Recommendations wanted

[Stan]

Her: a senior citizen with a failing 5-year-old Dell, needs a new PC
(would prefer to stay with XP and not move to Vista).

She wants to replace it and is wondering what "name-brand" PCs are known
for their good quality? (she doesn't want to pay to have one assembled,
she wants to buy one from a store that will stand behind their product).

She's not a power-user...won't do much more than MS Office, QuickBooks and
web surfing. I'm suggesting to her to have a RAID setup so she doesn't
ever have to worry about losing data.

So, what do you like & why?

Thanx,

Stan.

 

[Bob I]

1. RAID won't prevent the loss of data.
2. Dell will sell XP boxes.
3. The "store" would be local, and the "name brand" support wouldn't be
local.

 

[Jim Macklin]

try www.visioncomputers.com

Radio advertised special
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$399 with XP Home, monitor not included. Built in Atlanta
with USA based customer service.



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| Her: a senior citizen with a failing 5-year-old Dell,
needs a new PC
| (would prefer to stay with XP and not move to Vista).
|
| She wants to replace it and is wondering what "name-brand"
PCs are known
| for their good quality? (she doesn't want to pay to have
one assembled,
| she wants to buy one from a store that will stand behind
their product).
|
| She's not a power-user...won't do much more than MS
Office, QuickBooks and
| web surfing. I'm suggesting to her to have a RAID setup
so she doesn't
| ever have to worry about losing data.
|
| So, what do you like & why?
|
| Thanx,
|
| Stan.

 

[Bob Willard]

Her: a senior citizen with a failing 5-year-old Dell, needs a new PC
(would prefer to stay with XP and not move to Vista).

She wants to replace it and is wondering what "name-brand" PCs are known
for their good quality? (she doesn't want to pay to have one assembled,
she wants to buy one from a store that will stand behind their product).

She's not a power-user...won't do much more than MS Office, QuickBooks and
web surfing. I'm suggesting to her to have a RAID setup so she doesn't
ever have to worry about losing data.

So, what do you like & why?

Thanx,

Stan.

I certainly agree with Bob I's trio:
1. RAID won't prevent the loss of data.
2. Dell will sell XP boxes.
3. The "store" would be local, and the "name brand" support wouldn't be local.

RAID0 or RAID1 will add complexity and cost, for little benefit, to a home
non-gamer IMHO.

Name brands are not known for particularly high quality; they are known for
aggressively squeezing the costs out while achieving moderate quality. Last
one I bought (a laptop in May'07) was an HP, that I rated slightly better
than the similar Dell; the hardware is as good as I expected, and I've had
no trouble. The software was, unfortunately, Vista -- so I highly agree
with the seasoned citizen's avoidance of Vista: it ain't ready for prime time.

One other alternative if cost matters: look around for a second-hand PC.
Businesses frequently replace PCs every couple of years, and good PCs can
sometimes be had at serious savings. Remember that, for the intended use,
every PC made in the last few years is fast enough -- just make sure you have
enough RAM (probably 512MB for XP or 1GB for Vista).