Bonneville America Forums Forums Off Topic Discussion Forums Lounge OT- wanted -computer opinions

Well the time has come to replace the dinosaur at home - this is what we are looking at -Dell E520.
Intel® Core™2 Duo Processor E6300 (1.86GHz, 1066 FSB), windows® XP Media Center 2005 Edition, 1GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHz- 2DIMMs, 250GB Serial ATA Hard Drive (7200RPM) w/DataBurst Cache™, 48X CD-RW/ DVD Combo Drive,
19 inch E197FP Analog Flat Panel, Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator X3000.

At this price, it doesn't come with any security/anti virus software. Suggestions?

Basically we use our computer for entertainment purposes - surfing/email, pics, music. I would like to start messing with video. Is this a decent choice? Any upgrades I should/need to make?

Thanks

1) i didn't see the price there. the specs look ok. i used to recommend stretcing a it to buy a high end box but now i think run-of-the-mill will e good for a few years.
2) for anti-virus use AVG free edition.
3) because of vista (New version of windows) you might want to put an iou under the tree and buy early next year.

Shop around. Dell does not always have the best prices. Nowadays, brand name doesnt matter much (except stay away from eMachines and Gateway). Get the most hardware for the best price. For anti-virus, AVG is awesome and as mentined it is free. For anti-spyware, I recomend Micorsoft Defender (also free).

Soren

For all in the know - AVG is killing off their free software on January 11th of next year. Gonna have to forkl over the $$ after that. So long to a good free program.

one prob with this pc,intergrated graphics,this is ok if your just surfing the net,but for playing games you will need a stand alone graphics card that you can upgrade.

Good point bill, I missed that. As Gilda would say...."Nevermind."

I heard year end Dell boxes were coming with a coupon for Vista. Verify that.

Here's something to keep in mind. Intel typically announces new CPUs around the end of January and steeply discount the previous year's hot top end model. This savings is usually passed on almost immediately. You might want to wait until after the end of January before you purchase. Could save some dinero...

I've bought a number of Dells for home & work over the years, and have had pretty good luck with them. I don't favor all the junk software they put on them lately though. When I got ready to buy a laptop a few years ago, an IT buddy steered me to IBM. Best computer I've ever owned.

Would I buy another Dell? Yeah, probably. I've turned a few of their low end SC line servers into desktops, but it is a time consuming process. I do get to tweak them to my liking that way though, with no dregs of Real Player, Photo-uh oh, and Minesweeper Deluxe version #790 crap software left over to junk up the registry, not to mention the orphaned 6,013 assorted *.dll's left behind.

Post deleted by Grump

For desktops, brand isn't that big of a deal since they pretty much all have Intel processors, hard drives from one of 4 vendors, etc... But Dell is pretty bad about loading a lot of crap software on their boxes. IBM (now Lenovo) is my personal choice because they don't throw a bunch of crap software on there and the tech support people in Atlanta, GA, not India. Many of the models have three year warranties, and some are onsite (meaning they'll send a guy out to your house to fix any problems).

For looking online, cdw.com is the supplier I normally use. If you go to Lenovo.com and learn more about the ThinkCentre workstations, you'll probably want to search CDW for ThinkCentre A series computers.

For laptops, I strongly recommend avoiding Dell, as they seem to build them as cheaply as possible, meaning you get creaky plastic and loose hinges. IBM (Lenovo) ThinkPads are the gold standard for laptops...awesome construction, but expensive. My girlfriend just got a Toshiba Satellite and really likes it, too.

Thanks for all the advise.... time to look around a little more.

Thanks