Need planning help for daughter's college computer

  • Thread starter Thread starter Ken K
  • Start date Start date
K

Ken K

My daughter will be heading off to college this next year. Her present
computer is a 900mHz PIII, ASUS CUS2 mb with 256MB RAM running Win98.
She is not a gamer and runs basic types of programs that don't require
high end computer power: Word, Excel, Thumbs Plus for photo
manipulation. She is not a gamer.

I have lost touch with advances in memory and cpu's since building my
own system a year+ ago (ASUS P4PE, 2.5mHz cpu, 1GB PC3200 CAS2 RAM, 2
SATA hdd's, Win2K) I would like to set up a new computer for her over
the summer which would be powerful enough to run WinXP without being
over the top in capability, as she is not a gamer. Where I do see her
interest going is into photography so it should have enough capability
to do Photoshop without waiting interminably (I assume that memory and
decent CPU speed should help). I will build it from the ground up.
My positive experiences for my own computer equipment have been with
Antec (case and power supply), ASUS, Intel cpu's, Western Digital,
Plextor, Lite-On, Creative, Crucial. I would be interested in looking
at a Shuttle system if someone could help me navigate through the myriad
of choices.

Again, my interest is in building a system that will run WinXP with
relative ease, as well as whatever would run Photoshop. No games (not
her interest)

Thanks,
Ken K
 
Ken K said:
I would like to set up a new computer for her
over the summer which would be powerful enough to <snip> do Photoshop
without waiting interminably (I assume that memory and decent CPU
speed should help). I will build it from the ground up. My
positive experiences for my own computer equipment have been with
Antec (case and power supply), ASUS, Intel cpu's, Western Digital,
Plextor, Lite-On, Creative, Crucial.
Click to expand...

Sounds good to me. Photoshop is going to be all about the CPU, so choose
your other components and then buy the fastest P4 you can afford. I have a
system similiar to yours and Photoshop snaps and pops. I would still buy a
separate video card, maybe a Radeon 9600.
 
don't waste your time. Get her a laptop from a major retailer with a 3 year
warrenty. You can get one for under $800 after rebates and with integrated
wifi she'll get 10 times the use out of it on campus than she would with the
one you're planning to build.

Al
 
don't waste your time. Get her a laptop from a major retailer with a 3 year
warrenty. You can get one for under $800 after rebates and with integrated
wifi she'll get 10 times the use out of it on campus than she would with the
one you're planning to build.

Al
Click to expand...


Get the warranty with the manufacturer. Check with the school to see if
they have any special deals, and what kind of support the can provide.
 
-Alby Hewlet said:
don't waste your time. Get her a laptop from a major retailer with a 3 year
warrenty. You can get one for under $800 after rebates and with integrated
wifi she'll get 10 times the use out of it on campus than she would with the
one you're planning to build.

Al
Click to expand...
Agreed, laptop's are far more suited to a college / uni environment.

hamman
 
-Alby Hewlet said:
don't waste your time. Get her a laptop from a major retailer with a 3 year
warrenty. You can get one for under $800 after rebates and with integrated
wifi she'll get 10 times the use out of it on campus than she would with the
one you're planning to build.

Al
Click to expand...
Not a bad suggestion. I have not looked at the manufacturers lately.
Any recos?
 
Mac said:
Ken K <[email protected]> said:




Sounds good to me. Photoshop is going to be all about the CPU, so choose
your other components and then buy the fastest P4 you can afford. I have a
system similiar to yours and Photoshop snaps and pops. I would still buy a
separate video card, maybe a Radeon 9600.
Click to expand...

What are your system components, Mac?
 
Ken K said:
Not a bad suggestion. I have not looked at the manufacturers lately.
Any recos?
Click to expand...
Check with University. Quite often you can buy through them at a substantial
discount. Also some Universities require a Laptop. My grand daughter's did.

