 

 

[headscan]

And do what with it use it as a paper weight that surfs the internet? I really don't think sundance wants to edit high end video. And im sure his kids want to play games on it.

Heh, spoken like someone who has never actually used a Mac. I've never done any video editing on mine, but I use it daily for work (I'm connected to the corporate VPN right now doing annual reviews for my staff) and the odd video game, even though that's what consoles are for.

[SilverDoctor]

X3 imac, mine makes me money, and with no viruses. Lots of the same games if that's what you want.

 

And do what with it use it as a paper weight that surfs the internet? I really don't think sundance wants to edit high end video. And im sure his kids want to play games on it.

 

[darrinhurst]

X3 imac, mine makes me money, and with no viruses. Lots of the same games if that's what you want.

X4!

[Guest Sundancefisher]

The "nice" part about buying a Dell is that you get to talk to "Bob" in Mumbai when it breaks.

 

By "nice" I mean annoying and useless.

 

LMAO...

 

I talked to Bob in Mumbai when all the fans went at about the same time when the machine was 3.5 years old. Still...turned out I had a 4 year warranty...so the fans in this baby are basically new :-)

 

It was 39 degrees out when I chatted with him.

[Guest Sundancefisher]

And do what with it use it as a paper weight that surfs the internet? I really don't think sundance wants to edit high end video. And im sure his kids want to play games on it.

 

 

I would say the kids use the computer for on line games and surfing. We surf...video and picture edit, remote work from home sometimes and do Wordprocessing and Excel stuff. No high end gaming.

 

My only impression on a mac is that for the equivalent cost you can buy 2 PCs so basically upgrade every couple years versus holding a mac longer.

 

Any thoughts?

 

Also that new flash drive technology for loading up windows super fast seems the bomb. Anyone have that?

[PeteZahut]

Everyone has their opinion about Mac versus PC. I personally would never use a Mac. I do a fair bit of HD video editing, my wife does a ton of Photoshop work and we have had no issues with viruses. I have a Core I5 (when they were offering it in a quad core) and it is unreal. My wife used to use a Mac at work and actually said that our home PC was better. So my point is, we all have our opinions and this one in my opinion is really a choice in preference. If you are used to using a PC then stick with it. If you would like to make a change then do some reading (and don't depend on the opinions here as I haven't read a solid argument from either side here).

 

As for the 64bit issue brought up. Unless you are looking to run something extremely old then I wouldn't worry about it. Most apps still run on the 64bit machine. I am also questioning if it is an actual 64bit issue and not native drivers and so forth in the OS. Same reason why some apps would run on XP and not on Vista.

 

By the way, I think you would be getting a pretty decent machine for that price. It doesn't sound like your normal use would stretch the capabilities of that machine.

[birchy]

I would say the kids use the computer for on line games and surfing. We surf...video and picture edit, remote work from home sometimes and do Wordprocessing and Excel stuff. No high end gaming.

 

My only impression on a mac is that for the equivalent cost you can buy 2 PCs so basically upgrade every couple years versus holding a mac longer.

 

Any thoughts?

 

Also that new flash drive technology for loading up windows super fast seems the bomb. Anyone have that?

 

We bought my wife a 13" Macbook Pro this past winter.. ended up returning it because it didn’t “just work” like all the Apple fan boys love to say. Touchpad didn’t work on the first one we got, so we had to bring it back and get a replacement. Then there was lots of little issues when browsing and stuff, webpages wouldn’t display properly, etc. Maybe it would have been different if we installed Firefox or something.. (but I thought Safari was "so much better"? ) Plus the Mac OS learning curve was too frustrating for her. Don't get me wrong, the laptop itself was gorgeous, Apple makes nice stuff for sure, but I just find it hard to justify the cost. Like you noticed, for the money, we could’ve bought TWO really nice PC’s. She now has a Dell Inspiron running Windows 7 and she's very happy with it. We used the rest of the money for other practical stuff..

 

For the record, I don't dislike Apple. They make hilarious commercials! What I dislike is their "fan boys" that refuse to admit that other companies make some pretty awesome (dare I say - better) stuff too! No matter what you talk about, they insist that some sort of Apple product "is waaaay better". *sigh* To be fair though, both sides have their fan boys.. And I don't think any of the above posters fall into that category. However, I have a few friends that do.. and as an IT guy, they drive me batty sometimes with the things they say and believe. That being said, I'm eagerly anticipating the 4th generation iPhone, I'll probably get one this time around. And down the road, I/we just might get another Macbook and/or iMac again..

 

The flash drive technology you're referring to are called SSD's = Solid State Drives. Basically a big huge USB memory stick for a harddrive. It's the next thing on my computer wish list. 'Slingshotz' got one for his laptop and he said it's pretty crazy fast. When you first power on a machine you get the manufacturers's "splash screen" (IE - big blue DELL letters if it's a Dell) and it does it's POST... he says that with his SSD drive, Windows actually loads faster than it takes that splash screen to pass. Pretty cool! Only problem with SSD's is that they're still relatively new technology, so you're paying really high prices for drives that aren't that big. However, you could always have an SSD drive for your operating system, and then a big SATA drive as a secondary drive to store all your data. That'd probably be ideal actually.

 

Here's an amusing SSD video for the 'geeks' out there:

 

[ericlin0122]

I would say the kids use the computer for on line games and surfing. We surf...video and picture edit, remote work from home sometimes and do Wordprocessing and Excel stuff. No high end gaming.

 

My only impression on a mac is that for the equivalent cost you can buy 2 PCs so basically upgrade every couple years versus holding a mac longer.

 

Any thoughts?

 

Also that new flash drive technology for loading up windows super fast seems the bomb. Anyone have that?

 

if so, you might wanna upgrade that video card in that list. Why? Nowadays, even online flash games can result in a lot of GPU (video card) power. Not to mention world of warcraft.

 

SSD?

a 32GB SSD = $179.99

a 64GB SSD = $259.99

a 128GB SSD = $379.99

a 256GB SSD = $774.99

 

a 1TB (1024GB) regular hard drive = $90

If you are not in a hurry, forget about SSD.

[Guest Sundancefisher]

Update.

 

It is a pentium D 2.80 GHz

[midgetwaiter]

Update.

 

It is a pentium D 2.80 GHz

 

That's still a pretty decent processor for your average home user type situation, dual core with net burst. Add 8 GB of RAM and it should be pretty decent for browsing around and light gaming depending on the video configuration. Faster than the laptop I use most of the time.

 

Something is wrong if it's that slow.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Guest JayVee]

I lover the new READER command in Safari:

 

[seanbritt]

x2

 

x3

 

Not only have I personally used macs since 1996 with no issues, but have been at 2 companies (and no, I'm not a graphic designer) that only use macs.