Last week I received a great deal of good suggestions from DD regulars regarding a possible computer purchase for the ol' CharleyHorse household. Well, to my surprise once the wife and I batted the notion back and forth for a couple of days we decided to make the buy before the electronic beastie currently sitting before me could go belly-up on us.

You know what I mean, don't you? Anyone who's dealt with home computers for a few years knows that pit of the belly sinking feeling when old dependable is getting ready to blow a hard drive or smoke a mother board or some such horror; and I think this old hunk of junk is working up to blow. It's nothing I can pin down; it's just a feeling, but it's a feeling that's growing day by day.

So the current unit is a four years old PowerSpec running at 3.00Ghz with a Pentium Four Intel chip system and with one gigabyte of ram and a 140 gigabyte hard drive. the operating system is Windows XP.

We bought the replacement system today, although I'm giong to wait until after Christmas to un-crate it and hook it up.

The new desk top system that we bought today is a HP Pavilion Elite m9040n PC quad-core running at 2.4Ghz with 3gigabytes of ram and a 640 gig hard drive . Hot digity!

Windows Vista Home Premium OS. The graphics card is a NVIDIA GeForce 8400GS 256MB DDR2 Low Profile Support PCI Express.

This system by itself was just at $1,000 U.S., which was honestly enough for me. To my further surprise, however, the wife insisted on upgrading to a 22 inch monitor from the current 18 inch pipsqueak that I'm squinting at now as I type this. Anyway after purchasing the Desk top system and the new monitor and a two year warranty and a new UPS battery system and a few minor odds and ends the price topped out at just over $2,000. Now I don't casually plop down two thousand dollars on anything without a qualm, but this purchase should ensure that we can run any software that comes down the pike for at least another half decade. I am pleased with the purchase.

Oh, and it was the great information that I received from fellow DrunkDuckers that helped me to research this buy. Taking what I learned from the rest of you I did a little additional studying on my own and then kicked up the computer review services. Thus I narrowed down my needs versus my wants and my outright fantasies, compared this to my budget, and then discovered that two major review services both spotlighted the HP Elite m9040n quad core as the best bang for the bucks currently available on the market.

This, therefore, is a thank you everybody from ol' CharleyHorse.

CharleyHorse
The new desk top system that we bought today is a HP Pavilion Elite m9040n PC quad-core running at 2.4Ghz with 3gigabytes of ram and a 640 gig hard drive . Hot digity

Thats actually the upgraded version of my old computer. I had the older version of the HP pavilion and it doesnt sound quite as nice a yours (but then again, yours is newer, and costed alot more) i operated off of windows xp, but thats all that was out at the time that i got it. from my own expierience HP computers are generally quite reliable and they are great for photoediting and any digital artwork. so congrats on the new computer, hope you like it!

Thanks. As I type this I am in the process of setting up this handsome beast. So far so good! I usually dislike setting up new computers because something always goes wrong, but aside from a mysterious power outage that occurred in our neighborhood earlier this evening, nothing has gone wrong.

This is the first time I've bought a name brand PC. Of course I'm still in the process and I don't want to start bragging on it. Not that I'm particularly superstitious but that's when things inevitably go all pear-shaped.

CharleyHorse
So the current unit is a four years old PowerSpec running at 3.00Ghz with a Pentium Four Intel chip system and with one gigabyte of ram and a 140 gigabyte hard drive. the operating system is Windows XP.

You should clean it up and keep it stored in case of an emergency.

I remember when my dad bought his computer, my big sister's pc broke not long after and the family used my dad's for a wile.
And when my dad's broke we used my sister's which was a bit battered by that time.
Aaand when my little sister got her laptop and my dad's pc broke and my big sis's screen broke we used the laptop.
History kind of repeated itself when i got my laptop.

It's always good to have a backup.

PD: Try getting a second video card, make sure it's either the same or compatible with the one on the new comp for smoother video stuff.
And a 1 gig usb memory stick, Vista has this awesome feature that allows you to use the stick as extra RAM, it seems that the stick becomes useless in some cases, so make sure it's one you don't plan to use it in the future.

Thanks for the advice Red Slayer! Yes the old computer is going into storage as an emergency back up. Also about that memory stick, yes, and it's a fantastic idea.

O.O

So, basically you bought a high-end gaming rig. I mean, an 8400 isn't the best but it's definitely good (can't argue with DX10 compatibility), and 3 gigs of ram is probably more than you'll need for a while. Quad core seems a little much as well.

I have to say I'm jealous.

I would say that you can never have enough ram and power… Except with 32 bit operating systems :(

Ah well, if I reach the limits on my new machine I'll just get XP 64.

tip: add too much RAM, then tag a line into your system.ini file specifying the extra as a RAM drive. Move the page file onto the ramdrive. Biggest boost you'll ever see on a 32-bit HP system.

No idea what I just said? Then don't try it.
And no I will not help you if call in, neither will anybody else at HP since its an “unsupported configuration”