Buying a New Computer
Update Feb. 26, 2008: Problems with HP Desktops. I have been saying that new HP desktops are good - I'm going to downgrade that rating to "okay" or possibly "not so good". Their power supplies are no good, especially the ones in the HP desktops being sold at Wal-Mart. HP's new desktops (at least some of them) turn the motherboard upside down. It's kind of weird, but I'm not saying it's bad. But the Wal-Mart models are coming with 250-watt power supplies - this is definitely inadequate and I have seen a news article saying that one of them started a house fire. Even the 300-watt power supplies in the ones sold on the internet are inadequate, in my judgement. You can replace the power supply; it is an easy job. I recommend the Antec True Power Trio 430-watt power supply (currently $80 from me but $90-100 elsewhere). The Antec Earthwatts (the energy-effecient model) would probably be adequate, and it costs less.
Windows XP vs. Vista vs. Macintosh
Desktops vs. notebooks
Choosing a desktop
Choosing a notebook
Should you buy a notebook from Rick?
Choosing a printer
How the major brands compare
Please do not buy Sony products
What about WalMart computers?
Do NOT buy a desktop computer without a PCI-Express Slot
The purpose of this page is to help you choose your next new computer. If you’re not in the market for a new computer right now, but you want to hear my opinion on computer components, you may prefer to read my Good and Bad Brand Names page instead.
Operating Systems – Windows XP and Vista; Mac OS
A lot has changed in operating systems lately. Apple’s transition to the Intel architecture means you can now run Windows on a Macintosh (and I hear it runs really well); meanwhile, Microsoft released Windows Vista in March 2007. The wow starts now. As in, “Wow, my new Windows Vista computer with Office 2007 is really slow!”
New technologies start out with problems, and Microsoft technologies always have a lot of problems. It may be their top-down management style, or it may be the fact that their software is flexible enough to run on billions of different computers. Whatever it is, Microsoft technologies require a lot of troubleshooting, especially when they first come out. We’re all holding our breath for Vista to get better. The problem is not just Windows, but all the programs and drivers that run on Windows. Since Microsoft radically changed the rules by which software must play (arguably for the worse), every software company has to update its programs and every hardware company has to update its drivers. Unless and until that happens, your software or device probably won’t work.
At this point, I’m still sticking with Windows XP. Not only is Vista unpolished, but it requires faster hardware than is generally available right now. My doubt in Vista is heightened by the rumors that Microsoft is hard at work on Vista’s successor, planned for release in a couple years. Will Vista get finished by the time its successor is released? The jury is out. I’ll sell you whichever version of Windows you want on your new custom-built PC.
Windows XP comes in three versions: Home, Pro, and Media Center Edition. Choose Pro if you need remote desktop or to join a domain. Choose Media Center if you want to set your computer up as an entertainment center with television, movies, music, etc. Windows Vista comes in four versions: Home Basic, Home Premium, Business, and Ultimate. The scheme is the same as in XP, but Ultimate offers both the Media Center and business networking capabilities, as well as Bit-Locker file encryption. All the versions except Home Basic offer Aero, which is the “new user interface” that makes your windows fly up and down, fade in and out, etc.; to most people it’s probably not very important but it uses a lot of system resources.
As for Macintoshes – The ability to run Windows on your Macintosh changes things dramatically. Many people have used the Mac for years; for them, the change might not be so important. But for non-Mac people, a Mac is suddenly a viable option. Apple makes good quality computers. I don’t really have any arguments why you shouldn’t buy a Macintosh, unless you don’t like their looks or their moderate-to-high prices.
Apple’s Boot Camp lets you choose whether to boot into Mac or Windows. More, better, ways to run Windows on a Mac (virtual machines and emulation) already exist and will be polished and marketed in the near future.
If you want to buy a Macintosh, go to the Mac Store or www.apple.com – or, if you’re a student, to the college bookstore – and buy whichever one suits you the best. They only have a few models for sale at a given time, and the differences between them are pretty clear. I looked into reselling Macintoshes, but chose not to. I’d be happy to help you pick one out, however.
