Computer recommendations needed

[Gringo Pescador]

Our home PC (Dell laptop) is on it's last legs hardware-wise - which is really dissapointing as it is only a couple years old, but already the disc driver is toast, there is something clanking around in the fan, and last night the keyboard quit working for a spell, only to be revived my turning the whole damn thing upside down and shaking it

We got a Dell because we were able to get a nice discount on it through work - but the is not turning out to be so great now!

So now I am starting the process if figuring out what I need/want to replace this one.

I have always used Windows, just because that is what we were always directed to use at work. I am not against making the switch to Apple.

Physically, I don't have a space in my house for permanent placement/use, but also don't have need to travel with it.
So I am thinking something that I can pull out, use, & put away (like a bigger laptop).

My main uses for it are/will be (in no particular order)
Web
Video conferencing (Skype)
Email
Pictures (editing & storage)
Music (storage & listening ((I-tunes, Pandora))
HD Video (Editing & storage)
I also use MS Word and MS Excel quite a bit.

I am not a gamer, never have been, so that is not a consideration.

So,
What do you have?
What do you use it for?
What should I look for?
What would you recommend I check out?

[oneshot]

you can get away with a ton of selections as far as computers go..
if you're working with HD video though. I suggest a Desktop or over a laptop and your VIDEO card is going to be your most high end purchase.
make sure its a Video card that can handle HD and at least 1gb memory within the card. the Radeon family has a bunch!

make sure you got plenty of HDD too ;)

[oneshot]

P.S.
I usually just build'em from the ground up.. tigerdirect or new egg have killer deals on starting from scratch.. or even complete systems.. just make sure your VIDEO card is badass.

[BentRod]

I don't have any experience with PC laptops, but for what it's worth I have experience on MacBook Air and MacBook Pro. The MacBook Air if fine, but really a portable unit and small screen. I wouldn't want one for just home use (travel, yes). The MacBook Pro is phenomenal, but you pay for it. They say you can't beat Mac for video editing, but I can't speak from much experience as I've only done video editing on Mac. If you've already got software for Windows, then it might be cheaper to go that route.
You might take a trip down to the Apple store and then visit the Microsoft store next to get an idea of what each offers and what seems most comfortable to you.
Good luck.

Note: I used to be a diehard PC guy, but got so tired of Windows getting bogged down and software not playing nice with other software that I gave up and made the switch (My wife has always been a Mac person and I've been using Mac at work for the past 9 years). My wife does video editing and chose Mac as her platform as it was recommended when she started so many years ago. One thing more that I will comment on is using Microsoft Office for Mac can be a PIA (I blame Microsoft). I currently use Office 2008 and for some reason they disabled macros with this version of Excel. Not sure if they've reinstated it with the current version, but over the years each version seems like it has been changed enough that it is not compatible with the others.

[oneshot]

i concur.
if you got the money, get a MAC!!

[natetreat]

I have gone through MANY laptops. Dells are very nice as far as longevity, but laptops that are well used usually have a short lifespan, simply because there are so many things packed in such a small package. I am a power user, and work from a desktop to get good video and 3d modeling performance.

Macbook pro is a good bet for functionality, although with a base starting price at $1800 they are very spendy for the computing performance that they offer. My friends and coworkers are all macaholics, and I'm not sold. I like to have complete control for the least amount of money. That being said, when you're buying a new computer, put as much money in it that you can afford, because the hardware will quickly become obsolete and they will always come out with more software the needs more computing power.

That being said, video editing, especially HD editing is one of the most hardware intensive applications that you can use a computer for. Simply rendering a minimally edited 10 minute segment of video can take an hour or two with a lesser system. Many video editing programs have built in support for GPU (graphics card) computing to take the load off your CPU and RAM. So a decent GPU will help your longevity, leveling the load.

Other factors to consider, hard drive speed, RAM and processing speed. The multi-core processors that have recently come out are awesome and smash records set just a couple years ago. For video editing you're going to want a hard drive upwards of 7,200 rpm with lots of space for unprocessed video and at least 4 gigs of fast ram.

