• When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

Computer Advice?

Started by dam60,

21 posts in this topic

dam60

dam60

Posted
Posted

Guys, please forgive me for posting this here but I wanted to see if anyone can help me. I need a new computer (laptop only) desperately but know next to nothing about computers. I would only use this to:

1 - surf the web

2 - use Microsoft Office

3 - watch DVDs

4 - play MP3s

 

Dell right now his having a sale on The Inspiron 2650C which has:

a - 1.60 Ghz processor

b - 14.1 XGA TFT Display

c - 128MB DDR PC2100 SDRAM

d - 20 GB Ultra ATA Hard Drive

e - CD ROm Drive

f - 16MB DDR NVIDIA Graphics

at $899

plus if i order by 2/5/03, I get a free CD-RW or DVD upgrade (I would obviously go for the DVD option)

 

I copied that info verbatim as I have no idea what any of it really means confused.gif

 

Thoughts? Should I get this one? I am looking for a good laptop that won't break my bank that will last me for about 2 years.

 

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

 

Thank you,

 

DAM

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
ninanina

ninanina

Posted
Posted

Dell computer is ok, however will need a modem to give you access to the internet. Recommend cable. If you are going cable, a modem is not reguired. If you're not going cable, a 56K modem will be needed. DVD player will play DVD's however it will need a DVD/MP3 player for the MP3's. Otherwise all standard equipment is appropriate for all other functions. These words from my son as I am computer illiterate. Hope this helps. Personally I don't think that's a bad price for a laptop.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
GP_

GP_

Posted
Posted

yep should do the job fine. I just checked Dells site for some other info. I see it has a built in modem and network card, so you can connect to the internet no problem. I have a Dell Inspiron8100, and love it. Mine is slower than that one and does everything you want to do fine smile.gif You should be able to get a lot more than two years out of it. Also I recommend the 3 year all inclusive service, that way if something breaks, they come to you so you dont have to send it back to be repaired. If you want to watch a lot of movies, you may want to go with a larger display, but the downside is the laptop gets bigger and heavier. But for the most part, that one will do what you want fine and give you power to do more advanced stuff if you ever want to.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Illiterati-migration

Illiterati-migration

Posted
Posted

Oooo and get a wireless cable modem! VERRRRY nice! Especially with a laptop! You can just have the one router on your "main" computer and then you can link up all your other computers to it via the wireless network! Very fun.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
duncan36

duncan36

Posted
Posted

Dell's laptops have flimsy cheap feeling plastic, they are reasonably priced and are good for gaming in their favor though.

IBM Thinkpads are extremely nice, they have the crispest LCD screens in the business and their plastic shell/keyboard is of extremely high quality. Since you wont require a whizz bang 3d gaming card, a Thinkpad is definitely your best bet.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
GP_

GP_

Posted
Posted

I support Dell, IBM, Compaq and a couple Gateway laptops. Compaq, oh dont even get me started, they suck! Gateways look cool, and are light, but the quality isnt really there. IBM's are stable and feel solid, heavier than the Dells and they cost too much to be worth it. In the perfect world all laptops wuold be as good as the Apple powerbooks and Tibooks, but they arent, and to me the Dell is the next best alternative.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
FlyingDonut

FlyingDonut

Posted
Posted

Hi,

 

Mrs. Donut here. I am a reasonably good resource to respond to this (a) because I'm an IT geek, and (b) because I work for a *very* large chip manufacturer (company name starts with "I"). That being said, this is a pretty good deal especially as it's a notebook and will meet/exceed your hardware requirements for the functions you listed. Also, as someone else posted, you may want to opt for the extended service/warranty deal.

 

--Mrs. Donut

(and general enjoyer of Joanna's fabulous puzzles)

Link to comment
Share on other sites
dam60

dam60

Posted
  • Author
Posted

comic lovers rock!!

Thanks for all the advice guys - hey any real techies out there (i.e. Mrs Donut) or anyone else who can answer a few of these questions:

 

1 - what's the deal with the Celeron Processor? I hear that they kinda suck??? For $999 There is the Inspiron 2650 (notice the lack of "c" at the end of the number) that has a "Mobile Intel Pentium 4 Processor -M at 1.80Ghz" as oppossed to the "Mobile Intel Celeron PRocessor at 1.60Ghz" - what's the difference?

 

2 - would I notice the difference if I upgraded to 256MB Ram? 512MB? How much ram do you need? This one offers only 128MB.

 

3 - my current computer I got in October 99 and has been a tremendous disappointment. It was top of the line back then - it had a DVD rom drive, a CD-RW drive, 30GB HD, 17" trinitron monitor, 256MB ram, etc. Now it sucks. My internet explorer crashes without fail every time I have it open for more than an hour. I am then focred to reboot my computer. This rebooting takes a minimum of 5 minutes. It's ungodly slow opening and closing other applications too like Word and Excel. I tried to "defrag" it, but that didn't help much. Is there anything else I can do to help salvage this thing? I didn't even get 4 years out of it and I paid $3K for it back in the day!! Yike!

 

Thanks for all the great responses,

 

DAM

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
FlyingDonut

FlyingDonut

Posted
Posted

uh, pimpy - this really is mrs. donut. sally.jpg really.

 

dam -

 

1 - Celeron. not bad - depending on what you want to do on your machine. if like most people, you don't really need a super chip. the sweet price on the inspiron is probably due to the fact that Intel is getting ready to release a new laptop processor which is (a) speedy, and (b) also uses WiFi (yes, wireless) - I forget the new cool brand name (e.g., Celeron, Pentium, etc.).

 

2 - RAM is for memory-intensive operations. are you doing data modelling in excel? crunching numbers in access? acting as a server? my work laptop has 128MB ram and I'm not doing much and I think my machine is pretty slow. so upgrade to 256 or 512. I think memory pricing is still relatively low.

 

3 - your home machine probably needs maintenance. so, i'd advise deleting any old programs you're not using. dumping your internet cache (flush). doing a search for all temp files (e.g., ~*.*, *.tmp), dumping any files in your temp directory (may show as c:\winnt\temp, or some such). THEN run scandisk. Then run defrag. that should help. there's also some fine tuning that can be done as well to make things a little responsive.

 

-mrs. donut

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Arty

Arty

Posted
Posted

I already posted on general discussion so check that also.

 

1- Celerons don't suck. There's not THAT much difference. And besides, any modern prosessor is adequate for your use.

 

2- Go for at least 256MB ram

 

3- There (probably) isn't anything wrong with hardware of your old computer.

However there are bad software problems. (Basically windows sucks.)

 

Guaranteed resolution that works: Reinstall windows and your applications. A lot of work but it will pay off.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Go to topic listing