Desktops vs. notebooks
If you are in the market for a computer, the first decision you have to make is whether you want a desktop or a notebook. For many people, the choice is already clear; for others, it is not.
The advantage of a notebook is that you can take it with you. That is basically the only advantage of a notebook, but it is a pretty important one. If you want to take your computer with you, you need a notebook. If you’re going to set it up in one place, you’d be better off with a desktop.
Advantages of desktop computers: They are more powerful, can have better graphics, support a variety of upgrades, and cost less than notebooks. Notebooks are more likely to get lost, stolen, or broken, and parts can sometimes be rare and/or expensive. Encryption software is available to keep people from reading your data if they get ahold of your computer. Most people don’t use encryption, however. If you do use encryption, do not forget your password! You can get a docking station or port replicator and plug in a monitor, mouse, keyboard, etc., to your notebook and use it as a desktop, if you wish.
With all that said, you need the computer that is right for you. You probably know what you want to do with your new computer, or else you wouldn’t be in the market for one, right? Jump to laptop discussion or read the desktop discussion first.
Choosing a desktop computer
A desktop or laptop computer is a collection of components, each of which you can choose to meet your needs. What chipset and motherboard does it have? What CPU – Intel or AMD? How much memory? What size and color do you want? What else?
What operating system do you want?
What size of case do you want to have? Your motherboard needs to fit in the case. There are several form factors to choose from. The most common are Micro-ATX and ATX. Larger computers can hold more add-on cards. There are also BTX-based computers available now; everything in a BTX computer is reversed from ATX. Their main advantage is that they can be made very small and still be cooled effectively, so Pico-BTX is popular. BTX variants require a different case, power supply, motherboard, and CPU. You can’t hook up an ATX power supply to a BTX motherboard.
If you want an Intel processor, I would probably recommend an Intel motherboard (which has, of course, an Intel chipset). If you like AMD processors, I’d get an Asus motherboard with an AMD (formerly ATI) chipset. Many motherboards come with onboard video. This is fine for most people, but one very important thing to look for in a desktop is whether the video can be upgraded later. It should have a PCI-Express x16 slot. If it doesn’t have this slot on the motherboard, don’t buy it. If the person or website selling it to you can’t tell you if it has one, don’t buy it. You’ve been warned.
If you want to play any games beyond Solitaire and Minesweeper, you may need a video card. Look for one without a fan, if possible. The market in video cards is very “rational”, meaning the more you spend the better card you get. About $60-90 should be enough to spend on one to play the games that are currently out. With laptops, you’re generally stuck with whatever graphics you get in the first place, but here is some good news: ASUS plans on producing laptops with upgradeable graphics, and quietly says that the current generation can already be upgraded/interchanged but that bugs need to be worked out before they will market the feature. If the technology works out, hopefully other manufacturers will follow suit.
Intel and AMD both make good dual core CPUs. For most people, any dual core CPU is fine (as of mid-2007), but if you want something better, consider a quad core CPU - these are available now but still too expensive for me to recommend, as of August 2007. Hopefully quad core CPUs will become more reasonably priced by next year.
Your computer should come with at least 1GB of memory and hopefully can support 4GB or more so you can upgrade it in the future.
You’ll choose a case and power supply. Antec is my brand of choice for power supplies and cases; In-Win makes good cases but if you buy one my recommendation is to take the included power supply to Corvallis Disposal for recycling (i.e., don't use it in your new computer).
Hard drives: You can get RAID if you want, but it’s not as good as having and using an external hard drive. If you don’t know how big a hard drive you need, the smallest available is probably plenty for you. If you will be using your computer for a lot of audio/video, you may need a larger hard drive. As of August 2007, drives as large as 400 or 500 GB are commonly used in new desktops.
DVD burners are almost standard on new computers. One drive is all you really need, but having a DVD-ROM in addition to your DVD burner is nice so you don’t have to swap out discs as much when you’re copying. I won’t be buying Blu-Ray or HD DVD drives any time soon, due to the price and the incompatibility between the formats, but eventually they will come down to a more reasonable price and one drive will hopefully be able to play both formats.
