FA69FA

Could someone tell me:
1. Should I buy a new computer now?
2. Pentium III or IV?
3. Brand name or Clone one?
4. Which company do you recommend? How about Dell?
5. Should I wait for new operate system (Windows XP)?
6. Any comment on LCD monitor?

nvsi2001

my suggestion:
1.new one
2.P3 is enough
3.I recommend brand new,such as Dell,IBM,COMPAQ
4.windowsME is enough
5.better chose a brand one,as viewsonic,or OEM as Dell, IBM(I don;t know if it is available in Canada.

Chaos

1. yes (if u don't have one); no (if u have a not very old one)
2. P3
3. "clone" one(if u have some basic PC knowledge)/"brand one"(if u don't)
4. futureshop/Dell is best in North America
5. not at all
6. absolutely (if u do word processing mostly);
   absolutely not (if for graphic design, video, game, ....)

bitziz

ok, here is my recommendation:

Right is probably not a bad time to buy a new computer. However, if you can wait, wait until the end of the summer of sometime in October. Summer is when all the new things come out usually and when the price go down. So buying in the middle of the summer means you wouldn't get the best price. Normally the price is at the lowest and the end of the summer.

If you use graphics a lot, you are better off getting an AMD instead as AMD is made to handle 3D graphics and graphics intensive programs. I strongly recommende AGAINST getting PIV right now, because the P4 instructions set is not been programmed right to handle 3D graphics. On benchmarks, a AMD 1.2G and open performe even a p4 1.6 or 1.7G with same specifications.

However, if you do alot programming and compiling then pentium is definitely good. If you have the money, get a p4, otherwise a p3 should be more than enough.

As to brand name and clones. Look around, if you feel that you are confident enough, get a clone. Normally with a clone you will get more choice in turns of of what you want your computer to have, but again you don't get the service you have when you by a brand name computer.

Operating system: if you use the computer for gaming a lot, probably win98SE would good enough. WinME is not good at all. It's programming base is very buggy. If you want something better and more stable than win98SE then get win2k professional. The draw back with win2k Professional is that some games MAY not work or work without sound. But so far I haven't got any problems with game. Win2k is much much more stable and performs much better. I wouldn't go for winXP if I were you. It doesn't sound that good and with all the new features, you are probably going to get alot of unnecessary memory overhead because of the Operating system memory usage. There will be alot of things loaded into the memory when winXP starts and trust me, you don't need even one third of those.

As to monitors, I personally think LCD screens are a waste of money. If you had the money to buy a 15 inch LCD monitor, you are probably better off getting a 17 or 19 inch CTD display. LCD is too expensive for the advantage it has...

Lastly, get a CD burner for sure and make sure and if you have the money, invest in a good video card. GeForce Chips are always good. Good video card will make your computer run more smoothly and the game look better.

Hope this helps, sorry for the long post.

FA69FA

Thank you all very much!!!  :rolleyes: