what to get in a new computer

[Carrie]

We're looking at getting a new computer. Possibly a new iMAC for Bryan's graphics and such. What is important as far as speed and memory?

[Orion]

get the best chip you can afford with the least amount of memory, memory is always cheaper and sometimes better quality from other people, and its easy to install. crucial and kingston for example make good memory at decent prices.

[DarkWolf]

If you're looking at Macs for graphics purposes, stay away from the iMac. Get a PowerMac. They've got the better everything. iMacs are the "dumbed down" Mac computers.

Personally, I'd recommend getting a top end P4 or Athlon system though. Unless he has an absolute need for a Mac, why spend the amount of money they charge ... when you can get a much faster PC, for the same or less money? There are PC and Mac versions for just about every piece of graphic related software out there, so unless the programs he uses are Mac only, I don't see a reason to go that route.

But definitely, if he's going to be doing graphics work on the system, get the biggest, baddest system you can get. And don't skimp on the monitor either ... for graphics work, 19" is bare minimum. 21" or better is recommended. The higer the supported resolutions, and the lower the dot pitch, the better.

[bsharer]

I was looking at the iMAC G4 with the most memory and speed and such. It's got a 17" monitor. Bryan's not looking to work from home on the computer or anything, but we already have several MAC only programs that he uses now and likes to screw around on. I also would rather work on a MAC over a PC, especially since I have a laptop from my school now and will most likely have one next year as well. I just want something that will be fast on the internet and also add MS Office so I can work on things at home without having to bring the laptop home.

Thanks for the info.
Carrie

[AbecX]

Macintosh computers are so expensive new, if you dont need baddest mofo out on the market, I'd get one used off ebay and purchase some ram for it and run OS X, with a lot of ram, and a decent cpu, that computer will fly.

Good luck.

Here is a damn good deal I found on ebay, $775, and 2 1/2 days left on it.

I am selling my G4 Tower and maybe my monitor, because I am looking to buy a laptop. This Tower has 2 hard drives 1 with 100 gigs of space at 7200 rpm's, and one 80 gig hard drive at 7200 rpm's. It has three memory slots with 2 512 chips loaded in it giving it over a gig of memory. A cdrw that burns @ 24x. This Mac is Cosmetically in great shape not a scratch on the tower, or the keyboard or mouse. It comes with Final Cut Pro 3 Loaded and ready to run along with Adobe Illustrater 10.0, Adobe Photoshop 7.0, DVD Studio Pro, Quick time Pro, Norton Antivirus, and more. It also Comes with All of the original discs, and paperwork. Any Questions e-mail me.

G3 Apple 733 w/ 180GB Drive (http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3401191013&category=14912)

http://ebay0.ipixmedia.com/abc/M28/_EBAY_b3ecc7727ac239991d96319ca5e2ed5d/i-1.JPG

[Carrie]

Out with the MAC. Bryan now says he wants a PC since there are more games for a PC. So, what to get in a Dell. My school has ongoing deals with dell since we use them.

[AbecX]

How much money are you looking to spend? I'll customize you one on their site if you give me a budget :)

[Carrie]

Around $1500. I get a discount through the school also 5-10% i believe. I need a printer too, or should I just buy one anywhere?

[Carrie]

Oh, a flat screen monitor would be nice also.

[Erfan Z28]

I work for Dell in there advanced software and application support center. You will be calling me or my colleauges when you call into the main support number, so I look forward to hearing from you:)

[AbecX]

Pentium® 4 Processor at 2.66GHz w/533MHz front side bus/ 512K L2 Cache
256MB 333MHz DDR SDRAM
Dell® Quietkey® Keyboard
17 in 1702FP Digital Flat Panel ( LCD )
128mb DDR ATI Radeon™ 9700 TX Graphics Card with TV-Out and DVI
60GB Ultra ATA/100 7200RPM Hard Drive
3.5 in Floppy Drive
Microsoft® Windows® XP Home Edition
Dell® 2-button scroll mouse
Integrated Intel® PRO 10/100 Ethernet
40x/10x/40x Max CD-RW Drive with Roxio's Easy CD Creator®
Harman Kardon HK-395 Speakers with Subwoofer
Microsoft® Office XP Small Business w/EducateU
3 Year Limited Warranty plus 3 Year On-site Service


Buy the printer seperate.

