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Well, Old Faithful, the 14 year old Hp computer that was always there as a backup when newer machines failed finally called it quits. Petty sure it was the power supply since the power light on the front went out but it might've been something else. I'm not a tech. Push the button, it turns on! MAGIC!
Does anyone have any suggestions for a replacement? I would like to stay vaguely current, but money is everything. I was thinking maybe an Icore3 with Window 7 since with all the bad news about Win 8 I'm not eager to take that leap. After all I want to write, and not spend all of my time cursing the BOX after it's eaten my newest creation.
I also considered a bare-bones kit, but my concentration isn't what it was. That's why I have the stories hanging that I do.
Until then I only have the laptop which gets the job done, but is a little slow.
hugs
Grover
PS: I have to think of a suitable send off for Old Faithful. Could be trouble if I try and shoot it like Col. Potter did his jeep! :)
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Repl Comp
Grover - Check Out U-Bid.com they have a lot of recondition HP's and most currently are Win 7 based and are fairly good in price too.
Richard
reconditioned...
Is a great idea for a super quick emergency rig that you only plan to use for the short-term, but I think Grover's wanting to get something as trusty as Old Faithful. I would NEVER suggest a recondition for that. Too many things that might go wrong and reconditions never have a warranty. They're sold as-is.
Abigail Drew.
OTOH
I've read that a large number of PCs that are returned have nothing wrong with them, but since they can't be sold as new they get a checkout and a new HD setup and are sold as refurbs. I've had good luck with refurbs myself (knock on wood!). And all the refurbs I've bought had at least a limited warranty. One Dell I bought had a full original factory warranty (which I didn't use)
"Life is not measured by the breaths you take, but by the moments that take your breath away.”
George Carlin
If you want stability and longevity...
Go Asus' stable line for mobo, AMD-based, with one of those new APU's AMD's got out lately. It won't be much for performance, but it'll still be putting about long after any rig I build has called it quits. I'm a performance freak though.
It really wouldn't take much tech know-how to toss a rig together these days, but if you really need me to I could trawl the usual suspects for a rig that'd satisfy your requirements.
Intel's i7 and i5's are great for performance, their i3's are just lame and cost way too much for what you're actually getting out of them.
I need to build a new rig too, but I just don't have the money right now... Making due on my laptop even though it's barely able to handle my minimum requirements, let alone any serious work or play.
Abigail Drew.
Sounds like me.
Money is always tight, and while I have the laptop, like you say it's better than nothing.
When I say concentration, I don't mean tech know-how. I can play legos and snap in parts with the best of them. I have successfully replaced a motherboard once. I mean I'm prone to migraines and MY processor isn't computing any too well. Good days and bad days if you know what I mean.
I'll try to follow your advice and see what Asus has to offer. That is if I can successfully decipher your technese. :)
Hugs
Grover
Another great place to get a replacement PC
Try
http://www.dellauction.com/
This is where Dell sells reconditioned computers with various ages of Operating Systems
Of course if it is a Power Supply failure, most desktop power supplies can be relatively easily replaced safely, and inexpensively, even without tech experience. All it takes is a screw driver or two and making sure everything matches up, and the power supply cables are hard to mess up.
Holly
It's nice to be important, but it's more important to be nice.
Holly
If you want current tech,
If you want current tech, Tiger Direct and NewEgg usually have the best deals and are reliable sellers. If you want to buy locally or be able to lay hands on the product, Best Buy, I believe, will now match prices with internet sellers.
I agree with the AMD suggestion. Good APU/CPU's for a good price.
Another possibility
Go to this place and get on their mailing list: Daily Steals
They send out a daily newsletter with daily specials and usually have computer stuff a couple of times a week. You won't get spammed, I promise. And look around their website, some of their daily specials don't sell out and they'll come up on the site in the electronics section. I bought a refurb Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 (1st gen.) a couple of years ago and it's still working great. Not what you need of course, but IMHO it speaks well of them.
Karen J.
"Life is not measured by the breaths you take, but by the moments that take your breath away.”
George Carlin
Hmmmm....
My current desktop I purchased a few years ago through Tigerdirect.com and it seems to work very well. At that time I was able to get it with windows 7 & windows XP(which is what I'm using) and it was reasonably priced.... Good luck with your search Grover! (Hugs) Taarpa
I got mine here
Try this web site: ComputerLX You can pick and choose what you want and it comes completely assembled, ready to turn on. (After you connect the cables of course.)
