BritishGuy36

No, it tells you about Acer's products (they're making them with even cheaper parts than they were before).

Bob

aye, but they aren't bad, for the money you can afford to bin them every couple of years for fresh gear, so they don't need to be massively long lasting for the home user.

meauxna

Current:
3 y/o Compaq Presario intel celeron D 352 @ 3.2GH
2 GB RAM @ 400mhz PC3200


Found at Fry's for $325:
HP Pavillion AMD Phenom X4 9150e quad core processor @1.8GH
4GB RAM @ PCII-6400 DDR2 SD (expandable to 8GB)
500G hard drive
Eligible for free Windows 7 Upgrade -- which I think means it has Vista loaded & comes with the upgrade coupon included

Sorry this is going off the laptop topic.. I'm mostly noticing that I get more 100% CPU usage bulges during heavy use & occasionally slow downs. I'm not doing any video stuff but lots of photo editing & maintaining a few websites.
Probably I just need to do some software cleanups.
Whatever I do, I'll want it to be good for a few years, like Bob said, future proof for a while.

No problem building our own here, we both have, just seems like the tech has surged forward and it would cost as much/more to upgrade parts at this point.

fatbrit

Looks like a bargain -- presumably because of Vista installed. Wonder whether you get an upgrading DVD, a fresh OS DVD, or you have to upgrade over the web?



Backup, update everything, CCleaner disk, Ccleaner registry, reboot, repeat first two again, boot to safe mode, defrag.

BritishGuy36

Eeuugh. I'm sorry.

Yeah not a bad deal at all. I think I'd spend a little more and get a Core2Duo and a new model with Windows 7 pre-loaded - but that's just me.

But if that one gives you Windows 7 upgrade included it's a great value PC, I can't find a better value offer at this time. You just need to know that for Win7 to work optimally, you'll need to format the computer and do a clean install.

BritishGuy36

Huh?

willmore

You can get a mac for $1200.00

fatbrit

Can't you download the OS over the web? No idea but you could download a time-limited version of the whole OS a while back -- I ran it in a virtual machine just to have a look. Don't think I've run it since....I'm sorry to say.

Of course, us who have forsaken Windows just need to type "sudo apt-get dist-upgrade" in a terminal every time they release a new version and then go and have a cup of coffee while it upgrades itself.

BritishGuy36

Nah. Hence the 'huh'.

fatbrit

Maybe Microsoft will get there one day?

BritishGuy36

Maybe.

Perhaps it will be about the same time that a Mac doesn't cost twice as much as a PC for a computer of the same spec.

BritishGuy36

I found this deal using a code on a Dell booklet circular, don't know if it's of interest to you or not. I realise it's more expensive but it's a great value machine, with the following bonuses:

Newer model
Low profile (if that's your thing)
Awesome processor (much better than the one in the PC you linked to)
Bigger hard disk
Better GPU
Windows 7 pre-installed
Free 2-day shipping

http://configure.us.dell.com/dellsto...988&oc=ddpcry4

meauxna

Oooh, it comes in purple!!!


Oh, the other stuff looks good too.
Thank you very much for searching that out for me. I think I need to do some studying on these new fangled CPUs; I've fallen behind.
I think DH thinks that four must be better than two, which must be better than one.. I don't really know how it works yet.
The full install of W7 does make sense vs an upgrade and I'm no longer opposed to Dells.. my custys have been using them & no real problems over the past 6 years w/various machines. (and #1 will be jealous of the purple!!!)

Something to spend my pain n' suffering money on.

BritishGuy36

Quad core is better if you have multiple things open at once. If you don't really have that much open, to be honest a higher-clocked dual-core processor machine might be better value. But at the prices these deals are it's worth just springing for a quad core machine and future-proofing yourself a bit anyway.

In short, the arrival of Intel Core2 processor technology was a significant leap forward in chip design, and although they started off expensive they are now well within reach for most. They are the best middle ground between price and performance right now.

Note that the deal I linked to is time limited; although I'm not sure exactly when that code expires. If you have the extra bit of cash, the Core2Quad is by far the superior machine here - well worth the extra $120.

Also you won't believe the speed difference of Win7 over Vista.

And purple is my favourite colour too.

Bob

The HP you found is good...one thing though, Phenom runs pretty warm and soaks up a fair bit of battery juice, newer ones might be better but don't know about in a laptop.

It's a good desktop cpu, but you might be better off with a core2duo for a laptop.

Saying that, my netbook has a Atom n280 and it runs PS and ZBrush like a champ, okay only CS2, not got a newer version though CS5 looks handy...anyway, works great except the smudge tool causes a slow down, but then when didn't it. And zBrush can push subD level 4 like a champ, 5 comfortably and struggle on level 6, that's pushing 8M polys comfortably.