I'd strongly recommend configuring your own PC (HP, DELL....etc) online. A lot of the cheapo Walmart or Sunday paper deals you see are very un-upgradeable. By configuring your own you can really ensure you will be able to grow with technology using swappable motherboard slots. DELL and HP have made upgrading VERY simple now.

Personally, my next home PC will be a Mac. That is going to a big leap for me but the whole Win/MS unhealthy-monopoly gnaws at the engineer in me.

 

as always, you will not dissapointed

 

Do yourself a favor....dont ever buy the "brand name" computers. They are slow, full of crap, use cheap components, and are insanely overpriced.

You need something like this.....

Half the price, twice as fast, a REAL warranty (not some blabbermouth in another country telling you to reboot for the millionth time)

http://www.cyberpowersystem.com/highendsys...tra7000.asp?v=d



Ive owned their computers for about 6 years, and have nothing but praise for them. Also, they ship fast, and replace products without question.

 

I've had a DELL for about 4 years and only have good things to say about them. The only thing I didn't like was the fact that it came with Win ME, I had a lot of problems with it, but I upgraded to XP Pro with the help from some members of this very board , and all has been very well since.

I think the DELL componants are good, but there is so much built in now that you don't need, hell, even the OS is DELL's version, and is somewhat different from the real deal. Still, their tech support can be helpful, 5 out of 10 times maybe (a good average now-a-days).

 

Dell

 

IMO a Dell would be excellent for your purposes. They are priced well, come in all sorts of configurations, and are good overall computers. Upgradability is not always optimal, and quality of components isn't necessarily top-of-the-line, but both are pretty decent for a pre-built system.

My development machines at work (a few of them are quite old too) have all been Dells for the past 4 years, and I've never had a single problem with any of them. The only semi-common failure I've seen with Dells in general is case fan failures, which are annoying but usually not harmful, and very easy to fix.

If you have a specific model of DVD burner in mind, though, you might want to see how much it costs to buy separately. I don't know how much Dell charges, but you can get good models for cheap on your own.

Chipwise, either AMD or Intel would be fine since it doesn't sound like you'll be overclocking or anything.

 

DELLS ARE NOT PRICED WELL!!!!!


A computer I can build for $1200 bucks is about $3800 from dell. I dont know what you think is "a good price" but they DO NOT use good components, cannot be upgraded, and are EXTREMELY overpriced. Sorry Dell guys, if you had a real computer, you would know the difference. Dont mean to offend anyone, but its the truth.

 

the reason why i recommended costco is this: who else in this country (or anywhere else in the world) would allow you to return a computer SIX MONTHS (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) after purchase for a full refund?

 

That's probably part of it. I don't bother buying the high end systems. My computers are used only for surfing the Internet and development work. For that, I never need to spend over $600 on a computer, regardless of whether I buy it or build it myself. In the past, I would always build my own systems, but in the last few years, pre-built systems have dropped so much in price that it's hardly worth it anymore.

For the original poster's stated purposes of working with photos, a few office programs, and burning DVDs and CDs, a Dell is just fine. He didn't say that he'd be using it for much multimedia stuff that would require high end video cards and similar expensive components. He didn't even mention upgrading; in fact, nothing except the most high end systems are really worth upgrading these days. It's usually cheaper to just go out and buy a new system.

As for having a real computer, I've been writing software for years on all sorts of systems, and I think I have an okay idea of what a real computer is. As I said earlier, Dell's upgradability and quality of components aren't necessarily optimal, but they are fine for a pre-built system.

If we were talking about high end systems, then I'd honestly have no clue what to recommend. But what CG described is a pretty basic system, and I can't see why a Dell is so horrible for that.

 

Thanks again guys. The computer I'm using now I had built by a local computer company 4+ years ago at a cost of over $2800. It had more state of the art stuff than I thought I would ever use but it's starting to give me problems and the cost of repair and upgrades is likely to cost as much as a new more modern system. I'm not computer savvy, so simple is good for me.

Another question. Anytime I try to watch a wmv. movie my computer locks up and I have to hit the reset button. mpeg's are fine and don't do it. Any idea why this is happening?