Sad to say but

[rdw]

I need to buy a new computer. My poor old faithful Dell which runs Windows XP becomes more obsolete by the minute. I feel like I'm losing an old friend and sad to say but I like XP.
:helpme:
So I've started shopping around. Any suggestions or advice on what to buy? Or what to stay away from?

 

[David Baxter PhD]

Desktop or laptop?

I've been happy with Gateway or HP desktops. My wife has an HP laptop which works reliably and I've had a few Toshiba laptops which work well. I still have two of the Toshibas.

 

[rdw]

A desktop for sure. I have an iPad so I don't really want or need a laptop

 

[David Baxter PhD]

I used to like Dell desktops but they go through cycles of quality control it seems so over time it became difficult to know whether you were getting a great system or a dud.

As I said, I can personally recommend Gateway and HP desktops.


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[rdw]

I'm looking at an " all in one". Costco has two of them for a very reasonable price a dell for 799.99 and a hp for 669.99

 

[David Baxter PhD]

What's an all in one?


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[rdw]

It's like an iMac but at a dell price with a touch screen.

 

[David Baxter PhD]

Oh. Never used a touchscreen except iPad.


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[Retired]

My opinion is that I have been happy with Toshiba's for years...Used to have a few Dell's but not lately...better prices and configurations with Toshiba. I've ordered mine from Toshibaonline.com

Friends to whom I have spoken have not had good reports with Gateway, so on that I would my view is not the same as David's.

My next door neighbor has a HP with a touchscreen that I help manage, and it has been a good performer.

My only reservation with HP, from an experience a few years ago was they liked to replace default MS utilities with their own proprietary utilities, that did not work as well. However I was impressed with HP support on my friend's HP.

Also Toshiba support has been excellent in my first hand experience.

My current laptop, the one I'm using now has a solid state primary hard drive and a hybrid secondary HD....blazing fast!

Steve

 

[rdw]

What about Windiws 8. Is it difficult to navigate or learn?

 

[Retired]

In my opinion, the tile interface of Win 8 is useless so I never use nor see it and have disabled or removed all the apps. Instead I have installed the free utility Classic Shell - Start menu and other Windows enhancements
and my computer opens in desktop view, with a Win 7 start menu and the tile interface is neve used nor seen.

MS is supposed to do something different in Win 10, but I see that Classic Shell already has a utility for Win 10 to save everyone any grief.

Steve

 

[rdw]

OMG - I just want to repeat I still use XP and like it! mg:

 

[Retired]

The start menu for Win 7 and XP and the desktop interface are essentially the same. Classic Shell gives you the option of how you want your Start menu to look, so you can have it look like your XP start menu...

If your new computer comes with Win 8, you will need to upgrade (free) to 8.1 so you can install Win 10 when it becomes available.

I noticed that Toshiba is offering their own version of a Start menu on systems they build for you on the online store...though these days you're probably better to buy in Canada, given the exchange rate.

 

[Retired]

FYI, Rhonda, here is what the style choices are for Classic Shell start menu

 

[David Baxter PhD]

No and with a few tweaks you can make it run just like Windows 7, which as much as I liked Windows XP was a great update.

 

[rdw]

Well thanks geek squad! I'm feeling better already - ready to go off to the new world of Windows 8.1 and then windows 10. I'm down to a choice of two - decision time!
Did you know that you can buy computers through Amazon? Gosh what don't they sell?

 

[Retired]

Would you show us the specs of both your choices?

 

[rdw]

Dell - 799.99 @ Costco; two year warranty for members
Processor & Memory:
4th Generation Intel? Core™ i3-4000M processor, 2.4 GHz
3 MB cache
8 GB DDR3 1600MHz
Drives:
1 TB 5400rpm SATA Hard Drive
No optical drive
Display and Graphics:
23 inch HD touchscreen
Intel HD Graphics
Keyboard:
English keyboard
Dell wireless mouse
Operating System:
Microsoft? Windows? 8.1

HP $991.47
HP Envy Recline 23-k309 All-in-One Computer, 4th Gen Intel® Core i3-4150T, 8GB RAM, 1TB HDD/8GB SSD (J4W56AA#ABL), Bilingual | Staples
Let me know what you advise!

 

[gooblax]

Never owned an all-in-one before, but if it were me, I'd probably go with the Dell and get a set of reasonable speakers and DVD drive with the cash difference. (Noting that this is based on me using the machine for casual media/everyday/family entertainment purposes and having a separate PC for gaming.)

Definitely not an expert, but here's what I think:
Is that first one a Dell Inspiron? If so, it looks like there's an HDMI-Out port which the HP doesn't have - do you plan to connect the computer to a TV in the future? From what I can tell it also seems to have 2 extra USB 3.0 ports (total of 4 USB3.0 and 2 USB2.0) which can come in handy if you keep multiple accessories attached (although you will have to use up one of the USB 2.0 ports with the dongle for the mouse whereas the HP has a 3rd USB 2.0 for the mouse/keyboard).

The HP should run a bit faster than the Dell, with its faster processor and the hybrid harddrive making things start up a bit quicker. No real difference between the integrated graphics cards (the Dell's looks to be marginally better in the comparison I'm looking at but not by much). So if you like things faster, particularly with program startup, you might want to go with the HP - here's where my intent of having a backup gaming machine probably clouds my judgement.

Again, not a very experienced opinion, so am happy to be corrected. Either looks to me like a decent choice RDW so let us know what you end up deciding.

 

[rdw]

Gaming is not a problem for me unless one considers sudoku, kenken or solitaire in that category - I'm horribly lousy at all other games.