I just looked at a Yahoo ad, I think for the first time since I've been on the Internet. Dell is offering a desktop (monitor included) for $599. 1 Gigahertz speed, capacity up the wazoo, dwarfs what I've got.

My brother has been a Dell enthusiast for years. I've stuck with Compaq, to my sorrow.

-- Anonymous, December 09, 2001

Answers

Sweetie has a Deol this time and loves it. I love my Compaq notebook but next time I think I'll go with the Dell version.

-- Anonymous, December 09, 2001

Computers go into limbo so fast that I don't think it pays to have brand loyalty anymore. About 6 years ago I bought a state-of-art Micron for about $3,000. It had the top speed Pentium running at 200mHz, 32 megs of RAM, a 2 gig hardrive, modum of 33.6, 8X CD-ROM, and today it's not good for very much. They used SIMM memory back then and don't even sell that anymore at CompUSA. Guy there told me even if I *could* find some SIMM memory upgrade somewhere it would cost an arm and a leg. Everything now is DIMM or better. Paying a high price for that computer was my first and last mistake.

Right now you can buy a fantastic computer at Best Buy. I just got one about 12 days ago. Best Buy has a bundle deal on an eMachine model T1100 loaded with Win-XP (which I like) and some other basic stuff like MS Works. You can see the specs at the eMachine web site. (www.emachines.com) Pentium Celeron 1.0 gHz, 20 gig hardrive, 128 megs of ram (an additional 256 megs goes for $30-$40 at CompUSA), CD- R/RW burner of 12X-8X-32X made by Samsung (good name), 56K modum, 17" eMachines monitor (very nice too), and a Lexmark Z23 color printer. All for $500. Can't do better than that for any computer since they will all be ancient history within 3-4 years anyway, good only for word processing or simple bookeeping, and the newest software won't run well on them, if at all. Even Win95/98 software will slowly dry up as they build stuff specifically for Win-XP or better.

I have to grit my teeth over all the MS-DOS and Win 3.1 software I have had to throw away, but it really was clunky slow stuff anyway compared to what is now available for fast computers with lots of hardrive space. XP will soon be bottom of the line too, but for right now it's leading edge value in home computers.

-- Anonymous, December 10, 2001

I have a Tiger 200 pentium. Works fine for me.

I also have a Tiger 650. I guess it works. It's in the closet.

-- Anonymous, December 11, 2001