Well I am about to leave night shift next week, so no more spending time on the internet for hours. Looks like I am going to have to buy my own PC.
I want a PC that will do about any thing except play games. I have an Xbox, so what's the point. I also want a lot of redundant memory and a half way decent internet connection. I figure there will also be a digital camera down the line so I can take some at least kind of decent photos of the Busa. But in the end I am not looking to pay shid load.
If it where not for the AF I wouldn't no crap about computers. So any suggestions will be greatly appreciated.
How much money do you have to spend, what are you most comfortable with and do you want to learn new stuff?
I've been in computers starting as a hobby in 79 and as a job in 84. I use Windows, Mac OS X, Linux and Solaris on a daily basis.
My Mac Powerbook is a great tool. My wife is your basic user and has been a Windows user for many years. Now she spends all of her time on the Mac. It's less suseptible to viruses and worms and it's based on BSD so the user security is significantly better. I believe the higher price of the hardware offsets the cheaper price of an Intel+Windows box.
If you have the bucks and are going Windows, then get the most processing power you can find. Most everything else can up upgraded in a system but with the constantly changing motherboards and CPU's, you'll be hard pressed to upgrade it at a later date.
Next is the most memory you can afford. A gigabyte is adequate for most users needs. Since you're not doing games and a digital camera isn't in the immediate future, the motherboard VGA adapter will work fine and you can upgrade later. If you're not doing music files, a smaller hard disk is also ok. 40 gigs or so will be fine.
You might want to consider a DVD burner for backups of your data and especially your pictures. I wouldn't go with a dual-layer burner at this time. I think the tech is still a little too new.
When you start working with pictures or sound, you can add a second hard disk and have it be as cheap as the initial drive. Install a decent video card so you can manipulate images but don't get suckered into a top of the line card. Those are mostly used by gamers and far beyond what your typical digital camera will need. Granted digital cameras have 5 megapixels and high resolution modes but most people I've seen go middle of the road with their camera.
A 15" or even 17" LCD panel would work great and the prices are coming down. Otherwise a 17" monitor is still a good size.
Now what you can do is take the above info and go to your local CompUSA, Best Buy, Circuit City or even Hacker Den and get a system to your specs. You can even go to Dell or Gateway and properly build a system for the best price that'll do exactly what you want for 3 or 4 years.
Carl
