Buying advice for my final computer: laptop, all-in-one desktop, or what?

I can understand Bryan's problem but my approach is very simple, there's no such a thing as an obsolete Desktop instead there's always a Desktop waiting improvement.
See I have a Desktop that's almost 4 years old and just 2 weeks ago I replaced the old hard drive with 2 terabytes state of the art brand new ones with minimal cost. The present CPU was changed last year and a new graphic card was also added. It started life running Vista and runs now on Windows 7. A lot of the cables have been replaced with wireless connections also. You can't do all that easily and cheaply with a laptop, so I would say keep your Desktop and have fun bringing your old friend back to life from times to times, just great for retirement, being 68 I can assure you.
Luis

Anything you get is going to seem slow in three or four years time, and plenty of people stay active into their eighties or nineties nowadays, so it could easily have another ten or twenty years of use. Camera resolutions will go up so pictures will need more memory and more processing time when you upgrade to a new camera.

So whatever you get, count on replacing it again in a few years time. I got a desktop for my last computer and have regretted it. Just things like if I had a laptop I could work out of doors in the garden or park or countryside in good weather - but you can't do that with a desktop. Also when I bought it I thought that I was going to be in one place - but ended up traveling a lot for several months at a time and had to use my old and much slower laptop far more than I expected.

E.g. if you are ill in hospital, you can take your laptop with you and use it in the hospital (depending on the hospital) but not so easy to take your desktop. Same applies if you go to visit a friend or relative for some weeks or months, and though one may think that's not going to happen it is surprising how easily situations can change.

You get a desktop thinking you will upgrade it - but in my case anyway I never do. With a laptop you can get extra RAM which is perhaps the most likely upgrade you are likely to want - or to get extra USB hard drives for extra hard disk space (or because they fail).

Maybe if you have lots of photos I wonder if firewire would help with faster data transfer to disk.

If you are going to use your laptop out of doors or travel - or are just a bit clummsy, be sure to take out the insurance against accident policy. My laptop got damaged twice, once when I accidentally stood on it with a mouse between the screen and the keyboard, and once when I left it on the seat of a bus and the bus stoopped suddenly and it fell on the ground - one of those was covered but the other wasn't.

As a professional photographer I would highly recommend an Apple iMac 21". It is fast, easy to use and will more than cope with all the photographic images and video-editing that you can throw at it!

Clive B

Great questions but probably not your last computer. I am 75 years young and have just completed the same research you describe.
To do your photo and film editing, go Apple.
Option #1. For under $1500 you can buy a refurbished i3 or i5 intel 27" or a 21.5" for even less and still have money for great Apple photo-video software.
Option #2. For less than $2000 you can purchase a used Apple from a video-ographer trading up or out with the software installed. Caution: investigate the hardware and software personally before you buy.
I have long used new and refurbished PC's and one new Apple. Very satisfied. I am now taking the advice given above. HAPPY TRAILS, Jim

Best of luck, Brian, with your retirement plans!
Take a look at the software you are comfortable with for your hobbies. Does it take full advantage of multi-core processors, does it have a 64 bit version?
If so, that should help you choose. Not sure "i3" is good enough for your purpose, but certainly better than the previous crop. Think lots of DDR3 RAM and good hard-drive size too (not a bad idea to partition). A good graphics card is important too, e.g with 1GB dedicated video memory (Choose less and you'll regret it!). Apple is too expensive and stay away from the "all-in-one" machine: they seem too "weak" for your purpose.
Things get notoriously more complex with video, esp. editing and converting (either between formats or to fit on an iPhone, iPad, etc...), and including HD.
Also, choose anti-virus/anti-malware and Firewall programs which are not too greedy (beware those resource hogs and drivers incompatible with too many things). It also helps when they can be disabled temporarily with one simple click. This is useful when installing safe/reputable software and when doing heavy or slow tasks (video/sound editing/Burning). It also helps when the firewall can be used to control and even totally block internet access. There are very good "free" programs which do the job. So stay away from those "do-it-all" Internet Security Suites (if you can, get a clean install of your machine without those, esp. without those annoying 6 months "free" subscriptions which leave all sorts of things behind when you try to un-install them) and then add your own later. Get them from CNET! Also, get a good maintenance program to keep your machine free of "junk" files and the likes, as well as pesky programs which start automatically and which are not needed most of the time and slow you down (But stay away from those programs which do too many pseudo-sophisticated deep cleaning/optimizing things and end up destroying your system).
I do quite a bit of video and sound editing, as well as slide-shows with videos and still pictures with multiple soundtracks on an old DELL laptop and solved the heating problem with raising the laptop with little "legs" (you can use rubber pads, like those used under noisy chairs) and a small fan on the side, yet the laptop ventilated pads I tried were all useless.
Sometimes it gets really slow. And I've learned to stay away from those do-it-all (here too!) video suite programs which choke the computer (I've tried same on much more powerful machines and the results were slow too)! Stick to lighter programs!
Bottom line, if you have a good work horse, with plenty memory and processing speed, you can transform it as you please with carefully selected software.
I would probably suggest a PC for now in the $1000 range in the US Market - prices maybe different in Ryadh (not a laptop, yet not flexible enough) and if you really can't resist temptation, an iPad or similar (preferably open-source) device in 3-4 years from now.
Make sure the PC has plenty connections (USB, AV, S-video, at least 2 HDMI, firewire, eSATA, as well as N-wireless and gigabit ethernet). Some "Slim" PC's are attractive, but seem very light on connections (e.g: no HDMI, too few USB...).
Burn your creations on DVD and use your giant ultra slim TV in your living room!
Beware those devices meant as multi-media boxes to interface computer and TV. Most of them are still way too quirky (They all have something missing or clumsy or too slow or just plain unreliable...but one day, maybe...meaning, you won't need everything done by the computer, esp. for conversion).
Hope this helps a bit.