This setup comes with everything you will need, although I would purchasae a keyboard you are more comfortable with and a better mouse. People usually overlook the mouse and keyboard, shop around and find one you truely like and get it, treat it right. I hate typing on another keyboard other then my own, ironically, I have a ms keyboard and intellioptical mouse :)

[Carrie]

Oh my god. I have no idea what all that shit is, but does it have a DVD/CD burner?

[AbecX]

LOL!!


What do you guys want the computer to be able to do, everything? I put a CD Burner on it, but no dvd rom, I figured you guys had a dvd player on your tv so no need for one on the computer. The setup I put up would be ideal for playing games, and doing all your other needs ( web browsing, email, ms office stuff, burning cd's etc... ). This setup is about twice as fast as mine, I'd be embarassed comparing cpu's with you :p

[Carrie]

Thanks Abecx! I'll give this information to Bryan tonight. He should know more about it than me. But yes, we do have a DVD.

[Orion]

heh, that was copy and pasted form dells site, and is that the lowest you can go on the mem now? cuz you can get it cheaper elsewhere. thats usually one of the places they try to rape you at.

[AbecX]

Originally posted by Hazards
cuz you can get it cheaper elsewhere.
bye bye warranty.

[Grant]

RDRAM is expensive everywhere! But it runs damn fast. Most efficient ram out there.

Carrie,

Get the biggest warranty they offer. I got one with like an 6-8 year warranty, if something ever happens, you just call them out, next day you have the new replacement. Pretty pimp!

Grant

[Erfan Z28]

Your warranty covers only hardware and not software, buy a 3 year warranty and no more. Donot let the salesman tell you that you can call in and get support for everything which is entirely untrue. You get 35 days from invoice of basic software support and no support on hooking up a printer or scanner or and external device. In order to get support for those you would need to call into advanced software support and purchase a software support plan.

90 day support is $49
180 day support is $89
1 year support is $149
2 year support is $229
3 year support is $309
4 year support is $409

And that covers printers, scanners, PDA's, all software packages etc.....:) Your going to like your dell, get a Dimension 8250 with 2.4ghz P4 processor and 512meg of PC-1066 RDRAM and 100GB hard disk with a nice 18" Dell flat panel:) Make sure to get the Office XP Professional package and a DVD-rom and seperate CD-RW drive.

[Grant]

Originally posted by Erfan Z28
Your warranty covers only hardware and not software, buy a 3 year warranty and no more. Donot let the salesman tell you that you can call in and get support for everything which is entirely untrue. You get 35 days from invoice of basic software support and no support on hooking up a printer or scanner or and external device. In order to get support for those you would need to call into advanced software support and purchase a software support plan.

90 day support is $49
180 day support is $89
1 year support is $149
2 year support is $229
3 year support is $309
4 year support is $409

And that covers printers, scanners, PDA's, all software packages etc.....:) Your going to like your dell, get a Dimension 8250 with 2.4ghz P4 processor and 512meg of PC-1066 RDRAM and 100GB hard disk with a nice 18" Dell flat panel:) Make sure to get the Office XP Professional package and a DVD-rom and seperate CD-RW drive.

Mine is good until 2006, and it was bought in 2001. I would be covered in support, but I don't use the OEM OS. They will send people out to fix it, if necessary on the hardware related stuff, like mobo, etc.

Erfan,
Are you working for Stream?

[Erfan Z28]

Originally posted by Grant
Mine is good until 2006, and it was bought in 2001. I would be covered in support, but I don't use the OEM OS. They will send people out to fix it, if necessary on the hardware related stuff, like mobo, etc.

Erfan,
Are you working for Stream?

No, Stream lost the Dell contract. Telvista is where Im at and we cover everything that has to do with software and also hardware as well if they are adding things like memory and stuff.

