Need a new Computer. Help?

Time to buy a new computer for my office, and my photo work (hobby) thinking of a Dell Dimension 521. Any advice, I do know I would like a 20" monitor or bigger.

Whats your budget for it all?

I'd wait until Vista is available... personally there's no way I'm buying one until Vista's been out for awhile... possibly even first service pack... but I realize not everyone is at liberty to wait that long... so my advice is make sure you get the 2gb (at least) of RAM that you'll need to enjoy Vista, and make sure that all components will be compatible.

With that little info, how could anyone make a suggestion of value? A lot of help would be"

You budget?
Cuent software?
Main use fo the new computer?

joegolf68 wrote in post #2505921
With that little info, how could anyone make a suggestion of value? A lot of help would be"

You budget?
Cuent software?
Main use fo the new computer?

My suggestion is valid no matter what you'll be using the computer for!!

Dells machines are coming with a "free" ($10) upgrade for Vista when it is released to the overall public. However, buyer beware, as much as I accepted the offer on 5 office machines we bought, I would never install it until as suggested SP1 is released. The advantage is that you will not have to buy it then. So get it put it in a drawer and wait, cause if you get Vista right away not only will you have headaches with bugs but you will also have the proberbial no drivers can be found for your hardware.

Well I can get the Dell E520 , 20" monitor, Pentium D, 1gig ram, 160gig hard drive, ect.... for about $850 shipped. It is Vista capable, but there is no way Im going with Vista for about two generations or so, Ram is cheap so I could add later or now for about $100 a gig. I would like to stay under a grand if I could. Any other systems come to mind?

The E520s are decent. I've set up a few for friends and family over the past several months with no complaints. Very quiet machines too which I like. If you can swing it, go for the Core 2 Duo model. A 2.13Ghz Core 2 Duo will devour a 3Ghz Pentium D in Photoshop.

Get at least dual core, intel core duo is my current pick. Quad core will be mainstream in 3 months, personally i'd wait until then to upgrade. An LCD, with a color calibration kit, is good. 2GB RAM is enough, i'd stick with XP until Vista is at SP1. Get a couple of hard drives. Video card doesn't matter much, make sure it doesn't steal memory from the system ram, otherwise doesn't matter unless you're a gamer. Get a good keyboard and mouse, and gel filled wrist rests.

davidcrebelxt wrote in post #2505958
My suggestion is valid no matter what you'll be using the computer for!!

I guess. He asked for advice on what to buy though, not when.

That said, I agree, if he can wait, wait for Vista. I wouldn't wait for a service pack though. Hopefully they will have a good release, but as always there will be a bug or two, s they are still sending out updates for XP and will as long as they support it.

20" Intel iMac


http://store.apple.com …fzz2H8RpJN1SSNL​peT/2.?p=0

Vista isn't that great. My friend has the full edition with all the gizmos and such and I don't see anything I need in it that I don't have in XP. It looks nice, but you need a substantial graphics card to handle it as well.

I wouldn't let vista hold you back for getting a new computer, especially since most come with a free upgrade to it anyway (just make sure your graphics card is 256mb ++)

If your going to be using it for photography

BUY A MAC!!!

You will not regret it. In fact, you will kick your self in the a^% for not buying one sooner.

1.83Ghz Intel Core Duo
512MB memory
80GB hard drive1
Ships: Within 24 hours
Free Shipping
$799.00

Photolistic wrote in post #2507565
If your going to be using it for photography

BUY A MAC!!!

You will not regret it. In fact, you will kick your self in the a^% for not buying one sooner.

1.83Ghz Intel Core Duo
512MB memory
80GB hard drive1
Ships: Within 24 hours
Free Shipping
$799.00

I would up the memory on the mini, 512 is a little weak. Max it out if you can.

I am with these guys by a mac you can get a 20 or 24" imac and if you want use apple bootcamp and install a copy of windows on it and have the best of both worlds OS X has great color management built in and you will have a machine that will be good for a much longer time than a standard PC I have a 5 year old ibook that still runs the latest OS just fine.