Getting a new computer

Topic: Getting a new computer (Read 6658 times) previous topic - next topic

Getting a new computer

Reply #30 – September 18, 2008, 05:55:52 PM

There's a free unix open source office suite that I use that is comparable to MS office. It's called Open Office give it a try.
Neo Office is another. I use open office for all my business stuff and contracts. totally compatible with MS Office too.

Getting a new computer

Reply #31 – September 18, 2008, 07:05:57 PM

Quote from: daminc;236662

There's a free unix open source office suite that I use that is comparable to MS office. It's called Open Office give it a try.
Neo Office is another. I use open office for all my business stuff and contracts. totally compatible with MS Office too.

i don't need that because i do have Microsoft office its just that they save in a different format automatically.

Getting a new computer

Reply #32 – November 12, 2008, 06:19:41 PM

Quote from: Thunder Chicken;236312

I remember paying $400 for a 6.3GB hard drive... and $400 for a 17" monitor... and $300 for a SCSI 4X CD burner... and another $100 for the SCSI card so I could run the burner... and my father paying $600 for a 1MB ATI RAGE video card (as an add-on option for the new $2000 12-MHz 80286 he was buying when I was in high school - the ATI Rage was necessary to have color, otherwise it would've been Hercules monochrome graphics).

I used to build my own computers as well, but new retail machines are sooooooo much cheaper now. Unless you're building a super-high-end gaming machine that requires a custom build it's almost impossible to beat the likes of Dell, Gateway, Compaq, and the other retail machines. I mean, $350 for a dual-core Intel machine with lightscribe DVD burner, 3GB RAM and half a terabyte of storage? And it's not even a Celeron? I haven't built my own machine for years - the Dell was the first store-bought machine and heralded the end of building my own.

I'll play with Vista for a bit, just to try it out. I'd love to try the Mac Hack, but this is an office machine so I can't really screw around with it too much. I'll be keeping the old Dell for parts, so some day I might build another computer out of it and try the Mac OS...

Sounds like you got a decent deal!

You may want to check with Dell on those capacitors. There was a very large batch of them that were leaking/blowing several years back on many brands of mainboards. Something about a "stolen/copied" electrolite formula. I had my Abit KT7-R and a couple of other brand boards that lost the caps repaired free of charge.

I remember the old hardware too. It was expensive comparatively. I do have an oldie in top shape though. It is an Epson FX1040 line printer (tractor feed & wide carriage). Only good for gathering dust now but you would be hard pressed find a new line printer (yes, they still sell them) of the "desktop" classification with similar features.

Getting a new computer

Reply #33 – November 12, 2008, 08:30:47 PM

I had an Epson LQ-1050 back in the early 90's. Noisy, slow, expensive it was. You're right, you can still get line printers, as they're still used for printing multi-copy documents (such as invoices and work orders). Hella expensive tho...

As for the caps, I replaced 'em myself but the computer still wouldn't boot. I'm guessing they cooked the VR circuit.