Floppy drive: Floppies are still used today. There are floppy drives with built-in card readers, all in one slot in the front of your computer. Pretty neat, huh? If your computer or printer has memory card slots, you need to disconnect them (possibly by pulling the headers off the motherboard) before installing Windows XP, or else your main hard drive will come up as something other than C:.
Other options: Do you want to watch TV on your computer? Then you need a TV tuner.
Do you need a modem? If you think you might ever use dial-up, you need a modem.
Most of the other basics are built in: Ethernet (should be gigabit), USB, Firewire (available but not standard), sound. Not all motherboards come with a printer (parallel) port anymore, but you could get a parallel-port card (if you have a parallel-port license dongle, you have to get an onboard parallel port). If your printer uses USB, don’t worry about that. Not all motherboards come with PS/2 ports (for mouse/keyboard) either; you are stuck with USB for that too – which is probably OK.
The built-in sound is good enough for playing mp3s and hopefully movies on DVD, but there is room for improvement. You can buy a sound card if you need more than the onboard gives you.
Choosing a notebook
Notebooks, like desktops, are generally made of interchangeable components, but there are many unique parts in each notebook. A general observation: in the last few years, people have bought more notebooks than desktops for the first time, and cheap notebooks have proliferated. By cheap, I don’t necessarily mean inexpensive – I mean cheap in construction. It seems that many of today’s notebooks aren’t as durable as they ought to be. They’re not all cheap, but some certainly are – notably Dell, Acer, and E-machines branded notebooks.
If you’re in the market for a Mac notebook, consider the MacBook Pro. It is more expandable than the MacBook. Apple, like many computer companies, sells memory and other upgrades for outrageously high prices. Macintoshes generally use the same type of memory that PCs use, and you can buy it from Crucial.
If you want to buy a custom notebook, the place to start is the notebook shell. It is the body of the notebook, plus the screen, motherboard, video adapter, fans, heatsinks, and power adapter. What chipset do you want?
It’s not always easy to figure out exactly what you’re getting. I would want to know the following things about the shell:
What chipset does it have?
What video adapter does it have? (Anything by ATI or NVIDIA is good; there are many choices.)
What size is the screen? (15.4” and 17” are common sizes)
What is the native resolution of the screen? (Make sure it’s comfortable for you to read.)
Are the notebook shell and power adapter well-made by a reputable company? Are they solid?
The last item on that list is tricky. My best advice is to buy an Asus or a Lenovo. What makes it tricky is that the best ones are hard to find in stores, where you can look at it and feel it.
I don’t have a good solution for this. The place I buy Asus notebooks from would love to sell me a demo notebook, but considering how few notebooks I sell I don’t think it would be a good investment.
Yes, you can ask for professional advice, but it’s not the same as seeing it in person before you order. Whatever you do, don’t go to a big box store seeking good advice. I would rather trust the product reviews at www.newegg.com.
Beyond the notebook shell, you can choose your dual-core (soon, quad-core) processor, memory, hard drive, and DVD burner. The considerations are the same for these as with desktop computers (see above), although the hard drives are smaller and the DVD burners are slower. (Everything on a notebook is a little slower.) Most notebooks come with onboard wireless and wired networking - and many still come with modems. If you need a modem, check about this or you may be buying an upgrade card soon.
You will need a good tough notebook carrying bag – this is very important. Targus is a good brand. Do you need any accessories? Are you sure you need those accessories?
Upgrades
Check www.crucial.com for more reasonable memory prices (and better memory) before ordering a new computer with upgraded memory, but keep in mind that you may have to remove some of the RAM that comes preinstalled in order to install yours. How much RAM does your new notebook hold? What configuration is the memory that comes preinstalled? For instance, two 512 MB sticks or one 1 GB?
I’d definitely get a DVD burner. As for the hard drive, how much data do you have to store? Multiply that by at least four and get that large of a drive. If you don’t store any music, pictures, or video on your computer, the smallest hard drive is probably fine.
