What PC to buy? Where to get it?

OK, so you're FED UP with your current PC.  It's too slow, and the monitor is about shot.  You have PC envy, every PC you see is nicer and faster than yours... what do you do?

Apple - different by design

Built-to-order or off-the-shelf

Gateway (now part of ACER)

Hewlett-Packard

Lenovo (formerly IBM)

First, you have to make the hard decision - Apple (Mac, iPad, iPhone, iPod) or PC (formerly IBM or IBM-CLONE)?

There are legions of followers on both sides of this great divide, and each has its advantages and disadvantages.  My job is to just give some guidance for those about to embark on shopping expeditions, it's your own call as to which platform meets your needs best.

Many people go with PC as opposed to Apple, a lot of this is because they have a PC at their office.  Apple is making inroads into the office suites, and you see more of them every day.  If you have a lot of existing software and hardware that is designed for PC, you may elect to stay with Windows.  If so, Windows 7 is the hot ticket (you can finally give XP a long-deserved kiss goodbye).  In the retail stores almost every Windows 7 box is coming with minimum of 3 GB of RAM memory, and most times more.  Also, the manufacturers have moved en masse to 64-bit versions of Windows 7 instead of the 32-bit flavor that has been the standard up till now except for the power user.

64-bit platforms are generally all good with few drawbacks, and if you have a legacy DOS program (16-bit) that you absolutely can't let go of, you can download and install Windows XP MODE from Microsoft (Requires certain versions of Windows 7 - Home Premium, Professional or Ultimate AFAIK) which will run Windows-within-windows in 32-bit XP mode.  This will accommodate those printers and scanners that have XP drivers but no 64-bit Windows 7 drivers.

Build-to-order or Off-The-Shelf (pre-configured)?  Consumers have driven the "happy meal" PC back into prominence for a couple of reasons.  Many like to 'see before they buy' and that's not a bad thing.  Costco has a large display of PC's up and running, and you can shop between AMD or INTEL processors, and choose a system that fits your budget and your needs, then take it home and use it instantly.  For many, this is the best value proposition, because pre-configured machines selling at the razor-thin price points of mass marketers like Wal-Mart, Sam's or Costco (and possibly Staples and some other bricks and mortar stores) often wind up being less expensive than custom-ordered units from the SAME manufacturer.

Why?

Mass production.  Dell builds a boxcar load of PCs all the same and ships them nationwide to retailers for resale to you.  There isn't a lot of interaction pulling a small hard drive for a bigger one.  You'll notice when you order online they $20 and $50 you to death with 'upgrades'.  The manufacturers love you to buy extra memory, bigger hard drives, printers, common software and more when you place your build-to-order purchase online.  This is where they add profit to the sale.

Unless you're a real power user or bleeding-edge gamer, you don't need to do all of that.  In most cases, the default systems offered ready-built are just fine for 99% of the computing tasks most of us undertake.

Know your processors, know your manufacturer--  Intel and AMD are nearly interchangeable in most cases, you often find "shared memory" (onboard video processor) or else nVidia or ATI/AMD video cards in the vast majority of pre-made systems offered in major retailers.  This again boils down to personal choice, and both Intel and AMD are locked in perpetual warfare over whose processor is faster / more efficient / better value proposition.  I personally feel they are both GREAT and either one is OK for most of us.

Buy a notch or two below the absolute fastest processor, shop memory price points,  determine your personal memory sweet spot, and what you'll use your PC for.

If you are Mr. and Mrs. Internet and Mr. and Mrs. e-Mail, almost ANY PC will work, starting with a dual-core or core 2 duo on up to multi-core processors like the Intel i5 or i7, or the AMD Phenom II x6.  Do some research online, and if you're doing heavy video or photo edits, or doing multi-track home recording, you'll really need to check on what systems 'work' with which software and which hardware!

Example:  Music production software works well on some PC's with 'certain' motherboards, and doesn't play well on others.  In my case, Steinberg Cubase 5 works ok now, but I had to add a separate powered Firewire card to accomplish the task and drive my Steinberg Firewire audio interface hardware.

Again, if you're just general user, these are non-issues, and most off-the-shelf stuff is perfectly acceptable.

