For three years, I have been running a 400MHz box with 128MB of RAM, a 13Gig hard drive and Windows98. Despite Windows crashing several times a day, I learned to live with it and used the rebooting time to grab myself another beer out of the refrigerator. See, I got locked into a "comfort zone." Had no intention of buying a new PC and in fact, was contemplating buying a bigger hard drive and keeping the PC running for another year.
Well this new PC is utterly mindblowing. For less than half the price I paid for my old computer (which was top-of-the-line at the time), I got a 1.7GHz processer with 512MB of RAM and a 80Gig hard drive. Furthermore, it has a CD-RW drive, a DVD drive, six USB ports including two on the space-age keyboard, firewire ports all over the place and a network card built in. Oh yeah, and it has this optical mouse as well that doesn't need a mousepad. It took me maybe five minutes to learn how to burn a CD and I have no idea how I lived without the ability to burn my own CDs!
When I brought it home, XP immediately recognized my monitor and printer and installed the proper drivers for them. It automatically recognized my home network, configured my Internet connection and prompted me to make a floppy so that the other PC could share the Internet connection!
Most importantly, I've had this PC running for about a week now and it hasn't crashed once. Hasn't even shown a hint of crashing. This Windows XP is rock solid. In fact, I'm probably going to run out and get a copy of XP for my old computer as well.
I've been building my own computers for the past seven years. This is my first pre-built computer since my big mistake with a Packard-Bell back in 1995. Computers have come a long way since I built my last system three years ago. If you are on the fence of upgrading, the deals have never been better and the difference between a modern PC and one of two or three years ago is phenomenal.
Any hints on setting up the home network? As soon as I get a new computer, it's what I have to do, so that both PCs can share the internet connection.
We DID run Cat-5 through the whole house, but so far nothing is hooked up to it!
I've had this PC running for about a week now and it hasn't crashed once. Hasn't even shown a hint of crashing. This Windows XP is rock solid. In fact, I'm probably going to run out and get a copy of XP for my old computer as well.
I bought myself a new puter for Christmas. Dell wtih 2.0 GHz 512MB of RAM and a 80Gig hard drive and XP is the best windows operation system to date. I've been running this thing for 2 weeks and it still hasn't crashed. Even with 50 web sites open at once. Gotta love that 512 ram... Question? When do ya think the DVD writers are going to come down in price. COMP USA has em, but they're 600 bills a pop... DVD disk will hold 5.5 gigs of space and 5yrs ago that was considered a huge hard drive.