Don’t get ripped off on this stuff. The big brands may offer you upgrades at outrageously high prices.
Notebooks from Rix Computer Magic?
I sell Asus notebooks. I have a variety of configurations available.
As of this writing, a nicely configured notebook from me may cost $1300 to $1700.
If you go to HP’s website and configure yourself a notebook, does it cost more than $1300? If so, I can probably offer you something competitive. I don’t have anything at the low end that I’m comfortable selling, but at and above this price point I am very competitive.
If you’re serious about buying a notebook and you want to see what I have for sale, let me know what kind of notebook you want – or what you want to use it for – and I can spec one out for you and get a price. I get them from ASI; you can see them (without prices) at www.asimobile.com. There are more than just Asus (ASMobile) notebooks on that site – I can also get Compal notebooks from ASI but I’m not very interested in selling them.
Like my desktops, I only sell quality – and I back it up with a real warranty.
Choosing a printer
The first piece of advice I can give about printers is that they are always more expensive than you’d think. Maybe this is true of computers, too… The second reality is that you probably want an HP printer. HP is the leading printer company and the best bet. High-end users may want something else, but they probably know what they want. Epson also makes excellent printers, and many Epson inkjets can use continuous-feed ink systems, which is much more cost-effective for high-volume printing. Check out www.newegg.com for a good selection of printers, or try Bellevue or Office Max. I’d be happy to help you pick one out, but I don’t have much for sale.
Given that reality, let’s consider how much you are going to use your new printer. If you only use a printer rarely, you can get an inkjet printer for under $50 or a Printer-Scanner-Copier for under $100. A little more money can get you fax capabilities and/or memory card readers. Are you actually going to use those memory card readers? If not, I’d recommend not getting them.
There are many features to consider. The following may be available on your new inkjet printer: Photo printing, high-end ink (Vivera), larger paper trays, and – very importantly, larger ink cartridges. The ink is what costs the most.
If you have more than one computer in your home or office, you might consider a printer with Ethernet. This allows you to print from more than one computer easily, although the initial setup can sometimes be tricky.
If you do a lot of printing, consider a laser printer. Color laser printers recently fell in price – but are still generally over $600 (as of mid-2007). Black-and-white laser printers are available for as little as $100 – though nice ones cost more. With laser printers, the main considerations are the size of the input and output trays and the size of the toner cartridge. A nice printer tray holds 500 sheets, or 1 full ream, of paper; a nice output tray holds 600 sheets. More affordable printers may only hold 100 pages in each. The same printers with large trays are more likely to have large toner cartridges.
With inkjets and laser printers, the more expensive printers will produce better quality printouts. This is not a matter of dots per square inch as it is how well the printer is built. The printers that are marketed to offices (e.g., the OfficeJet) seem to be of generally better quality.
Don’t expect much from a $50 printer or a $100 all-in-one, but they may get you through the end of the term in school.
I get my cartridges refilled (or new) at Cartridge City (a.k.a. Redundant Cartridge). Their new location is in Cobblestone Square at 14th and Monroe.
The big brand names
The big name brands of computers are:
Acer, Apple, Asus, Compal, Dell, HP/Compaq, Gateway/E-Machines, Lenovo, Sony, and Toshiba. (Did I forget any?)
This is a discussion of both desktops and laptops, by brand. One thing that all the big brand names have in common is that they are all pushing Windows Vista. I view this as a hassle. All the brands have at least some computers available with Windows XP, and for an extra $100-160 you can get your own OEM copy of XP, if you don’t mind reinstalling all your software and drivers as soon as you get your new computer.
Asus, Acer, and Compal actually manufacture laptops. Most of the other companies don’t; they have these three companies (and a few others) manufacture them under contract. To illustrate: Acer or Compal manufacturers the laptop but it says “Dell” all over it. Dell won’t tell you which of these companies made your laptop, but you might be able to find out by looking at stickers on the components inside.