I would go with a 17" screen. Although they are clunky and heavier to transport, the added room in the case allows for more fans, and more airflow because with laptops the number one concern that I've found in my experience is that they are so small they overheat and suffer performance issues. The bigger screen uses up battery power faster, but you'll most always have access to an outlet and they make car chargers. Even Macs have a really big problem with overheating, so I'd get a chill mat to start out with if you don't already have one.

Brands that I've had success with have been Alienware and Dell, which are now the same company. Toshiba is alright, I've run into driver issues and incompatibility problems with their hardware because they didn't test it properly. HP I've run into lots and lots of problems and had to return 4 laptops in a month before I got one that actually functioned. Eventually I traded it up for a Dell.

If you really want longevity a desktop workstation paired with a more inexpensive laptop would be your best bet. You can network the laptop with it and use it on the go but have the power reliability and longevity of a desktop. That's what I do. Desktops with twice the power of a laptop are half the price, simply because they don't need the tiny hardware. And the prices keep dropping as newer more powerful technology comes out.

[oneshot]

If you really want longevity a desktop workstation paired with a more inexpensive laptop would be your best bet. You can network the laptop with it and use it on the go but have the power reliability and longevity of a desktop. That's what I do. Desktops with twice the power of a laptop are half the price, simply because they don't need the tiny hardware. And the prices keep dropping as newer more powerful technology comes out.

Solid advise! that's where i'm at, err was at until my house got robbed recently and stole my laptop. xbox's etc...

looking to get another laptop soon for "internerding" and image stuff, the video editing is always on the desktop..

[Mike Carey]

quick thoughts on my experiences with computers:

Dells suck. My work place keeps buyign their laptops and I have never seen so many problems from so many laptops in my life.

Alienware - badass and great systems. owned one that was awesome and rock solid.

HD editing - desktop will give you more power and you can never have too much processing umph. But laptops can do the job, too.

Macs - no experience. My opinion (and I will get slammed for this, I know): both PCs and Macs have issues, Macs being a closed enviroment being their biggest negative (can we say over-priced and over-rated?) You'll get more computing power for less money going the PC route - I think even Mac guys would agree with that (and again, I know I'm gonna get an arguement here!)

PCs for me have been hit/miss. My current desk top is a brand called "I Buy Power". They have systems and you can find different price points/power. No problems and I've bought a couple from them. http://www.ibuypower.com/

happy comparing!

[oneshot]

i agree, The MACS are overrated and priced..
but... Final Cut is a GREAT application! coming from a video guy ;)

[Marc Martyn]

quick thoughts on my experiences with computers:
Dells suck. My work place keeps buyign their laptops and I have never seen so many problems from so many laptops in my life.
Macs - no experience. My opinion (and I will get slammed for this, I know): both PCs and Macs have issues, Macs being a closed enviroment being their biggest negative (can we say over-priced and over-rated?) You'll get more computing power for less money going the PC route - I think even Mac guys would agree with that (and again, I know I'm gonna get an arguement here!)

I agree, Dell's do suck. Bought a Dell laptop for our daughter when she went off to school. The hard drive crashed after having it for 10 months. Got it back from the shop 2 months later and it worked fine for 3 months and the hard drive crashed again. Guess what....out of warranty. A total waste of money.
Had a Gateway that had issues from the beginning. Horrible computer.
I have owned 4 Macs, (one laptop and 3 desktops) in the last 16 years. One lasted 7 years without a single problem. The only reason why I bought a new one was to keep up the rapidly changing software requirements and internet demands. They are easy to use, hold up well and have great features. One of those features is that a Mac can read Windows, BUT Windows cannot read a Mac. I often get Word Documents that I can open easily. I can also create Word documents on my Mac. Also, Apple computers are rated the highest for reliability. I can testify to that.

I often think that if I had a choice between buying a Windows computer or buying a Windows computer, I would probably not own a computer.

[SculpinKing]

Macs - no experience. My opinion (and I will get slammed for this, I know): both PCs and Macs have issues, Macs being a closed enviroment being their biggest negative (can we say over-priced and over-rated?) You'll get more computing power for less money going the PC route - I think even Mac guys would agree with that (and again, I know I'm gonna get an arguement here!)

