Time for New Computer

[Michael Palmer]

And so, what should I get.

[power napper]

According to my family anything except a HP.

[Brooklyn]

Apple would be you best choose but so much $$$$$
Try a Dell
Brooklyn

[giant pumpkin peep]

I have asus laptop and I love it. They have been making motherboards for years, and they just decided to stick the other peices on em and sell them. plus they are resoanable.

[Kingfisher Apiaries]

Typing from a Toshiba Satellite laptop right now, desktop is a Dell, both good computers.

[kbenz]

I try to get mine custom made by locals. that way you get what you want and they are not preloaded with all the trash like the store bought ones are

[Countryboy]

What do you use your computer for, and how computer savvy are you?

If all you need is a computer to check email and visit BeeSource, a basic computer will work fine for you. If you want to work with a lot of pictures or do video editing, you will want a computer with a little more power.

http://www.tigerdirect.com/ has some pretty good prices on computers, especially if you just want to buy parts and build your own computer.

[Drew Martin]

NewEgg is where i go. You might want to check out some of there Deals on DIY Combos. If you might not have the time to put one together yourself, check out there complete systems. They have daily specials on a lot stuff!

I order from them a few times a month..Great outfit
http://www.Newegg.com

Drew:

[Merlyn Votaw]

Try Dell but get a refurbished one on line. they are a lot cheaper with a new guarntee

[NasalSponge]

Build all mine own and get most of my stuff from NewEgg.com!! It is not hard to do just takes a bit of research.

[Michael Palmer]

According to my family anything except a HP.

Why? Several recommendations online were for the HPE-250f.

[Brenda]

It's pretty easy to build your own desktop pc. I've been building all of mine, for years.
It may be cheaper to buy one when you consider the cost of Windows, or you could use Linux.

Linux Mint user here.

[winevines]

I love Dell, have used them for many years- both laptops and desk tops. You can customize on line and get exactly what you want. I have never had a problem with them. I also HIGHLY recommend an external back up drive. you can get them, nice and compact size for under $100. That has been a life saver more than once.

[TattooedBeek]

After building my current computer I will NEVER buy another piece of junk computer from Dell, HP, Compaq, or any other computer company. Building is so easy, you get what you want and nothing you don't want and all the components are good...not cheaped out to keep prices down. And best thing is you can build for less then buying often times.

[Hillside]

You didn't say why you need a new computer. Personally, I'd never buy a new computer. Find some old thing that someone has cast off and install a light version of Linux. It's free, it works well, and the learning curve isn't really all that steep.

[mattoleriver]

Find some old thing that someone has cast off and install a light version of Linux.

Hillside,
I've been considering something like that myself. Can you suggest a site with information about reclaiming an old box? More specifically something for non-geeks to learn how to recognize the difference between treasure and trash. Locally, we have a charitable organization Free Geeks that recycles old computers, etc. For a donation of time they will teach a person to build computers. I'm considering that but right now I'm working so many hours it would be difficult to handle another time commitment.

George

[Hillside]

If you want to try out a very basic Linux, go to http://puppylinux.com/. The newest version is 5.01. Here is the download site. ftp://ibiblio.org/pub/linux/distribu...nux/puppy-5.1/ It also goes by the name Lupu since it uses some Lucid Lynx binaries from the Ubuntu distribution. You don't have to understand that. It just means it can share some code with another, much bigger Linux distribution.

Even though it's very basic, it's really powerful and fairly full featured.

You don't have to install it to your computer. You download an ISO file. Burn that ISO file to a cd. You need to use a burner program that burns ISO files. If you burn it as a regular file, it won't work. Most Windows machines have a program to do this, but if not, there are free download programs that can do it.

Before you shut down your computer, pop the new cd in the drive and then reboot. Your computer needs to be set up to boot from a cd -- most are, but if not, you go into the bios to make the change. It can be done on most any computer.

When you reboot, the new Linux operating system will start up. It should detect your video and set it for you. There will be an initial help file on the desktop to get you started.

It comes without a full web browser because people use so many different ones. On the desktop, there is an application to download and install the browser you want. You just click on it, select the browser of your choice, and it will install.

The operating system has a build in word processor, spreadsheet, email program, music players, etc, etc, etc.

If you burn your cd, you can probably take it to the computer place and try it out on some of their equipment. You may have trouble getting your cd back from them.

I would look for a machine with at least 256 megs of memory, a 700 meg processor or faster and a hard drive with a gig or two of capacity. Of course bigger and faster is better, Puppy will run fine on these specs.

The system will also allow you to write a save file that will save all your setup information and any programs you installed (like the new browser you loaded).