Computer Question (2)

I need a new high drive...I am wondering if it makes sense to buy a new tower...I currently have a Dell 2.66 GHZ with a 256 Cache...

I assume the new generation of computers are more powerful, even the inexpensive ones...

Am I correct?

~

Unless you're into gaming that processor is good enough for most things. There's a lot of people that try to tell you that you need a dual or quad core running at 3GHz to work, but unless you're doing video editing or major number crunching it's not really necessary. If you mostly surf the internet, email, do word processing,watch some videos and play mp3s that system is good enough. Just keep your data backed up.If it's running slow you may just need to cleanup the drive. Download and install Advanced Windows Care and Smart Defrag from
http://www.iobit.com/
It probably wouldn't hurt to add more RAM-most Dells don't have enough, Windows XP doesn't run smooth until you have at least 512Mb, putting in 1Gb rocks.

I am almost certain my hard drive is going... I don't think it's a spywear problem... It's getting harder and harder to get it out of sleep mode...

This is certainly well worth the money
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832200006
Acronis True Image lets you make an image of your drive, clone it to a new one. Disk Director lets you partition on the fly-I always partition my hard drives and keep my data files somewhere other than on the C: drive. That way if you have to reinstall Windows, you don't lose your files(pix, docs, music, etc)

Should I get a Dell, Compaq, HP, E-Machines, or Gateway?

I have a Dell now... I haven't been happy with it or their service...

Actually, Microsoft was of the most help and I don't even have a warranty with them... I called them once, punched a bunch of different numbers, and the tech had pity on me , and helped me fix my problem for free...

and have them build it. What you will get won't be bogged down with "trial offers", spyware and useless crap. Here in Austin there's quite a few places that do that and have comparable prices. They guarantee their work and if it breaks, you can bring it in locally to get it fixed. You can also get a good basic machine and get it upraded later if you want a better video card, sound system, etc. I've fixed my share of Dells, Hps and Compaq and what I hate about them is that they use proprietary motherboards with nonstandard connections that wont let you replace a bad or better motherboard without getting one of their overpriced boards that only their front panel connections will work with.

and now it won't even load Windows... thankfully about two weeks before that I'd noticed that Circuit City had 320 gigs on sale for less than 50 bucks and I picked one up. If I hadn't, I wouldn't be responding right now. :P

Seriously though, look around online and at various stores, see if there's anything on clearance. A lot of times they'll have five or ten of one drive left that they're just not planning on carrying anymore. There's nothing wrong with it. But they don't want it. So it goes cheap. I'd say normal price the drive I just got would be at least a hundred bucks, probably more like 120 at Circuit City. But I got it for 47. Just because my timing was right.

If you do buy something online though, make sure the seller is reputable. Do a google search on their name. I haven't ordered anything online in years, but back when I did, tigerdirect.com and newegg.com were pretty good.

Intel Q6600 processor (Quad core, 8MB cache)
8GB DDR2-800 system RAM
64-bit OS
Nvidia GTX260 video w/768MB RAM
Sound Blaster Fatal1ty
WD Velociraptor HD

That's a DIY system.

however Vista sucks up all that power and then some, so it's a wash.