GET A GOOD SIZE MONITOR, and be sure you see it powered up in the store so you can check how well it works in brightly lit areas.  Is it clear and sharp?  It should be!  You will be offered 20" wide-screen monitors on most models, and even larger monitors on some of the higher-end models.

About how much?  $599 seems to be happy-meal entry model and $999 or so for the 'deluxe' models with bigger monitors and more memory.

How much hard drive and memory?

Hard disks:
300GB or more for hard drive (500 is probably about average,  1000GB or 1TB is better, 2000GB or 2TB is max for Windows 7.

Memory:
Windows 7 will run great with 3GB or more of ram.  6 is plenty for most users, though some systems are being sold with more (9 or even 12GB).

Video card:
Discrete ("stand alone") video cards generally are superior to "Shared Memory" or "Integrated" video which is built onto the system main board (also called "motherboard").

Overclocking?
Gamers are into squeezing every bit of horsepower out of a PC.  Sometimes they can increase performance by making a system run faster than it was designed to.  The downside is erratic performance and even data loss or system damage.  If you're an over-clocker, this blog is probably too basic for your purposes.  If you don't know what overclocking is, you probably belong on this website.

BIOS - is it highly configurable or locked and dumbed-down?
The Built-In Operating System (BIOS) on most of today's PC's is pretty much locked-down.  There are a few user options like RAID on/off, onboard video and audio ON/OFF, and BOOT SEQUENCE (which devices seek the operating system in what order, most cases CD/DVD drive should be FIRST, then the hard disks).  By default, many systems ship with the hard disks loading FIRST, which is a problem if you're trying to perform a DATA RESTORATION from a Backup.  Gamers love highly-configurable BIOS' because that's where the OVERCLOCKING and Memory Timing CAS adjustments live.  If you're average, the generic motherboards used by the major builders will be just fine and less likely to create problems you don't know how to fix.

My (friend, co-worker, relative, neighbor, homeless person) builds PCs and guarantees me "more bang for less buck".  Generally this is not truthful.  Building your own, or having someone build one for you presents many issues, most especially and importantly WARRANTY issues.  When you buy from a major PC builder, you get a warranty on the entire system, excluding some things like keyboards, mice, printers and so on.  This is very important if major problems occur (say the system becomes inoperative).  With a major builder, it's ONE phone call.  With homemade you might have to make 3 or 4 different calls, and then the arguments start over 'what's wrong' and 'who pays to fix it'.  Your relative, buddy or neighbor may be out of the picture, and then what?

Extended Warranty for my PC?
Because PCs are relatively cheap and obsolete within 3 to 5 years, buying an extra warranty for most users is probably a poor use of capital.  If you blow a hard disk, almost any repair place can fix it.  The failed hard disk is probably the #1 most common cause of PC problems, especially a machine that suddenly runs VERY SLOW or takes a LONG TIME to START UP.  This is usually a WARNING SIGN of a hard disk that is failing, much like chest pains are a symptom of heart problems.  The slowdowns are caused by increased read times where the data on the drive cannot be completely and properly read at system startup, and it takes several "passes" to get the information the computer needs to start up.

Most common "extras" to consider with my PC purchase:

• Get at least 4 GB of Ram
• Get 64-bit Operating System (can address memory greater than 4GB, 32 bit only can 'see' 3GB no matter how much RAM you buy on the machine)
• Get a good sized EXTERNAL USB hard drive (suggest Western Digital My Book Elite with electronic label, allows you to customize the spine label and is readable even if the PC is powered down, includes visual "gas gauge" showing space used/available at a glance.
• Buy a good backup program to supplement the built-in program in Windows 7 (Recommended:  Acronis True Image 2011)
• Buy a good AntiVirus/Firewall package (Comcast user?  You get Norton Internet Security free!  Other major players are McAfee, Avast, and others)  I prefer NORTON 360, because it also includes valuable housekeeping functions like blowing out temp files automatically, and clearing your browser history files.
• Should I use a REGISTRY CLEANER?  I'm going to say an unqualified NO WAY!  No matter who makes it, or what "they" promise such a "cleaner" will do to speed up or optimize your machine, there is no way they can be certain such cleaners will not DAMAGE YOUR PC!  They can and probably WILL do more harm than good, worst of all, typical end-user has little to NO CLUE what went wrong or WHY!  (The "Windows Registry" is a complex database table that tells your operating system a lot of details about hardware and software on your machine, and also stores common settings and lots of other information.  Unless you are an expert user, you should STAY OUT of the REGISTRY and thus you should PREVENT the use of REGISTRY CLEANERS/OPTIMIZERS/TUNE-UP UTILITIES.
• Ok, I hear you about backing up, but I forgot to do it, now my machine won't start up.  What do I do?  Seriously?  Your options are pretty limited.  I would contact a reputable PC repair shop and ask for advice.  Usually once you've experienced a complete PC failure, you become an instant true believer in backup (and the companion process "RESTORE").

