I need advice on buying a computer. I currently use a Windows 98-based HP Pavilion desktop with the following components: 64 megabytes of RAM, 500-megahertz chip speed; a CD writer, a 13-gigabyte hard drive and a dial-up modem. The new machine must be fast, work with Microsoft Word and Excel, burn CDs and connect with two printers. The computer that interests me: Dell E510 Series Pentium D Processor Dual Core Technology (2.66-gHz chip speed). It has 1 gigabyte of DDR2 SDRAM at 533 mHz, Windows XP Home Edition, 80-gigabyte hard drive, single drive 48x CD-RW/DVD-ROM combo, 17-inch analog flat- panel monitor and 128- megabyte PCI Express x16 AT Radeon x300 graphics card.
– Volk Schmidt
A. I am tempted to tell you to just stick with that old reliable and pokey Windows 98 dinosaur and try hooking it up to a DSL line for the near term. It’s dicey deciding on new Windows computers now because early next year Microsoft will finally release the new Vista operating system, designed to follow Windows XP, including the version on the new machine you are eying.
Microsoft will move heaven and Earth trying to make it easy to upgrade machines such as that new Dell to Windows Vista. Upgrades may be done over broadband Internet connections and thus prove easier by far than past Windows upgrades. But even if Vista is available via broadband download, it will be far simpler to just buy a new computer with Vista already installed.
That said, I note that you got by with Windows 98 for more than seven years when the rest of us moved on to Windows ME and then Windows XP in its Home, Professional and Media Center versions. When you see what a howler the new machine will be compared with your current dinosaur, you should be happy as a clam for years to come just as you mostly were sticking with Windows 98.
The Dell you describe has only one big shortcoming: It lacks a DVD burner, which is a common way companies keep prices down on budget offerings. Even if you just nibble at the Internet with that new machine, you’re going to wind up with files far too large for mere CDs. Also, it is much nicer to get a 19-inch flat- panel monitor, but you probably won’t notice any problem, given seven years in front of a cathode-ray tube display.