I bought this for less than $1800. I use Paint Shop Pro for editing photos and also use Print Shop 23. The monitor made it slightly more than $2200. (A 25" HP)At our age our eyesight is not getting better. I have owned several laptops, currently an HP 17". It cannot compare with my new desktop.
I AM VERY SATISFIED.
HP Pavilion Elite HPE-380t customizable Desktop PC
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-930 quad-core [2.8GHz, 1MB L2 + 8MB shared L3 cache]
12GB DDR3-1066MHz SDRAM [6 DIMMs]
1.5TB 7200 rpm SATA 3Gb/s hard drive
SAVE $20! Microsoft(R) Office Home and Business 2010
Norton 360(TM ) - 15 month
2GB ATI Radeon HD 5570 [DVI,HDMI, DP, VGA adapter]
30% OFF! HP USB 2.0 stereo speakers
Blu-ray player & Lightscribe SuperMulti DVD burner
Premium Wireless-N LAN card and Bluetooth(R )
15-in-1 memory card reader, 1 USB, 1394, audio, video (for TV Tuner)
TV tuner, ATSC-NTSC with PVR, remote
Integrated sound
HP wireless keyboard and wireless optical mouse
HP Home & Home Office Store in-box envelope
Estimated build date: September 9, 2010 Hope this helps. Regards, Mike F.

My personal opinion is to stay away from the All-In-Ones since their technology is still in it's infancy and, working at Best Buy, I have seen way too many coming back for repairs (especially HP units).

Granted, laptops have a limited life span (7 years is exceptionally good) but one thing that can be done to prolong their life span is to ventilate the bottom area of the computer - using a powered fan arrangement that many laptop coolers provide, or simply elevate the rear of the laptop while powered on with a small block of wood. Another hint worth remembering is always put the laptop to sleep or turn it off whenever you will be away from it for any amount of time.

I am a firm believer in towers since their logevity and ability to accomodate changing technology is worth the incovenience of wires. Wire organizers can dress up those wires so they are not as ugly as in their native state. Changing rotating-platter hard drives with solid state drives is a worthy furure investment. Addition of graphics cards, and other add-ons and/or modificattions over time are less costly than buying a whole new computer in 4-5 years, and is fiancially more tolerable and practical when one lives on a fixed income.

John W.

First of all, keep in mind that you will live to be at leat 100--so this will not be your last computer. And at the rate technology changes who knows what is in store 10 or 20 years from now, technologically speaking.

You might start by thinking about what kind of configuration will best meet your needs, and would be the easiest to up grade as technology changes--and until you have to get another computer.

Iam retiring too--Jan 1, 2011--and I wish you all the best.

I will be buying another computer for my work when I get done with school. I am considering getting the computer I want and them buy an external hard drive to store my files to cut down on all my bogging the laptop down. I currently have an external hard drive and use it faithfully. Only because I had it and sad down to back up my original laptop for the first time and that computer crashed. So if you store all your photos on the external drive you should be able to maintain your effectiveness of your laptop.
Also, any laptop I personally recommend the extended service agreement.

I agree with those that suggest NOT spending the money if you can avoid it. Save the money. Buy what you need now and plan to upgrade it as needed. If you'd bought a THz HD five years ago..think where you'd be now.


Remember Andrew Carnegie 1905: "Our new Winton motorcar is almost perfect. There may be advances in the future, but I can hardly imagine there can be much improvement...".

I am only an intermediate computer geek, but I bought an all-in-one from HP online two years ago, and I love it. I have 4Gigs, and TV tuner and I use it as aDVR because I collect cooking shows. Get the biggest hard drive they offer! I keep it on a table by my chair where I watch TV, and I never move it because it is heavy. The touch screen they do lots of bragging about is worthless to me, because the thing is not a lap device. It is big enough to watch TV on, and it would be the TV I would keep if I had to move into a tiny place. If I had the money I would have another for the kitchen. Good luck.

Temperatures in Riyadh are generally north of 30 degrees celsius, commonly 40 and 50 is not unknown. These kinds of ambient temperature have a significant detrimental effect on the ability of any computer's cooling system to get rid of excess heat and lead to overheating. Obvious answer- only use in air conditioned indoors, which rather torpedoes the primary advantage of a laptop-portability. I'm writing this on an ACER travelmate 620 laptop made in march 2003 so laptops (in UK climate)can have decent lifespans but being an ACER, the only way to open this to fit upgrade hardware is with a hammer & chisel! Other brands are much easier. With only 1GHz processor speed and 1Gb RAM I can run windows 7 but video editing would be horrendously slow so other posts would be better for this purpose.
There are student deals for Adobe CS5 etc so perhaps signing up for a distance learning course (like the UK Open University) might be a wise way to spend time and money? Hope this helps and enjoy a long and fruitful retirement!

Brian,
I am about to turn 69 years old. Last year I too wanted to buy that "final computer." Like you I take a lot of digital pictures and like to video edit.

I bought an iMac computer, 27 inch screen. It is perfect for my needs. No unsightly cords strung al over the place. No tower taking up precious space.

I wanted a computer that was simple to operate and without all the bother of the constant Windows updates and security threats. I want to spend my time on the computer and not installing updates and worrying about the latest virus threat.

I love my iMAC. I recommend it highly. Plus, their support is outstanding. You actually get somebody who speaks English without an accent and who isn't reading from a script and who wants to help you.

I don't work for them but iMac is the way to go Brian.

Ron Tipton

Good question, however buy asking this it would appear you have already limited yourself.
The game is multi tasking and with a $2000 budget in todays world why not do both.
Laptops today can be big, and powerful,not to mention beautiful,the problem with desktop replacement are size! Thus the portability factor is lost.
Lets think in more than one dimension. My advice would be have a great desktop, permanently fixed with high end processing and graphics,which can be easily built for under $500 for your editing. then say a nice little 15" laptop like a VAIO for poratbility. You are only limited by your own thought patterns. So expand your mind and your computing,or DO Not Put All Your Eggs In One Basket.
As far as laptops go get a quality machine from one of the the big guys.6-7 hundred today will buy a nice machine!
Desktop so easy to build or just find someone to build it for you using quality components Ram is a big key here as well as at least a dual core processor or quad even.
Versatility, power, and mobility. Have it all my friend!!!

If you use familiar terminology in your photo and video hobby and apply them to Google search, you should find additional information on the most suitable computer equipment for your specific hobby. My bet is that you will end up buying a tower computer because you will also end up buying a large monitor to help facilate your hobby even better . People working with graphics stuff tend to use large monitors as large as 36 inch across or even larger. I dont know of any laptop a yard wide! You will also need an oversized hard drive that can store up to 2 terabytes. Laptops are generally limited to less than one terabyte as well as limited slots for RAM modules. You will probably end up needing as much RAM as your money can buy. You might want 16 gb RAM or more. Search on..

Hi, Brian...
I was the same way as you were, and found a solution that I think may help...

I got a Sony Vaio All-in-one VGC-LT23E about 3 years ago. I'm sure they or someone else like HP or Dell make a similar unit today...

Mine is a stand-alone, wide screen, wireless (keyboard & mouse are wireless), WAN ready computer. The screen is 16:9 format 23 inches wide. It's fast, attractive, and very capable. Along with a type N router and a Broadband connection I am able to read and burn cd's/dvd's (newer units can burn blue ray). It has plenty of memory and storage (over 500GB), and is running a duo-core cpu (new models run 4 and even 6 core cpu's if you need the power).

This unit has never let me down. Never failed. Never broken. I love it!

I do a lot of video and music work, along with MOLP games like WarCraft and EVE.

The display is beautiful for videos and games (the unit came with an nvidia gforce 8400 card (old by now, but great then and it still produces great graphics)

I would consider a stand-alone unit (screen & computer all in one unit). Although you lose out on the portability of the laptop, you gain power, aesthetic pleasure, and satisfaction...

The Mac is indeed interesting.
This is if you are more comfortable with a PC architecture, but some advices also apply for a Mac, like RAM and storage.

First off, you don't need a powerfull videocard, as image and video editing and authoring is essentialy a CPU, RAM and drive thing. The video only serve to show the result and previews.
Go for a high entry level or low mainstream video card.
BUT! Stay away from the integrated ones. That disclass most portables.

You need a good precessor. You don't need an intel i7, that's for hardcore geeks. An i3 or maybe i5 should be enough.
An AMD is also a good choice.
Links for an evaluation of Intel and AMD CPUs in 3 budget ranges:
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hardware/best-of-the-best-part-1-intel-cpus/9796?tag=nl.e539
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hardware/best-of-the-best-part-2-amd-cpus/9803?tag=nl.e539

Next, you need a large amount of RAM, as much as you can get.

For the video, you have to work with large files, many of them. You also need fast access. Have at least two hard drives, large ones in the TB range.

I agree with r2v2 in that you probably don't need a printer.

If you curently have some software that you are familiar with, you should stay with those. If those are only available for a PC, then you have to stay with a PC. If there is a Mac version, then you can get a Mac and obtain the Mac varsion.
I disagree with the "hot graphics card". A "hot graphics card" is only realy usefull if you are to play "hot" games that are very intensive and high details, with most settings in the upper range and want over 100 FPS.

In January, 2008, the internal hard drive on my circa 2003 Compaq Presario (XP) laptop had a hard drive head crash.. at the time, I was writing articles and reviews and Editing the work of others for a site I will not name.. after trying everything possible to restore it from a full Acronis True Image backup I had on an external LaCie 300 gb drive, (I not only had a full backup of the entire C: drive, but all of my individual files (docs, texts, photos, music, and other data files backed up into folders on the external drive).. everything I tried to bring it back to life failed.. the Compaq's internal drive wouldn't even format!.. it was a 15.4", $1000.00 machine when I originally bought it at Fry's.. the warranty had long-since expired.. it only had a 30 gb internal drive, which was standard for a laptop of that class back then..

I had to have a new, working computer within a day.. I did not have the luxury of time for comparison shopping..

I looked around online, looked for laptops on sale, decided my price limit was about $600.00, and bought an Acer Aspire 5520 (Winblows Vista, dual core AMD Turion 64, 15.4" screen, 160 gb internal hard drive (the standard size at the time), 2 gb RAM, NVidia GForce 7000m Graphics chip, four USB ports.. the usual specs for a mid-priced laptop two and a half years ago).. I ordered and paid for it over the phone with a nationwide chain who is now out-of-business (CC), drove to the store a mile away, and picked it up, brought it home, and migrated my data files over to it from the LaCie external.. obviously, I did not want to restore the XP laptop's full C: system drive to it, which would have over-written Vista with XP, and I used Outlook Express (or "Excess") for email, which morphed into "Windoze Mail" on Vista.. basically the same program with some features changed, but its mail ".dbx" databases could be imported into Windoze Mail in Vista..

The first thing I noticed with the new Acer was that its touchpad driver was insane.. NO change in settings would make it behave properly.. swiping my finger across it caused it to select whatever the mouse pointer was on.. I phoned Acer.. they pointed me to a different touchpad driver on their site.. I downloaded and installed it.. it was just as bad.

I turned off the touchpad with a function key, and switched to using a Bluetooth Logitech Cordless Presenter a friend had given me, as a mouse. That solved that problem..

I had to re-download and re-install a lot of commercial and shareware programs to the new machine, and after x days I finally was back in business.. I put the croaked XP laptop in the corner of the room, figuring that at some future date, I could replace its internal hard drive, and restore its C: (system) drive and OS from the Acronis backup on my external LaCie drive, since Acronis lets you make an emergency boot CD with its own OS and the Acronis program on it to do that job.. (I DID do that about a year later.. bought a Seagate 160 gb internal laptop drive from a respected online vendor, and brought the XP machine back to life, and it now lives in my bedroom, connected to my router with a LAN cable)..

So everything hummed along nicely with the Acer until a few months ago when suddenly, I had a screen full of fuzzy, black and white diagonal bars.. I had no idea what was going on, but I had to power it off and back on.. this started happening more frequently, and randomly, and I couldn't associate it with anything in particular..

The Acer was 2 1/2 years old..

I spend DAYS pouring through various Windoze forums online, using search terms like "Acer overheating" and such..

There were many suggestions by both "experts" and just plain folks as to what the cause of the problem might be, and after consulting with two friends, both of whom can tear a computer apart and put it back together like a Marine can with his rifle, what I found out was that a few years ago, computer mfrs. were forced, by law, to build their machines with lead-tin core solder (I forget the exact proportion), instead of good old lead-core solder..

This is because of a law passed in Europe, because so many failed computers were being thrown away, they'd end up in landfills, the lead would leech out of the solder on the motherboard, and contaminate the water table..

The computer mfrs. did not want to make two versions of their laptops - one for Europe using lead/tin solder, and one for the USA using good old lead-core solder, so they switched to making ALL their computers (in China, of course), with this newer lead/tin solder..

The problem is, after a couple of years, this newer solder tends to develope tiny cracks, and sprout microscopic "whiskers" from the heat inside a laptop that is under heavy use, and left on 24 hours a day.. it doesn't have enough internal cooling.. This Acer only has ONE fan. Its CPU and GPU (graphics chips) do not have micro-fans on them, only Aluminum heat sinks..

Earlier, I had upped it from 2gb to 4gb of RAM, but 32-bit Vista Home Premium only sees 3gb, even with 4gb (two 2gb sticks) installed.. this required removing a HUGE plastic panel on the laptop's belly to get at the RAM slots..

So when it started going into screen-garbage mode, requiring a reboot, I found a freeware program called "CoreTemp" and installed it.. it displays the temperature of each core of a dual-core CPU, and the percentage of "load" on the CPU..

The Acer was running up to temperatures of 200f (!!) and its thermal sensor was shutting down the computer to protect it from frying itself..

More searching.. more reading..

I finally found someone who had the answer, and there were three ways to get around this over-heating problem::

- buy a whole new populated motherboard from Acer, which would cost more than the 2 1/2 year-old computer was worth, take the whole thing apart and install it, but it would still have the same, inferior lead/tin solder..

- give up on it entirely, and buy another new laptop.. these days, what $600.00 bought in January, 2008, you can get for about $400.00, with better specs, but in the interim, I had lost my writing gig, and simply couldn't afford to do that..

- Go into Vista's "power plans / advanced settings", and create a new "balanced" power plan by lowering the CPU's speed from 100% (full speed), to 40%.. this is what I did, and it worked as a semi-permanent, stop-gap measure, and (so far) has saved me the expense of buying another new laptop.. although the computer runs a bit slower, CoreTemp shows it running between 100f and 120f..

I still have a LOT of programs running all the time, but instead of leaving the Acer "on" 24 hours a day, I put it into sleep mode when I retire at night, and use the XP laptop (which I brought back to life with a new hard drive), bedside..

One of my engineer friends explained this lead/tin solder situation to me, and he said that because of this inferior solder all computer mfrs. are forced, by law, to use, that after a couple of years of heavy use and high internal temperatures, and the solder starts developing micro-cracks and whiskers, some of the chips on the motherboard actually rise up off the motherboard, because they are soldered to it with HUNDREDS of solder points.. the computer's thermal sensor says "Eek! What the!? Too hot!!".. and shuts the machine off..

Even if I had bought a one-year extended warranty in January, 2008, it would have expired half a year ago anyway, before this solder break-down problem started..

It had NOTHING to do with the battery.. before I discovered the CPU power plan trick, I tried running the machine off AC, with the battery OUT.. it made absolutely no difference.. the battery is fine and doesn't even get warm to the touch, and still holds a full charge..

I even bought a USB-powered, three-fan laptop cooling pad (dirt cheap), put it under the laptop, and despite it elevating the laptop a bit, and sucking hot air from its bottom and blowing it out all four sides, CoreTemp indicated the cheap cooling pad didnt lower the laptop's internal temperature by more than a degree or two..

