My computer is 6ish years old and the monitor is starting to act funny (muted colors, lines running through the screen). In preparation for this whole setup to crash beyond repair, I'm starting to look into new systems. just. in. case.

Currently I can't run CS3 without my computer slowing down and thinking long and hard about whether or not it wants to freeze. Running another program with it is pretty much a lost cause.

I keep a LOT of photos on this computer...so I need lots of space to save them, room to grow, and room to keep any duplicates I edit.

I also reaaaally don't want to run Vista...I'd prefer to stick with XP, however I can't seem to find a computer that doesn't come preloaded with Vista. And unfortunately I can't find my copy of XP...through 3 or 4 moves, I seem to have misplaced it.

No, I really don't want to build my own...I don't really have the time nor expertise to do so (and I don't live in Raleigh).

My recent outdoor photog mag suggested the Alienware or Apple systems. Although I grew up on Apple, I have too much money currently invested in my PC (program-wise). So that leaves the, very expensive, Alienware.

Being that I don't really know too much about what will get me by, what will do me well, and what will make a techie drool, I'm coming to you all for a little guidance....for both the computer and monitor.

Thanks

3/27/2008 5:38:33 PM

meh, you don't need an alienware computer...CS3 runs acceptably on my 3ghz p4 office machine with 1gb of DDR and an cheap ATI video card (i'm not sure of the model)

these days, with quad-core being pretty cheap, it's probably worth picking up

you can get a dell system with quad-core, a 500gb hard drive, and a monitor for ~$500...sell the monitor (or keep it)...i don't have any specs on a particular machine, but they usually come with 2gb of RAM, and you can upgrade that to 4gb for next to nothing ($60 or so, and you'll have 2gb to sell)

most of them these days come with a pci-e slot (though it may or may not be occupied, depending on the build)...either way, you can pick up an 8600GTS for ~$70-80, or a low-end 8800 for ~$150

as for vista, that's a bit harder...unless you build it yourself, or carefully choose components from a company like dell, you're not going to find the XP drivers easily...i thought dell was still selling XP on select machines as of a month ago, but that might have changed

really, if you don't need the monitor, you can get a damn fine machine for $500...check out http://www.slickdeals.net/ and http://www.bensbargains.net/ religiously for the next month and i guarantee something will come up

shoot, you can get a machine that will do you just fine for $400

[Edited on March 27, 2008 at 5:52 PM. Reason : .]

3/27/2008 5:49:03 PM

^is right.

I just bought an HP media center pc off of slickdeals.net for $416 bucks after tax that is every bit as good as a 1500 dollar alienware or 2500 dollar apple.

You just want a core2duo or core2quad processor, 2-4gb of ram, and 500+ gb of hard drive space, along with non-integrated video (a separate PCI express video card).

3/27/2008 6:22:55 PM

I have an Alienware m15x in addition to my work Thinkpad and I have my business apps installed on both and can't tell a noticeable difference for MS office suite or eclipse/slickedit(other apps are ssh/telnet which require nothing).

If you go with a vista box of any manufacturer though, I strongly recommend buying 4gigs of ram after you order it. I bought the m15x with the barebones (2gigs?) and it was actually a bit more vexing with multiple concurrent windows and apps vs my thinkpad with 3gigs and XP32bit.

[Edited on March 27, 2008 at 6:51 PM. Reason : >.<]

3/27/2008 6:50:48 PM

SHUT UP YOU!
!!!
!







1

[Edited on March 27, 2008 at 9:15 PM. Reason : @JSnail]

3/27/2008 9:15:36 PM

thanks everyone...I'm sure I'll have addt'l questions in the future

3/28/2008 10:33:37 AM