I need a new PC because mines probably going to shit the bed somewhat soon.

It needs more ram, a video card, and a sound card and even then it's still only got a 30gb hard drive.

So time to buy a new one.

I need something that will perform well, but I don't play computer games so I don't need an insane graphics card (just one that supports widescreen resolutions), I don't need any more than an 80 gig hardrive, but i do need enough memory for my computer to multitask.

I need to be able to work on 10x10 300dpi images on photoshop without my computer going insanely slow and programs stop responding.

and it would be nice if windows media, utorrent and Itunes didn't make internet explorer insanely slow.


I don't really want to spend more then $500 if that. I don't need a monitor, mouse, keyboard, or speakers as mine are all bitchin.


one thing I'm intimidated by is windows vista, since no one is selling pcs with XP on them now adays. will it be tricky to get used to vista? and what's the security like compared to XP? I know I could search that stuff, but I'd rather hear it from a person than read some review.

Also, how hard will it be to transfer all of the stuff on my computer over to a new pc with vista?

Vista's ok. It has it's problems but so did XP at first. If you go with vista then the first thing you should do is turn off the User Account Protection or else you'll get stupid "are you sure?" messages everytime you do anything, like changing the time or any type of settings whatsoever. The security is way better than xp. They pulled a lot of features out of unix and mac os (big surprise there) like using virtual stores to write to important areas of the file system and registry. This shuts down most viruses right there. There's also a lot of behind the scene improvments in the network stack and the file system. A bunch of the other improvments are just flashy eye candy but some of it is really nice. The search feature is actually really neat. You can search from within any open window. So on the start menu you can just start typing the name of some program and it'll start limiting the program folders you see.

And within the the programs section of the start menu when you click on a program folder it opens it underneath in the same window and doesn't pop open a new one like in xp. so this means you can have multiple program folders open at once. so you dont run into the problem where you hover over a program and then your mouse leaves that area and it opens a new program window like in xp.

Flip 3d is pretty cool but mostly useless. Aero looks sweet though.

Oh the application level volume control is amazing. You can control the volume of each application separately. So you can have say winamp running all the way up and then have aim turned down so you dont have annoying loud beeps when you get a message or something.

But of course all this cool stuff means that vista is a freakin memory hog. You're shit out of luck with anything less than 2GB. I dont understand how places like bestbuy can be selling vista computers with 512MB, they run like molasses.

So basically if your buying a completely brand new computer that comes with vista then go for it. If you get a computer made for you or you buy a used computer or something with xp, then there's not much of a reason to upgrade to vista. XP is fine for now.

Oh and also most programs and some hardware like cameras and printers that havn't been updated yet don't work in vista. So there's that problem too.

Once they come out with SP1 it'll be pretty nice.

DeRtOxIa said:

That's cool. I didn't know that. I've always wanted a feature like that. Just a couple of days ago I was cursing Windows for not having a feature like this.

You could easily build the system you want for $500. It sounds like you pretty much know what you want. I'd start with a nice barebones kit from newegg or tigerdirect, with a decent processor and a mobo that has room for upgrades as better processors become cheaper.

As for an 80 gig harddrive, larger drives are so much cheaper nowadays that it would be pointless not to spend a few extra bucks and get something bigger. Why pay $80 for 80 gig, when you can spend another $20 and get 400 gig?

i saw that maxtor has a 1.5TB drive now for like 300 bucks. i was sooo tempted to buy it on impulse but i know that prices are gonna drop so much that i decided to wait a bit.

ArrowHead NLI said:

True dat.

yeah, I just got a 500GB for $119 or $109 I forget which