Help - Need a new PC

Posted by: man2wolf on 12 January 2004

I am finally getting round to buying a new PC but what do I need? It will be used for:
1. MS Office applications especially Excel and Access
2. Web surfing (hopefully using ADSL)
3. Editing/printing digital photos
4. Copying CD's

Some questions, bearing in mind I'm not interested in playing games:
How powerful a processor do I need?
How good a graphics card?
Is it worth paying extra for a DVD writer?

Any advice would be appreciated

Posted on: 12 January 2004 by garyi

As usual I will wade in and suggest a mac. I have Microsoft Office because t is essential for work and is 100% compatible with other versions.

As you want a light use machine I would suggest an imac flat panel, (www.apple.com/imac)
Not only is it stunning to look at, it will do all you ask of it and plenty more, and the 15 inch model is competitivly priced.

Don't discount a mac just because Windows is so large, Mac is a big company to, and make great computers.

Posted on: 12 January 2004 by Roy T

How much photo editing, web content creation, music creation do you wish to do? as this will dictate the speed of your cpu, the size of graphics card, amount of ram required and heat output (sound output as well) from your kit. If you for the most part wish to surf the web and prehaps print some 6*8's from your digital camera while fixing nothing more than "red eye" then prehaps a lower spec machine may well be what you require.

Machines now come in many shapes and sizes with some rather neat small ones for use in the livingroom hoojum , microdirect & mini-itx (building small format kit). The Shuttle (small quiet) Cubit3 (quiet, no fan) and cubit4 (quiet with fan) are all modern and geared towards lower power requirements. You could always save some money by building the machine yourself, most of the suppliers will sell you the kit.

Roy

Posted on: 13 January 2004 by Rasher

Or buy a laptop and gain half a room

Posted on: 13 January 2004 by Former member

I have entered the Mac World in november 2003.
I needed a very simple portable computer to use at work and at home and the iBook G4 12" that I got really suits me. It connects easily to the Windows-based LAN network, can share documents and printers (not all printers, actually).

Switching from PC to Mac is a night-and-day move! I can now fully understand garyi's point of view.

BTW I have only recently discovered the integrated speech capabilities of OS X - it really works! Giving vocal commands to a machine is real funny.

I also bought MS Office and Virtual PC. The latter hasn't been installed yet since all the other software I needed comes for free with OS X.
Prices can be much cheaper than what you might expect. Just visit the Apple site and eventually test one before you buy.
My next move will probably be an Airport Extreme card and base - go wireless!

Stefano.