Need help from a computer expert.

[sluggunner]

Hey guys, I am very near to buying a brand new computer. The problem is I know NOTHING about them. I received a proposal from a company here in Wisconsin that would build me a computer and I don't know if the price they quoted for what they would build for me is reasonable or a total ripoff. Do any of you know enough about PC's that I could e-mail you a copy of the proposal and you could advise me if I am getting a lot of computer for the money or if I could get just as good or a better machine from Best Buy or Costco or something like that. Any input would be greatly appreciated.

[archerjg]

I'll take a look at it for you if you wish.

Archerjg

[sluggunner]

Thank you.

I tried to e-mail it to you as an attachment and it will not let me copy and paste it. Is that because it is an Adobe Reader file? Would it work if I e-mailed you directly by clicking on the tab that says send as e-mail? For that I would need your actual e-mail address right? Would you be willing to e-mail it to me thropugh the site but not on the posts?

[redkneck]

First of all is the big question, PC or Mac? If PC, and you admittedly dont know squat about them, then what are you going to use it for? If it's for general use, like internet browsing, etc, I would recommend against having one built. Get an off the shelf PC from Dell, or Best Buy for easily under a grand, depending on what you want to do. Serious gamers will spend that much alone for a good graphics card. You can get a decent machine for internet usage under $600.

[HUNTINGMAN]

I have had nothing but bad luck out of both of my dells,I wouldn't recomend them.

[Zero]

You pay for the name when you buy one from a store...but that's probably negated when you have one built as they want to make money too. Building your own will save you some cash, maybe you know someone who can do it? Once you pick compatible parts it's mostly plug stuff together.

Since you don't know anything about it I doubt you need anything more than $600, unless someone else is using it, too. If you'll be running large programs, gaming, ect you'll want to get a better one (read - more expensive) than if you just play minesweeper and browse the internet...

[sluggunner]

New computer use.

All I want to be able to do is surf the internet and view and hear videos on the internet. I also want to be able to view (but not store) Photos from my digital scouting camera. I write letters to my grandmother using Microsoft Word, but I do not store them I just print them and delete them. I would like to be able to make short Power Point presentations. I would also like to be able to make slide shows from photos on a photo CD set to music and burn them onto a DVD and NOT store them on the computer. The only other thing is it must be able to run Turbo Tax. I will never use it for any gaming at all. With all of that in mind will I need a $1.200.00 package? That includes a 19 inch monitor and wireless mouse. Will I need a minimum of 4 or 6 GB to accomplish all of this? I'm clueless. The one they would build me is 2 GB, isn't that real small?

[wtnhunt]

I would also like to be able to make slide shows from photos on a photo CD set to music and burn them onto a DVD and NOT store them on the computer. The only other thing is it must be able to run Turbo Tax. I will never use it for any gaming at all. With all of that in mind will I need a $1.200.00 package? That includes a 19 inch monitor and wireless mouse. Will I need a minimum of 4 or 6 GB to accomplish all of this? I'm clueless. The one they would build me is 2 GB, isn't that real small?

What you need and what will work better could make a big difference in price. If all you are doing is burning photos then you do not need a 6 gig machine. To me $1200 is way too much for a 2 gig machine even with the wireless mouse and 19 inch screen, don't know what other options they are building in that machine. This dell I use handles photos just fine and burns dvd's just fine, it is only a 1 gig machine, however it lags when handling large programs such as video processing programs, have planned to upgrade it to the 2 gigs it can support just never have. A 2 gig machine is really not small, would handle most applications you should ever need to from what you describe here.

[redkneck]

I'm with William. I wouldn't go no less than 2 gigs on a new machine, but you dont have to spend that much money. By the way, why not store these photos and documents? Hard drive capacity is not an issue these days, so store away. I assume you already have a copy of MS Office, since you're using Word and PowerPoint. If you can't lay your hands on it, that software alone will set you back almost as much as a PC. Office basic (word, excel, outlook) will add about $150 to a new machine, and to get powerpoint, you'll throw in a good bit more for office professional. Without the cost of the software included, I wouldnt spend more than around 750 bucks if I were you. I just ordered a new dell for work last week, with office basic, 4 gigs of ram, medium level processor, and 19 inch monitor for $800 delivered. Don't spend 1200 to do what your talking about doing. I disagree with a previous comment that you're paying for a name. PC's are at rock bottom margins these days. I order all our PC's at work and I've had hardware failures on none of them. I condemned my mother's Dell hard drive yesterday, but I think that's because of some crap my brother loaded on there. And for the price of all the warranty the companys want to sell you, you can just buy a new PC every 3 years. I got two Vostros last year for about 350 with no monitors.