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I’m debating a new computer dedicated to my business (no more porn and carpentry stuff).
I don’t know squat about these electronic buzz boxes and hate typing on most laptops. I hate most mice (mouses?)too.
Anyone feel like bragging one up? And where should I go for one? The lumber yard?
blue
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Well maybe I'll dedicate a small portion of the hard drive to porn....
blue
*A little porn keeps the rest of your hard drive happy.
*> A little porn keeps the rest of your hard drive happy.I thought it kept it from becoming a floppy drive.Rich Beckman
*blue.. i've had my last 4 computers (two were laptops) built by PC Wharehouse...they are a national franchise... and all they do is build computers...the last one i bought is now about a year old so you'd have to go schmooze someone to get up to speed.... i'd be looking for Windows 2000 Pro (not the new XP system)... i'd want a cd burner & dvd / cd 15" screen.. and maybe an optical mouse.. but go have a salesman show you the bells & whistles..pick up a copy of PC Shopper...to see what 's out there.....the good deal about PC Wharehouse (or any local / national value added builder ) is they will service the unit .. you don't have to mail it out...another thing is any program you want .. or any suite.. have tehm sell it too you ..they'll sell it a lot cheaper than you can get it anywhere else.. it's bundled .. a good deal..
*First choice - top of the line Dell with the 15" XGA screen. If this is business-only, then go for NT (now Windows Pro I believe ?). 20G disk is plenty for a business box, but get 256M of RAM. Get a desk-station for home and put a CD burner and a big-screen monitor on it.Second choice - top of the line IBM - everything else the same.New MAC with the titanium case would be tempting if your apps will run on it.
*Hi blue, what Mike said.I love mine, which was a Web Special at http://www.winbook.com/ w/all the goodies I don't even know what (I have not installed the dvd s/w). Some key points:* The one drawback for a while was that it would not work w/aol 6 (it does now, w/7). * The speaker is crap, possibly defective, and doesn't get loud enough, but I don't have a backup at home anymore. But I need it mostly for streaming and I do that usu at work. * The display is a dream. MUCH more viewing area than my old 17" that weighed a ton, and I think this is 14 or 15", too lazy to measure now.* Calls and email to tech support were handled reasonably well.* Mine seems heavy (model Si), and is heavier than other more expensive models* It has a touch pad which I hate, so I bought an optical mouse (Microsoft--heck, I just wanted off that touch pad!)* I added more memory.* I have not tested its ability to run all the s/w I need from work, but am somewhat apprehensive so will try to weasel a laptop from them for times I have to work at home.Decide what s/w you want it to run, and make sure it's been tested on the model you choose. If it hasn't, offer to be a beta tester (get the s/w for free). If it absolutely must function, get something that has been tested on it. Any I/O hog (graphics-laden) will also test it.I'm sure Mongo or another whiz will come along to correct/augment this.The word on the street has always been to buy the most power you can afford. Well, I could have bought the top of the line, but I really didn't need all the extras--e.g., ultra lightweight, because I don't plan to travel w/this. It's over 100% superior in every way to my 7?yr-old beater, which was top of the line at the time for a desktop, I gave away. This laptop is still maybe $1000 cheaper than the old one.Talk to the FAQline for the s/w's site, too.As I attempt to declutter, freeing up all that desktop space is, well, freeing :-)You're gonna love it!
*Have had best results w/ Dell products. Used to travel alot and they took the beating well. Field support was excellent-rep. came to site, had free loaner avail.in case needed. HP portable printers reccommended if planning to do work in field. Their desk top printers are also very good.You can also buy spare hard drive-if that porn urge strikes- but don't want tell tale cookies on your business drive.You can buy direct from manufactor, but good idea to test drive one at store. Bring along disk of type printout work wanted-esp. if photos needed- so you can see quality/speed of printers.
