Need to order a new puter for a friend.
Place I used locally last time has gone out of business.
Need to find a new source.
A company in SoCal would be nice, but not a deal breaker.
Anybody have a source they would care to share?
Lew
I have a neighbor that has a computer business. He just built me a new one 8 weeks ago. I am very happy with it. i5 processor, 125 GB Solid State primary drive, 1 TB data drive. 8 gig DDR5 memory, USB 3.0, 4 fans, etc. Win 7 pro. Boots up and ready to go with all my start up programs, 11 of my own, in 30 seconds.
"Lew Hodgett" wrote in news:4e1e6b23$0$19596 $c3e8da3$ snipped-for-privacy@news.astraweb.com:
I ordered mine directly from Lenovo. Don't let them sell you anything other than a Thinkpad, the ONLY system available with a decent keyboard. (Toshiba had a good layout, but the keys are slicker than a properly polished table saw top.)
Online, I usually check Newegg (newegg.com) and Computer Geeks (geeks.com
-- they usually have slightly older stuff).
Puckdropper
"Lew Hodgett" wrote in news:4e1e6b23$0$19596 $c3e8da3$ snipped-for-privacy@news.astraweb.com:
Lew,
Check out these guys. In San Diego but they ship everywhere. I have had very good luck with them over the years.
Have you considered the online sites of the major computer dealers like HP, or your favorite brand?
What about the nationwide office supply stores like
"Lew Hodgett" wrote in news:4e1e6b23$0$19596 $c3e8da3$ snipped-for-privacy@news.astraweb.com:
Have you considered building it yourself/hisself?
Next time for a desktop I'll do it myself, either using parts from Newegg, as last time,or from Microcenter.com (they have a store close by me, in Paterson, NJ. They also have stores in CA: ) Microcenter has good prices, knowledgeable people, at least around here.
Lew,
What does your friend do with the computer? If it is just web surfing, ema= il, occasional doc, etc, I would just go to a big box store near you and pi= ck one up. I don't know if they have Best Buy stores near you but you can = usually get interest free for 18 months if (s)he doesn't want to lay cash o= ut. Then if something does go wrong with it you aren't on the hook to supp= ort it. I do this for a living and have really gotten over spending my tim= e at parties and gatherings looking at friends computer issues.
You can get more for your money building it your self, but is that what thi= s person really needs?
-Jim
Are you or friend willing to spend an hour or so putting a mobo in the box and plugging stuff into the mobo? Probably no monetary saving but it is an easy task and one winds up with exactly what one wants. The hardest part is just *deciding* what is wanted.
If you should ever go that route, get a case that is large enough to work in and with good ventilation. Lian Li and Altec are two that make nice cases.
For electronic parts, Newegg and Tiger Direct have a wide assortment but check online for other better (?) prices. For RAM, hard to beat Crucial. A couple of years ago, Western Digital Caviar Black drives were about the best you could get, things may have changed but even if so they are excellent drives with a 5 year guarantee.
What is needed is... case power supply if not bundled w/case mobo cpu (I like Athlon Phenom 2, maybe something better now) hard drive (get SATA) RAM CD/DVD drive monitor OS (use the one he/she now has)
It is doubtful that either a sound or video card would be needed as those on the mobo are quite good now,
Check the Computer section of Craigslist.
In my city, there are two or three guys who get TONS of computers back from lease, spiffy them up, and ship them to Nigeria by the pallet load. They will eagerly sell one to you.
I've gotten three in the past six months, two Dell Inspirion desktops (for $65 each) and one HP laptop ($140). Happy with all of them.
Aside: Ever wonder what happened to all the CRT monitors? One place I visited must have had over a thousand being crated up for shipment to Patagonia, Rhodesia, or some other third-world customer.
Holy Shit, Maynard! What'd you pay for that beast?
It's a Macbook?
-- Learning to ignore things is one of the great paths to inner peace. -- Robert J. Sawyer
Makes sense. Ship all the inefficient monitors to countries with underdeveloped power grids.
Also running at 3.3GHz plus it has a turbo boost but I never use it.
What did I pay,,, $1325. PC
Most all used computer components go to over seas but they tend to dismantle the items for the gold and reusable parts. Nasty business.
