PoSmedley PoSmedley

I Need Some New PC Advice

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I Need Some New PC Advice

from WinCustomize Forums

* I tried posting this 3 times in the Personal Computing section, but the content would never show and I am unable to post any replies in thatg section as well.

 

Okay..so ZA starts telling me my IP is under attack by some IP as soon as I boot my PC. After 20 or so of these alerts in 3 minutes, ZA shuts down and Avast starts popping up virus alerts quicker than I can send them to the vault. About 25 or so (Literally) alerts later, everything goes apeshit.

 My taskbar starts coming and going. Nothing 'WIndows' will work right because as soon as I open it, it starts vanishing with the taskbar. Avast..I run it ans it finds nothing. It won't let me see whats in the vault. I ran it 3 times. I did a diskcheck...it says all is fine. Run Avast and spybot in safemosde..it says all is fine. Can't tun Trends Home call. I run Hijack this and the parser cannot parse the log and says there is a fatal error in the log that will not let it parse.

 My systsem is fried. After a year of upgrades (2 gb memory, a 5500 Nvidia card, etc) it seems all is lost. There is a good chance the memory is infected and I have no way to even tell by what.

 SO..here is the situation. I have a new Acer 19" widescreen monitor, so I m good there. I just need the rest.(maybe a new keyboard) With the baby and all (life, etc.) I am on a budget...but, because I have the monitor, I have a chance to do a little better on the CPU than the little Compaq that got me through these past 5 years.

 Budget..I (my wife) would like to see me keep it under $400. It needs to able to handle all the SD programs graphically (per pixel) etc. I don't have a clue about 64 bit except the complaints I see about lack of support, etc. AND, I guess I will make the Vista leap. I love to do my graphics, love music. I was looking for one that had the memory, HD, and graphics card I wanted and just the OS without all the garbage thrown in.  My step-son got an e-machine for Xmas from his Dad. I have never been impressed with them. (We have three dead ones at the office that didn't last a year). He has Vista Basic and it runs nice. I hate to ask because I can imagine the negative feedback..but any thoughts on emachines are welcome.

 Here is what I am looking at currently, to give you an idea. Advice, warnings, better deals are all welcome. The last one is really closer to what I want. I don't know if any of them will meet my graphic needs to run dESKTOPx, wb AND ALL THAT. I'm also looking for the most memory and  HD for my money. My little compaq only had 80GB and it was about 70% used because I save all my graphics for reference and such for PSP.

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3809126&CatId=2627  

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3718399&CatId=2629

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3876222&CatId=2627

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3776545&CatId=2627

 I am open to suggestions.

25,505 views 65 replies
Reply #51 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Hey!...my POS emachines came from wally world. :LOL: Actually for 300$ they are really good basic pc's.

If you want power tho,go dual or quad core.I can only get certain hi def movies to play on mine...higher bitrate hi def movies NEARLY play smoothly...but tend to skip a little.

Photoshop will run fine on a simple basic pc...3d apps will really benefit from more power and speed.Movie encoding...POWER! ;) 
Reply #52 from WinCustomize Forums Top
go dual or quad core.


I know that first hand. My son's computer is single core (running Vista) and when he is doing animations with the Blender program, it gets all buggy and glitchy. I have a dual core (with Vista)and I get no glitches or bugs. The difference is dramatic.
CursorFX - Customize your Windows cursor
Reply #53 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Okay. I couldn't take it anymore. Too long without a Puter.
I got a Compaq - Presario Desktop with AMD Athlon™ 64 X2 Dual-Core Processor 4200+ --NVIDIA GeForce 6150 SE graphics with TurboCache and 128MB dedicated video memory; up to 319MB total video memory as allocated by Windows Vista; high-definition audio (6-speaker support)--Vista Home premium (I NEVER thought I would have Vista.lol) 329.00

I then went to RadioSHack *ALERT...I went to get a MadDog HD Enclosure for SAT and IDE drives. They were 26.98. I got there and they were 39.(( in store...then..found out they were on sale for 19.99...so I got a couple of em. I used them to rescue all the stuff from the 2 drives in my broke PC. All worked well. Now, I have 2 reformatted back-up drives to boot.

