computer shopping time

[terces]

With 3 of us attending school, and one more about to start, I'm thinking its time to purchase two more computers for the house. We currently have a dell desktop and a dell laptop that is slowly fading away.

What brand computer would you purchase if you had to go shopping today? I'm thinking of buying another desktop and a laptop. Don't do heavy gaming at all but would like the desktop to be able the transfer/editing of photos and video.

I hear good things about macs but still not sure about taking the plunge.

[frito833]

What's your budget? A lot also depends what you're going to be using these computers for and how tech savvy you are: video editing, just checking email and browsing, playing video games. For the low end PCs, I'd recommend an HP for desktop and an Acer for laptop. Personally, I recommend building your own PC off sites like newegg. You will learn how to fix your own pc related problems therefore saving you money.

[frito833]

Oh, I think Macs are overpriced and overhyped. Don't flame on me because I work on a mac at work because I have too.

[sandrark]

I have PCs at work, and Macs at home. For films and video, the Mac wins hands-down, IMO.

My brother recently bought the bottom-of-the-line iMac desktop, after a lot of reassurance. He called me in delight after a week, telling me of the DVD he made for his wife on the occasion of their 10 year anniversary. He edited still photos, some short video of their kids' antics, and overdubbed a song she loved. He says it took him 3 hours.

The last one he did, when their third kid was born - took him 3 *weeks* on a PC.

So if editing and videos is a large component of your intent, I'd strongly give the nod to Mac.

FWIW.

Sandi

[frito833]

Originally Posted by sandrark

I have PCs at work, and Macs at home. For films and video, the Mac wins hands-down, IMO.

My brother recently bought the bottom-of-the-line iMac desktop, after a lot of reassurance. He called me in delight after a week, telling me of the DVD he made for his wife on the occasion of their 10 year anniversary. He edited still photos, some short video of their kids' antics, and overdubbed a song she loved. He says it took him 3 hours.

The last one he did, when their third kid was born - took him 3 *weeks* on a PC.

So if editing and videos is a large component of your intent, I'd strongly give the nod to Mac.

FWIW.

Sandi

I agree. My sister is in the arts and swears mac are the best at video editing because of the video editing software available.

[terces]

If I could stay under $2000 for the two it would be great. But like I said don't want to low ball myself.

The majority of what we would be doing is homework, internet browsing, and email. We do have a ton of music on itunes on the desktop and a ton of photos. I need to organize them one day. I also want to be able to start uploading old videos I have to better save them. I bought a transfer thingy for the computer which works pretty good for transfering old tape videos to a computer file. I've used Windows basic Moviemaker with no problems before.

I've only know pc's so I guess there is that fear for change with a Mac and the price

Don't know if I could build my own... never done it before.

[Inkstain82]

Computers these days are powerful enough that even the lowest-end models will handle everything you need unless you intend on doing something graphic-intensive, i.e. video editing or gaming.


Building a computer is ridiculously easy if you are willing to learn how. There's about a dozen parts and they all snap together with little problems. It's more about confidence than ability.

[Broken Arrow]

terece, based on what you've described, I would stick with pre-built Windows computers, and I'll bet you could do it all with a budget of $1000.

I used to have Macs as well. (In fact, I had one with Final Cut-- Mac's professional level video editing software-- and a first generation DVD burner back when they still costed more than $1000 for a drive.) I will agree that, if video editing is a large part of your digital life, you're going to love the Mac's iMovie and iDVD for content creation.

That said, the Windows side isn't... half bad if you're careful. For example, I would completely skip over Windows Movie Maker, and go ahead and pony up for Adobe's Premiere Elements. If you get really serious, you can upgrade to the pro version. Premiere will also work seamlessly with Adobe After Effects, which anybody who has done video editing and special effects seriously will know what an amazing gem that is.

Plus, staying on the Windows side will be a lot more um user-friendly in terms of software selections later, and it will also help lower your costs. I like... nay, love Macs too, but overall, I agree that both the hardware and the software tend to be over-priced.

As for centralizing your media content (music, movies, etc), I would look into network storage. Don't worry, they're not as bad as it sounds. Basically, it's nothing more than an external hard drive with a built-in network card that you can stick into your home network. That way, the contents there can be shared with all of your computers. I'll bet if you shop around long enough, you could even find one as cheap as $100, but I'd considering spending a little bit more for a terabyte drive, as they seem to be the sweet spot right now. (If it's a NAS and you have a static IP, you could even make that content accessible anywhere in the world, with internet access.)

[terces]

Originally Posted by Broken Arrow

As for centralizing your media content (music, movies, etc), I would look into network storage.

ooo... I like that idea. Seems everyone wants to get on the computer to access the music. Is Itunes software on each computer and just access the network storage for the music files? That way anyone can update their Ipod from whatever computer they are on?

[Broken Arrow]

Originally Posted by terces

ooo... I like that idea. Seems everyone wants to get on the computer to access the music. Is Itunes software on each computer and just access the network storage for the music files? That way anyone can update their Ipod from whatever computer they are on?

Right... so in an ideal environment, I would say, "Yes, that would work." Unfortunately, you may run into some DRM issues. With individual iPod syncing, you may be forced to use individual computers for indivudal iPods. Again, that's a copyright issue not a technology issue.

But copyright aside, it is most certainly possible to have a central repository of MP3 songs that all of your computers can access. You may have to kind of DIY it with your own mp3 music and maybe separate mp3 players. Actually, I'll bet iTunes can do it too, but again, it's the iPod syncing and DRM I'm not sure about.

Oh, and you'll also want to centralize your play list. Usually, it's an individual file on your local hard drive, so you'll need to change the settings and have it point to the central network version. This is the same with iTunes as well.

You can do something similar with DVD and home movies as well. Imagine that, instead of swapping DVD discs in and out of one computer to another, you can access a folder filled with up to 400 DVD or home movie files (on a terabyte drive), click on it, and watch it pretty much any time on any computer.

On some NAS products, they have ready-made software solutions for this (such as the HP media server solution for example). I read somewhere that some have even hacked the Hulu client to work as the front end. Or, you can just DIY it with simple folders and files.

[Mike75]

Why do you need 3 separate computers anyway? Can't you share a computer as separate user IDs with passwords protection?

[zeldo]

As others have said, now a days even cheap laptops have good performance. I would advise getting laptops as they take up much less space, you would be surprised how much extra space a pc can take. Also I am sure you will have to take them into school at some point to do a presentation or such.

You could even look to getting one off craigslist or gumtree, though of course be careful to get someone who knows about computers to check them out before you buy them, you don't want to buy a dud.

[CalireEHughes]

I agree with evryone who says that macs are over priced. They are a good computer and have great customer service. If I were in the market for a new computer I would get an ASUS. Try googling them and see what you find. It's hard to find a bad review on one of their products.

[Caoineag]

HP is great for the low end of computers. I just priced out building my own or buying one and at the low end, HP won out (this one was for hubby). Keep in mind, low end for me is $500-600 because I play video games (my monster I use for everything was built by me and cost closer to $1400 but would have cost closer to 3k to buy from someone). Laptops are cheap but you will pay 1/3 more for the same speed at minimum. Best of luck shopping.

[CalireEHughes]

watch out when you're looking for a low end laptop. I have a friend who worked at Best Buy and he said they're only designed to last about one year. Also, those were the ones that came back for repairs the most often, coincidence?