Now you can buy an Asus-, Acer-, or Compal-brand laptop. It’s nice because you have a better idea of what you’re actually getting. Asus is definitely the premium brand. They use good-quality components and the computers are solid. Acer and Compal seem ok – perhaps you might as well buy one of them as buy an HP; you might get a better idea of what’s under the hood. Some of the Acer laptops I’ve seen lately seem flimsy and cheap; I’m not sure if they are the same models that are being sold as HPs.
HP (or Compaq) is probably the brand of desktop I’d recommend. Their laptops are also generally fine. The only thing I don’t like about them is that some of their cheap computers have SiS chipsets, which aren’t so great. HP owns Compaq and their computers seem to be identical.
Apples have always been great, and now they can run Windows. Personally, I like the Mac OS, but obviously it isn’t for everyone. You now have your choice on a Mac. On the downside, they are somewhat more expensive and upgrades are seriously limited as compared with PCs.
Dell computers are often poor quality, but they are very easy to work on and the company is reasonably good about making replacement parts available and/or fixing your computer quickly while it is under warranty. I frequently get upset with Dell for what I feel is price-gouging and taking advantage of people.
Gateway makes good desktops. I don’t have an opinion on their laptops; I’ve only seen a few of them. Gateway’s low-price subsidiary is E-Machines. If you own an E-Machines desktop or laptop, you should go out today and buy a good-quality replacement power supply. Install it in your desktop or plug it into your laptop and take the old power supply to Corvallis Disposal at 3rd and Walnut for recycling. I’m not kidding – their power supplies are that bad and they definitely can destroy your whole computer. Other than that, however, I’m happy with E-Machines’ quality. I’ve never heard of a lot of the brands they use – companies without English-language websites, for instance – but they seem pretty durable, except for the power supply. The other thing about Gateway is that getting parts from them is a hassle.
Lenovo is a Chinese company that bought IBM’s personal computer division a few years back and now makes the Thinkpad. I don’t know what to think of that. The Thinkpad was always a reliable computer when IBM made it, except for a problem with their hard drives for a few years. It is known for that little red knob in the middle of the computer that you can move your mouse pointer with. Some people like that little red knob. Bellevue Computer in Corvallis sells these notebooks and provides service under warranty.
Toshiba customizes its computers more than the other big brands. They are quite nice, in my opinion. They are also a little more difficult and expensive to work on.
Sony sucks. Please do not buy anything from Sony. Their computers overheat, just to name one common problem. They are a serious pain in the butt to work on. Just because they invented the CD player 25 years ago doesn’t mean you should buy their computers today. Sometimes I use their CD, DVD, and floppy drives.
WalMart sells computers. Should I buy one? There is a WalMart in Lebanon. Huge place, judging from the outside. It seems to me that buying things at WalMart is often a compulsive activity, and there isn't much that I could say to stop a WalMart shopper from going back there for more plastic junk. Needless to say, I'm not a fan of the place, and if you want a decent computer you should probably look elsewhere. I wouldn't really know firsthand, however, as I haven't been in a WalMart in years. I'm perfectly happy living the rest of my life without setting foot in one of those awful places again. Did you know they require their minimum-wage employees to work off the clock every so often as a matter of policy?!? They are one of the most unethical companies in the world.
I don't think WalMart's computers are very good, judging from what I've seen that came from there. Go ahead and buy one, if you feel compelled to. If you have trouble with it, you can call me up and I'll fix it.
The PCI Express Slot:
The longer green slot is a PCI-Express x16 slot; this is where you install a video card. It can be any color but it is always on top. If you have Intel integrated graphics, your computer will definitely run faster if you install a real video card. Some advanced boards have more than one, and some cheap (e.g., Dell) boards don’t have one at all. If it is missing, you may see solder points where it should be, like the box with circles in it below the white slots. The smaller green slot is a PCI-Express x1 slot, and the white slots are PCI. If you need to install a modem, TV Tuner, or any other card in your computer, you would put it in these slots. PCI-Express x1 is a new technology that replaces PCI, and many cards are now available in both PCI and PCI-Express versions. Desktops will probably come with both kinds of slots for a few years and then only with PCI-Express.