[Grant]

Originally posted by Erfan Z28
No, Stream lost the Dell contract. Telvista is where Im at and we cover everything that has to do with software and also hardware as well if they are adding things like memory and stuff.

Oh, I know. I'm VERY, VERY familiar with Dell AOS. :) Yea, I knew they lost it. Most of it was sent to India. How do you like it?

[Erfan Z28]

Originally posted by Grant
Oh, I know. I'm VERY, VERY familiar with Dell AOS. :) Yea, I knew they lost it. Most of it was sent to India. How do you like it?

I like it alot, its what im good at. I just sit in front of my computer all day and take incoming calls and cruise the internet.

India handles the PDA's and Portables. No one can understand a word they are saying and they just manage to piss off customers and disconnect them during the call. Or they transfer all the time to us in AOS because they dont know jack. I had a lady call me yesterday and was pissed off because she had called tech support and ended up in India 3 times and the techs were rude to her and she couldnt understand half of what they were saying and she was disconnected twice and transferred, she finally called back and I got her and she wanted to know where her COA for Office XP was and I told her to look in her software bundle and it is on the back of the casing and she found it in 10 minutes and the call was done, all that commotion and they didnt tell her to look on her cd casing:rolleyes:

[Grant]

Originally posted by Erfan Z28
I like it alot, its what im good at. I just sit in front of my computer all day and take incoming calls and cruise the internet.

India handles the PDA's and Portables. No one can understand a word they are saying and they just manage to piss off customers and disconnect them during the call. Or they transfer all the time to us in AOS because they dont know jack. I had a lady call me yesterday and was pissed off because she had called tech support and ended up in India 3 times and the techs were rude to her and she couldnt understand half of what they were saying and she was disconnected twice and transferred, she finally called back and I got her and she wanted to know where her COA for Office XP was and I told her to look in her software bundle and it is on the back of the casing and she found it in 10 minutes and the call was done, all that commotion and they didnt tell her to look on her cd casing:rolleyes:

lol, Yep. I was there when they decided to do all of that. People were PISSED. I was offered to go to Tel Vista, but I said 'F-That' awhile ago.

[DarkWolf]

Originally posted by Erfan Z28
I work for Dell in there advanced software and application support center. You will be calling me or my colleauges when you call into the main support number, so I look forward to hearing from you:)

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA! :D I take it you're working at Stream Trinity? ;)

[DarkWolf]

Originally posted by AbecX
People usually overlook the mouse and keyboard, shop around and find one you truely like and get it, treat it right. I hate typing on another keyboard other then my own, ironically, I have a ms keyboard and intellioptical mouse :)

Ditto that. That's my setup too. The Natural Keyboard is the shit, and I can't stand using regular keyboards anymore. And the optical mice are just too cool. It's nice not having to worry about ever having to clean the mouse ball and rollers again, or making sure the mousepad is clean.

Or having a mouse pad. :D

[DarkWolf]

Originally posted by Erfan Z28
No, Stream lost the Dell contract. Telvista is where Im at and we cover everything that has to do with software and also hardware as well if they are adding things like memory and stuff.

AHHH! SWEET MOTHER OF GOD ... Dell finally pulled out of Stream? It's about fucking time. Stream has been dicking Dell around for years ... and I might say, Dell's done their share of dicking Stream (or more specifically, the techs supporting their systems) around too.

I started on Hardware, just basic hardware. Then moved to Relationship when it started up. That contract fucking rocked. But then Dell decided they wanted Relationship and Public merged ... that fucked everything up, and was the beginning of my bitterness for ever working at Stream. Then we got Advanced OS, which rocked for about 2 weeks, at which point Dell, upon seeing how kick ass of a job we were doing with advanced support, decided to dump everything on us ... Relationship, Public, Hardware, Software, hell, they even threw in Portables near the end there.

