Computer Purchase Help

[matty70]

A while back someone started a thread about a new computer and now for the life of me I cant find it but somewhere in the threads there was mention of required memory for Windows 7 64 bit. Can someone tell me what 64 bit means and is 2 gig enough to run it efficently its a Dell inspiron for a 10 yr old that will be used mainly for email, school work, internet and light games (no memory hogs or intense graphics. It includes the following

PROCESSOR Intel® Celeron® 900 (1MB cache/2.20GHz/800Mhz FSB)

OPERATING SYSTEM Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium, 64bit, English

Dell Recommends:
Transfer your data, music and photos to your new PC with the Belkin Easy Transfer cable. Upgrade to Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium, 64bit, English, with Belkin Easy Transfer Cable [add $30 or $1/month1] (not much to transfer and I would fear that it will transfer the spyware she picked up on her old laptop-probably not needed right?)


OFFICE SOFTWARE Microsoft® Office Home and Student 2007 - Word, Excel + PowerPoint

SECURITY SOFTWARE McAfee SecurityCenter, 30-Day Trial
Dell Recommends:
CAUTION ! You have not upgraded your security protection to the maximum available for your new Dell.
Add McAfee SecurityCenter pre-loaded today! Help protect against viruses, hackers, identity theft, and more from the moment you turn on your PC.
Upgrade to McAfee SecurityCenter , 24-Months [add $114 or $4/month1] (Not needed-I'll decide what security software I want or need-I'll take whats free but after that I think here are better things out there right?)


MEMORY 2GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 at 800MHz

HARD DRIVE 160GB SATA Hard Drive (5400RPM)

VIDEO CARD Intel Graphics Media Accelerator X4500HD

INTERNAL OPTICAL DRIVE 8X CD/DVD Burner (Dual Layer DVD+/-R Drive)

BATTERY OPTIONS 4-cell battery
Dell Recommends:
Be Mobile Longer with a Stronger Battery!
Upgrade to 6-cell battery [add $35 or $1/month1] ( Not needed she will rarely run out of battery before she has the oportunity to plug back in)

WIRELESS CARDS Dell Wireless 1397 802.11g Half Mini-Card

SOUND OPTIONS High Definition Audio 2.0

My Accessories
DATASAFE ONLINE BACKUP Dell Online Backup 2GB for 1 year edit
ADOBE & ENTERTAINMENT WildTangent Games edit
Dell Recommends
Complete photo and video editing made easy at a Great Value!
Upgrade to Adobe® Photoshop® Elements + Adobe® Premiere® Elements [$99 or $3/month1] (what's better than adobe?)


ALSO INCLUDED WITH YOUR SYSTEM
HD DISPLAY Bright, glossy widescreen 15.6 WLED display (1366x768)
Adobe Software Adobe® Acrobat® Reader 9.0
Network Integrated 10/100 Network Card
PROCESSOR LABELS Intel® CELERON® Processor
LOJACK 1Yr LoJack for Laptops Theft Protection
DIAL-UP INTERNET ACCESS No ISP requested


Thanks for the help!

[GuyMontag]

A budget helps. It's hard to answer the 'is this computer worth it' if you don't know the price range. Give us a range, what you want to use it for, and any special software that you require the use of and that'll give you better guidance.

[matty70]

A budget helps. It's hard to answer the 'is this computer worth it' if you don't know the price range. Give us a range, what you want to use it for, and any special software that you require the use of and that'll give you better guidance.

I can get this for $489 at Dell, my biggest questions are: is a 5400 rpm HD fast enough and is 2 gig ram enough to run 64 bit windows 7 quickly or will this compter be as fast as a dog shitting in February? and why 64 bit vs. 32?
THX!

[dc dalton]

5400 rpm hard drive? what is this 2002?

If the drive isn't 7200 rpm (preferably a 10,000 rpm) you are getting ripped. Data access time will make you crazy

Secondly, McAfee? Just tell them 'no thanks' and save the aggravation

Third, $30 for a 'transfer cable' .. NOPE NOPE NOPE. Take a run to Office Max or Staples and get a 5gb thumb drive for that price and you can use it for years to come.