I even took that huge plastic panel off the bottom of the Acer.. it was as clean as a whistle inside.. NONE of its air intake or exhaust vents were blocked by dust, furrballs, hair, dead rats, or anything else, but I gave everything a good going over with both a can of Dust-Off AND the nozzle of a vacuum cleaner, just for the halibut..

You have the luxury of some time to shop around, but if you decide on a new laptop, make SURE it has sufficient internal cooling..

Acer simply did not equip this model with enough internal fans.. ONE fan was not enough.. the CPU and GPU should have had their own microfans on them, not just aluminum heat sinks..

My MUCH older XP laptop is on 24 hours a day, and it was built with the older lead-core solder, and ha NEVER over-heated.. NEVER shut itself off.. not once.. I don't use it as my main "living room" machine, since it only has a single-core processor, two USB 1.0 ports, and 512mb of RAM, but it DOES have a MUCH more powerful fan in it than the much newer Acer does, and I run just as many programs simultaneously on it as I do on the Acer..

I would NEVER buy another Acer computer, and due to lack of income, I'm not currently in a position to replace this one, nor to have a whole new motherboard installed in it.. It has a ton of USB devices connected to it, including a new Seagate 1 tb external drive I bought a couple of months ago..

Parenthetically, I have an elderly College Professor friend who just paid nearly $1800.00 for a brand new iMac 21" all-in-one, plus "Apple Care", which came with a (too small) Bluetooth wireless keyboard (which is actually smaller than a full-sized keyboard, and I found it impossible to touch type on the thing, due to the size of the keys).. and Apple's "Magic Mouse".. I was at his house last week and played with the thing for a few hours.. Apple makes very pretty stuff, and I understand the whole "cult of Apple" thing, but their stuff is expensive.. he switched from an old Windoze XP tower to the iMac and is totally lost in that new environment.. a friend of his also talked him into buying an iPod Nano (the final "wheel" model).. and he doesn't even have a clue how to get music onto it, much less even rip CDs, so I'll probably visit him again and run him through how it all works..

But I digress.. sorry..

The point I'm trying to make, and I apologize for the length of this posting, is that if you intend to buy a laptop, and use it heavily, make SURE it has sufficient internal cooling if you're going to keep it on all the time.. ALL newer computers are made with this inferior lead/tin solder on the motherboard. Desktop or "tower" machines are MUCH easier to expand, and have MUCH beefier internal cooling than most laptops have..

Also, beware of computer reviews written by writers who did not shell out their own money for the machine.. especially, if the mfr. of that machine is one of their site's or magazine's advertisers.. the reasons should be obvious.. if not, many reviewers are afraid of offending their advertisers by giving that advertiser's hardware a thumbs-down review, to the point that they might lose advertising revenue..

The chore of shopping for, comparing, and buying a new computer has become a hundred times more complicated than it was, oh, ten years ago.. the choices are endless and confusing, and there are as many opinions as people who spout them..

So that's my story, and my experience. I paid hard-earned money for this $600.00 Acer in January, 2008, and two and half years later, it developed thermal problems due to insufficent cooling, and poor design.. Of course, when it was brand new, ALL of this model were brand new, and the fact that it would start over-heating after two years was not known then.

Google around for "laptop overheating" and you will find thousands of postings all over the place, by people suffering from the same problem, the root cause of which is poor design, and the mandated use of lead/tin core solder, which breaks down after a couple years of insufficient internal cooling (bad design, weak / not enough fans), and higher and higher speed chips which generate more heat than the under-engineered machine can handle..

My apologies for rambling.. my intent was to inform, not to confuse..

Best Wishes..
Harv

Desktop price range: $500-1000

Case: All-in-one will save money but internal components usually can't be added or changed.

CPU: Fastest AMD or Intel available in the price range. Manufacturer doesn't really matter.

Other: USB 3.0

RAM: 3+ GB

HD: 300+ GB internal drive. With USB 3.0, you can add as many 1+ TB external HDs as you need when you need them for less than $150 each. I'd recommend getting at least one external HD so you can backup your entire desktop.

Graphics: Today's integrated graphics are great except for heavy animation so that's probably good enough for you. Very nice add-on graphic cards cost less than $200 but require a full size desktop or tower case, which would increase the base cost.