Hope you guys have it better than we did. I guess that's why TelVista's been placing want ads so much lately :D I applied there, but never followed up on anything ... now I'm kinda glad I didn't. I'd hate to come in thinking I'd be starting on something new, only to be put right back on the Dell contract that I was so glad to finally be free of :D

[Erfan Z28]

Actually at Telvista our job is strictly Relationsip and Consumer software support. All Rel/Con hardware calls relating to portables and PDA's go back to Dell hardware support. We have a range of software we support and if people are out of there 35 day grace period they have to pay for support at that point:D Our call ques have been great, this whole month weve had like 30 in que and alot of available time yesterday:)

[DarkWolf]

Originally posted by Erfan Z28
India handles the PDA's and Portables. No one can understand a word they are saying and they just manage to piss off customers and disconnect them during the call. Or they transfer all the time to us in AOS because they dont know jack.

Ahhh yes. Yet another source of endless frustrations while I was working there. How often do you get case logs from India techs that have absolutely no beneficial information, whatsoever? Like:

"Date/Time: 04-02-2002 10:17:04 Created By: JAGADISH BHANDARY
Description: cust not able to delete mails from outlook
Issue Type: SOFTWARE
Category: Microsoft

Problem: problem in outlook express
Description: cust not able to delete mails from outlookexpress. tried to some steps no go. referred to application support. transferred to application support. solution provided
Solution: solution provided

Component: MS Outlook
Cause: Error
Reason: Error

Caller: WALDORF ESTELLE Phone: 000000000000000 Email: no@email.com"

I love that. Tried some steps. Really? And what steps might those have been? Obviously not something as simple as walking her through Windows Explorer to delete the Deleted Items.dbx file. That's all I did once I got her. Charged her $29.99 for less than 5 minutes of troubleshooting, and fixed the problem.

That was probably the most descriptive case log I ever saw from an India tech. :rolleyes:

[Erfan Z28]

Bwhahahahah, Darkwolf thats what im talkin about:D They put in the journal that they went through steps and somehow everytime it is a "no go":rolleyes:

When did you work there? and how long?

[DarkWolf]

Originally posted by Erfan Z28
Actually at Telvista our job is strictly Relationsip and Consumer software support. All Rel/Con hardware calls relating to portables and PDA's go back to Dell hardware support. We have a range of software we support and if people are out of there 35 day grace period they have to pay for support at that point:D Our call ques have been great, this whole month weve had like 30 in que and alot of available time yesterday:)

They getting into mandatory VTO with all the availability yet?

I always cracked up when they'd announce mandatory VTO ... Mandatory Voluntary Time Off ... It's mandatory that you volunteer to take time off. There's an oxymoron if I've ever heard one :D

When Advanced OS started, it freak'n rocked. We took maybe 300 calls all day. 15 - 20 minutes between calls of availability. It was sweet. Then when they dumped everything on us, suddenly we had 20 (total ... 10 day/night, 5 night, and 5 overnight) techs trying to handle 4000 calls a day, and often 150+ calls in queue. It was an absolute nightmare. We scrambled to train new techs, and they litterally jumped in the fire after less than a day of training on networking, and the various other (mostly networking though) areas of our support. The rest of the time, we had new techs constantly calling mentors, spending almost as much time with a mentor as they were with the customer. Every now and then, I'd be assigned "que clearing", where I'd just harvest callbacks, to try and bring the hold time down from updwards of 2 hours, to a more reasonable 30 minutes (when AOS started, we guaranteed our customers no more than 5 minute hold times ... that was straight from Dell. After they bombarded us with calls, that guarantee changed from 5 minute holds, to a guarantee that the problem would be fixed. Never mind it'll take you about 2 hours to get through to someone :rolleyes: ) ... After "que clearing" for about an hour, I'd start sorting through my pile of callbacks.

It was a complete cluster fuck in the end, and we all knew the axe was falling soon. I was so happy when I got the word that I finally got laid off. I'd gone through about 4 waves of layoffs, with each one I'd hope they'd give me the word. After the Rel/Pub merger, I took all my personal belongings home. Only things left on my desk were my fan, speakers, and power strip. Made cleaning out my desk a snap :D

[DarkWolf]

Originally posted by Erfan Z28
Bwhahahahah, Darkwolf thats what im talkin about:D They put in the journal that they went through steps and somehow everytime it is a "no go":rolleyes:

When did you work there? and how long?

