Low-tech consumer needs computer advice

[trinacriabob]

Hey gents and ladies (where's gmpg these days?)

I'd like to think I'm fairly smart, but I'm always a "late adopter" (marketing term) when it comes to technology, for the pricing and for me to "get over" my lack of understanding the new technology. (Duh, I bought a 3800 OHV V6). That being said, I'm using my tax refunds to buy new hardware.

Some brief questions:

1) Are the HP Pavilion desktops with Intel Dual Core or Quad Core reliable machines? Any pluses or minuses? What kinds of limitations to their use could I encounter by limiting the size of the hard drive or RAM? (I will not be getting a laptop, though my friend says they're ideal for a coffeehouse person).

2) Are the flat screen monitors in the 20" range by HP or Samsung reliable and to which a consumer ought to be indifferent?

3) I have found 2 all-in-ones I like. Both are about $300. One is the HP Photosmart and the other is an OfficePro 8500. How would you decide which to buy?

Thanks. I know there are numerous tech-savvy people here.

[daves87rs]

Waiting for the info to flow in...

HP has been good to my friend..it takes some abuse too...

[loki]

HP makes good pc's as far as i'm concerned..

only reason i would not buy an hp is their software they add, to everything. that's why i'll build my pc's 9/10 times but i've only built my 1 and only pc so far. lol

the hp software on my sis's laptop was time wasting to set it up the first time... and because they don't include Windows CDs anymore is not nice if the thing ever totally crashes.

monitors.... samsung makes good ones. HP...? guessing they're just rebranded something else....

printers.... i'm just going to say duty cycle... if you use it seldomly, get the consumer level... if you use it a couple times a week, prolly the office one...

that's my $.02

[FAPTurbo]

I'm not sure who makes the monitors for HP, but some of them are very nice; bright, and vivid. Their PC's are good but you'll wanna check out the competition from Dell, and whathaveyou.

Edited April 4, 2009 by Captainbooyah

[Intrepidation]

I've had good experiences with HPs

I'm guessing what you do on the computer isn't very graphic intensive. Quad Cores will be more than enough. If you're getting Vista 64 might as well pony up for the extra Ram (I would say 4 gigs). The more Ram you have the more virtual memory the computer has to work with and multitask.

HP monitors, I don't know but I'm guessing they're rebranded monitors from Samsung or something. Should be fine.

As far as printers go, I would look into what Epson and Canon offer. They are by far the best IMHO. I haven't had any issues with my HP all-in-one, but it can't compare to the Canon printer I also have when it comes to printing features and quality of the prints..

[Oracle of Delphi]

Hey gents and ladies (where's gmpg these days?)

I'd like to think I'm fairly smart, but I'm always a "late adopter" (marketing term) when it comes to technology, for the pricing and for me to "get over" my lack of understanding the new technology. (Duh, I bought a 3800 OHV V6). That being said, I'm using my tax refunds to buy new hardware.

Some brief questions:

1) Are the HP Pavilion desktops with Intel Dual Core or Quad Core reliable machines? Any pluses or minuses? What kinds of limitations to their use could I encounter by limiting the size of the hard drive or RAM? (I will not be getting a laptop, though my friend says they're ideal for a coffeehouse person).

2) Are the flat screen monitors in the 20" range by HP or Samsung reliable and to which a consumer ought to be indifferent?

3) I have found 2 all-in-ones I like. Both are about $300. One is the HP Photosmart and the other is an OfficePro 8500. How would you decide which to buy?

Thanks. I know there are numerous tech-savvy people here.

You are a funny man ...

[loki]

are you looking at HP because of past history with them, or some deals you're not letting us in on? lol

[z28luvr01]

So you've decided to finally give the ol' Win98 machine the boot.

1) Are the HP Pavilion desktops with Intel Dual Core or Quad Core reliable machines? Any pluses or minuses? What kinds of limitations to their use could I encounter by limiting the size of the hard drive or RAM? (I will not be getting a laptop, though my friend says they're ideal for a coffeehouse person).

Based on my experiences with two HP laptops, the hardware is virtually indestructible and runs pretty fast. However, you'll probably need to do some tweaking when you get it. By tweaking I mean uninstalling a plethora of extra crap that HP loads onto the system from the factory.

2) Are the flat screen monitors in the 20" range by HP or Samsung reliable and to which a consumer ought to be indifferent?

Samsung LCDs are great. Great picture quality at a pretty affordable price.

3) I have found 2 all-in-ones I like. Both are about $300. One is the HP Photosmart and the other is an OfficePro 8500. How would you decide which to buy?

Do you want/need a fax? If not, you can probably drop down to HP's PSC line of printers, which are much more affordable yet still give good quality. Canon inkjets are pretty good though their mechanicals don't seem to be as hearty as HP's. My main beef with Epsons over the years is the print cartridge design. If you don't use the printer for a while, the print heads get clogged up with dried in, and not only do you have to put in a new cartridge, you have to waste that cartridge doing several cleaning cycles.

Thanks. I know there are numerous tech-savvy people here.

[trinacriabob]

Awesome, guys. I appreciate it!