I am currently in the market for a new computer. My budget is under $1000. I want something durable, that I can use w/Adobe Creative Suite. I will mostly use it for school and the internet. I know a bit about computers, but not enough. Any advice would be most welcome. Specifically I am looking for: brand recommendation, specific specs I should look for, etc.
Thank you.
2006-08-20 05:19:42 · 14 answers · asked by keshet80 1 in Computers & Internet ➔ Hardware ➔ Laptops & Notebooks
I should add that I am looking for a laptop.
2006-08-20 05:29:59 · update #1
dell inspirion e1405
http://www.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/entnb_e1405?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs
the base model at $ 679 is good enough 4 u
http://configure.us.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?c=us&cs=19&l=en&oc=E1405S1&s=dhs
> just add the
14.1 inch WXGA+ UltraSharp™ TFT Display with TrueLife™
add $ 10
>> happy computing !
2006-08-20 07:23:32 · answer #1 · answered by sεαη 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
1000 is more than enough money to buy a powerful desktop these days.
I'm assuming you want a desktop?
the big players in the mainstream desktop market are dell and hp.
thing i would look for are
Core 2 Duo CPU <--- this is the new Conroe CPU and is leaps better than any other CPU on the market now
1 gig DDR RAM
other than that.. get the things you want.. DVD burner. built in sound is probably fine. the only other important thing is video card and that kinda depends on if you want to play games. If that's the case, you're going to spend some money here. Otherwise the graphics cards that come on computers with Core 2 Duo are generally pretty competent and should have enough horsepower to run Vista without problems.
I just checked hpshopping and you can get the above computer with a 19 inch lcd for 999.
Another option for you is to just get an iMac
the 17 inch iMac will be around 1000 with educational discount and is not a bad deal if you like Mac OS X and want a computer that looks "pretty" and doesnt take alot of real estate.
It wont be as powerful as a Core 2 Duo Windows machine with 1 gig of RAM but should be enough horsepower for most users.
LOL, i just saw your update that you're looking for a notebook.
in that case you're going to go for a Core Duo notebook or an Turion64 notebook with 1 gig of RAM and a widescreen LCD with truebrite or crystalbrite screen. Try to get dedicated video if you have space in your budget. That's what you can get for 1000 on the notebook front.
2006-08-20 05:35:54 · answer #2 · answered by Steve L 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I wouldn't touch a dell machine - particularly their laptops - if you paid me to use the damn thing.
1/ All the PCs at my workplace are Dells. They're horrible.
2/ Dad's last laptop was a Dell. It self destructed and their customer support was awful. He's still making use of it after jerry-rigging some repairs, but it's barely functioning. They screwed him over...
3/ They may well burst into flames, right now...! :-)
If you're not too worried about the quality of support, get an Acer (cheapest fairly-reliable "big name") or some very cheap budget brand from a supermarket / online gigastore. For most applications these days it's IMPOSSIBLE to buy a PC that's too slow, unless you're playing the very latest games or doing some VERY heavy number crunching. Keep the rest of your money for other things!
($1000 is PLENTY for a good machine... i've bought a HP tablet for £800 UK, and am very happy with it - I expect to keep it for many years to come... it probably would have cost $800 US as well... $200 below your target but still probably counting as a "luxury" item!)
if you change your mind and get a desktop, you'll have something perfectly good AND about $700 change without a great deal of shopping around.
EDIT:
Spec-wise.... Make sure it has a proper mobile processor, e.g. an Intel Centrino platform with a Celeron-M or preferably Pentium-M or Core Solo / Duo. Don't know about the AMD ones... they're probably just as good. Speeds right now I think start from about 1.7Ghz. Can't comment on that - my current Pentium-M laptop sometime has cause to run at 1.7, but most of the time it idles down at 800Mhz with about 5% CPU usage... Other than the screen, the CPU and main chipset are the biggest power drain, which of course not only has an impact on your utilities cost, but the battery run time when not plugged in. Look for a good 3-4 hour "typical" battery life if possible, as less than this can seriously cramp your ability to work on the move without plugging in.
MEMORY is a big point. Don't accept less than 512mb, get 1gb if you can manage it.
Hard drive... depends what you want to do, but i'd say 40gb is a practical minimum, and go for a 5400rpm if at all possible.