I will agree with this. My wife bought a Macbook (one of the white ones) when we first started dating and it has had problems I never knew computers could have. That said, it is four years old and has had few hardware problems, even after being dropped on concrete, etc. Macs are still extremely expensive though, and it's not just the initial purchase. Hers is on it's second battery ($100) and third power supply ($80).

I think a lot of people had bad experiences in the past with Windows (Blue screens, XP spyware hell) and think that it's still like that, when it has actually improved immensely over the last few years. I use a Lenovo Thinkpad for work and had one before and both have been pretty good computers, but they are certainly not the cheapest around.

One thing on the performance front is that people tend to still judge performance by one spec, usually CPU speed. While CPU speed is certainly important, CPU's have speed up a lot faster than other components in the chain and those components are really holding performance back. Hard disks, specifically, are really the slowest part of the system. Solid State storage drives are much, much faster, but also store much less and are more expensive. I haven't looked into Laptops much recently, but if you can find laptops with both a solid state drive for your operating system, programs, etc. and a large hard drive for storing all that video, etc. that would be the best option, IMHO.

[natetreat]

I can't vouch for dell having problems, my wife had a Dell that put her through four years of school at UW before it got stolen. The hard drive gave out half way through, but didn't crash, just got slow. I replaced it out with another and it lasted two year until it got stolen. Anyways, your hard drive is going to be the first thing to go no matter what, barring a giant melt down over heat on your processing equipment. Most hard drives still are the only components with moving parts, and the slightest ding or bump to your comp will make the disks crash together, enough times, it goes out. There are bearings and needles and readers and all sorts of moving parts, think of a fancy record player. I go through hard drives a lot, with the work I do, constantly writing and rewriting, fragmenting. I put a lot of strain on mine, and most people don't realize that when their computer boots slow, or lags during application startup, it's the hard drive struggling to think. Not spy ware or viruses, but a bummed HD gumming up the flow of information.

As far as SSD's are concerned, they pretty much rock. Now that they have better wear leveling algorithms for the multi level cell drives (mlc) they perform way better. Although they are a lot more expensive. And they are NOT all built the same, I've tried several and the intel drives do a lot better than the knockoff drives for that reason. But my windows and all my accessories and add ons get loaded in about 10 or 15 seconds depending on what I have on. Which is awesome. If my computer lags in the slightest I start to get really irritated.

As far as the Mac vs. PC debate, they each have their place. I want control, options, the ability to customize and have a greater selection for hardware. That being said, it comes with the price of having to know more about computers to get a decent stable system. A mac will run smoothly right out of the box. But that's why I boot from my Mac OS hardrive when I want to play with my Final Cut, which is one of the greats, but run Adobe CS on my Windows 7. Mac drives me nuts with its purposeful quirks, but the OS's both borrow from eachother, so whatevers clever. A PC will get you more bang for you buck by far though, so for the non-trendy it's a better bet.

[Aaron]

quick thoughts on my experiences with computers:

Dells suck. My work place keeps buyign their laptops and I have never seen so many problems from so many laptops in my life.

Alienware - badass and great systems. owned one that was awesome and rock solid.

Mike: Dell is Alienware. Alienware is Dell.

As for my suggestion... don't get a laptop. Using your laptop as a home PC is just asking for trouble. Laptops will live a nice long happy life when used for on the go computing, i.e. now and again. They're not as ergonomic or fast as a desktop either. You mentioned the other day about some text on the screen being too small for your widescreen laptop. Well.. the text size isn't the problem, the screen size is. Join the big boys with something in the 22" WS range. In other words.... make the room in your house for it and you won't regret it.

Also, I don't suggest going the easy route. The easy route is the cheap route (quality, not price). If you don't know how to build a PC, find a friend that does. My policy on putting a new PC together is ALWAYS figure out the MOST you want to spend, and spend it ALL. Put together the BEST PC you can for the money you want to spend. I've had PCs at work crap out on me before, be I can't think of a single peripheral, except maybe a hard drive, that has ever stopped working on me when I buy quality name brand PC parts. When putting something together yourself, if it isn't a major brand, your asking for major letdown.

