I have $2000 to spend on PC

[DonQuixote]

PabloZed,
It's good to hear that you have your new monster up and running.
Do you have MS Works with your set up?
I bought the Student/Home version of Office from Microsoft when I bought my latest laptops - Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Vista has Mail, the replacement for Outlook Express.

For awhile, some bundles that Dell provided did include Word with Works.
The latest Works Word processor and spread sheet will read and write to all of the office formats - word '07, 97-2003, 95, etc. Ditto for Excel files.

From what I saw when I played a bit, Works word publisher also looked a lot like Word 97-2003 format to a large extent.

So, while it might not be Office, it might be all you need, since it probably has all of the features your Office programs of the same name had, if not more.

Access is an expensive add-on, as is publisher, Outlook-- since you have to buy a "professional" version to get them.

Basic price for home office runs around $150 from Dell. They did have it on sale a couple months ago -- I don't know if it was version sell thru time. Other retailers may offer for less than Dell. 2007 is a QUANTUM LEAP from 97-2003, let alone from what you might have had, if it was '95 or earlier. I'm still trying to find everything. MAJOR "enhancements" to make it even harder to find shit!

Test out your Works package and see how much of your needs it takes care of for now -- at least you should have it and not be high and dry w/out anything.

No, it doesn't come with Street and Trips, but at least there's maps.google.com to get that functionality. Some prefer maps.google to MS Street and Trips, anyway.

As to monitor tweaking -- click on an open area of your desktop - right click, select Personalize at the bottom. Then you can click on Display Settings - move Resolution button to the far right. Gives reading underneath - my laptop maxes out at 1440 x 900 pixels.

Sorry I didn't see and post earlier. I flew to DC last weekend to see my son get his MA, rented a U-Haul truck so he and his GF could move back here with us for the time being. Still playing catch up - both on my sleep and my reading! LOL.

Enjoy your system. Don't get too frustrated with it. If you have a spare bay in your new PC, you might consider just pulling the old hard drive out of your old PC and plugging it in as a 2ndry drive in your new PC - then you can move data as you see fit.

Don't forget to fully use your A/V, and other software for your protection.

 

[GEMATRIA12]

go to ebay and search for the seller SOFTBYTEUS he has the best prices on a pc you can imagine he builds them himself and has been doing that fo 10 years and has a 99% rating on ebay all windows systems work on his PCs and you get a 1year warranty with any pc purchase the best part is you will have a lot of money left over to buy whatever screen or accessories you want for you PC because hes so cheap.

P.S. i have nothing to do with this seller i just used him and know hes good skip dell,mac,and all the other crap.

 

[Corny]

^ i have a hard time believing that.
also the OP already has bought his new machine.

 

[GEMATRIA12]

believe what you want to but its the truth.

 

[DonQuixote]

It's amazing how a "simple" call for help has generated the amount of discussion we have. I think it's great -- always fun to watch the great Mac - PC debate unfold. Now with Unix/Open Architecture (Linux) options!

It was fun to see the related thread from our resident "Dr." when he discovered that he could use his new, BIG, Flat Screen HD TV as Super monitor for gaming - then to find the DVI/HDMI instead of just analog -- It's Soooo much fun playing with upscale electronics. If only I had the budget to REALLY play!!!

PabloZed - this is YOUR thread, not that you'd know it a good deal of the time -- how about an update?
Have you gotten your files transferred?
Have you checked out Works, to see if it will meet most of your "Office Automation" needs?

Have you played your favorite games on it, and how are they performing?

Just curious as to how you're doing.

 

[PabloZed]

Don,

Thanks for inquiring. Its still relatively early but I am very pleased. Everything is running smoothly - and quickly. I checked my speed and I am getting the max of what I am paying for (3 mbs even though my ISP offers 7 mb, I just don't need that).

Three things have impressed me so far. One, I've rewatched some of my favorite videos and its like watching a different movie. The clarity is super.

Two, on my old pc I could maybe do one thing at a time, but now I can multitask and not even know something is going on in the background.

And three, I used to play Age of Empires II and when I loaded it onto my new machine it didn't look very impressive. So I got AoE3 Asian Dynasties. Wow! The game is visually amazing and I have had no problem with huge armies fighting whereas a war on my old machine would cause it to freeze up.

Again its early, but other than trying to figure out how to do certain things I am not having any probs with Vista or IE or FF. And I still have ways to improve performance, such as by clearing out all the preloaded junk.

