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Smitty37

Passed Away Mar 29, 2018
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Looking at getting new computers for both of us - this time getting both the same. looking at Dell Inspiron 660s at the moment. We actually need pretty low end machines - mine is used mostly just for the business and my wife's mostly just for Facebook. We need wireless only for internet (we have high speed cable) and actually mine is connected via ethernet. We both use keyboard and mouse and do not want Windows 8. We want Windows 7. We have monitors that will work and we have a linksys E1200 wireless router. There is no computer on the market that does not have enough ram or hard disk for our needs. After 5 years I have 70% of my 150G hard drive space stlll available and my wife has a lot more than that on hers. We don't do a lot of downloading or uploading of large files. I do a little bit with picasa3 and kodak easyshare but we don't do a lot of picture work.

We have a quote from Dell but I wonder if someone else might have something a well suited to our needs for less money. Any suggestions.

Please do not suggest that I build my own - I could do that but do not want to spend the time and effort researching all the things I would need to do it. There was a time when I would have (and did) done that but I won't for this computer
 
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When my laptop dies a few weeks ago, I searched for a new one under for $300 with Win 7, not 8, and could not find anything. I finally found a refurbished Dell Latitude with Win 7 via mail order from Walmart.
 
I just got a laptop (much more memory than that, but there was a wide selection left of Win7) from TigerDirect. They have physical locations in Illinois, so I saw the selection.

Check their website---if you order, you will be smarter than I was--I paid sales tax.

Ed
 
I think there is a way to switch back to windows 7 on any laptop (I think, I don't know). Windows 8 isn't that bad, It's just set up a little different. But if you don't want it, you don't have to get it.
 
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If you don't mind the refurbished, go to Tiger Direct (tigerdirect.com). If your monitors are good you can get a Win7Pro desktop for under $200 and get the extended warranty for around $40. I've been replacing the XP Pro boxes at work with these.
 
I have had Computers since the PC came out in the 80's Started with a Tandy 1000 and DOS 2.11. Wife and I both have window 7 boxes. Last year we upgraded our cell phones to iPhone 5 and I got her a iPad and then she gave me a iPad mini for our Anniversary. At the end of August I bought an Apple iMac desktop, pricey but but it is great and love the fact that my phone, tablet and desktop are synced. I still have my windows box as I haven't migrated every thing over to the mac. I still have my HP laptop which I use when we travel for now. My wife did not switch as she is technically challenged and didn't like the learning curve.

You might check with a local Computer shop and see about them building one to you specs with Win7. My wife's computer is one I assembled for her 5 or 6 years ago but I will be giving her my old Window 7 Dell as it is loaded with optical drive for burning DVD and Blue Ray DVD.

Did I need a new computer no, but I was tired of the constant upgrades and other quirks of Windows. I needed the challenge of a new operating system more than anything else. Now the big challenge is to go through my files on the old machine and delete a bunch of junk before I migrate every thing over to the Mac.
 
Joe S. said:
I think there is a way to switch back to windows 7 on any laptop (I think, I don't know). Windows 8 isn't that bad, It's just set up a little different. But if you don't want it, you don't have to get it.
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Joe, that is not necessarily true. If the laptop manufacturer makes win7 drivers available, you can roll it back to win7, but if they don't have drivers for the hardware, it can be very frustrating trying to roll it back. A lot of the new win8 machines are on new hardware that has never had win7 running on it, and drivers are not available.
 
A couple of weeks ago I bought one of the Dell 660 systems for a neighbor and set it up for him. I was very pleased with the system. I ordered it with win7 and it came in less than a week, although they said it would take up to two weeks.

Nice thing about these desktops is that they have built in wifi. This means you can set them up anywhere and don't have to be within cable range of your modem/router. All laptops today have built in wireless, but it is not that common in desktops.
 
