Computer: What brand of computer do you use?

[Doug Nelson]

Lots of OS discussions here, but I can't recall any about computer brands. What brand is your computer, and why did you buy that brand?

[MiningArt]

I use a Compaq. In the early years of computing Compaq was a clone maker that had a solid reputation for quality rugged machines. They did have some proprietary issues though. Now that Compaq has merged with Hewlett-Packard it has become a mainstream affordable product.

[aartist]

I have HP and was disappointed it did not upgrade without glitches.
HP said it was Microsoft's problem even though HP offered the
upgrade "KIT" through their website.

They made the Windows7 upgrade a selling point,
but refuse to address problems because of it. Not happy with
HP at this point.

[Steve13]

VPR Matrix, an old Best Buy Store Brand. It was inexpensive, had the features I wanted, and was easily upgradeable. It still plugs along, but I think it's about time to get a new one, so I'll be interested in what other people think about theirs.

[skydog]

I have a sony V10 desktop...to date working fine, but I really need an upgrade. I'd like an Apple for finalcut, but I have all this windows software investment (kinda like a lens) and I just don't want to deal with the conversions. I heard Apple can run in a windows environment but can some tell me how easy it is to move from one environment to another if you need to work in both?

If I stick to windows can someone recommend the current best processor for the money. Not looking for the top of the line, but anything I get now is better than what I have. I'd like to stay around $1000.

[plugsnpixels]

Skydog, do you mean moving from one environment to the other on the same machine? Using Parallels, seamless.

I've got Win7, WinXP, Ubuntu and Kubuntu Linux all on the same computer, Linux mainly just because I can ;-). It's an easy, safe and painless way to experiment with other OS's while using OS-X as your main boot.

[JohnnyQuest007]

i just recently finished building my station, as it is to my liking with CS3 and CS4 programs. i find it rather enjoying to do so then to spend money on a pre-built one.

[JohnnyQuest007]

skydog, i recommend anything quad core 2 as the processors are getting cheaper. ive heard that amd's tend to run a lil hot, but its a bit more affordable.
check www.microcenter.com and www.newegg.com. you can even try www.tigerdirect.com to just to compare prices!

[Kraellin]

i almost always build my own and if i dont it's because of some emergency where i have to have a computer RIGHT NOW! or, like this time, i simply oversee the building of my computer. so, mine isnt any one brand. the mobo is Asus, the chip is intel, the vid card is nvidia, the dual terrabyte harddrives are western digital (in mirrored RAID) and the case and power supply are nvidia. so, mine is a hybrid. it's also completely 64 bit, including the motherboard and vista. i bought vista only because they promised a free upgrade to win7 when it came out... i'm still waiting, but they tell me they've now got it in the store and i can now get it.

there are pluses and minuses to building your own. one, you know what you're getting, completely. with off-the-shelf you may or may not know exactly what you're getting. there's no built-in software with build your own. retail often does have extra software already installed. there are generally no headaches in buying retail. building your own means installing windows yourself and that's almost guaranteed to be a headache. building your own means no onboard graphics card (this is a plus, in my opinion). most off the shelf models have onboard graphics and most of those tend to be rather cheap, fussy and unreliable. building your own and retail both come with warranties. however, building your own does not allow for 'extended warranty' options, which frankly i find offensive anyways building your own also usually means you'll know your system better than someone who always buys retail. this is only a very general thing but having to construct your own does tend to give you a little more working knowledge of things, including hardware and software experience.

so, all in all, i do tend to like to build my own, but, i also understand that some folks just dont want the hassle. it's not what they do. me, i just like to grouch about microsoft, so i build my own

[aartist]

I'm surprised at the number of custom builts in the voting. Off the shelf, non Apple, desktops are a bargain nowadays. But I do like knowing what's in them, as Craig says. I agree with him about the graphics card and wanting to grouch about microsoft!

There have been way too many hours spent trying to get Windows 7 upgrade to work on
HP's desktop using HP's very own upgrade "KIT" for this particular "new" model. Blue screen of death at the beginning, and I haven't seen that in years. Flashbacks to earlier releases of windows. By the time I get it ironed out, the machine will be more familiar to me. Sort of a forced familiarity.

I have had just enough of a taste of Apple's operating system to realize how much more stable it is. No registry and virus's are virtually unheard of. Now, if only their equipment was more moderately priced.

[Florin]

Hello everybody.
I always mount my good clone. First of all I must say I live in Venezuela and this is a great limitation talking about buy good expensive stuff. Our currency, the last couple of years went down and down. ¿Why spend money for a brand PC (exceptin the MACs, of course) if I can mount a solid PC? The brands use the same hardware you could buy on line market: Intel, Asus, Msi mobos, Intel or AMD processors, DDR2 or DDR3 Ram (brands never use the bests), nVidia or ATI GPUs an so on. You can upgrade you PC every year if you own a good mobo. No limitatons at all.
Evey year I invest some $400-500 US$ upgading my PC and that`s really nothing, 40 bucks per month.
Now I had upgraded the processor and the RAM memory. This clone really flyes and I`m happy to work with. No crashes, no BSOD, anything.
AMD Phenom II 720 x3 Black Edition 3.2Ghz (OCed 200x16)
MSI K9N2 sli Platinum mobo
4Gb Patriot Extreme Vipper PC2-6400-800Mhz 4-4-4-12-2T-2.1V DDR2 Ram
MSI nVidia 9600 GTS OC graphic card
x2 WDigital Caviar Black-Sata300-32Mb cache-750Gb/each HD
Plextor DVD-RW multiscribe etc
Xion Power Real 600W PS
19" (4:3) LG Fantasy monitor
22" (16:10) Siragon monitor
I`m happy with it.
Regards

[JohnnyQuest007]

all very good reason for building a custom machine.
the last thing i like to add just for myself, is the time and effort and what not in building the machine is like when i work on my old 1985 toyota supra....there's a sense of personal connection and the fact it means something more to me, due to the effort that was put into it. (sourcing parts, comparing price)
although the things i can not do on my car or pc, i will take to a tech.
then again...maybe im just weird like that...

[DoxieLuvr]

I have an HP. The first I had was a Compaq back in 1999. I had it for 4 years. It was the best I think that I've ever had. Before I purchase this one I did consider purchasing a custom built one, but then the guy who built them has moved somewhere else--don't know where.

[CJ Swartz]

My HP started giving me problems after 6 years, (served me very well) and rather than get it fixed and upgraded, I decided on a new machine. I chose Dell because I could get it a little cheaper with the configuration I wanted, although I was/am worried about their reliability issues lately. Initial setup went well, and I'm loving Windows 7! Also have a graphics card instead of the integrated-with-the motherboard one I had with HP - hopefully it will let me do more without PShop "grumbling". Have a fast processor and a lot of memory also to help PShop.

[Kraellin]

i'm also going to advise folks to start looking into 64 bit windows and motherboards (you need both for it to truly be 64 bit). the reason for this is both speed and memory availability. if you dont know what '64 bit' means, it's really very simple. a 'bit' is the smallest unit of digital data. 8 bits used to make a 'byte' or a 'digital word' so to speak. a bit would be sort of like a letter, but it's really just a placeholder and a byte is really just a placeholder for data also. the real bits and bytes are binary, the ones and zeros, the ons and offs, the there and not theres, the energy 'bit' and the lack of one. see, a computer is really still an analog beast. but that analog data is translated and spit out as digital. it's the arrangement into nice, neat ones and zeros that make it that we can more or less create human type data with it. so, you take 8 of these analog impulses and string them together and set up a bunch of rules and you get a byte, or an 8 bit word.

in the early days of personal computers all bytes were 8 bits long. as computers got better they went to 16 bit. now the 'word' was no longer 8 units long, it was 16. that made a lot more things possible and it made things faster. as we moved along the computer evolution they went to 32 bit. that's where we are, as home users, now, for the most part. but, 64 bit has been here for a while. it just hasnt taken off as fast as the others did. but, it shld. current windows memory is limited to about 3 gigabytes and that's if you get the patch from microsoft. otherwise, it's two. anyone working in photoshop with layers and high resolution files knows that your computer starts to get sluggish after a while and about the only thing you can do is to quit out of your application and start it up again. this tends to refresh the memory allocation and frees up a bit of memory from where you were using it up before. but, it really doesnt cure it. it just happens again after you've been working for a while.

so, 32 bit is limited. even with a large, hefty swap file/dedicated workspace, you're still using up ram and then drawing on the harddrive as ram. harddrive speed is extremely slower than ram, so, you start to get sluggish again. the solution is to get rid of the limitations of 32 bit by going 64 bit. i'm not even sure what the limits are for 64 bit but i know my motherboard has space for 12 gigabytes and can use it all.

but, there is one other caveat here. your applications also have to be written to take advantage of 64 bit. it doesnt mean your 32 bit application wont work on a 64 bit system, but it does mean it likely wont take full advantage of your 64 bit capabilities. the good news is, photoshop cs4 has a 64 bit version. i dont know about corel's paint shop pro. and i know we're trying to get folks like filter forge to make the move that way. i would encourage other software developers to do so as well. it only makes sense in the long run.

so, that's my recommendation for the day. i know it was a bit lengthy, but dont byte me for it

[aartist]

I agaree with Craig. More memory requires 64bit.

Remember the days when their were no graphics, just text.
My first computer was the Sinclair with 2k of memory.
Wow!

[RSelby]

Hello, I'm a Mac!

[skydog]

Because of the software I now own, I sticking with windows. I've been looking at the labtops (Dell, HP, Sony, Lenovo, etc) and they all seem to be priced about the same (Sony a little more expensive) for less than $1000. Any option or reading regarding reliability? Do you recommend maintenance agreement.