Hehehe :D

Worked there from April 2000 to June 2002. The Rel/Pub merger took place in December 2000, and I hated working there from that point on :) Well, save for the first 2 weeks of Advanced OS, which was if I remember correctly in November or December of 2001. I know I was still in Rel/Pub during Sept. 11, and it wasn't long after that they were looking for top techs to start Advanced OS.

[Erfan Z28]

I heard alot of stories like that from people who worked at stream, we have alot of tech's that came over here from that contract and they really like it here. It's nothing like what you described and I am glad:cool: That is why Dell finally cut them loose.

We havent gotten to the point of VTO yet since we are fairly busy during the day and we have about say 3 minutes of availability between calls. It is a pretty sweet gig, I come in at 7a.m. answer calls and surf the web in between, take my 15 minute breaks and then lunch and go home at 4.:)

Where are you now? And how are you liking web design?

[DarkWolf]

I'm loving web design :D I wish I'd gotten into it sooner, especially when the market was better for it. It's slow going right now, but I'm doing ok. Working with a small company in Mesquite, Computer Works Home & Office, to get things started. Going to be branching off and forming a self sufficient company as soon as I get a steady client base.

Sounds like you've got a pretty sweet gig going on up there. Just don't get too comfortable :D

[AbecX]

Hey darkwolf, if you need some stable server side stuff, let me know, I live out in mesquite as well :)

[DarkWolf]

Originally posted by AbecX
Hey darkwolf, if you need some stable server side stuff, let me know, I live out in mesquite as well :)

Coolio. I was talking to I Stang U a bit about that this weekend, maybe doing some outsourcing when business picks up.

Right now, we're self hosting, but the server is way out of date, and needs to be replaced (NT4 w/ IIS4 :eek: ). He's got a Compaq Proliant Dual 800 w/ 5 18Gig scsi drives ready to go for a new server. I'm just trying to convince him to go with Linux over Windows 2000 :D Even I know Linux/Apache makes for a better web server than IIS :D

[AbecX]

Cool :D

http://abecx.net/LinuxSoHo/linuxad.gif

[Orion]

adding ram voids warranties? heh just pop it out if ya got a prob, kinda like putting the stock parts back on if you spin a rod earing or blow somethin to hell on yer car ;)

[AbecX]

Warning: If you break this sticker, the warranty is void. :)

[Erfan Z28]

Darkwolf,

Your a pretty cool guy:cool: You gotta love it when someone keeps a record of thier Case journals from Dell!:D That was pretty damn funny. I hope to meet you sometime when the weather starts getting better and we start up the Sonic GTG's. It seems like you have yourself a pretty nice plan going and are headed towards the right path, good luck to you and your buisness.

[DarkWolf]

Originally posted by AbecX
Warning: If you break this sticker, the warranty is void. :)

Dell's don't have that :D

Compaq is the only other brand I've used that were nazi enough to put those stickers on their cases.

[DarkWolf]

Originally posted by Erfan Z28
Darkwolf,

Your a pretty cool guy:cool: You gotta love it when someone keeps a record of thier Case journals from Dell!:D That was pretty damn funny. I hope to meet you sometime when the weather starts getting better and we start up the Sonic GTG's. It seems like you have yourself a pretty nice plan going and are headed towards the right path, good luck to you and your buisness.

Thank ya, thank ya. Heheheh, I kept some of the more rediculous ones, and some of my own from when we were still using CAPS/DPS to cover my ass if the particular customer decided to get bitchy. I kept very detailed logs :)

Yeah, I definitely want to make it out to more gtg's this year. This year will be better. I command it :D

[Orion]

Originally posted by DarkWolf
Dell's don't have that :D

Compaq is the only other brand I've used that were nazi enough to put those stickers on their cases.
yea i didnt think bout stickers cuz none of our dells up here have em