I'm certainly willing to lend a hand in the knowledge dept. PM if you want to go this route.

[nickbell]

I've always liked hp laptops. Built in webcams, good for skype. They are pretty reliable. I've never used a dell though. I hear positive things about them too

[natetreat]

Mike: Dell is Alienware. Alienware is Dell.



My policy on putting a new PC together is ALWAYS figure out the MOST you want to spend, and spend it ALL. Put together the BEST PC you can for the money you want to spend. [/quote]

So true. Newegg is your friend and look up reviews of good hardware. If you're going to sacrifice performance for price, make sure it's in the RAM, Video Card area rather than the motherboard hd cpu realm. Upgrades are much easier to do in the future on those. If you get a laptop, you can't upgrade it. Sure you can sometime reup on ram or hard drives, but that's it. What you buy is what you're stuck with.

Hahaha, dell didn't use to be Alienware, and they charge more for better performance now. For a while I was disappointing with the change because they nixed some of the good stuff they had, and settled for half @$$ed. It was sad. Now with dells purchasing power they're putting together some impressive machines. My machine was bought right before the switch and it's still over kill for anything I can throw at it. I've had some rendering sessions that really blew my mind, I was ready to wait all day, but it put together some really intricate videos in a couple hours.

The higher end dells work really well, when you get into the xps cases, I've had coworkers use them for years longer than they should have. You need a chill mat with any laptop you get. The majority of problems come from a hot and unhappy laptop. But other people have there own experiences, so I trust Mike had some bad ones.

[wolverine]

I was in an Apple store today looking for a case for my new I-Phone. I finally replaced my original I-phone that I've had for 4+ years. The old one was still working fine but I needed a new toy. While there I spent an hour playing with the new Mac's. Nice, real nice. I liked that their desktops have a small footprint and a big monitor. Pricy (particularly their laptops). At home I have a 4 year old custom that my son built for me as well as a 3 year old HP laptop that I use when I take a consulting job out of area. The HP laptop works fine for what I use it for. Prior to retiring, the company that I worked for provided me with laptops (the early ones were the size of a small suitcase). I've had IBM, Mac, Toshiba, Dell, and Lenovo. All had their good features but the 3 Dells that I had were real stinkers. 2 of them started smoking in the docking station at the office, and the other one caught fire on a biz trip to Thailand.
I actually consider laptops to be use, abuse, and dispose of items as they really only last about 3 years before they start needing expensive repairs. I just make sure that I have auto backup to an external drive no matter where I am. When it comes time for laptop replacement it will be with a $1200 to $1500 off the shelf unit with an extended warranty. Next year my desktop will get replaced by either another custom build PC or a Mac with a flat screen monitor that I can wall mount.

[Mike Carey]

yes. know Dell brought Alienware, I bought mine prior to that.

Oh, and Aaron touched on screen size - the one upgrade I did that increased my computer productivity through the roof was two monitors. Once you have a taste of that fruit you will really be hooked.

[Aaron]

Yes.. the monitors really spoil me. I have 2 19" 4:3 LCDs underneath a 32" 16:9. And at work I have 2 22" WS with a 24" WS in the middle. Using just 1 screen drives me nuts anymore. You don't realize just how much window swaping you actually do until you don't have to do it anymore.

[Marc Martyn]

Why on earth would you need that many screens? Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock saved the universe and they only had one screen!!

[natetreat]

A lot of, if not most people, will never need that many screens. Nerdy highschoolers that play video games and program trojans while posting about dnd and googling acne remedies love them. I have three screens because it cuts my production time in half. I tested it. Logged my minutes on a project with one monitor, and then with two. Then I showed it to my wife and that's when she let me get my third 30" biggun to go on top.

Techie jobs can benefit a lot from more desktop space, because really, the screen is our desktop. A nice big desk to organize files, write memos on and keep pictures of your kids or pets has always been valued, when the majority of your work is electronic, your screens are just that.

Besides, captain kirk and scotty marveled at the multi screen displays when they each traveled into the next generation in their respective episodes. I believe that scotty told commander riker that he wondered how he got anything done in the old days when he saw the enterprise d's new and improved engineering deck.