Just an option here, but since you have basically have no requirements that don't come standard with just about any machine made today, load up the wife and go to Wal-Mart, Best Buy, and the rest of the usual suspects and pick up the best deal you can find. Add a few bucks for a warranty and you're home free. Alternatively, refurbished Dell CPS w/ Win7 can be had at Wal-Mart dot com for $175 shipped free to the store for pick-up and you can probably escape sales tax too.
 
Set up and Moving Software

How "different" is it to go from XP to Windows8 I presume that Win7 to Win8 would be easy.

My wife's current machine is Win7 and she doesn't use it for much beyond Facebook because all of the stuff she used to do where she did a lot with making cards etc, we don't do any more because you can do them all on line and email them.

I only have a few programs where everything is on my computer but one of them is very important. All of my customer addresses are in a mailing program on my computer which is also where I print my address labels...I'm not sure I want to move that, although I could probably move it to paypal or the USPS website. I kind of like it the way it is.
 
Smitty37 said:
How "different" is it to go from XP to Windows8 I presume that Win7 to Win8 would be easy. My wife's current machine is Win7 and she doesn't use it for much beyond Facebook because all of the stuff she used to do where she did a lot with making cards etc, we don't do any more because you can do them all on line and email them. I only have a few programs where everything is on my computer but one of them is very important. All of my customer addresses are in a mailing program on my computer which is also where I print my address labels...I'm not sure I want to move that, although I could probably move it to paypal or the USPS website. I kind of like it the way it is.
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Win 8 is the learning curve. XP, vista and 7 are all really close. 8 is the change to the desktop and stuff... Once you figure out how to get around, most of your apps will still work.
 
Well I can find lower cost systems with Win8 than with Win7Pro.

I know I can learn the system well enough to use it for what I want to do. But, I resent having to learn a new way of doing the same thing every couple of years.

Oh Well. There was also a time when if you wanted to get into my computer you had to know it's unlisted phone number...and even if you knew that, the computer wouldn't answer the phone unless I told it to.
 
Smitty37 said:
Well I can find lower cost systems with Win8 than with Win7Pro.

I know I can learn the system well enough to use it for what I want to do. But, I resent having to learn a new way of doing the same thing every couple of years.

Oh Well. There was also a time when if you wanted to get into my computer you had to know it's unlisted phone number...and even if you knew that, the computer wouldn't answer the phone unless I told it to.
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Did you have to put the telephone handset into the cups on an acoustic modem like this one?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acoustic_coupler
 
:biggrin:Sharon, that would help but I have not owned an Apple machine since 1987 and I only had it for about 4 months then....:biggrin:Nothing agains Steve Jobs but I did work for IBM for 32 years...and contrary to some of the younger folk I did have company loyalty when I bought things IBM sold. You would not walk into my house and see a competitors product.
sbwertz said:
Windows 8 is more like apple OS than like win7.
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I have Windows 8 on my newest computer, a Dell and I like it. It works for me just about like 7 and the only thing I didn't like was shutting down or restarting. You have to put the cursor over to the far right and move it around until a side bar pops out. Pretty silly, but today I did a search and there are remedies. Hold down the Windows button and press I and boom the side bar pops out and stays there until you click somewhere else on the screen again, and it is also easy to set up a Shutdown and Restart icons on your desk top. I did that also in about 3 minutes. I've had no other problems with 8 and I was a big 7 fan.
 
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sbwertz said:
Smitty37 said:
Well I can find lower cost systems with Win8 than with Win7Pro.

I know I can learn the system well enough to use it for what I want to do. But, I resent having to learn a new way of doing the same thing every couple of years.

Oh Well. There was also a time when if you wanted to get into my computer you had to know it's unlisted phone number...and even if you knew that, the computer wouldn't answer the phone unless I told it to.
Click to expand...

Did you have to put the telephone handset into the cups on an acoustic modem like this one?

Acoustic coupler - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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No although it was possible earlier it was around 1994 or so before I tried connecting to the internet. There was one big reason for that, I lived in an area where the dial up connection was long distance and cost about $3.00/hour - about the only thing available was AOL and there was almost nothing you could do except chat - if you could find someone to chat with. AOL gave me a free trial for 30 days, I had a 2400 baud modem and it took forever to get dialed in and then you'd send a message and wait 5 minutes for a response - assuming the other party didn't get disconnected. At any rate the phone bill which to their credit AOL paid was close to $500.00 and I decided that was more than I was willing to pay for the novelty.