And get this, with all the talk about credit cards and predatory practices, I have not yet been charged for my pc. I wanted to pay cash so I could get the money out of my hands, but Dell prefers credit.

 

[DonQuixote]

PabloZed,
I'm glad you're happy with your new equipment -- that is, after all, the most important part.

Have a blast!

 

[pasacon]

You could get a top of the line system (if you could find someone to build it for you) for maybe $600. Since Nvidia is getting ready to launch their next line of graphics cards, you can get a 9800 gtx for less than $200 off of new egg. The only problem with buying pre-manufactured computers is that most of the time, it's going to be in a half case which really sucks for when you decide to upgrade things in the future. Lack of pci-e slots, cramped space if you want to update your gpu... Have you seen the 8800+ geforces? they are freaking yachts! For gaming stick with a dual core processor at max. Don't bother with quad core since no games on the market even utilize the capabilities of quad core and in fact, there have been alot of reports of players, especially in mmo's having buggy issues while playing who have quad core.

I've built my last system with the help of my roommate. I'm no expert but I know what to look for in components like audio, graphics, hard drive, ram... Now I just need to upgrade my mobo and my processor, it's the only thing that holding back my game play experience right now.

Alot of people I noticed mentioned Alienware (owned by Dell now) and alienware systems are indeed nice... but they are horribly expensive for what you get. The only thing special I can really say about Alienware is that their cases look pretty sick, and at least your tower will be an atx full tower so the inside will be mighty spacious... But when you decide to upgrade components yourself (voids service plan... that is if they can prove that any future issues you have with your computer are linked to your meddling with the insides) how they route the cables is so clean, it's a messy nightmare, if that makes since. Every single cable is zip tied and clamped down to the many enclosures within the case for optimum airflow that it's hard to find what you need, and eventually you'll have to cut all the zip ties and mess up their over binding in order to say, replace a hard drive, or to get to your front fan, etc. My current computer was once an alienware, but I've slowly replaced and upgraded... the only thing left in my comp that was from my AW system are the mobo, the processor, the dvd drive, the ethernet card, and the power supply. Kept the case for a long while, but when I decided to upgrade to my 9800 gt graphics card, I ended up chucking the old alienware case and buying this beautiful full case with 4 fans, plenty of ventilation spots, and a sick blue led glow from the front fan.... Had to do it because the gpu would not fit inside my alienware case since they put the hard drive inside this giant metal enclosure that had it's own front fan screwed to it to keep the hard drive and the gpu cool... the enclosure took up a quarter of the interior up and made it impossible to fit components in, especially a massive graphics card. It really pissed me off because it made it absolutely pointless that I had an sli mobo, I had the slots to run two graphics cards, but no way would two graphics cards fit inside the rig.

 

[DonQuixote]

PabloZed,
We're coming up on a month since you set up your new play toy.

Time for another update on how it's working for you - any quirks you've found you don't like, any especially nifty things you've found that you DO like?

 

[PabloZed]

HaHa - nothing new to report as I am still feeling things out. Only today did I set up Microsoft Mail (I was simply checking mail online) and i have yet to set up my printer/scanner. I am also not sure my monitor is tuned/set correctly.

Truth be told I thought things would be a lot rougher. Its fast enough for me. Two things that I don't like is that the harddrive makes a lot of noise relative to what I expected, which was silence. I thought something was wrong but when I googled it I found out many others say the same thing. The second thing is that when I play video clips from a CD there is also a lot of noise initially.

I haven't had any security problems. So all told I am happy.

 

[DonQuixote]

Sorry to hear about your noisy drives but, yeah, I think I recall seeing it in other places, too.

Glad it has overall been a lot less difficult than you imagined.
I'm getting ready to buy max RAM for the laptops I bought earlier this year - were in the outlet, so they came with what they had - 2GB, but I miss the 4GB that's on my Inspiron - I gave to my daughters for their schoolwork. A year older, but in many ways has more on it - including BluRay. Just no HDMI outlet to be able to show it in tur hi def on the big screen.

 

[stutter032]

go with mac, i have a mac book with windows 7 on it. using boothcamp. i turn it on and it asks if i want mac or windows 7. i like windows 7 btw its very user friendly. but also like mac so i love the choice. i need windows for all the mac users who refuse to put windows on there macs. becauce i use C.A.D. and it needs windows. windows 7 is alot like vista but alot has changed 2.