All is installed. My SD apps all run great. No borks with Vista at all (Except I miss my IconX..it says it's not compatible with Vista)

ONLY down side...I wanted to transfer the 2GB od RAM from my old PC, but as NEW as they are...apparently they are not new enough for the NEW PC.

Thanks everyone for all your help!! :) and advice and sympathy.

Overall, this PC is slick, faster, smoother than the old one..and I have to admit, I am liking Vista.

I think the BIOS is infected on the old one. When I booted it the last time, I got the bluescreenofdeath. If I can figure how to clean it up, it would make a good server or something.
Reply #54 from WinCustomize Forums Top
If I can figure how to clean it up, it would make a good server or something.


Maybe a plant stand or a door stop? :LOL: Or you could take it apart and put it back together [B]with out any left over parts[B]. that's what i used to do, it's a good way to learn, i would also do things to the bios that i would never do to my pc! lets see what this does.. :LOL: :SURPRISED: :)
Reply #55 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Congrats on your new system.I bought my Compaq at Radio Shack last Nov.No problems to speak of, except installing the HP printer.Web tech support is weak and gave me bad info.Phone support is much more knowledgeable.It's good to hear you are up and running again. :CONGRAT:
Reply #56 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Okay. I couldn't take it anymore. Too long without a Puter.
I got a Compaq - Presario Desktop with AMD Athlon™ 64 X2 Dual-Core Processor 4200+...


Good for you, Po`... I'm glad that you're up and running again and are happy with a slicker, faster machine. :CONGRATS:
Reply #57 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Ok,now I'm just jealous...damn cheesey emachines 3100+,1 gig of ram whine whine...

I do have a cool chair and a nice big monitor tho. ;) 
Reply #58 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I do have a cool chair


Me too... tho I wish somebody 'd warm it up some first. X-( Was minus 1c here last night and the heating felt like it was off. X-(
Reply #59 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Ok,now I'm just jealous...damn cheesey emachines 3100+,1 gig of ram whine whine..


Mine has 1GB of RAM also. Expandable to 4. The two from the broke PC won't fit it. Anyone wanna swap? I have 2 - 1GB sticks..maybe a couple of 512's around and alot of very interesting pics of Zubaz that he would probably pay buku bucks to keep private.
Reply #60 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Mine has 1GB of RAM also.


The cheapo HP I bought only had 512Mb.Nowhere near enough,even with home basic.I found a 1Gb stick of Kingston on sale at Best Buy for $34.95.I also have 2Gb of readyboost.(also Kingston)
I see the drive running at times so I know it's being used. Not sure if anything is faster,but it was free. ( My sis got it with Pepsi points!)Maybe you can use readyboost if you have a capable usb drive around til you find something.
Reply #61 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Maybe you can use readyboost if you have a capable usb drive around til you find something.


It helps with caching(readyboost will put files it would normally cache to the HD into the flash drive,much quicker)...on systems with a gig or less of memory...above that and its not really doing anything.If you get one cheap...they are great to have anyways.
Reply #63 from WinCustomize Forums Top
The two from the broke PC won't fit


That's probably because they are DDR1 RAM and your new PC takes DDR2. Thing is, DDR2 RAM (while newer and better) is actually cheaper these days than DDR1, so you should be able to upgrade to 2gb fairly inexpensively. Dunno about in the US but a 1gb stick of DDR2 800 is around $50 - $60 here in Oz, depending on the retailer. :)
Reply #65 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I can get another 2x1gb of my ram for $45.


That'd be nice here... but we've always paid more for the same PC parts... something to do with the exchange rate and various gov't taxes imposed on PC related stuff gouging a few more dollars out of us....

Actually, a (very) recent check with my local store (like about 2 mins ago) revealed that prices have dropped since I last bought RAM and I can now get a 2x1gb sticks of DDR2 800 for AU$39.00... whereas most larger stores are selling the same sticks for between AU$45 - AU$65. :)