In I995 I finally got local dial up but they were not able to increase the number of connections they could have going fast enough so it was quite hard to get service. So I didn't really get to a point where I could get on at a reasonable cost with a reasonable speed (by then I had a 56 baud modem - It might have been 28 for awhile but upgraded to 56) until 1996, then I got a second phone.

I did use the type of modem you're showing at work though. Not often though...
 
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The two biggest downsides to windows 8 is compatibility and the gui changes (in that order). barring compatibility issues the gui changes is quite easy to change to look like windows xp or 7.

However you said no windows 8 so that should not be the topic here.

Instead I will offer this. Call up the business section, you will not only get better quality equipment but higher quality service as well. You can still get windows 7 on most of the business line as this arena is the one that always lags behind for a very good reason to mind you.

The other thing you want is a 3 year warranty. Most of the 'home' line nets you 1 year or less. Many may already be aware of this but when the warranty period runs out you can expect problems with the equipment at that point.

Business line equipment does tend to run slightly more but often for good reason. When you call for service be it hardware or something else the quality is vastly different. Home line equipment they tend to read scripts and treat you like an idiot where the business line you mention you 'think' or 'suspect' they swap it out and send you new parts regardless if it's bad or not with no questions ask. If you are one of those who would just say ah screw it and go buy another then this angle really does not matter that much.

When it comes to laptop the #1 and #2 killer is heat and abuse. Most laptops are horrible when it comes to heat channeling and relies more on low power chips which provides less heat to fix that problem. What they dont get in design is heat rises yet many will try to vent heat downwards or to the rear. The home market they are doing a very big push to get everyone to move to laptops and portables but not with the commercial market.

Fan design is one of the biggest irks that I have. Many desktops will have poor layout and traps heat inside the box. When the ambient temp (inside the case FYI) approaches 90F the effectiveness of the fan drops to nil. Couple this with a vast majority of cabinet shops, furniture and the like that does not have adequate ventilation for equipment like this that becomes a very harsh reality for equipment failure very quickly. The use of small form factors and the like become a blessing as they can be hidden behind the monitor.


While your needs may be small you also need to look at other areas that you could use. i.e. streaming netflix you can watch on your computer, headphones and/or speaker is all that is needed. One of my clients talks to his grand daughter in Germany via skype. Also you have books and the like plus a good number of other areas you could use. I have the thermostat to my house setup so I can access it via my iphone anywhere I am at and control the heating/cooling.

Hope this helps.
 
Did you perchance know Sean O'Donnell? He worked at IBM in ...I think it was White Plains NY back in the very early 60s. My husband was with GE. He headed the group that wrote the first ANSI standard COBOL compiler. He was also on the ANSI standards committee that approved the ASCI code. I knew Eric Klemens who invented the backslash as a pathing character. Those were the very roots of computer science. Jack started working with GE when he was on the faculty at West Point and GE came to give programming classes to the cadets. They asked for volunteers to help as class assistants and he volunteered. They hired him as soon as his enlistment was up and we have been in Phoenix ever since.

Sharon

Smitty37 said:
:biggrin:Sharon, that would help but I have not owned an Apple machine since 1987 and I only had it for about 4 months then....:biggrin:Nothing agains Steve Jobs but I did work for IBM for 32 years...and contrary to some of the younger folk I did have company loyalty when I bought things IBM sold. You would not walk into my house and see a competitors product.
sbwertz said:
Windows 8 is more like apple OS than like win7.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
Compatability has been the biggest reason I have stayed away from 8. I don't want to have to replace all my older peripherals and software. 8 is pretty picky about what who it wants to play nicely with.
 
