What kind of desk top should I buy?

Question

I have a business "work horse" computer with 4Gigabytes of RAM and a terabyte of hard disk, and plenty of gigahz. speed.

My question is: I'm wanting to buy a personal computer(desk top) for my personal use, but don't want to spend the money I did for the business computer.

Here is what I will use the desk top for:

Mostly internet surfing, internet banking, internet buying,etc.
I'm not a "gamer", so I will not be playing any PC games.
I do a lot of video and audio downloading, but not much editing,etc.
I don't use word-processing much. Just occasional simple letters.
Don't need fancy 3-D or anything like that.

So can anyone tell me what kind of system I should buy? In terms of amount of RAM, Hard disk space, Gigahz.speed, graphics card, etc.

I like to economize, but don't want a "junk" either.

Also what brand. My business computer is Dell and I love it

Thanks for any help with this.

Answer 1

If you have had success with Dell computers, I would stick with them. I have 2 Dell laptops, 1 a 6 year old machine that I love. They are reliable and reasonable priced.

I would look at the Dell Inspiron E1505 with 1GB RAM. Get a 120GB or larger HD. Any processor will work fine with your requirements, and the standard video will work as well.

Dell has some great coupons and deals available at http://www.24houredeals.com/Dell-coupons-23-mer.html

Good luck.

Answer 2

I have bought several Dell myself. Their basic configurations are generally realistic and not "junk", so you don't have to worry about that.
For a decent computer for the needs you describe: buy the cheapest machine they offer with Windows preinstalled and specify adding memory upgrade to 2GB (if tthe package has less) and you're set. The base graphics card is good unless you have special applications. Some processors are more powerful than others but GHz speed doesn't really corelate to performance any more, but it's something that gets pushed by marketing. Disk 80-120GB should be fine; there may be a sale on bigger ones. In practical terms, the amount of RAM is the simplest and cheapest way to improve performance; amounts less than 2GB can cause bottlenecks, and less than 1GB WILL cause bottlenecks.

Answer 3

Wow, Ubiquio seems to spend all day copying and pasting the "benefits of Mac" into every computer question post.

Hmmmm. viral marketing perhaps...?

Anyways, if you're happy with Dell, stick with Dell. 1GB is plenty for what you want to do and if you don't game you can stick with the onboard video solution.

Hard disk space, anything over 200GB will be suffient these days with room to grow.

If you can, I'd buy a refurb machine to save some money and as a bonus, get one that has XP installed with a free upgrade to Vista. That way you can install Vista once they work out all of the compatibility isssues.

Any current CPUs will be good enough for you. Stay away from anything that says Celeron or Semperon. Those are budget CPUs.

Answer 4

From personal experience and the advice of friends and family, Dell seems to be a great choice. and considering that your not really doing anything special, I'm sure a budget model would be more than enough.

I would get a dell dimension. Assuming you don't need a fancy monitor or addition drives you can get one for under $500.

My computer needs sound very similar to yours. The only thing you may want to upgrade is to a larger hard drive to store lots of audio and video. but the package comes with 80 gb already so that will probably last you a while.

Answer 5

From what I understand you don't do anythig more than go on the web and use word sometimes. A PC should be fine, I would not recommend a Mac too expev. With the new windows you are require to have at least 512mb RAM I would go for a 1gig. far storage nothing morethan 60gig. Far as CPUs may be from Pent 4 at least 2.6Ghz if want more current Pent Dual Core with 1.6Ghz. if going to be watching videos and stuff you might want go up from this little but this should be fine.
Good luck

Answer 6

I recommend a desktop replacement laptop. One with a dvd/cdrw. I would also recommend you look into the linuxlive systems. Unless you plan on watching itunes video, you don't need more than 1ghz-cpu, 512mb-ram, 30gb-hdd, 32mb-vdo, 54g-wifi. The laptop is very versatile. It allows you to move around and you can connect a regular monitor to it. Win2k is good enough for most purposes, but ubuntu/firefox is better. There is also OpenOffice and PortableApps out there for the googling.

Answer 7

i could recommend iBUYPOWER Gamer ability Intel A943i Gaming own laptop The Gamer ability A943i grow to be designed to deal with many of the present video games that demands top processing ability and extreme photograph circumstances. helping the Intel I3 2120 center processor, the own laptop incorporates a twin channel 4GB DDR3-1333MHz and AMD Radeon HD6450 1GB.

Answer 8

For your personal life, you'll love an iMac. It's a great, no-hassle computer. I have a MacBook Pro myself, and I love it. A friend of mine just got his iMac, he's absolutely amazed with it.

http://www.apple.com/imac/

The benefits of Mac:

No viruses, or any other malware for that fact. (This is due to Mac OS X's UNIX underpinnings, not "lack of users" or "low market share.")

Seamless integration. Your hardware will work perfectly with your software, because both are designed by Apple.

You will enjoy many advanced features that are not available in Windows, even Vista. Features like Exposé, Spotlight Search, a built-in dictionary that can be invoked in any application with a simple keystroke, easy to build scripting using Automator, zero-configuration networking, system wide spell checking and many more.

Macs can dual-boot with Windows or run Windows within Mac OS X itself. With BootCamp, you can dual-boot with Windows and run any PC application, even high-end games.

Excellent support and customer service. Apple is well known for it's support. I had a wonderful experience with Apple when the logic board in my Mac mini went bad. (This was due to a power issue in my home, not the Mac.)

Great software. Most of the software made for the Mac is better than similar software for Windows. Crap doesn't survive on the Mac market. iLife is absolutely amazing. Mac OS X is compatible with many file formats, right out of the box. As I mentioned before, you can run Windows applications. With a Mac, you can have it both ways.

Beautiful hardware. Quality hardware. Apple puts the sex in tech. Apple hardware is always beautiful, as well as functional. Apple has extremely talented engineers. One look at an iMac will tell you that much. The hardware is of excellent quality and built to last. Macs are well known to have a longer life span than PCs.

Upgrades? Who needs them. A seven year old iMac can still run the latest release of Mac OS X. Sure, you can add more RAM or get a bigger hard drive, but your Mac will run beautifully for years to come. When a new version of Mac OS X is released, you won't need to scramble to purchase upgrades in order to run it. (Leave that to the Vista adopters.)

Crashing. It doesn't happen. I'm not saying Mac OS X is absolutely perfect, but it's damn close. Most problems are easily fixed within minutes. Macs don't require the constant maintenance needed by PCs.

Value. When all of these things add up, you'll actually be saving money, as well as time, in the long run. You'll find yourself actually doing more on a Mac. Things you never thought of doing on a PC.

Answer 9

Go to Dell's website and find a low end PC, it should do everything you want.

If you can avoid a Vista based PC, find one with XP, $500 Canadian (with free shipping) will do it.

Answer 10

anything with 1gig of ram should be fine for that ... honestly ...