Calling all computer gurus... need advice

I need some help in figuring out what to do...

The short of it is that I need a computer. My faithful laptop is on it's last legs I'm afraid and I'm having doubts that it's worth trying to fix. It seems to be fine for what I'd use it for if I got a good desktop. (laptop would be relegated to pretty much travel and word processing)

So far my laptop has done nearly all I've needed to do, but some things it really struggled with (photo editing mainly). It is:
IBM Thinkpad T-22
15" screen
40 gig HD
900 mhz Pentium III
256 RAM (I know I need more than that)
CD-RW with 3.5" floppy swappable
Misc other features (it was a top-shelf T-22 back when I bought it)

Now, I know that the photo editing and video editing is tough on computers. I really couldn't do any of that on my laptop because it just didn't have the power and ram. Most of the games I've played ran fine on my laptop, but I'm sure it would be nice to run them on something with more go.

There is a few other things though...

I have a keyboard I can use depending on what route I go (bought it new back in the fall).

I NEED to run Windows XP. My laptop will not communicate with Vista, nor do I want to run Vista. I need something that will play nice with my laptop.

I could live without having a CD drive, DVD drive, and floppy drive for now, but those are all things I'd like to have at some point. I know floppys are a thing of the past.

As much as I'd like to get a sweet computer that would have gamers all over drooling, I have a budget, and it does not include a $2,000+ computer.

I am willing and able to do assembly on my own if required.



That all said, I need to find a suitable computer. I did some looking around in stores back in the fall and all I could find was Vista-equipped machines. I asked my brother about building me a computer but he was...ahh... shall we say less than helpful? It was suggested to me to just order a Dell, but I don't know what I'd be getting myself into there. My uncle who has worked fixing computers for a long time said that Dell isn't worth it, that I'd be better off building my own. His suggestion was to look into bare-bones computers and build from there, but that was the limit of his advice, and after looking, I realized that theres about 9 million different processors and stuff. I have no idea what would be best for my situation.

Thus, I'm looking for suggestions. I'm willing to buy off-the-shelf or build my own, whatever is going to work out best for me.

what is your budget i could give you a list of parts to buy and where to get them get a really good system for around $600 im sure if ask around some one has a coppy of xp they could give you or you could find a pirated coppy.

you might be able to find a decently optioned used machine for cheap as well, sites such as ebay or craigslist might be a good place to start.

gettle03FX4LevelII said:

what is your budget i could give you a list of parts to buy and where to get them get a really good system for around $600 im sure if ask around some one has a coppy of xp they could give you or you could find a pirated coppy.

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My exact budget is somewhat unknown at this point. I figure I can probably spend a max of $1k within the near future.

I do not have a problem with buying a copy of XP if I have to, Newegg had some fair deals on it.

holyford86 said:

you might be able to find a decently optioned used machine for cheap as well, sites such as ebay or craigslist might be a good place to start.

Click to expand...

I've thought about that... but from what I've seen, most of what goes up for sale is either old or a top end gamer. I don't need or want either of those. Plus I don't have a clue as to what is good or not so good. I know my brother doesn't like Gateway at all because he had one and it gave him nothing but problems.

if you check dell they have lappys that were like shipped back to them just because they have a tiny scratch on them and annal people sent them back and they are pretty cheap,

Seems like on some of these cheap pc sites u can buy all the parts to build a nice very nice pc for under 800 or right around there. thats a desktop.

bbbb51 said:

Seems like on some of these cheap pc sites u can buy all the parts to build a nice very nice pc for under 800 or right around there. thats a desktop.

Click to expand...

true true

try newegg.com or tigerdirect.com, ive never bought there but i do watch the specials at tigerdirect, you can usually get a 'refurbished' (used for short time, then returned) system for a good deal, somewhere in the $3-400 range.

Do you have any preferance as to intel or amd for processor?

SATA or IDE hard drives?

How about a graphics (gfx) card NVidia or ATI?

Single gfx card or future SLI?

How do you want to network them (wired or wireless) and will you be using a router?

What type of internet access?

those are just a few of the many possible selections.

