Is this a good deal?

[slice]

Just wondering. My 19 year old daughter is shopping around. Surfing + downloading and playing music are her main interests, however something dependable is also important. Your comments on this "deal' are welcome.

deal

[wushudrew]

this computer doesnt seem too shabby for the price. an LCD monitor is included, too. i just ordered 4 computers for the office and they were similar to this and we paid a bit more than $650. im a little iffy about the speakers though; they cant possibly be 600W, so its probably a typo.

be sure to inquire about warranties and service terms though. you dont want to buy it to find that there are problems and nobodys around to help fix them. 3 years is par for the course for shop service.

[slice]

Thanks. I also came across this from a well known well regarded local dealer Bestbyte plus we're just minutes away from them.

link
What do you think?

[SKYMTL]

What is your budget?

[Deimos]

Just wondering. My 19 year old daughter is shopping around. Surfing + downloading and playing music are her main interests, however something dependable is also important. Your comments on this "deal' are welcome.

deal

surfing/downloading => you want high speed, whether sympatico/bell or rogers/shaw
playing music => 90%+ of average joe people should be fine with integrated sound, and cheap speakers/headphones.
dependable => Some companies still have Pentiums still churning. There are very few moving parts in computers to wear out so dependability is more of a matter of how honorable the warranty is.

My recommendation: Get a prepackaged PC from one of the big retailers. Dell, HP, Apple, whatever. As long as it includes all the software she'll need as well as a good dependable warranty. As for the hardware itself. For those tasks, even a P2-400Mhz would be blazing fast and more than adequate.

computers dont get slow because of mechanical trouble like a car. Its because of poor user judgement that leads to dozens and even hundreds of spyware, malware, viruses, worms etc... as long as she doesnt go to inappropriate sites, she should be fine.

[SKYMTL]

Personally, I would go with this over anything else in the price bracket:

LINK TO DELL

[slice]

Thanks to all. I just came back from the local store I mentioned, Bestbyte. I think she'll be going with their package. They are VERY respected in the area, within waking distance, and are known for their service abilities.
My daughter's budget is around $1,000. I must admit, I keep warning my her about visting spyware infected sites. (She really did a number on her present computer... the tech guy never saw a pc so infected.) I guess she'll have to invest in quality (updated) anti- virus protection. Watching were she goes wouldn't hurt either.

The good part about all this is she's a Roger's employee and qualifies for no interest financing on a computer of her choice, from a dealer of her choice. Not a bad little perk.

[SKYMTL]

In that case:

Dell Dell Dell Dell Dell.

[MrDisco]

^ what he said. for $1000 you can get a nicely optioned out Dimension 5150.
Why go with Dell?
-warranty
-tech support
-well designed (majority of dell pcs run quite silently)
-licensed copy of the OS included
-delivered to your door

for her needs this will easily last her easily for the next 3 years.

edit: as for spyware (etc) just install the usual suspects:
zone alarm
antivirus of some sort (i.e avg, nod32, avast..)
ad-aware (etc)

heck if you really want to go the extra mile you could remove her admin access and just create a locked down user account. also use firefox/opera instead of ie, install a 2nd hd for her to store her work on (in case the os drive blows up and needs to be re-installed), etc.

[TheFuteballer]

if you wnat to protect against spyware.. just make SURE you install McAfee virus scan and Ad-aware, and you'll be spyware free!!

[BlueMax]

Thanks to all. I just came back from the local store I mentioned, Bestbyte. I think she'll be going with their package. They are VERY respected in the area, within waking distance, and are known for their service abilities.
My daughter's budget is around $1,000. I must admit, I keep warning my her about visting spyware infected sites. (She really did a number on her present computer... the tech guy never saw a pc so infected.) I guess she'll have to invest in quality (updated) anti- virus protection. Watching were she goes wouldn't hurt either.

The good part about all this is she's a Roger's employee and qualifies for no interest financing on a computer of her choice, from a dealer of her choice. Not a bad little perk.

You want her to safely use a computer but she doesn't care about spyware and viruses? Get her a Mac.

[Deimos]

^ what he said. for $1000 you can get a nicely optioned out Dimension 5150.
Why go with Dell?
-warranty
-tech support
-well designed (majority of dell pcs run quite silently)
-licensed copy of the OS included
-delivered to your door

for her needs this will easily last her easily for the next 3 years.

edit: as for spyware (etc) just install the usual suspects:
zone alarm
antivirus of some sort (i.e avg, nod32, avast..)
ad-aware (etc)

heck if you really want to go the extra mile you could remove her admin access and just create a locked down user account. also use firefox/opera instead of ie, install a 2nd hd for her to store her work on (in case the os drive blows up and needs to be re-installed), etc.

I haven't used spyware in over 3 years.

MY SYSTEM:
1. (5sec - hour) I notice some unusual behavior, problem etc. I double check I dont have important documents left lying around on drive C.
2. (60 sec ) I reboot the PC, off a write protected floppy/CD/other drive.
3. (60-200 sec) Load up Ghost, and load image onto drive C. I have images with Windows only. Windows and essential applications like Office, and others with the works. All proven to be reliable and working.
4. (45 sec) Reboot again. Unless it was a hardware problem, everything running 100% smoothly again.

Total time invested = 3-5min. 100% guaranteed to solve all software problems.

Otherwise:
Minutes to look at the problem,figure out whats going on, get some spyware or antivirus program running. Wait a long while. Perhaps try again etc.. minutes, hours, etc possibly wasted. No guarantee solution of problem.

What you need:
Partition hard drive or have seperate hard drive. Always always store important documents on seperate partition/hard drive. Store partition Ghost image on seperate partition/hard drive as well as on CD for backup.

90%+ common user software problems are solved this way. Its even 100x times faster than defragmenting. Before creating image defragment. Loading image takes 3-5 minutes. Defragmenting can take hours, or even days in extreme cases!!

[BlueMax]

A nice idea, but only works if your computer (software) remains pretty constant. My system is in too much flux to go that route so it's daily Adaware for me.

[MrDisco]

90%+ common user software problems are solved this way. Its even 100x times faster than defragmenting. Before creating image defragment. Loading image takes 3-5 minutes. Defragmenting can take hours, or even days in extreme cases!!

blowing away a pc and reimaging it is such an inelegant solution. for sure creating an image is a fantastic idea and can save you a lot of hassles when a big disaster strikes, however for simple things like spyware common sense and basic security apps can go a long way. in your scenario you'll have to re-install/re-configure your apps (if changes were made after the image), remember to backup data written locally to the c:, and it doesn't address what was the root cause for the degradation in performance. i would rather know why a problem is occurring to prevent it from happening again.