As far as PC Brand?  It's personal choice.  I like them ALL in different ways and for different reasons.  I have a lot of past brand loyalty to DELL, but have bought APPLE, HP and Gateway of late, and previously had decent luck with IBM (now Lenovo).  So ir's really what catches your eye.

What about all the "BLOATWARE" that is pre-loaded on my new PC?  As a tech person, I dislike a great amount of the preloads, because they take up space, and often become nagging annoyances trying to talk you into buying the 'full version' of product X, Y or Z.  Particularly annoying is pre-installed trial versions of Office or some antivirus/firewall solutions.  Typically you get 3 months free and then it's DECISION TIME.  The companies hope you will BUY after you TRY their products.

Be sure to look around for FREE or LOW COST alternatives.  Membership stores sell home/student versions of Microsoft Office for much less than you might find it elsewhere.  Many Internet Providers (ISP's) like Comcast or AT&T provide free anti-virus/firewall solutions to their paid subscribers.  If you have a student at home using a PC, that student may qualify for special academic price points that are substantially less than 'regular retail' on many software products.

If you're shopping for printers, be aware that the real money in printers isn't in selling you the PRINTER, it's when you need to buy more ink cartridges or TONER.  That's a sure-fire gotcha the printer companies are banking on.  They could almost GIVE you the printer free.  But when you need more INK, watch out!  You may be stunned what it costs, and how often you are replacing it.

Laser ('real laser') versus Inkjet printers-  True laser printers (black and white) are generally faster than inkjets and have much larger duty cycles (translation:  the toner carts last MUCH longer than the inkjet cartridges on their lesser siblings).  COLOR LASER printers may be VERY costly to re-ink, check the cost of consumables BEFORE you buy.  What good is a $399 color laser printer if every time you re-ink the machine it costs $500?

Consider printing to the cloud instead of real paper.  This blog is in "The Cloud" (no paper was used to produce it, thus no INK was consumed).  You can publish to a blog, or a place like Facebook or Twitter, again with no costs in paper or ink.  Be aware of privacy issues if you elect to go worldwide.  Once you publish to the web, your content is out there, and is irretrievable.

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Live the Dream - Not the Nightmare!

PC Owners are a crazy bunch (and I include MAC people here too).  Most folks spend a TON on a new system, and buy all kinds of great software and peripherals (like printers, webcams, digital camcorders and cameras, and so much more).

Over time, that 'new PC' begins to morph into something unique - and dynamic!  Your PC tomorrow is different than it was today!  You've added new programs, created documents, edited movies, Photoshopped your pictures and so much more.  Just to make it interesting, you also ran a bunch of Windows updates.

What does this mean?  Not much unless:

• A sudden power outage during a disk write process results in corruption of your system
• A well-meaning but accidentally-malicious user deletes critical files and then empties out your recycle bin
• You are struck by a sudden virus attack
• Your hard disk does the unthinkable and has a complete failure

You don't panic.  You calmly attempt to restart your system.  Not once, not twice, maybe ten times.  You see a message on screen:

Operating System Not Found

"It can't happen to ME!"

At this point, you smile knowingly are give yourself a big pat on the back - because unlike the guy in the cartoon, you DID install an external backup drive, and you DID install GOOD backup software, and you DID make sure your backups ran periodically, and you DID verify the backup images were VALID.