Be very careful buying a Win8 machine thinking it can be rolled back to Win7. Do some Google searches. It's not a simple re-install. I bought an HP at Best Buy with WIN8 a couple of months ago and was told I could still get a Win7 machine if I wanted to wait a couple of days.
 
edstreet said:
LagniappeRob said:
StartIsBack - real start menu in Windows 8 Best $3 (license for 2 PCs, $5 for 5) is the best investment I've made in my sanity (though some would question my sanity beforehand anyway).

I have to have Win8 for some development purposes, but hate the interface. StartIsBack made it "reasonable" to switch.
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Uhm, try Classic Shell - Start menu and other Windows enhancements instead.
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Um, why? Startisback works and does what I need (want). $3 was worth it. My machine gets complicated enough (6 different development environments alone - 3 different VS versions, Android/Java, Arduino and ARM) without switching things just for the sake of switching. Perhaps I'm missing something and just don't realize it? But I'd need more than "try x instead" - I need "x" will do x,y,z that the other won't...
 
I am a true believer in the custom builds. Even if they are simple machines. Try to find a computer shop in your area and ask questions. Remember questions are free (usually :)) They might even give you a deal for two of them.
 
mvande21 said:
I am a true believer in the custom builds. Even if they are simple machines. Try to find a computer shop in your area and ask questions. Remember questions are free (usually :)) They might even give you a deal for two of them.
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Questions may be free, but I charge for answers. Correct answers are extra.
 
mvande21 said:
I am a true believer in the custom builds. Even if they are simple machines. Try to find a computer shop in your area and ask questions. Remember questions are free (usually :)) They might even give you a deal for two of them.
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Local custom build guy said for what I want I was better off going to Dell/HP Suggested maybe Best Buy or Walmart. He said even for a smaller less capable system they would cost more
 
As a side note....has anyone here gone to using an external hard drive? If you have do you run any software off it rather than from an internal?
 
Considering they'd pay $99 for an OEM Win7 or 8 alone (assuming they'll play by the rules), that's not uncommon. The reason the big box PCs come with bloatware is they're getting paid to put it on there - just like a new phone. I couldn't build a low-end box in just parts for myself (no profit & free labor) for what I can buy one for from the big guys.
 
Smitty37 said:
As a side note....has anyone here gone to using an external hard drive? If you have do you run any software off it rather than from an internal?
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I have 4 externals. One is a system backup, one has dvd's on it, one has photos on it, one is utilities that I use on client's systems. (I use to use a flash drive for the utilities, but I kept going off and leaving the flash drives behind. At least the externals are big enough I don't forget them.)

Every time I upgrade one of the laptops to a bigger drive, I take the old one and put it in an external box kit.
 
sbwertz said:
Did you perchance know Sean O'Donnell? He worked at IBM in ...I think it was White Plains NY back in the very early 60s. My husband was with GE. He headed the group that wrote the first ANSI standard COBOL compiler. He was also on the ANSI standards committee that approved the ASCI code. I knew Eric Klemens who invented the backslash as a pathing character. Those were the very roots of computer science. Jack started working with GE when he was on the faculty at West Point and GE came to give programming classes to the cadets. They asked for volunteers to help as class assistants and he volunteered. They hired him as soon as his enlistment was up and we have been in Phoenix ever since.

Sharon

Smitty37 said:
:biggrin:Sharon, that would help but I have not owned an Apple machine since 1987 and I only had it for about 4 months then....:biggrin:Nothing agains Steve Jobs but I did work for IBM for 32 years...and contrary to some of the younger folk I did have company loyalty when I bought things IBM sold. You would not walk into my house and see a competitors product.
sbwertz said:
Windows 8 is more like apple OS than like win7.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
No, I knew almost no one who worked in White Plains - I worked in Poughkeepsie, NY and Owego, NY. I spent 3 separate weeks in White Plains in the 1985/86 time frame. I didn't know too many programmers either being pretty much a hardware guy myself. I did program some with APL but otherwise was pretty much a machine language type. I could usually figure out what the program was supposed to be doing but couldn't write much that needed to be compiled
 
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