Advice needed on a new pc or laptop

Published on January 10, 2008 By teddybearcholla In Personal Computing

I am looking to purchase a new pc. I have an HP Pavilion, WindowsXP Home SP2. Intel Celeron CPU 2.ooGHz , 1.99 GHz, 504MB of RAM , Intel Extreme Graphics, which I am still very happy with. But I would like to create images that can be printed at 300dpi...and poster size, say 30"x40"...although my son wants one as long as his sofa...

Some of the programs I use are Apophysis, photoshop6, psp7, Artrage, Artrage2, twistedbrush, coreldraw9 and photopaint, dogwaffle, deep paint, Inkscape, Terragen, Contextfree, ArtWeaver...and a few more. I have a Maxtor One Touch external hard drive for back up and an Epson stylus photo 1280. From what I have been reading, many of these programs are not compatible with Vista. I have found a few XP's at Dell. I do not need Microsoft Word, and I do not play games on my pc. I'm not sure about a flat screen, I like the regular monitor...although I have used my friends laptop and I do not have the glare, I sometimes have with the monitor.
Any advice, thoughts....would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you, Barbara

Comments (Page 2)

whatwhere

on Mar 18, 2008

most onboard graphics cards will sometimes "borrow" physical memory if it runs out of it's own.

teddybearcholla

on Mar 18, 2008

I'd suggest adding another 512mb of RAM (if it really only is 512 instead of 1gb).

I'll talk with the guy that built it...supposed to be 1 gig..

If it's a desktop pc then yes you can add a video card, just need to know what your mobo will allow (AGP, PCI-e 16x, etc). Would need to lookup the specifications for your motherboard or have someone (who knows what they're doing) crack open the case and take a looksie (for the RAM too).

I would not be the one to do this, since I'm not that knowledgeable about the insides of the pc. Thank you bebi!!

most onboard graphics cards will sometimes "borrow" physical memory if it runs out of it's own.

Thank you, I didn't know that!!

yrag

on Mar 19, 2008

I PM'd you earlier....you have 1 GB of memory installed.

teddybearcholla

on Mar 19, 2008

Thank you yrag, I received your pm...much appreciated!!

teddybearcholla

on Mar 19, 2008

Thank you yrag, I received your pm...much appreciated!!

kona0197

on Mar 19, 2008

With Vista you need at least 2 GB to make it worth using everyday...

on Mar 20, 2008

2 GB indeed. With 64 bit you need in least a gb more.

teddybearcholla

on Mar 21, 2008

Kona, I don't have Vista....and I can add another GB....

I never understood what the 64 bit,and all the other little bits means....maybe theres a link to somewhere that explains the importance of *bits*....

ama02

on Mar 21, 2008

maybe theres a link to somewhere that explains the importance of *bits*....

Here's a link to a FAQ on Microsoft's site, about 32-bit vs 64-bit OS... LINK

teddybearcholla

on Mar 21, 2008

Thank you very much ama02!!

my wall

on Mar 21, 2008

If you choose either laptop or desktop, I recommend avoiding anything with integrated intel "graphics" chips. Intel sucks in that department, not only are they severely deficient in comparison to their competitors, but the budget systems that come crippled with them are usually overpriced. Go with either nvidia or ati especially for the type of applications that you plan on running.

damoose

on Mar 21, 2008

Do crt monitors need driver updates? Now seeing the difference between my 2 monitors, this tells me that everyone sees, images differently. Obviously I have been viewing wallpapers, windowblinds, etc. darker than others. Is this the norm, or am I doing something wrong?

Both CRTs and LCDs come with 'drivers' and colour profiles. The 'drivers' tell the video card about any features you particular monitors has and the colour profile specifies the colour response of the monitor to allow you to standardize the colours of you images. You can of course use your display(s) without them as Windows supplies 'generic' versions of these files.

CRTs darken over time. The phosphors on the crt have a half life. The half life is the point at which the 'brightness' of the phosphor is half as intense as when is was new.

So you are not doing anything 'wrong' per se.

kona0197

on Mar 24, 2008

My Intel onboard graphics work just fine and play every game I have thrown at it...

whatwhere

on Apr 07, 2008

My Intel onboard graphics work just fine and play every game I have thrown at it...

even though this post is old..yes i bumped a old post...but...run crysis at full load on your intel chip...20 bucks says it locks.

kona0197

on Apr 08, 2008

Why? It plays the games that I have just fine. I'm not going to put a game on my system that does not interest me.

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