Internet speeds are a bit complicated to increase, and it usually has more to do with the actual wire coming into the house from the outside. If it’s coming in from a cable wire, you’re not going to get much faster than 7 mbps, because the wire itself can only hold so much data. Cable wires are obsolete, though it’s too expensive for an internet company to wire everyone’s house to fiber. You could call the internet company and see if they’re willing to put a fiber connection to your house. That usually comes with a modem/Wi-Fi upgrade as well. It also helps to call a competitor and ask about any deals for new customers. Putting in a fiber connection is generally standard practice.
Also with the new updated modem as an example if I am paying for 50… I am actually getting like 65/70… Before the update I was pulling like 30. It can make a difference and mine was old. Pay for what your supposed to get.
The new modem didn’t have the same bottle neck as the old one, if that makes sense
Cable is perfectly capable of carrying 200 mbps
We have cable from Cox (no Ethernet outlet on the modem, unfortunately) and I just now got speeds over 20 on my iPad and iPhone. We’ve been up in the 40’s, but our router I think only carries 50.
But for now I’ll concentrate on putting together my desktop ensemble. I did order the Office Depot Lenovo. It was in this week’s ad and I suspect Lenovo made a model with those specific specs for the store; can’t find them elsewhere. Like the old days when specific models of appliances were only available at Sears etc.
I kept looking for a monitor with built in speakers and webcam, but in the end think it will be best to get them separately. I can get an external webcam for the times when I want to Zoom etc., and can use headphones, our old speakers, or my Bluetooth Aomais mini boom box.
I keep going back to the Dell monitor. Reviews of small monitors in general keep wanting to discuss gaming, or attaching to a laptop, or using multiple monitors.
Dell P2419H 24 Inch LED-Backlit, Anti-Glare, 3H Hard Coating IPS Monitor - (8 ms Response, FHD 1920 x 1080 at 60Hz, 1000:1 Contrast, with ComfortView DisplayPort, VGA, HDMI and USB), Black https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07F8XZN69/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_tai_BiwqFbPE3D3KE
That’s perfect for what you do . Logitech makes good webcams and they have a built in mic that is fairly good. They have many depending on your needs the 1080 ones are pretty cheap last time I looked. Then any speaker package that gets your goat depending on what you plan to do.
If you use the monitor for work (or Photoshop as OP mentioned), I’d recommend you take a look at slightly higher resolutions. I just retired a 1900x1200 24” Dell that I really liked. The extra 200 lines of horizontal resolution might not sound like much, but it does give you noticeably more space especially when working spreadsheets. IMHO 1080p is fine up to 22”, but after that a higher resolution suits the larger sizes.
I was just hunting through my box of Cables of Unknown Origin to see if by some miracle we had an extra HDMI cable. Didn’t find one, but did find my 12 year old Microsoft LifeCam VX-5500 webcam. Perhaps I’ll be able to download a driver for it on the new computer. It was very well rated back then ;).
My Adobe Photoshop is the old version 8, for home use, so the Dell monitor should be good enough.
You are all much more sophisticated than me! I go back to the first personal computers in the workplace, where you would start it up, go down to the cafeteria for a coffee, come back, still booting, go answer a few phone calls, still booting… And how exciting it was to eventually use a mouse instead of keyboard commands.
The monitor should come with hdmi cables… Sometimes the computer also.
No, unfortunately the monitor comes with a DisplayPort cable, but the tower only has HDMI. So I could get an adapter, or an HDMI cable. They seem to be similarly priced.
They do make a display port to hdmi cable also. This has display port on one side and hdmi on the other.
Are you positive the display port one side is not hdmi? They look similar… Hate when companies do this.
Here’s more information then you will ever need… Lol.
Thank you all again for the help and advice!
I am happy to report that the computer is up and running. Both the tower and the monitor were delivered timely (early, in fact). My CS son video called this morning and took me through the entire set up process. I did need an HDMI cable for the monitor. I successfully moved my speakers over, checked out my very old microphone to make sure it works, and now have to decide what to do about a webcam. Just for fun I may see if I can get my very old LifeCam to work, assuming I download a new driver for it. And whether I want to get Office, or the LiberOffice son recommends.
The new WonderWoman 1984 trailer looked great on the wide screen monitor!
Yeah!!! ???
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Good Job! So glad it all worked out so well.
Quick update - I did finally order an eero mesh with one extender and just successfully installed it. Our Cox internet is the cheapest with 150 Mbps. My new computer (WiFi only) is now at 179. My iPad went from 22.5 to 122 after installation. And I even get 14 at the far end of the pool, which is about 60 feet from the extender.
I have been loving my new computer with my new cheap Winchar webcam and big screen. Excellent for watching streaming shows and movies, and Zoom visits.
From the article you linked:
Bought a Dell i5 desktop a few weeks ago and I’m pretty happy with it. 