We start our annual holiday "Gifts and Gadgets" review on Monday, December 10th with a look at computers, big sellers this year because of pent-up demand. It seems lots of us put off replacing old machines last year, waiting for Microsoft's Windows Vista and Apple's Leopard operating systems.
For basic models, you can't go wrong with any of the major brands. Everyone, even Apple, is now using Intel processors or Intel-compatible processors from AMD.
And there is exciting news at the high end. If you are interested in gaming or state of the art video processing, both Dell and HP now have models at semi-reasonable prices that have high powered features only the special niche market makers included at premium prices in past years. Check out the Dell XPS line and at HP, look at the Voodoo and Blackbird models.
Here's one more suggestion, if you're not faint hearted. How about building your own computer?
I'm thinking about that for the long overdue replacement of my Dell 8200. If you are used to adding PCI cards, optical drives and memory, doing the whole thing from scratch isn't much harder. It's not like you need a soldering iron (I built radios as a kid). The motherboards are all assembled for you, so all you have to do is mount it in a case, add processor, power supple and cables and the rest of the peripherials.
If you want to try the do-it-yourself route, I suggest you start by visiting www.extremetech.com, which has a whole section titled, "Build It".
By the way, you don't necessarily save money by building it yourself. But you do get exactly what you want and, once you've done it, you will probably be willing to handle upgrades to keep it running for years.
Have fun.
Comments
I have an HP pavilion laptop that is more dead than alive... and twice gone to service. As far as my experience goes Pavilion notebooks are pure crap.
A nightmare is in the making. Four (4) government retirement trust funds (government employees, military, railroad and social security) overshadow all other government finances. As of the close of 2007, in hard numbers the net value (assets – liabilities) equaled some −$20 trillion . . . and currently growing about −$1 trillion a year. Reference the government budget to see that assets of these trust funds are included, but not liabilities. For comparison the Gross National Product (GNP) for fiscal 2007 is a mere $13 trillion. Other government fiscal problems are inconsequential—the Public Debt (excludes intra-government) $5.3t (7/08) and $0.7t Foreign Trade Deficit (07). A booklet is available which provides calculations and hard numbers covering 1975 thru 2007.
R. Earl Hadady
I think Mr. Hladun has touched on a key point in his comments. The speed with which the technology changes, PLUS the desire of both the software and hardware makers to sell you something new means they do not pay enough attention to the issues of data migration and user interface consistency. I praise the new operating systems because, as a consequence of my job, I switch to a new machine, a clean install, etc., and by hand regenerate most of the settings and links I need to use. As a result, everything works pretty well. I have tried "upgrading" systems and have found that to be a frustrating experience. The older the system, the harder the process seems to be.
Thanks Mr. Hladun for your comments. And for watching NBR!
My wife was recently forced to buy a new computer and the experience was far less exciting than you describe in your article. I say “forced” because Internet Explorer on her old machine became so unstable it couldn’t be used.
So she got a new Vista machine and the days of struggle started. The machine has capability way beyond our needs (but you can’t get anything else). MS Mail was a struggle until we discovered that path length prevents the migration utility from working. MS Mail has an undocumented Spam capability, but what is it? We looked at the Office 2007 screens, deinstalled it and installed a copy of Office 2000 that has a look we have worked with since Windows 95. The list goes on!
We’re not computer literate; I have a Master Degree in Engineering, was the CEO of a tech company and my wife has a computing science degree. I am sure there are many people like ourselves out there to whom a computer is a tool. Preservation of legacy data and familiarity of use are our key requirements. PC’s fail miserably at doing these things.
Great topic/ research Mr. Gurvey. I prefer Windows over Apple for every day business use. However, the Apple is very much favored in the music and film industries. Overall, I would rather buy a new computer. They're getting more affordable and internal features are extraordinary!
-Richard John (CEO)