Comments on: Buying a general-purpose PC: Quick advice?

By: walt

walt — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 15:38:39 +0000

Well, that wasn’t my understanding (I thought Office ‘03 worked just fine under Vista)–but in any case, this person wants to move to Office ‘07 more than they want to move to Vista. Their spouse has been using Office ‘07 for a while, and they think it will suit them just fine. Of course, since it’s for home use, that also means there is no additional cost, since the $130 (sale price) Home & Student Office 2007 is licensed for three computers in the same household. This person’s looked at OpenOffice, for that matter…but wasn’t overly impressed.

By: mimo

mimo — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 07:31:14 +0000

it IS difficult to find XP cheaply in a retail store. i looked and looked, but in the end settled for vista (i couldn’t spare the time or energy to go geek and build one). if you are planning on keeping vista, factor in the cost of office 2007 because anything lower is not compatible.

By: GeekChic

GeekChic — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 16:30:27 +0000

Hi Walt,

Fair point about buying more RAM later but I was commenting on the systems as given. As for not being able to find systems with XP in a retail store… I guess it depends on the store. Our local computer store will sell systems with XP (Home or Pro) on them - you just have to ask. The chains probably wouldn’t - but I tend to avoid electronics chains like the plague (I buy online or build).

By: walt

walt — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 15:50:09 +0000

Interesting. In fact, if the buyer chooses #1, they’ll probably spring for another gig of RAM–which would cost less than the price differential between the two systems.

As for OS, I doubt very much that you could get either system with XP in a retail store.

By: GeekChic

GeekChic — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 02:45:35 +0000

Hi Walt: As a systems person who has built several computers (including one Vista one) I would recommend #2. Why?

- 2 GB is the bare minimum for a Vista system and you should never run a Windows OS on the bare minimum - the fact the you plan to do some photo editing only reinforces that fact
- having a discrete graphics card will also help keep some load off of the system when doing photo editing and if you want to use the new Aero interface (and that particular card is a reasonable one)

I do have a question for you though…. why Vista? I have built a Vista system and it was a pain in the neck (and other body parts) to get running with the legacy devices that the person had. Are you sure that XP might not be a better choice?

Hope this helps. Good luck with your decision.

By: darcilicious

darcilicious — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 23:13:41 +0000

Always go for more RAM

By: walt

walt — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 23:01:32 +0000

OK, let me modify that:

“Unless you can point me to a Mac with equivalent specs–that is, either a high-speed dual-core chip with 3GB RAM and 256MB graphics RAM, or a quad-core chip with 2GB RAM, *and* a 400GB hard disk, *and* a dual-layer DVD burner–for $800 or less, ‘Get a Mac’ is not useful advice.”

By: Steve

Steve — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 22:57:22 +0000

No, “get a Mac” is not useful advice.

Oh come on, Walt! That’s a real stick-in-the-mud kind of attitude to have! Just can’t resist poking you on this one