So NOW, you are going to be able to RESTORE your machine, even to a new BLANK hard disk drive!  More important, and write this down:  You will restore it to just as it was when you "photographed it" (backed it up).  This is wildly different from the tech support guy at PC Company XYZ telling you how to revert the machine to the day you first bought it.  Can you IMAGINE losing all of your custom file settings, plus of all of your hard work (documents, photos, movies, MUSIC) and all of your installed PROGRAMS?

Unlike the ancient DOS machines of years gone by, you can't simply clone your personal files, in the event of drive failure, you will also need to reinstall not only the OPERATING SYSTEM, but all of the PROGRAMS you added yourself.  Things like JAVA, Adobe products (Acrobat Reader, Acrobat, Flash, Photoshop and more), and Microsoft and other third party apps such as Office 2010 or 2007, QuickBooks, Quicken, and so on.

In plain language, this is VERY BAD NEWS, and depending on just how critical your data is to YOU, you could be very sad if you haven't backed up!

Microsoft finally built in a decent backup program into Windows 7, but for our purposes I am going to talk about a free piece of software from ACRONIS called True Image Home (Western Digital Edition).  Now this software is "Free* if you purchased an external Western Digital hard disk drive, or if your are fortunate enough that your PC Builder gave you a Western Digital internal hard disk drive instead of one of the other hard disk brands out there (e.g. "Seagate").  Also, you can buy Acronis True Image 2011 or run it free for 30 days on a trial basis.  The full version you buy does more than the 'free' version from Western Digital.  The full version allows easy scheduling, and actually replaces Windows Backup in Control Panel, giving you a robust and easily understood interface that is much clearer and easier to operate (IMHO) than the standard backup built into Windows 7.  (You can revert back to Windows 7 built-in backup at any time if you change your mind about Acronis True Image 2011.)  

Another plus of the paid version is that it will awaken your system from SLEEP MODE, and can be configured to perform the backup, then TURN YOUR MACHINE COMPLETELY OFF.  This saves power, both when in sleep mode and of course when powered off.  So you get reliable, consistent SCHEDULED backups.  The paid version also allows off-site "online" backups on the Acronis servers.  All things considered, I consider Acronis True Image 2011 (paid version) to be "the way to go" for people who are SERIOUS about protecting their machine setup and their personal files.

The "free version" doesn't offer scheduled backups, but can create backups manually by starting the program and then asking to backup NOW.  This is better than NO BACKUP, but requires you to REMEMBER to do it, and let's face it, that's the stumbling block that trips most of us up sooner or LATER.

I suggest and recommend the Western Digital My Book Elite external drive, which have dropped to sub-100 prices for a 1TB model (1 Terrabyte is 1000 Gigabytes).  PC storage is overstated.  A Billion Bytes (a Terrabyte) is not exactly 1 billion bytes of data, but that's a story for another day.  For you, the typical non-techie user, BIGGER IS BETTER when buying external drives, but don't go bigger than 2TB (2 Terrabytes) or you'll have problems with Windows 7 not 'recognizing' the drive.  At present, this is a 'known issue' with Windows 7.

Western Digital MyBook Elite with Electronic Contents Label

Shown above is the Western Digital My Book Elite, and you can see the pictorial "gas gauge" on the book spine showing how much space is still available.  The white area is space in use, the black area is available for more information ("data") to be stored.

Some folks have more than one external hard drive, one for pictures, one for backups, and so on.  Now, because you have a WESTERN DIGITAL drive (external), you can go to Western Digital's website and download the free version of Acronis True Image 2010 Western Digital Edition.

This fine software will make easy work out of creating the RIGHT KIND of backup (a FULL SYSTEM IMAGE) which would protect you if your main internal hard disk drive were to go bad (either from hardware melt-down or accidental or malicious actions like erasures, reformats, virus attacks, and so on).

For the novice user, a hard disk drive is like a magnetic tape recorder...it's great until it fails...then it's a lot less great!

The Acronis True Image software (also available for outright purchase from www.acronis.com) allows you to do most of the common tasks associated with hard drive failures and/or upgrades.  Backup and Restore are the two key functions I'm speaking about, but CLONING to a new larger drive is also a common task when space begins to dwindle.  Warning:  If you have RAID ARRAY configured in your system BIOS (startup file that runs before Windows 7 loads), the CLONING option won't work properly.  That's because the extra drive you're trying to clone to isn't configured as RAID (it's configured as IDE or "non-raid").  On my Dell Studio XPS 9000 i7 system, I blew my RAID array trying to clone that array to a non-raid device while the operating system was running. 