I'll try to piece together an idea of what I would build in your shoes.

What exactly is your current computer doing wrong? Unless it's shutting off (which can also mean it's full of dust), you've probably got it full of spyware and crap from using internet explorer and outlook, and downloading crap/pirated software for free.


Firefox, Spybot, and AVG antivirus are friends, as is laying off the horoscope toolbars and pirated hacks to make lara croft naked.[/soapbox]


I can do photoshop on a PIII-700 just fine.


Incidentally, that lappy probably has crappy graphics hardware, and will probably never be able to play real modern games. IMO, laptops were intentionally NOT advertising their graphics chip so more could be sold.

for a grand you could build a kick ass computer, but do you know how...


remember if you build your own make sure everything is compatable

i.e.

power supply is powerful enough

ram and vid card are compadable w memory board

and such

hell yea i grand will buy you a titties ass system here is what i suggets for around 6 hundred http://secure.newegg.com/Shopping/ShoppingCart.aspx?Submit=view

If you have the time and inclination to learn, I would definitely urge you to build your own. I spent $1,200 building mine 3 years ago... I can still run all the latest software and I still have PLENTY of overhead for upgrades. If I'd spent that amount on a Dell or whatever... I'd be shopping for a new computer right now...
Remember... you don't necessarily *need* a $400 graphics card, you can spend $60 for one that will play most all games, you just won't run at the top frame rate, resolution, w/e... but who cares. You can always upgrade it later if you want (That's one of the joys of building it yourself.)
DON'T skimp on the power supply. You'll definitely get what you pay for.
I like AMD processors. Just my opinion, but I find they give a lot more bang for the buck.
With the hard drives and optical drives (DVD burner, etc...) There's absolutely no reason not to go with SATA. The drives cost the exact same amount for IDE or SATA... The only reason I think they still sell IDE is for older motherboards without SATA connectors.

Personally... I like Newegg and deal with them exclusively. I've spent a ton of money there in the last few years and they've never done me wrong.

Look around, do your homework, read the reviews and ratings on the components you're looking at. That's a huge thing... if 50 out of 100 people had trouble with a device... walk on to the next one. There are plenty of online tutorials that will walk you through the process step by step. Just do some google searches and see what comes up.
Hope this helps and good luck to you.

Kdawg532 said:

if you check dell they have lappys that were like shipped back to them just because they have a tiny scratch on them and annal people sent them back and they are pretty cheap,

Click to expand...

I thought about going with another laptop, but seeing how mine will still work for the majority of what I'll use it for, a desktop will work better for doing the rest of the work.

bbbb51 said:

Seems like on some of these cheap pc sites u can buy all the parts to build a nice very nice pc for under 800 or right around there. thats a desktop.

Click to expand...

That's why I'm asking for advice on what to build/buy.

kunar said:

try newegg.com or tigerdirect.com, ive never bought there but i do watch the specials at tigerdirect, you can usually get a 'refurbished' (used for short time, then returned) system for a good deal, somewhere in the $3-400 range.

Click to expand...

I've thought about refurbished and the like, but I'm sorta inclined to get something new rather than something that someone wasn't happy with and returned.

JoshT said:

Do you have any preferance as to intel or amd for processor?

SATA or IDE hard drives?

How about a graphics (gfx) card NVidia or ATI?

Single gfx card or future SLI?

How do you want to network them (wired or wireless) and will you be using a router?

What type of internet access?

those are just a few of the many possible selections.

I'll try to piece together an idea of what I would build in your shoes.

Click to expand...

No real preference on processors, though I've heard that Intel has slightly better speeds. I just want a stable processor that's not going to pitch a $h!tfit every time I try to do photo or video editing.

No idea on the cards. I have no idea what would fit the bill better or not.

Currently we have DSL networked through a router. I wired up this whole house for ethernet connections in nearly every room, though I may add a wireless router later for use with a laptop, I'd probably just use hardline for the desktop. DSL was all we could get here. At some point in the future I may end up using dial-up (puke) or cable, but I don't see that happening for awhile.

almostclueless said:

What exactly is your current computer doing wrong? Unless it's shutting off (which can also mean it's full of dust), you've probably got it full of spyware and crap from using internet explorer and outlook, and downloading crap/pirated software for free.