*Consumer Reports does a Computer article every 6 months or so. They just had another one discussing recommended system sizes, brands, repair records, etc. Your library has a copy. -David
*Thanks Peeps.The next question was the operating system, something Mike touched on. I've heard bad things about XP and was leaning toward 2000. blue
*We bought a Toshiba laptop for one of our salesmen a couple of years ago. Shortly after we got it, the cooling fan quit. We took it back to the place we bought it from and they called Toshiba since it was still under warranty. Toshiba said ship it back, but first we have to send you a box to ship it in. The box you recieved it in isn't good enough. So that kills a day waiting for them to send us a box. Two weeks later we get it back. Inside the box there's a piece of paper describing the problem. (Cooling fan). Underneath that there's a box for the solution to the problem. In that box someone wrote "Replaced Hard Drive". So the dealer called to complain. Toshiba said send it in again, but once again we have to send you a box. The one we just shipped it to you in isn't good enough. So another 2 weeks goes by. This time we get the thing back and once again it says "hard drive replaced". They also said they had checked the cooling fan, so we decided to try it out. After almost a day of re-installing software and re-configuring the thing, it overheated and shut down. The cooling fan never kicked in. So back to the dealer, and once again we had to wait for a box from Toshiba. In another 2 weeks we got the thing back. Once again they had replaced the hard drive, but they did actually fix the cooling fan this time. So we killed yet another day installing software and such. I wrote a letter to the company complaining about their service. The only response I got was an offer to extend the warranty for 90 days. No appology.So basically what I'm saying is don't buy a freakin' Toshiba!!!
*Allot of info to aid your decision making process.http://www.zdnet.com/special/filters/sc/notebooks/
*Blue - I really like Win 2000. Might be good for a business with it's built-in security. You can restrict access to folders with company info, bids, letters, and pictures of Kathy Ireland/Pamel Lee/Linda Lovelace. That could be helpful if anyone else has access to the computer.
*I bought a Dell and am relatively happy with it. Get a spare battery (preferably lithium ion), car charger, modem/ethernet card, Windows 2000, 256K of memory and a bigger hard drive than you think you will need (30 GB min). Go to a local computer store and try the different pointing devices to see which works best for you.The Dell I bought is a bit on the heavy side, but with dual batteries and the ability to survive a few "oops, I dropped it" scenarios, it seems to be worth it.Good luck
*Yup, there are only three names in this game: IBM, Dell, MAC (Apple); everything else is like buying "Black & Decker from Walmart".
*Win 2k is probably the best OS of the MS line. Went from 98 to 2k with enormous improvement in stability.With XP you get a whole lot of features that MS has built in to control access to the internet through a non-removable IE6. They have realized that they can become the gatekeepers through OS restrictions. New "security" features require you to get a new authorization code from MS to use the OS if you change the config of the machine. Driver compatability is a bit of a problem although less of an issue for a laptop. Built in cd burning software, etc. that is supplied with the OS is usually available free with the burner, etc. and probably works better because the hardware and software are specifically designed for each other. Last but not least, the OS is too new and hasn`t got all the bugs identified let alone worked out. Try it out if you want to be an unpaid software tester, but if you just want it to work, stick with 2k.Also, in spite of what the commercials would have you believe, XP doesn`t allow you to fly.
*Agreed about Win 2k, as long as you are talking about pro. ME is garbage. After 98 died on my work machine and the techie couldn't reload it, I got Win 2k pro. No problems, no crashes, faster. I love it. I had to reboot several times a day with 98.XP is reputably as stable as Win 2k. It is built on the same engine. the main problems I've heard about it is drivers. The question is do the right drivers exist for what you want to plug into the machine? And now, you pretty much have to get XP if you buy a new machine and Microsoft won't support Win 2k for much longer. So soon, there will be no choice but to go with big brother bill and his gatekeeping interference.You Dell lovers want to divulge which laptops you have? I'm going to have a get a new one soon too.
*WIN 2K "pro" is really NT, it should work a lot better.
*Yes, NT with bug fixes. Probably the only really good operating system microsoft ever released, and now they aren't supporting it anymore.Mary
*Thanks again for the info.I'm going to stop in at a small local computer shop and see what they have. Around here, I don't expect much. New question: Anyone using jfax.com, or efax.com? I'm leaning toward efax.com (save $3 per month).blue
*Well, technically they released early versions of OS/2; which, for all their faults, are b stillbetter than windoze. IBM co-released R1.3 and tool it over completely after that. Gosh, even PC-DOS was much better than MS-DOS.
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I'm debating a new computer dedicated to my business (no more porn and carpentry stuff).
I don't know squat about these electronic buzz boxes and hate typing on most laptops. I hate most mice (mouses?)too.
Anyone feel like bragging one up? And where should I go for one? The lumber yard?
blue