I got my latest computer there. As you can see below, it included a new monitor, Windows 7 and Office 2010 suite, 8GB Ram and a 500 GB hard drive for $ 720.00 and free shipping.
It works great and I can't recommend them strong enough.
BRAND NEW - ENTERPRISE BUSINESS WORKSTATION- CUSTOMIZE ANYWAY YOU LIKE
- INTEL DUAL CORE G860
- BIOSTAR Motherboard
- 4GB DDR-3 PC3-10600
- 500GB SATA2 7200RPM HDD
- DUAL LAYER DVD-RW
- INTEL GRAPHICS
- 6-CHANNEL DIGITAL SOUND
- 10/100 ETHERNET
- VIKING Case
- CUSTOMIZE TO YOUR NEEDS
Intel Pentium Dual-Core E5800 3.2GHz 800MHz 2MB Cache Processor
INTEL STANDARD PROCESSOR COOLING FAN
Foxconn G41MXE LGA 775 Intel G41 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard
8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 1333 (PC3 10600) Dual Channel
Hitachi / WD 500GB 7200 RPM 16MB CACHE SATA 3.0Gb/s
22X DUAL LAYER DVD-RW W/LIGHTSCRIBE (PROMO ITEM)
(ONBOARD) NVIDIA/ATI 256MB PCI-EXPRESS VIDEO
REALTEK 6-CHANNEL DIGITAL SOUND ONBOARD
REALTEK 10/100/1000 Gigabit Network Card (onboard)
ALLPCZONE VIKING MID-TOWER ATX CASE
LOGISYS 480 WATT POWER SUPPLY
ALLPCZONE INTERNAL ALL IN ONE DIGITAL CARD READER/WRITER
"FREE GROUND SHIPPING" Asus Black 19" 5ms Widescreen LED-LCD Monitor 10,000,000:1
Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
Microsoft Office Professional 2013 (for 1 PC) Retail Box
3-Year Limited Warranty Plan with Lifetime of free USA based Support Custom Hand Wiring For Ultimate Air Flow, Assembled in Cleveland, Ohio, USA
FED-EX GROUND SHIPPING "FREE" (1-7 BUSINESS DAYS)
1 $720.99 $720.99
Sub Total: $720.99
Sales Tax: $0.00
Handling Fee: $0.00
Shipping By: $0.00
Free Standard Ground Shipping
Order Total: $720.99
Hugs
Patricia
Happiness is being all dressed up and HAVING some place to go.
Semper in femineo gerunt
suggest a respectful burial
for a computer that gave 14 years of service'
Laptop
I suggest a laptop, but I am going to go out on a limb and guess you are not a gamer or a user of super complex Excel spreadsheets.
You probably do not need a high end, anything....
Screen size and resolution is important...you probably don't want/need a super high-res screen that you can't read without a magnifying glass. 1366 x 768 is probably a good compromise for resolution vs. the 1920 x 1200 some of the "better" laptops are. 17" might be better screen size, but the price point almost doubles. 17" lappys do have better/bigger keyboards though...
One additional benefit of a laptop is you can plug your old desktop monitor into your lappy to use it as a 2nd display. Dual displays rock for editing documents. You can also re-use your desktop's keyboard and mouse, if you like your old-school keyboard. However; you can take your lappy with you and write where your muse strikes.
That's all I got for ya...here is what I found:
Asus - 15.6" Laptop - 4GB Memory - 320GB Hard Drive - Black
Model: X54C-BBK19
SKU: 5218639
$359 @ Best Buy
-- Sleethr
Go for 8 Gb of memory.
And 64x version of windows 7. Price difference with 4 G and 32 bit OS will be small. But you will get 4-5 more years of use from your purchase. (Infinite improvement compared with 4 Gb)
Buy fastest HDD available for your budget. Size is secondary as it now too dangerous to download movies in US. DON'T buy SSD. They are expensive and not reliable enough yet.
Go for cheapest 4 core AMD CPU for FM socket. It will be good for almost forever but with upgrade possibility.
Good luck!
USB Keyboard
If you have a USB keyboard you can plug that into anything you buy, desktop or laptop. If you don't have one they are fairly cheap new. If money is tight check your thrift stores. I picked up a MS wireless keyboard and mouse for $5.00 at Goodwill, the receiver will plug into any USB port and the drivers are readily available online. You won't get all the bells and whistles you'd get if you had the original software, but using the generic settings will work just fine, wired or wireless. Many times you can find a brand new Dell/HP/etc. keyboard, never even taken out of the package 'cause the owner already had a better keyboard (like me).