Firefox, Spybot, and AVG antivirus are friends, as is laying off the horoscope toolbars and pirated hacks to make lara croft naked.[/soapbox]


I can do photoshop on a PIII-700 just fine.


Incidentally, that lappy probably has crappy graphics hardware, and will probably never be able to play real modern games. IMO, laptops were intentionally NOT advertising their graphics chip so more could be sold.

Click to expand...

When you start my laptop, it brings up an error message on a black screen during the boot.

PXE-E05: The LAN adapter's configuration is corrupted or has not been initialized. The Boot Agent cannot continue.

After a few seconds it finishes booting. Once it has completed booting, I can use the computer, but can only access the internet through my wireless card. I cannot connect to dial-up or through a broadband connection. When you search through the system it says that there is a problem with the Intel PRO/100SP Mobile Combo Adapter. I tried going into the BIOS, but can't find a way to resolve the problem either in Windows or in the BIOS. I tried updating the BIOS, but it would get halfway through and throw an error. I tried reformatting three times and that has done nothing to resolve the issue. Now my copy of Dreamweaver is refusing to work. When you click on it, it usually flashes up the lil thing it shows when it's loading, then it just dissappears and does nothing. I tried updating Windows and my anti-virus stuff an such to no avail.

Downloading is minimal for me. I've been running Firefox, Thunderbird, Ad-Aware, Spybot, and a corporate edition of Norton for the past several years. I also hate browser toolbars with a passion.

I can open Photoshop and other similar programs and do mild editing on my laptop as long as the files are very small and I don't have any other programs open. But with loving photography, I prefer to work in large images or an uncompressed format such as RAW.... try editing a 50-some Megabyte image on your PII-700 and I bet it will puke, lol.

And yes, I have a photo quality printer.

Twitch57 said:

for a grand you could build a kick ass computer, but do you know how...


remember if you build your own make sure everything is compatable

i.e.

power supply is powerful enough

ram and vid card are compadable w memory board

and such

Click to expand...

I've never personally built one, but I did help my brother some when he built his. From what I've seen, about 90% of the battle is making sure you have the right components and that they will all play nice with each other. Thus my appeal to the computer nuts, as I don't have the time to research every possible combination myself.

gettle03FX4LevelII said:

hell yea i grand will buy you a titties ass system here is what i suggets for around 6 hundred http://secure.newegg.com/Shopping/ShoppingCart.aspx?Submit=view

Click to expand...

Uhm... you can't link me to a newegg shopping cart, you'd have to either do a screenshot of the page or write down each item.

DeanMoriarty said:

If you have the time and inclination to learn, I would definitely urge you to build your own. I spent $1,200 building mine 3 years ago... I can still run all the latest software and I still have PLENTY of overhead for upgrades. If I'd spent that amount on a Dell or whatever... I'd be shopping for a new computer right now...
Remember... you don't necessarily *need* a $400 graphics card, you can spend $60 for one that will play most all games, you just won't run at the top frame rate, resolution, w/e... but who cares. You can always upgrade it later if you want (That's one of the joys of building it yourself.)
DON'T skimp on the power supply. You'll definitely get what you pay for.
I like AMD processors. Just my opinion, but I find they give a lot more bang for the buck.
With the hard drives and optical drives (DVD burner, etc...) There's absolutely no reason not to go with SATA. The drives cost the exact same amount for IDE or SATA... The only reason I think they still sell IDE is for older motherboards without SATA connectors.

Personally... I like Newegg and deal with them exclusively. I've spent a ton of money there in the last few years and they've never done me wrong.

Look around, do your homework, read the reviews and ratings on the components you're looking at. That's a huge thing... if 50 out of 100 people had trouble with a device... walk on to the next one. There are plenty of online tutorials that will walk you through the process step by step. Just do some google searches and see what comes up.
Hope this helps and good luck to you.

Click to expand...

I like dealing with Newegg. I'm mostly looking for a starting point, a few ideas, then I'll do some homework from there.