PWY
 
Ken said:
Not a bad suggestion. I have not looked at the manufacturers lately.
Any recos?
Click to expand...
The school where I teach has 2% discounts on Gateway and 10% on Dell.
You should go to her school's web site and see if there are any deals
from the school. I bought my daughter a Toshiba and it was fine until
it was stolen (on a trip to London -- don't ask). Then I got her a
Gateway from the GW store here so that I could send it to her quickly.
Dells seem popular with my students.

dick
 
I would like to set up a new computer for her over
the summer which would be powerful enough to run WinXP without being
over the top in capability, as she is not a gamer. Where I do see her
interest going is into photography so it should have enough capability
to do Photoshop without waiting interminably (I assume that memory and
decent CPU speed should help).
Click to expand...

It depends how well-heeled you are, but I'd say try Windows XP on the
present machine first. Is the current Win98 fast enough w/ Photoshop? You
may be surprised to know that WinXP can be nearly the same, faster w/ more
memory of course. The key lies in cleaning and tweaking it up a bit.

From a reply by Al Dykes in the microsoft xp group not long ago:
Here's how to make the best of your machine.

- Do a minimal installation.
- Select NTFS file system

- Turn off the following services;

Automatic Updates
Messenger Service
TCP/IP Netbios Helper
Wireless Zero Config (unless have a WiFI adapter in the machine)
Upload Manager
Task Scheduler Server
Error Reporting
Remote Registery
Server Service
Computer Browser

- Turn off some of the GUI crap;

Start->Properties Select "classsic" IMHO

Start -> Control Panel > System -> Advanced
-> Performance -> Settings

Select "adjust for best performance"

- Set file compression attribute on c:\ (and everything under it).
This will buy you some disk spare back.

- Defragment.
Click to expand...


Most people haven't tried such minimalism, so they don't
really know how fast XP can be. See blackviper.com to get free .reg files
to turn off unneeded services. Turn off system restore (use ERUNT on a
schedule) and hibernation. Clean out the registry and optimize it w/ the
optimizer that comes w/ ERUNT. Use XPlite to get rid of much bloat. Of
course turn off most startup programs.
 
Ken K said:
My daughter will be heading off to college this next year. Her present
computer is a 900mHz PIII, ASUS CUS2 mb with 256MB RAM running Win98.
She is not a gamer and runs basic types of programs that don't require
high end computer power: Word, Excel, Thumbs Plus for photo
manipulation. She is not a gamer.

I have lost touch with advances in memory and cpu's since building my
own system a year+ ago (ASUS P4PE, 2.5mHz cpu, 1GB PC3200 CAS2 RAM, 2
SATA hdd's, Win2K) I would like to set up a new computer for her over
the summer which would be powerful enough to run WinXP without being
over the top in capability, as she is not a gamer. Where I do see her
interest going is into photography so it should have enough capability
to do Photoshop without waiting interminably (I assume that memory and
decent CPU speed should help). I will build it from the ground up.
My positive experiences for my own computer equipment have been with
Antec (case and power supply), ASUS, Intel cpu's, Western Digital,
Plextor, Lite-On, Creative, Crucial. I would be interested in looking
at a Shuttle system if someone could help me navigate through the myriad
of choices.

Again, my interest is in building a system that will run WinXP with
relative ease, as well as whatever would run Photoshop. No games (not
her interest)

Thanks,
Ken K
Click to expand...

Why does she need a newer, faster computer than her current PIII?

No reason she cannot continue her present computer. It is certainly powerful
enough to run XP!

If I were you, I would increase present installed RAM to 528mb by adding
another stick of 256mb memory.

I would then load XP over the existing Win98 OS.

Then I would convert to the NTFS (NT Filing System), and enjoy the much
greater stability, while avoiding the need to reinstall all software (which
you would have to do if a clean install had been used).

Don't worry about the possibility that she will not find enough other stuff
at college to spend your money on.
 
I agree with everything except, I would do a clean install of whatever
OS you choose. If you were going to spend money on a new
computer,instead buy a full version of an OS and 512 ram and keep the
old machine. Maybe a PSU swap.

My buck anda quarters worth. actually it would be yours. ;^)
 
Thanks, all. I think that more memory and a full version XP sounds good
to me. I did not anticipate that the present cpu would be OK.

Thanks
Ken K
 
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