OS: *DO NOT* buy a system that comes with Windows 7 Starter or Home Basic editions, get at least the Home Premium edition. However, Home Premium doesn't include built-in backup/restore, Windows XP emulation or hard drive encryption. The Professional edition adds backup/restore functionality (e.g., to your external USB 3.0 HDs) and Windows XP emulation. The Ultimate edition adds hard drive encryption. You can buy on-line upgrades from any Windows 7 version to a higher version at any time, e.g., from Home Premium to Professional or Ultimate. If you are already eligible for Windows 7 upgrade pricing, you might as well go all the way to Ultimate, since its upgrade price ($219) is only $20 more than Professional ($199).

Graphics software: For images only, get Adobe Photoshop Elements for $90. For images and video, get the Adobe Photoshop/Premier Elements package for $135. Both prices are from Amazon.

Monitor: At least 20", LCD, wide screen, 1600x900 resolution, 5 ms or less refresh, 10000:1 or higher contrast ratio. Some monitors can rotate between landscape and portrait orientation although that adds cost. Cost starts around $125. I highly recommend comparing physical monitors before buying since monitor performance doesn't always match the specs.

DON'T forget to buy an anti-malware application (Norton, McAfee, Trend) for as little as $20. These may be available for free through your internet service provider.

That should get you what you need for well under $2000.

Reality check: My wife likes to play with images. Last spring, I bought her an Acer slim-line desktop with integrated NVIDIA graphics, an AMD Athlon II X2 CPU, 3 GB RAM, 300 GB HD and Windows 7 Home Premium for $329; an LG 20" widescreen monitor for $140; a 1 TB external Western Digital HD for $130; Adobe Photoshop Elements ($90); and Norton Internet Security (free from out ISP). She's happy as a clam for less than $800.

Hi Brian!
My name is Patrick and I live in Naples,Florida which I would imagine Saudi to be like if Saudi had 100% humidity in the summer, or our "wet" season, which lasts about 6 months . We just finished having our hottest season on record.

Anyway, since you mentioned graphics and video editing, I would highly suggest getting a Mac all-in-one. I've had mine for 4 years and only had one problem that I actually had to call support for - and unfortunately, it was a problem w/ iPhoto. But you don't have to use iPhoto, you can choose whatever application you'd like to use and probably one that you are familiar with. I have just heard a few negatives about iPhoto enough for me not to mess with it too much (it's not my default photo download app anymore).

The best things I like about the desktop Mac is that it is an all-in, so you don't have that many wires running all around the place - in fact, it's easy to set up many of your peripherals to be wireless. Another is that I don't get don't bombarded with high priority update notices every time I open my screen. Junk mail is kept to a bare minimum without me having to do much and although I have to pay a yearly subscription for MobileMe, i find it worth it.

In closing, I have to mention that I have had my Mac desktop AIO for 4 years now and it is as fast as it was the day I got it. Oh, and memory upgrades are relatively cheap and easy. In other words, I am in love!

Good luck,
Patrick

ps. I did just get a Dell laptop, mainly because I am taking my CISCO Academy classes, and I have had issues (abeit minor,SO FAR) and I have only had it 3 weeks. Please keep in touch! p

Dear Brian,
I hesitated to tell you to get a macbook pro because you're probably a windows guy until I saw so many other people doing the same thing. I'm 63, the yearbook advisor to my high school, and spend half of my computer life in photoshop processing photos I also take with high end equipment. If you really want a computer that will last, your safest bet is a mac and you won't have to worry about viruses, trojans, and repairs. I'm writing this on a 17" macbook pro that is 3 years old and it works like new. I don't know how your vision is, but I wear tri-focals. An eye doctor once told me that laptops are better for older people who wear bifocals because it is easier to position the laptop so you can look down through the lower part of the glasses. I also have a mac tower but I hardly ever use it because the laptop is so much more comfortable.
Since I don't think 69 is that old I'm not sure any computer you get will be your "last" one, but I think you probably could get 8-10 good years out of a mac doing low end things (writing letters, surfing the web) and 5 years processing photos and video before you'll probably want something faster, although the computer will still work.
I'm not saying macs are perfect, but there is a lot less chance you'll have issues.

I am 80 years old, living on a fixed pension. At 69 you will, with good luck, buy more of everything. I cannot give you technical help, but I urge you to drop the "my final computer" thinking.

Submitted by Paul F.

This is actually a simple question:

Do you need portability or not? A laptop costs more for the equivalent power, and the latest Consumer's Reports clearly shows that all laptops (including Mac)have a greater failure rate than desktops.

