<p>Our over 3 years old e-machine has just died so we need to get another desktop. Up to today, all our computers are all usingg XP. The circuit city sales told me the Vista alone takes about .8 GB of the DDR2 RAM. </p>
<p>So, he suggests a minimum of 2 GB RAM and 320 GB HD. We looked at a compaq SR5510F that is $429.00. </p>
<p>It is on the expensive side of what I would get. I saw that Office Depot has a couple of Acer models at $299 range. But I don’t know if that brand is of any good.</p>
<p>The biggest application for me will be probably the photoshop. Do you have any recommendation for me? CTQ - below $300, 2 GB RAM, last about 3 years.</p>
<p>I’m not very good with the specifics, but I would get extra ram for Vista. My parents bought a Compaq desktop last fall with Vista pre-installed, and it was painfully slow until my dad bought more ram (the computer now loads fine – before, they’d turn it on and take the dog out, log in and make coffee, etc.). </p>
<p>What I don’t get is why the manufacturers sell computers with Vista already loaded that aren’t fast enough to run it.</p>
<p>“What I don’t get is why the manufacturers sell computers with Vista already loaded that aren’t fast enough to run it.”</p>
<p>Because so many people just look at cost.</p>
<p>My last cheap desktop was from Dell. Just wait for about the second week of their end-of-quarter months and then google around for Dell coupons. I’m not running Vista on any of my systems (13) as I’ve always specified XP. I don’t think that manufacturers are offering the choice of XP or Vista for free anymore and whitebox makers are probably just selling out their stock of XP licenses.</p>
<p>BTW - Dell end of quarter months are one off the calendar quarters - so now is a good time to look. Also good time to use the phone to see if they will go lower. Check for employee discounts for your company or if you work for any state, local educational or federal agency. The end of a quarter in tough economic times are good for bargains.</p>
<p>Just over three years for a desktop to die is kind of short. Does your computer start up? If it doesn’t power up, you may just need a new power supply ($50). </p>
<p>If your buget is that tight, you should check out used machines at local computer shows. Vendors usually give you a 30 day warranty. Acer/E-Machines inhabit the low end of the market. At least you get a year’s warranty.</p>
<p>arbiter213 - for $299 it would be very difficult to build any machine, including an OEM version of the OS which would provide no support from Microsoft for the end user.</p>
<p>For Vista make sure you get a minimum of 2G. Acer is a major brand name so I wouldn’t worry about it too much. Also check out Dell, HP, and Gateway.</p>
<p>If you were satisfied with your old system then try to figure out what ‘died’. It might be easier and cheaper just to get it fixed. The most common failure component on PCs is the power supply - usually because the fan failed first but wasn’t noticed. A power supply with its integrated fan is pretty easy and inexpensive to replace. </p>
<p>we have a teenage son in the house so we knew the basics of computer. </p>
<p>I was deleting a big program and it locked up. Upon re-start, it would power up and allow us to get to the safe mode. That was as far as it would go before shutting itself down and restarts again.</p>
<p>We install the master hard drive to another PC as the slave driver and we could assess all the files. It is not the HD and it is not the RAM. </p>
<p>An e-machine last this long is about right. We have been practicing this method - buy a cheap e-machine and upgrage to a new one every two to three years. Typically we would get one around Thanksgiving sales. This one actually outlasted the most e-machine and worked for 3.5 years. </p>
<p>I think we will get the SR5510F. I would just move two weeks of my beer budget to get the PC.</p>
<p>Well, it sounds like you just want a new PC.</p>
<p>Regardless, it’s not common for a desktop to fail every 3 years or so. It also sounds like you might not have a hardware problem at all. Since it looks like you already transferred your files off of there have you tried a reinstall of the OS - i.e. reformat the drive and reinstall? That may solve your problem which from your description is likely not a hardware issue.</p>
<p>One of my friends bought herself an Acer Laptop for graduation and has not been too happy with it. She already had to send it back to Acer for repairs because it shut down on its own and wouldn’t start back up (it was fully charged and plugged in, and it was only a few weeks old so there was no way it could have a virus ((she doesn’t do anything that would cause her to get a virus in the first place)). Acer never did tell her what the problem was).</p>
<p>My mom recently bought an HP and loves it. She does a lot of tech-intensive work, so she goes through PCs and Laptops pretty fast, but this HP has held up to her needs the best. Everyone in my family loves HP computers (my dad is the only one without one, since he works for IBM and they supply all his computers). I have a Compaq Presario laptop for college (Psych major, so I didn’t need anything TOO heavy duty), and I absolutely love it. Definitely way better than my IBM ThinkCentre desktop. Their (HP’s) customer service has also been excellent every time we’ve had to deal with them, and they have awesome sales (I was able to get my laptop on sale, and we upgraded both the RAM and the HD and it was just over $700 with a $180 mail-in rebate and $170 instant savings).</p>
<p>As for Vista…I like it as soon as I turned off the annoying “___ needs your permission” alerts. But make sure you get the Home Premium version. It’s the same with XP when it first came out. If you don’t get the best version, it sucks.</p>
<p>If you deleted a large program, did you go to the control panel and use the “add or remove” tool? It sounds like you deleted the program and in the process, some required Windows files got deleted as well. If you can start your computer in “safe” mode, there is an option to go back to the last “Restore” point and see if that will get your computer to boot up normally.</p>
<p>If your computer came with a full copy of XP or if you have a friend with a copy, you could re-install the operating system using the custom mode that lets you control what and what not will be installed. This will allow you to keep your files. </p>
<p>Many computers have a recovery partition on the hard drive that has the XP installation. You’ll need to refer to your owner’s manual to activate the process. Proceed with caution. This may be a full blown installation that may wipe out your personal files.</p>
<p>As uscd<em>ucla</em>dad correctly points out, this doesn’t seem to be a hardware problem. Too bad, a power supply swap would have been a lot easier and quicker fix.</p>
<p>It sounds like the hard drive may have developed a bad block affecting the operating system. If you’re concerned about your data, the safest thing to do would be to clone the disk to another disk and then attempt to do a repair install of Windows XP.</p>
<p>I have 13 computers dating as far back as 2000 and they all work fine except for an HP Pavillion which has a power supply problem. It will boot and run but there’s a burning smell outside of the power supply. The processor is too slow to convince me to replace the PS. These systems are a combination of Dells, Apples and HPs.</p>