New Computer Suggestions

[Dennis R. Brown, DDS]

Kathy,

I've always bought Dells since my first Windows based PC in 1994. My wife and I both have the Dell XPS Dimension laptops that we bought in 2005, and they are still going strong. Plus, Dell has an excellent warranty service that is a little expensive, but worth every penny. If there is a problem with your computer they will come to your house to fix it for free. We bought the initial 3 year full on-site service plan, and when that was up we were able to buy another 3 year full service warranty. Plus, I have 2 Dell desktops, one that I use for my writing, and the other is attached to my big screen tv, and is used as a media center computer. The media center computer attached to the TV can act as a Digital Video Recorder (DVR), but since I already have a DISH DVR, the computer doesn't get much use as a DVR.
When I was still in practice, I had Dells in everyone of my treatment rooms, the front desk, and my office. Dell is probably the best brand of PC you can buy, and if you are wanting to buy a PC, buy the Dell. However, the only problem I now have with PCs would be that they all use Windows Vista for the operating system. Windows Vista is HORRIBLE, and if I were to buy another Dell right now, I would request that they put Windows XP on it, or when I got the computer, I would reformat the drive and remove Vista in favor for XP.
But now there is another viable option out there, and that would be Apple. If you want to buy a not so expensive desktop computer, I would recommend the Apple Mac Mini. We bought this computer for my step-daughter for the winter holidays, and it is so fun to use. My wife has a friend that works for Apple, and we were able to get a 20% discount off the Mini Mac, but the price would have been very affordable without the discount. That little Mac is so fun and friendly to use, and it's almost like having a portable desktop because it is so light. There are so many great programs that Apple offers for all age groups. My step-daughter wanted to learn how to play the guitar, and they had a program (Garage Band) that allowed her to plug my electric guitar into the mini Mac and learn how to play. They also have have programs so you could learn to play piano, or compile and record music using different Garage Band programs (such as background vocals, rhythm section, guitar effects {like reverb, wahwah pedal, distortion, etc.}, symphony, and world music). If you like taking photos or shooting home movies, ANY Apple is great for graphics.

DocBrown

[Mako Koiwai]

Apple Vs. PC: http://news.cnet.com/8301-17852_3-10227 ... ag=nl.e703

I might be going up to Vancouver to work on a week long Microsoft Commercial next week. I wonder if they're going to be doing something more cutting edge or funny or ? They've hired a very high end Director.

(Chances of actually getting to go, even though I've been requested by the Director of Photography, are slim. Things have to be VERY busy with the Canadian Film Industry before they allow U.S. technicians in ... and they aren't busy up there. That's always up-set us, especially since our Union card says US AND Canada. )

[Mako Koiwai]

More Mac Plusing, "for the rest of us": http://news.cnet.com/8301-13772_3-10228 ... ag=nl.e703" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Andrew Bingham]

I don't think recommending a Mac is reasonable advice when Kathy has stated that her budget is < $1000. The only thing you can get in that price range is the Mac Mini and the specs aren't good at all compared to a comparable budget PC. $599 gets you a 2.0GHz CPU, 1GB of RAM and a 120B HDD??? You got to be kidding me.. Those specs were $600 like TWO YEARS ago. And since the Mini uses laptop components, it's hard/expensive/impossible to upgrade later. You just don't get a good system in that price range from Apple - you get the shaft is what you get.

I recommend getting a Dell Refurbished Desktop at ~$500, something like what is on this page http://outlet.us.dell.com/ARBOnlineSale ... 0530&s=dfh. For $549 you can get a 2.8GHz Core 2 Duo, 6GB of RAM, and a 750GB HDD. That's a system that will be perfectly fine (actually overkill to be honest) for the uses you describe. The video card doesn't really have anything to do with uploading in-car videos so don't worry about it if you don't play games. You could probably even go with one of the ~$350-$400 systems and be perfectly okay. Save the rest of your $1000 for a rainy day.

As far as malware/spyware/etc - you don't want to layer multiple antivirus packages on top of each other - that can cause a lot of problems. Kaspersky gets very high ratings. Vista has Windows Defender as well. To be honest (no offense intended here) the most important thing is to make sure that everyone in the family who is using the PC has good safe computing habits.

Really, you should be able to get your current PC up and running again with complete wipe and reinstall of Windows. It will still do the things you describe. Given your financial situation I'd say that your best option.

[Kathy Teulie]

(Personally, I convert my old physical machines into a virtual machines so I can even boot it up at a later date and run a program when I can't relocate or have lost the installer. )

Will,

What does a virtual machine do? We decided to buy a new Dell computer but we still have the old one so we could do this. The computer arrived today.

Thanks,

Kathy

[Giovanni Jaramillo]

We decided to buy a new Dell computer

A WISE decision Kathy! And you have $$$ to spare unlike if you had bought some other brand with a name that bears resemblance to some red fruit

[Mako Koiwai]

Time is Money ... oh ... that's right Kathy has time on her hand ... hopefully for not much longer.

[Kristoffer Gjevre]

(Personally, I convert my old physical machines into a virtual machines so I can even boot it up at a later date and run a program when I can't relocate or have lost the installer. )

Will,

What does a virtual machine do? We decided to buy a new Dell computer but we still have the old one so we could do this. The computer arrived today.

Thanks,

Kathy

It is like running a program on your computer (the host) and inside of that program you are running another computer.
The host can be one version of an operating system, such as Windows 2003, and the vm you are running could be a different operating system (Windows, Linux, etc).
What I do at work is run 3 or 4 instances of virtual machines so I can readily have available several version of the product I develop and support.
In the case that Will mentioned you make a virtual machine image of your old computer and you can then run it on your new computer in case you forgot to get some files off of it.
Ops, a bit rushed answer, time to read good night stories to my kids...

[Will Kalman]

Kristoffer is right, it allows you to run a computer within a computer. Probably a bit much for what you want to do Kathy. I suggest backing up the whole old machine onto the new one. You can do that by putting the old hard drive into a very inexpensive USB case and copying it over into a known folder. Then you can re-format the old drive in the USB case and use it for regular backups of your data.

You'd only want to go the virtual-machine route if you needed to run programs on the old machine that you can't install on the new one. Plus, Windows may take a look around and decide that it's "living" in a different computer and require that you re-license Windows.