Stanford Matthews runs MoreWhat.com, a blog with a definite voice that’s well worth your time reading. Anywho, I’ve been remiss in adding him to a blogroll, so I want to call your attention to his blog and note that I have finally blogrolled his site.
At any rate, we had an email exchange recently that is completely out of the norm for his blog, although not for mine, since, well, there is no “normal” topic for me to post on. (Repeating the mantra, “I blog to silence the vpoices in my head.” :-)) He suggested I post my thoughts on… “What computer should I buy?” (or some such topic)
So, here goes, clipping from an email (as a lazy man’s way to post) and simply re-organizing for T-13:
“What computer should I buy?”
1.) For an off-the-shelf general purpose desktop computer, just bite the bullet and buy any Sony Vaio you want. It’ll come with Windows, but if you’re buying a computer, well, you get what you deserve. *heh* Sony desktops currently use better off-the-shelf components than other name brand consumer grade comps, IMO.
2.) If you want to be off-beat, don’t mind spending more than you ought to for a computer, like living in a straightjacket and don’t mind wasting money paying for a cool GUI to sit on top of Free BSD, buy one of the new iMacs. They do work, you know. And Apple service (when it works) is pretty good.
3.) Notebook your heart’s desire? Buy Toshiba. You’ll generally get more than you pay for, although you’ll also pay a bit more than for a Dell or HP/Compaq or gateway with similar specs on paper. On paper. But you’ll also (currently–these things change) get better components, a notebook that’s easier to work on and better service, IMO. IBM? Business notebooks only. I do not trust Lenovos made by Chinese slave labor.
As for the rest, it really does depend what you want to do with your computer. Let me clip verbatim from the email (in a brief departure from T-13 format):
One’s “must-have” hardware really does depend on _what_ you want/need to have your box do.
I have, for example, one box that is merely a 500mhz CPU, 512MB RAM, 60GB storage and just 64MB AGP video. REALLY dated. But for internet use–using Opera for all web browsing, email, RSS–and basic office use (Open Office, for the most part, although it also has MS Office 2003 installed for some strange reason I can’t recall *heh*), etc., it’s just fine. other tasks need other computing ability, and I’ve found that using just one “latest and greatest” can kind of be like using a hammer as a screwdriver. You can do it, but it’s not all that easy and it doesn’t do the job as well as a tool that’s made for the job. One size does NOT fit all.
It really all depends what you want to do.
So, build it instead?
4.) Intel, ASUS or Gigabyte motherboard. Semi-future-proof your mobo purchase by getting one with as many PCI slots as possible, and at least one PCIe slot for your video.
5.) Oodles of USB ports (including onboard take-offs for front ports).
6.) SATA AND ATA drive channels. The more, the merrier.
7.) Onboard graphics. Now, don’t get me wrong; I will never willingly build a system that depends on onboard graphics as the primary display system, but onboard graphics with an included PCIe slot make a nice combo. Disable the onboard graphics and install the vidcard of your choice, keeping the onboard graphics as a backup if/when your vidcard fails. (Note: there are still very, very good AGP cards, but PCIe is what you’ll find on most new mobos.)
8.) Vidcard: don’t saddle yourself with less than a 256MB PCIe card. The current entry-level standard would be something like the NVIDIA GeForce 6200.
9.) And don’t kill your new vidcard by installing a cheap $2 cooling system on it. Get a good colling system for your vidcard or expect to bring your new system to its knees when the vidcard fails.
10.) MINIMUM 1GB memory (memory’s so cheap nowadays, it’s just silly to build a new box with less).
11.) With good 250GB hard drive available for well under $100 and 500GB drives for under $150, why stint on hard drive space?
12.) Sure Plextor optical drives are the Rolls Royce of CDRW/DVDRW drives. And their prices reflect that. Instead, get a “Mercedes Benz” optical drive from NEC/Sony (new partners in optical drives). Solid, non-coaster burners that I’ve come to prefer over the years.
13.) OS? Well, avoid Vista (at least until a few more security flaws and problems are patched, hopefully also until enough folks have poked plenty of holes in Vista’s DRM–*heh*). If you must have Windows, latch on to a copy of WinXP Pro SP2 or Win2K Pro SP4, if you can. Otherwise, Puppy Linus, Ubuntu or even PC-BSD may well suit yoiur needs. All come with a built-in (or readily available) plethora of free apps to do darned near whatever you want or need to do. And if you install PC-BSD, you can thumb you nose at friends who paid big bucks to have BSD on their iMacs with the Apple GUI straightjacket. *LOL*
There’s more, of course*, but it all comes down to what YOU want to do with your box. If you assemble it yourself, hardware and software to suit YOUR needs, you’ll likely have a much better system than you can buy, for about the same money as a name-brand outa the box comp.
Noted at the Thursday Thirteen Hub
*Note: I assumed it was a given, but maybe I’d better say it: if you do assemble your own box, do NOT (repeat, do NOT) skimp on the case and power supply. A decent, not top-of-the-line but decent, case/PS combo will set you back about $100–or more!–but will prevent tons and tons of headaches down the road.
UPDATE:
CLICK on the image below to go to a Very Good Idea in computer security… *heh*