And if the Office package adds to the price tell them to bugger off and get OpenOffice.org .. screw MS


Lastly, have you checked out Acer laptops? From all the people I know with laptops, and all the ones I have serviced, along with the ones I have owned, Acer BLOWS Dell out of the water. I am writing this from a 5 year old Acer Aspire 9300 that has been dropped, spilled on, you name it, and it has never so much as burped.

[NoHackrLtd]

I can get this for $489 at Dell, my biggest questions are: is a 5400 rpm HD fast enough and is 2 gig ram enough to run 64 bit windows 7 quickly or will this compter be as fast as a dog shitting in February? and why 64 bit vs. 32?
THX!

The laptop won't be a burner, but it will 'run'. With Windows 64-bit, you're not limited to only 3.5GB of RAM that the 32-bit version will 'see'. You can dump as much memory into the system as the motherboard will support. I'd give the Celeron chip a hand and put another 2GB of RAM in it. RAM is fairly dirt cheap right now anyways.

I'm personally not a fan of Celeron chips - emasculated processors sold cheaper than normal chips. The 5400 RPM drive also isn't a burner, either.

For the child, it might be a fairly safe and inexpensive PC to let 'em use. If I were purchasing it for me, I'd probably be asking a friend to "pull!!!!" while holding my favourite 12ga shottie....

[eXceLon]

That really should be fine for the basic usage you're describing.

The reality is that 'horsepower' really isn't as important as it used to be. Even a five year old machine will comfortably run a web browser and office productivity software.

If the drive isn't 7200 rpm (preferably a 10,000 rpm) you are getting ripped. Data access time will make you crazy.

I agree that a 5400rpm drive is on the sluggish side, but 10,000 rpm drives still aren't what I would describe as "mainstream". There are relatively few in SATA, most are still in SCSI. And you're generally looking at 1/4 the storage capacity at 2x the price.

5400rpm won't be a problem, but I would reccomend selecting a 7200rpm drive if possible.

Re: Anti-virus/Anti-malware

The free Microsoft Security Essentials works great on Windows 7. You don't need to spend any money on your anti-virus.

For the child, it might be a fairly safe and inexpensive PC to let 'em use. If I were purchasing it for me, I'd probably be asking a friend to "pull!!!!" while holding my favourite 12ga shottie....

I'm a gamer, so those specs would be insufficient for my primary desktop.

However I have a laptop with comparable specs that really only needs to be able to run a web browser and office productivity programs, and it does exactly what I need it to do.

And if the Office package adds to the price tell them to bugger off and get OpenOffice.org .. screw MS

I tend to be a fan of free and open-source software, but I just haven't found an Office alternative that's really up to the job. Seems like I give Open Office another try at least once a year, but I always find myself going back to MS Office.

It's especially problematic if you're not that computer savvy, and don't understand document formats. Kid's going to be in trouble when his teacher can't read the homework that he saved in Open Office's standard format. Yes, we know that it can easily save as an office compatible .doc file, but does your average user know that?

[Ronin]

Do yourself a favor and look at a Lenovo. For about $100 more you get better specs (i.e. NOT Celeron) and DDR3 memory.

The G550 is from Lenovo's value line and would be more than adequate for your 10yr old.

I've recommended Lenovo laptops to quite a few friends, family and customers this year and they've all been quite happy with their purchases.

[dc dalton]

I tend to be a fan of free and open-source software, but I just haven't found an Office alternative that's really up to the job. Seems like I give Open Office another try at least once a year, but I always find myself going back to MS Office.

I have been using OO for almost 4 years now and have yet to find one circumstance where it wasn't 'up to the task' ... and that's in business and our personal stuff.


Personally, if t were up to me I wouldn't give Microsoft one cent of my money.

[fritz1]

No way 30.00 for a cable, you can get a 250 or even 500 GB external HD for 80-100 bucks to do your tranfer and use it as a back up drive, it you have a lot of photographic applications like adobe, I like 4 gb ram.

[Wiley-X]

The laptop won't be a burner, but it will 'run'. With Windows 64-bit, you're not limited to only 3.5GB of RAM that the 32-bit version will 'see'.

I have Win XP 32 Bit and 3 GB of physical memory but Windows only reports 2.5 GB. What's up with that? (as the teens say)