Episode #2 – Criteria for purchasing a “home/personal” computer

In the past month or two I have had to purchase 3 personal computers for me and my family.  Ok HAD to is a bit strong in one case, but my wife and my mom’s computers both died horrible deaths so they HAD to be replaced and well I kinda wanted a netbook and fell into some “found” money to do it with, so there…  Also in my “real” job I am a “computer guy” so everyone in the office comes to me to ask what they should get for home.  A co-worker and myself have come up with the following criteria…

  • NOT A CELERON OR SEMPRON processor!
  • Windows 7 64 bit edition (unless a netbook, then Windows 7 starter edition)
  • $500 or less (perhaps $600 in select cases)
  • Plan on it lasting 3 years then replacing… (this is why we don’t buy all the extra upgrades)

Listen to Episode #2 of  “Moment to Ponder” to get all my insights and reasoning behind these choices.

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EDIT:

I’m adding some product links to give you ideas, if you buy them through these links I’ll get a couple bucks, don’t feel obligated to feed my family.

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7 Responses to “Episode #2 – Criteria for purchasing a “home/personal” computer”

  1. Andrew says:

    Good show Brian. Do you have a recommendation on a back-up program for my external HDD that didn’t come with software. It is the external HDD that was sent to me with the recovered files from my laptop explosion last October. I drag and drop now, but would love a sync program like on my old 30 gig WD external.

  2. Brian says:

    Try http://www.fbackup.com/
    I have never used this software but it gets good reviews.
    Also try a online backup solution, like Mozy.com . They give you 2GB for free and “unlimited” for ~$60 per year, $110 for 2 years. If your information is that important having 2 solutions, one readily available (USB) and one offsite (mozy or similar) is a good idea.

  3. Brian says:

    Added product links

  4. rhino says:

    Be careful if you get a netbook. Some of them are coming with Windows 7 Starter Edition which does not support changing the wallpaper (meh) or dvd playback (wtf?). I’m sure there’s hacks for both of these but might be something to think about if you’re not the adventurous type.

    • Brian says:

      Wow, I never noticed the wallpaper thing! Apparently there are hacks around this but I guess I just never tried to change it.
      I did know about DVD playback but since none of the netbooks have DVD players I guess it just wasn’t a priority to me. Most of the time I would either play streaming content or downloaded content.

      Great heads up though on the limitations, as I just thought it was the Aero interface that was disabled.

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