hawk said:
I am looking for ideas about what to get for my girl friend. She does
E-mail, web surfing, casual photo editing, casual audio, games like
Spider Solitaire, Helicopter and Parachute. In other words, no heavy
lifting. But, she does get frustrated with slow graphics, slow web
page loading, in other words, she wants things to happen fast. Or at
least appear to happen fast.
So, what are your thoughts? Should I build something or just buy
something off the shelf? If build, what motherboard would be a good
start? If buy, what desktop manufacturer would you suggest? I only
have experience with Intel CPUs and I would use WinXP Home.
Thanks and regards, hawk
It sounds like your best solution might not be a new computer at all. Web
pages loading slow are usually a combination of poor ISP and/or using
Internet Explorer as a web browser. You want to speed things up, try:
1) Cable modem or DSL for Internet access
2) If DSL, buy a broadband sharing router to maintain the PPPOE connection
for you, as this is faster and more reliable than PPPOE software. If you
use a cable modem, you might want to buy one anyway, to share the connection
with other computers.
3) Import the IE favorites into a faster browser, such as Firefox from
www.mozilla.org . Not only will the software load web pages faster than IE,
but it will speed up browsing in other ways, such as tabbed browsing, in
particular.
If you've already done all of the above, go to
www.broadbandreports.com and
read up on tweaking your broadband Internet connection. It could just be
that some settings need some tweaking.
If you are determined to start with new hardware, it would be better to
build your own. Just about any P4 or Athlon 64 class system with 512MB or
more of RAM should do just fine with Windows XP home. The reason you want
to build your own is that your selection of video cards will be limited if
you buy from a desktop manufacturer. Even if the desktop manufacturer
offers the video card you would want to buy, it will be a mucho expensive
upgrade option, way above what the video card SHOULD cost, compared to the
standard equipment cheapo video card. As for what video card to get, go for
a higher mid-range card that is good for gamers. Some would argue that
something like the Matrox line is better for graphic quality, but that's not
true. Any good 3D gaming card sold today will offer good 2D picture
quality, as well as speed. If you really need speedy graphics, talk to the
gamers and you can't go wrong. If you want more specific recommendation, I
just grabbed the following from
www.mwave.com Add a hard drive, case, power
supply and DVD drive of some sort (dual layer burner?) -Dave
MB-BA03127 -BA20231 -BA19698 -BA19624 -BA08603 - (*Free FarCry PC Game
w/Purchase, While Supply Last! )
AMD ATHLON 64 3000+ OEM 64-BIT BUNDLE W/ Details (FARCRY PC GAME; EPOX
8HDA3+-MB; MWAVE COPPER PLATE FAN; KINGSTON 512MB DDR400; NO TESTING)
$405.50 $405.50
AA25900 ASUS RADEON 9600XT-VTD 128MB DDR 8XAGP W/TV DVI & VIVO Details
$179.00 $179.00
Sub Total $584.50
