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Yes, Bose is one the best. It's as simple as that. They are more expensive for a reason.
Click to expand...

LOL...you're their target customer.

Bose refuses to publish specifications for their equipment...this is very telling.
 
Ahsun said:
I probably won't pick up a system 'til December when stuff seems to be cheapest, but I was wondering what your comments (AoD!) would be for this setup:

Intel Core 2 Dual E8400 (3.0 GHz, 45nm) - $168.99
Asus P5Q Pro P45 Crossfire MB - $138.88
Diamond Radeon 4870 512MB - $268.32
Antec Sonata III (w/ 500W PS) Case - $111.76
Seagate Barracuda 7200rpm 32MB Cache 640GB HD - $79.88

Total price: $813.90 CDN

OCZ Vista Performance 4GB RAM - $75.00 (already purchased)
Click to expand...

I'm in the process of building a system and I ended up with a similar setup to yours. Here's the differences:

Corsair tx750 - 750 watt power supply - you'll need that much for CF

P5Q-E instead of p5q-pro - pro was first choice, but e version has better sound, and more importantly, cooling, which you'll need if you will CF two heat monsters such as the 4870s

Q6600 instead of E8400 - more and more programs and games will be able to take advantage of the 4 cores

Western Digital WD6400AAKS - 640 gb hard drive - supposed to be much more reliable than the new seagate barracuda 7200.11 disks, which were my initial choice.

For reading opinions from experts, I found www.overclock.net to be useful. Lots of people who are asking the same questions you might have about system builds.
 
It's a solid base system. It will be plenty fast for Internet access and other less taxing uses, but forget gaming, because the built-in video card is very slow.
 
Done, finally!

Thank you all for your sage advice, I have made my purchases as follows at Tiger Direct.

For my wife: a Gateway GT 5670, Flatron W2242T monitor.
For me: a Gateway FX 7020 (refurbished), Flatron W2242T monitor.
All the hardware specs are searchable on the `net so I won`t list them here.


Both systems are running Vista Home Premium and connected to the net through a router as were the machines they replaced.

The FX 7020 seems pretty fast to me and stable.

Thanks again to all you forum members.
 
I didn’t want to start a new thread, so necromanced this one.

I need to buy my teenager a laptop. She’s not going to university until Sept 2021, so we have time to ponder. She’s not a gamer, beyond Sims4. We don’t know what she’ll be studying yet, but I’d like a laptop that’s easy to carry, runs Windows 10 (not the limited S version that forces you to use Edge and the Windows store for all software/apps) rather than a Chrome book, runs MsOffice and the usual Google suite, capable of video editing, illuminated keyboard. And good battery life. I’d buy her an external monitor for home use.

Good intro vid... https://www.pcmag.com/picks/the-best-laptops

I‘ve been looking at HP, Dell and Lenovo (I had a first gen IBM Think Pad in 1991). I had a crap Acer a few years ago and won’t go back to them. My budget is about $700. I have a 15” HP laptop from Costco with touch screen and I’m happy with it, but it‘s a heavy beast. Thoughts?
 
The best advice I was given from a computer expert friend many years ago was to avoid any HP or Acer laptops as a general rule of thumb. My current one has been an Asus, which has lasted me under/over 10 years now and it's still fine. I've just picked up another one by Asus a few weeks ago of the Vivobook series. It's very light, weighing about 3 pounds or less. You can get solid options in the $550-700 range off Best Buy or Amazon. While for work purposes my company provides me with a Lenovo.
 
Though I am a Mac user, for budget Windows laptops, I recommend Asus. They work really well.

Canada Computers also has a good selection of budget Asus laptops.
 
I am using an Asus Zenbook (UX430U) and meh about it. Not the worst (it is light) but I'd think twice about it buying it again (personally I think Asus is overrated) - the thermals aren't great, build quality is so-so (had to replace a key already after what, 2 years?) and the fingerprint reader is one of the worst I have ever used. I heard good things about Dell XPS 13 but that might be beyond your pricepoint. Always go for smaller laptops - 13 or 14 is probably the only real options - anything else is just too big and heavy to lug around daily.

I find myself really hating 16:9 on a laptop - I'd go for a Surface Book (which has a 3:2 screen ratio) if it wasn't such a heavy clunker.

AoD
 
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Admiral Beez said:
I’m leaning towards a 14 in. screen, but they all seem to have only 8GB ram and I think at minimum 16GB would be necessary to be useable into the mid 2020s.
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16GB is fairly standard - but your pricepoint is aggressive. My suggestion is - if she doesn't need it now, wait for a year.

AoD
 
Windows 10 is supposed to work quite well with less RAM, but more (16GB) is definitely better. I've been happy with my Dell XPS laptops in the past, and the support was also quite good.
 
AlvinofDiaspar said:
16GB is fairly standard - but your pricepoint is aggressive. My suggestion is - if she doesn't need it now, wait for a year.

AoD
Click to expand...
She's happy enough with the desk top for now. We have $300 credit with Costco that expires in 2020 so that's what's driving us to consider laptop now.
 
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