I admit, I'm cheap. I'm also willing to use refurbished or used gear if the price is right. But stay in your comfort zone.
"Life is not measured by the breaths you take, but by the moments that take your breath away.”
George Carlin
Windows 8 Isn't Awful
It sure is different from XP-7 though. There are plenty of You Tube Win 8 tutorial videos that you can watch to help you get an idea what is there. This one is particularly good: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vhXKkhJtFo0 . Mostly, MS has done a good job of hiding the command and control functions (Most are revealed if you hide the cursor in the lower left hand corner of the monitor screen and right click).
The start screen has potential (as explained in the linked video), but a lot of it is designed to get you to buy stuff. Many older peripherals (printers, scanners) aren't compatible with Win 8. Older software can be a problem too.
I'm old school
By which I mean Windows XP. I switched to that when my last Win98 machine died. I detest the way everything gets hidden these days. I do not want to go on a scavenger hunt to figure out where everything is hidden. Everybody is on this kick: Firefox, Google (Gmail and Chrome), FB, MS Office, even dA is going that way. I always thought software was supposed to get easier as it evolved, but that is not happening. Everything requires a map to navigate, I like having things visible so I can find them easily.
"Life is not measured by the breaths you take, but by the moments that take your breath away.”
George Carlin
Upgrade only
To help others pick your pocket. I have been using XP sence the last century with no Ill effect. I do have a windows 7 net book, but I have found no real difference in what I can do with one than another. I do not game but I do use CAD in designing micro houses 10 X 8 12 X8 I design space ships , space stations, entire worlds, I have a very impressive amounts of old time technical machining manuals from the 18 and 1900. And I have developed this passion for writing stories. So I guess my usage would be considered only mildly stressful on a computer.
When Microsoft was developing Vista it was Code named Long Horn when they introduced the package it was a mess forbidding many of the simplest processes in the name of Copy Rite protection. Buy new peripherals, new computers, new media, because only the giants were fair and understood what you should or should not do with your computer. Failing that time the functional Windows 7 was introduced. Still pushing us into a corner just not as tightly. Now the new # 8. I for one am tired of being accused of being a thief just because I want to calculate the cord values of geodesic domes. Or use a perfectly good piece of soft ware that still works for my needs.
There are uses for the faster and the better, but for my wide range of use the middle to the trailing edge tech fits the bill. Yes I also do love to be able to get Key boards, and other necessities at Good Will and yard sales. I just do not need the bleeding edge. I am not trying to cut anything with my computer. If I be needing to cut something I will do it with a fine sword, or the likes. Gerrrr Argggg
Baily's Miss behaving Faerie
Mesha
With those with open eyes the world reads like a book
Computing
My needs are fairly modest. I have to be able to browse the Inter-hell, err, net to read, and of course word processing to write. Right now I'm using Open Office. It's free and has that valuable thesaurus that aids me greatly with my poor spelling. And did I mention it was free?
I've tried my hand at the graphics thing and the results are undecided. I can't say it was bad, but free options for graphic programs tend to have a steep learning curve.
My gaming is rather simple too. I play more old stuff than new. Masters Of Orion2, Diablo2, Pacific General and other ancient games by today's standards. I am interested in Diablo3, Fable3, and Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion, but none of those have really outrageous system requirements.
I've had two computers that I'd revived after others had given up on. One of those was stolen while the other I gave away. Thrift stores can be great for keyboards and mice because like you say some of the factory shipped stuff was never used.
I guess my biggest thing is if I do go with 64X and whatever version of Win 7 or 8 how many of the programs I use will run on it? I use a wireless logitech wave keyboard and trackball due to trouble with my hands. The ergonomics does help!
Thanks for the response and all the good advice!
hugs
Grover
PS: I did get some tragic family news yesterday so any purchases will have to be even more delayed. However, family always come first.
Why not try your local
thrift store for a dependable computer? A friend bought one that had Windows Vista.
May Your Light Forever Shine
Thrift store computers
In this neck of the woods, anyway, most all thrift stores no longer sell or even give away computers. It's a liability issue. Someone buys a computer that has a major virus on it and their online accounts (say PayPal) are hacked, who are they gonna blame? And getting somebody to go over donated computers for free is unlikely also, for the same reason.
Sad :-(
"Life is not measured by the breaths you take, but by the moments that take your breath away.”
George Carlin