Western Digital support desk will help you with the Acronis True Image (Western Digital Edition) software, and I highly advise visiting with their support to be sure you have the program set up properly.

Screen Shot of Acronis True Image WD Edition

The About Screen Showing 2010 Version

In my view, buy the full version of this software.  It is robust, simple to use, and offers automatic verification of your backups each time you create one (that's very important - you need to know the backup is 'valid' (not corrupted or unreadable) BEFORE disaster strikes.  You also can easily burn a BOOT CD which you would use to RESTORE your hard disk if it failed, or if you decided to put in a LARGER (upgraded) hard drive.

My point is that setting this program up is quite simple and worthwhile.  Spend $100 for a good sized hard disk (suggestion:  Western Digital) and then grab the software from their website.  Then run a full system image backup.  Afterwards, use their software to VERIFY your backup is good (not corrupt).  Chances are you're golden in case of hard disk failure.  Questions?  Contact WESTERN DIGITAL SUPPORT.

Apple iPad Fails to Recharge on some PC's - SOLVED

Harrowing experience with my new iPad when I first got it home, I discovered as countless others have, that it would NOT recharge properly from my nearly new Dell Studio XPS 9000 i7 Desktop nor my HP Laptop.  After a LOT of hunting on the web,  I came across a post touting a free piece of software made by ASUS called AICharger, which is on the ASUS website, and best of all, appears to work just fine on NON-ASUS PCs and NON-ASUS motherboards.

Give it a try for yourself by clicking here.

 After completing the installation, my iPad recharges just fine simply by plugging into the USB port on any computer that I have installed the ASUS AI_Charger utility on.  A godsend, as plugging the very short AC/USB combo cord into the wall socket is just plain annoying and not convenient.  This also works with my iPhone as well.

Asus claims that this product has the added benefit of reducing recharging times, but I cannot vouch for that claim.  I have to say this though, THANK YOU ASUS!  And a heavy suggestion to my friends at Apple - why not license the code from ASUS so your drivers for the iPad will interoperate with Windows PCs with USB 2.0 ports?  The salesman at Best Buy swore up and down that all my problems would disappear if I simply purchased a powered USB HUB.  My experience was this suggestion DOES NOT WORK.  The ONLY thing that solved it was this little software utility.

iPad - by the smartest guys in the room

I am a longtime PC person - and like the guy on Star Trek, I have resisted the Borg (Apple). But little by little, Apple has been undermining my love of all things PC, and tempting me over to The Dark Side.

 

It all started with my iPhone 3GS, which I love more every day, I call it a micro-laptop.  The iPad is like an iPhone on steroids, with a huge HD screen that makes everything look good.  Using touch-screen technology, Apple has managed to strip away the big negatives of laptops, primarily and most importantly the WEIGHT and secondly, the BULKY SIZE.

 

Having no lid, you can easily hold the iPad in just one hand, and use the other hand to manipulate programs or type characters.

 

The only serious 'dig' (negative) I encountered in my OOBE (Out Of Box Experience) was that initially my PC would NOT recharge this new toy, forcing me to use the included AC Recharger.  I discovered a post on the web where ASUS, USA has a very fine free utility called AI_Charger (I think that's for Apple i- devices (iPod, iPad, iTouch).  After installing this quick download and rebooting, I was happy to see that my new iPad recharges properly from ALL of my PC's (home and office) WITHOUT using the AC wall wart!  That's HUGE.

 

The other big negative is no support for Adobe FLASH, and thus everything is pushed back until some major websites move to HTML5 instead of FLASH.  I can't play my POGO.com games on my iPad, that's a huge disappointment.

 

But, there are myriad apps for the iPad, some of which are pretty amazing.  I will write more on the apps as I become more familiar with them.

I would rate iPad as 4 out of 5 stars for the reasons already listed. It will be my go-to device on my days off. Around the house too, it's getting a lot of play.