Stuffing advanced computing equipment into a tiny hot box that gets bumped around from place to place is just not compatible with reliability. And repairs will be expensive due to the specially designed small-scale parts.

However, if you compute/watch Netflix/email/etc. from multiple locations, you may as well get a laptop and suffer along with the millions of others who made the same compromise. Just make it knowingly.

An All-in-one is similar to a laptop, except for the bumping around from place to place.

A desktop is the way to go if you don't need portability. Still do your research to find a reliable one; there are differences in quality, but the failure rate of the cheaper desktops was better than the rating for the better laptops.

I have been in the computer industry for over 25 years and have owned multiple computer related business along with working for a "Leading" manufacturer. Since I'm offering my personal opinions I wont mention any company names. Todays selection is truly great. The price vs. performance is outstanding. Since you mentioned graphics and video editing I will start off by saying a multi core processor is exactly what you need along with a large amount of memory. My recommendation is to look at HP commercial grade products (called eliteBook workstations) based on my experience with all the major OEM's, I find HP is the most tested commercial grade computer in the industry. I know others will disagree but I get to work will all of them and I personally have two business laptops and 1 desktop, I haven't had any issues with any of them for upto the past 5 years.
Ok, you mention Mobile and desktop - the most powerful unit I own is a Mobile "workstation" class laptop. It has a high end mobile Gfx engine by Nvidia - has 6 gig or ram and runs a core i5 processor from Intel. Dont worry about heat - the last two generations of Intel microprocessors are the lowest power consuming, fastest industry processors on the market and there only getting faster and cooler. The one thing I would recommend you upgrade is the hard drive - the main line of Hard drives spin with a motor, this spinning HD is the major issue with laptops, people pick them up and walk around with them running - NOT a good Idea and can cause total loss of data due to the spinning platters getting damaged by the heads that read and write the data hitting them as they spin. Get a solid state HD, NO MOVING PARTS, jump out of an airplane if you want and keep on working - That being said, price is a bit higher and the size of HD's may be smaller - that is OK, you dont need a massive HD in the Laptop - a modest 160 gig Solid state (SD)HD will work for you IF! you also purchase an external Hi capacity HD that plugs into the laptop or the associated docking station, this unit is low coast - in fact I just found this LaCie d2 1 TB - External - Hard Drive by HP for less than $160. A Tera Byte drive stores over 500 full length movies, thats a lot of room!
The type of laptop I recommend is the HP 8xxx series elite workstation - they run from 1,399 to 1,999 - I would recommend i7 core processor by Intel - your video editing conversion will be significantly shorter and you can get more work done faster. The two extra cores will make a significant difference in how long it takes to convert HD video into a MPEG, same with converting pictures or modifying them through photoshop. Oh, and its low power keeps things cool. I also recommend a Windows 7 Professional 64 bit operating system with 4 to 8 gigs of memory (you can expand up to 16 or even 32 gig later if you want) and of course they offer a SD HD up-to 256gig (but save some money with a 160 instead and buy the external HD for massive storage.

I have owned this model for over a year now and with the features I mentioned love working on it - I can login in less than 60 seconds after hitting the power button, the 64 bit O/S is fast and Windows 7 is very flexible and doesn't give me ANY issues. the other thing I like is the HDMI port I have on mine - I can plug it into my 55" HD TV and get amazing video playback

Good luck

Hello Lee,
I'm in the same position as you, I'm in my 70's and about 11/2 years ago I purchased a new Apple Mac-book Pro, 15 inch. This was to be definitely my last laptop. Well, about a month ago I lost access to the USB ports. I returned the machine to the dealer I purchase it from and they informed my I would have to replace the Logic Board, estimate cost $1,500.00 (CAN), I then took it to an Apple store and received the same results. I have been informed that USB ports on many mobile devices are extremely fragile, whatever that means. Of course I don't intend paying $1500 to have it repaired.
Now what do I do? A new Mac book Pro ($2000), A PC laptop of similar specifications ($1000) or maybe one of the latest i Mac's ($2300). From a technical perspective I'm in favour of the hi-end i Mac, it contains a separate video card with its own processor which is good for Photoshop and video editing.
Like you Lee, I would also like to get views from someone who has gone this route. Hope it helps a little.
ciao Ron

twice that amount. LOL

Live a little.

Enjoy!

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Some information:

http://reviews.cnet.com/desktop-computer-buying-guide/?tag=rb_content;contentNav