Yes, and then deciding what sort of memory the motherboard likes too. One needs to read a motherboard manual or two, or three. Not only that, one has to do his or her homework on CPU/motherboard compatibility (it's not one-size fits all). Then one needs to made sure he or she has an adequate power supply, especially considering the video card they have chosen. And you can't assume that you'll be done after you put everything together--that seems to never happen. Something in the BIOS will need to be tinkered with--but what? This is not a task for someone who just wants a computer--they are surely better buying a pre-assembled system from Dell, or similar. They even come with a warranty. At the low-end, I think they will even save money.
I built a system a year ago for about $1250 (not including keyboard, monitor or a separate drive for backup). I don't think I saved any money but I got what I wanted: a *quiet* (Intel) I7 system. It has a specially designed (noise insulated) case, no loud fans (none on the Gigabyte
9800GT graphics card), a SSD (solid-state drive) instead of a hard disk drive (this was months before these were available on prebuilt systems), on which I installed Windows7 Professional (OEM). One won't find this configuration in a retail store. Also, it has a fairly high-end Corsair power supply. You'll never see that on a unit in a retail store--simply because there's not enough glitz to it. Its quality the typical shopper won't value enough. I use my systems for a few years before my wife uses them for a few years. So I think this sort of quality is a reasonable investment. She doesn't "push" a computer, and is not even willing to learn how to blow the dust out of it--let alone do a backup..lol. She's was very pleased with her last upgrade.I just outlined at least a $300 computer design for you Lew. I can print out a detailed order form of materials from NewEgg for you if you like. I forget your estimated value of the first lighting design you did for me. Maybe I'm underestimating the value of my experience..lol : ) I can tell you just what you need to change in the BIOS so that the mouse doesn't make annoying noises when you move it. It's the automatic CPU fan speed monitor/adjustor (set it to "always on"). it took me at least a week to figure that one out... Choose your battles...
Bill
Which often means you pay too much and get proprietary software you don't need or want and proprietary hardware that is expensive to fix.
When my top-of-the-line Dell died recently I discovered it would cost twice as much to replace the motherboard as it should have, so I had a local shop build a new computer that ran circles around the Dell for half what the Dell had cost me.
JDR Microdevices?
Oh, it's not *that* hard :)
I've only had about 5 computers but I've never had one that made noise when the mouse moved. ______________________
It didn't mention it in the manual? :)
dadiOH wrote: _____________________
Going from a relatively passive state, the movement of the mouse throttled the CPU Speed and/or CPU fan speed and the on board audio amplified the electronic waves involved in the dynamics of the process.
A just looked in up in my Gigabyte motherboard manual: It's called the "CPU Smart Fan Control".
When that happens every couple minutes it gets really annoying (especially after going out of your way to build a *quiet* system).
Disabling the CPU Smart Fan Control solved the problem. It took me over a week to isolate the problem/solution. It wasn't so hard to fix, but it was frustrating. I don't think Lew wants to put himself in that situation--obligated to learn computer repair. Maybe I'm wrong?
Bill
"Bill" wrote
Reminds me of a story a friend told me of his navy days. He was an electronics guy who maintained much of the ship board electronics, back in the day when they had no replaceable boards. Everything had to be trouble shot down to the bad component, which was then removed and replaced.
They were conducting some kind of fleet exercises. About twenty ships were involved. The admiral was on board and this ship was the command ship. Everything was going fine until some important piece of gear broke down. The exercise had to stopped until it was repaired. He was called in to make the necessary repairs. He quickly figured out which item broke down and got out his manuals and started the laborious job of checking out the boards, component by component, circuit by circuit. This was done in the presence of the entire fleet command staff. And it was taking awhile. No quick solution was happening.
His irritated commanding officer yelled at him, "How long is this going to take?" He stood up, looked at him eye to eye, and yelled back at him, "Fifteen minutes AFTER I FIND THE PROBLEM!" The red faced officer backed off. Not a word or sound from the rest of the staff either.
I always remember that story. A lot of time a problem is easily solved. It is just finding the damn thing to begin with! How many times have you struggled to do something and it took and inordinate amount of time? And the second time it was a breeze and happened easily and efficiently. the first time was learnin' time. The second time was doin' time.
######### Go to Craiglist in you state/city. Low prices and freebees Smitty ########
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