After use due you turn your computer off, put it to sleep, or leave it on. I leave my on but I'm currently using a desktop.

[Florin]

Hello. I don`t think buying this and working graphical design with a cheap laptop/notebook (700-800 US$) is the best idea. A good one, with nvidia 9600-9800gt GPU, 4Gb ram ddr2 or ddr3, 2-2.2Gb processor worth 1500US$ more or less. The gamers ones are close to 2000 US$.
1. Shorter liftime. The heating is killing the notebooks wich could be forced to hard tasks. 4-5 years/life. A good desktop should double this easely.
2. Less possibility to upgrade. You must die with it as it is.
3. The big 17 inch display (I have one, HP dv9925nr) means more weight, 7 to 8 pounds + accessories. At least 10 pounds to carry.
4. If you really need this, could be for working something extra, when you`re not in your house. As I told you, I have one and use it in the afternoons, when I`m teaching.
Have you own conclusions.
Regards

[Kraellin]

skydog,

i have a lenovo laptop, albeit a cheapy. i dont recommend it. the only reason i got it was because when i was buying all the stores had was vista and i didnt want vista (pre-service pack one). the only one i could find with xp was the lenovo. they put their own software in pretty deeply and the bloody stuff nags me from time to time with 'important messages'. pheh! i also couldnt figure out how to get into bios even though their manual told me how. that was just odd. it also came with one of those built-in mini-cams which i immediately disabled. very low resolution and was eating resources. all in all, i dont much care for this laptop.

[Tareq]

I was using different PCs with no brand name, just collection of different brands for many parts, then since 2008 i converted to Apple and i never look back, first i started with MacBook Pro 17" but it stopped working by 2009 [maybe in July or August], then i went to buy another MacBook Pro 13" new one, i took my old MBP 17" to USA to fix it but it was pricey same as in my country so i rejected to do so, i bought Mac Mini just after my old MBP 17" stopped working and since that i still using it until i hope to buy a Mac Pro, last month i bought a "HP" laptop for my wife which has Windows 7 Home edition, i updated one of my old PCs so i could use it again and i installed Windows 7 Ultimate on it and working like a charm and happy, so i will try with my another PC to fix it and install Windows 7 as well, it is really great version or windows ever i use since DOS and Windows 3.xx

[janicee]

guess apple will really be he favorite here.
anyway I've voted for Dell, mine is a latitude computer. works great to me.

[plugsnpixels]

I was thinking about Apple and Adobe having their tiff over Flash, and how many people use Macs at Photoshop World (for instance). Guess those two better get it sorted out!

[spotter]

I'm on a custom build. Usually we would build our own but a couple of years ago there was a good build on ebay for £300 which contained all I would have built into my own machine and without the having to source everything. I couldnt compete with the price when buying the whole thing but it was about the same as I would have spent if I had reused the case and drives on my older computer.
We have apple macs as well which are used alongside if I get busy enough to need it.
There are a couple of laptops here which are acer machines which can manage to run adobe and one that has linux and Gimp.

[Pictus]

I build my own, this link down may have some interesting links for those who want to build a PC for post processing.
http://www.retouchpro.com/forums/har...tml#post264609

[Isedo]

Hi, as a freelance and person who likes to travel I own just a Sony Vaio laptop with 17' screen with 4g ram. Quite expensive (1500 euros) but efficient and fast, a little bit heavy, yes. Now i'm getting an extra monitor to take at home, so when i'm not around I can work on a better screen.

The problem is that the battery longs 2 hours, with all the staff opened just 1.30 minutes. I'm thinking buing a new one woth 6-7 hours of autonomy.

[Janet Petty]

I have two computers (one for home and a laptop for work). Both of them have "brand" names on the case; but both are custom configurations by my tech savvy husband, who has spent the last 35 years in the computer industry. In our home, we might go without a lot of things, but computer skills, hardware, and software are constantly evolving.

Janet

[Cyde]

I've always built my own till now. I'm running a VMWare host running 2 Windows 2008 servers as VMs and a desktop running Win 7 Ult x64 and a laptop also with Win 7 Utl x64. I have another desktop that I build running Redhat 5.2 that I keep my financial records on. All are Dell boxes. I didn't build the laptop. It's a Dell Studio 1747 with a 1080p 17.3 inch monitor and I LOVE it!! My desktop and server are Dell Opti 755's that I built myself. I bought the Dell case and Motherboard off ebay and added a powerful CPU and maxed out the RAM capacity on both boxes. I use the desktop for mainly photo processing and some video editing. Photoshop and Premier run extremely smooth and fast on my desktop and it's a joy to work with. I just received my laptop and I plan on using it for tethered shooting as well as on location photo touchups. These Dell boxes run EXTREMELY quiet and I'm thinking about building another one for use as a media center in my living room.

[Filip Cz]

I use Mac pro. Reason? OSX. I hate Windows. That's all.

[prufrock]

I built my own i7 920 6gig ram 1terabyte + 64gig ssd 64bit windows7