Screen - your choice. A smaller, standard shape one (e.g. 11 to 13 inches) will make the machine more portable and good for word processing / desktop publishing and web browsing. A larger widescreen (13 to 15 inches) will usually give you better resolution (BUT NOT ALWAYS - CHECK!!!) and therefore more "real" screen area to play with, plus a bit more lateral room to work on images, videos or sound files with. Anything above 15 inches is only really practical as a desktop replacement - do you want to be carrying around something so large all the time? Also, a tablet PC with a touch screen / pen driven screen can be handy, particularly for graphics work (especially if it's pressure sensitive - draw directly onto the screen!).
Optical drives etc are a moot point.. if you have another PC, you may be as well to forgo the DVD drive for portability, and hook it up to the desktop by wireless if you want to install software. Make sure it has at least two USB sockets though!
Card readers are a bit of a silly feature, unless you happen to have several devices that already use the supported formats.
2006-08-20 07:00:34 · answer #3 · answered by markp 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Well if you look at the usa today dell usually has an ad for a computer for under $500 the b110 is pretty good for the basics and you can ad another hard drive at circut city for about $1000 but since you are using it for school you may not need much hard drive space so i would go for the Dell b110 for $399.99
2006-08-20 05:32:10 · answer #4 · answered by Grape Shield 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I would suggest that you look at Dell and Gateway. They usually have some pretty good mid-level systems. For example, the Dell Dimension E510 has a dual core processor and I would recommend at least 1GB of memory. You can also get their entry-level gaming PC, the XPS 400 which comes with a 19" flat panel monitor and 1GB of memory and a dual core Intel processor, all under $1000.
http://www.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/xpsdt_400?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs
Another option is to build your own system. Online stores like Newegg usually have pretty good prices on hardware. Keep in mind, however, that if you build your own you need to also purchase Windows and other software you plan to use. However, if you're going to be in school you can get the Student Edition of Microsoft Office for cheap at Best Buy.
http://www.newegg.com/
General advice would be lots of memory, at least 1GB, and two hard drives. A small one for your system and applications - 80GB SATA is what I use on mine - and a larger one for your data. An external drive might also be ideal to backup your data. I took an old 250GB IDE ATA/133 drive and bought a USB enclosure and use it to backup my iTunes and other data. If you're not doing any 3D rendering or serious gaming you can usually get away with an integrated graphics card, however make sure your PC has PCI Express so you can upgrade if you need to.
If you plan to build your own and want something small and portable you might want to look at Shuttle Computer's small form factor cases and motherboards.
http://us.shuttle.com/
2006-08-20 05:32:05 · answer #5 · answered by Jay 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
properly an Alienware ALX X58, with 6 GB of 1066 MHz DDR3 RAM, a center i7 @ 3.0 GHz, and SLI Geforce GTX 280 with a million GB of RAM. which will be round $4000. it really is far more low-priced to flow out and purchase the aspects and construct the computer your self. i'd advise getting a 1200w ThermalTake difficult power power grant unit. Asus Rampage II middle i7 motherboard. on your processor get a three.2 GHz middle i7. on your pics card get an XFX or EVGA Geforce GTX 295 at a million GB or 512 MB, this provides you with large clock % of 626MHz to 800MHz, and also will grant you with large memory speeds at round 2000MHz. which will a minimum of value you everywhere from $1200 to $2000 in accordance to the position you get the stuff from. Have an excellent day Ken
2016-11-30 21:16:35 · answer #6 · answered by ? 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Go for an average processor, good graphics card, preferably with 256mb Vram and loads of memory(Ram), 2gb will be optimum, that way your computer will become future proof and you can also run Windows Vista on it once its launched. The graphics card and memory will help you optimize Adobe Creative Suite.
2006-08-20 05:32:10 · answer #7 · answered by ash_m_79 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Wal-mart has many good computers to choose from at low prices. E-machine is a good choice at your budget and can allow for some upgrades. For example a 2.8 gig processor 512 ram and a 80 gig hard drive for 300-450 dollars depending on your location is a good deal also has dvd burner i think. good luck
2006-08-20 05:27:58 · answer #8 · answered by crusher_mma 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Best Answer - Choose by Asker
dear member,
1000 $ is a good budget and i think u should should and "should" go for dell here is the exact link below, go there and buy it only for $499
2006-08-20 05:28:41 · answer #9 · answered by Hassham 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I personally like compaq. I've never had a problem with mine and they are very upgradable. I bought a nice one 2 years ago for $600 and I am able to play video intensive games on it.
2006-08-20 05:33:23 · answer #10 · answered by Nania 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