For that money, you might be better off getting a notebook, similar in functionality and you can take it with you while traveling to scrap!

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2006 Scrapping Goal: 130 Layout
Completed YTD:
January: 9

Thought I would throw in my two cents worth because I am coming from the totally ignorant school compared to the others who have posted. Plus I am the world's worst shopper. The point of my long ramble is that it does not have to be complicated.

I went to the local Best Buy and just played with what was on display. I bought a model after ten hard minutes of thought. It was a totally unknown brand. The salesman told me it was a generic model--built by somebody famous but this was a secondary line that they put out under this no name. I didn't care if it was true or not (turns out that it was true) as long as it performed. I ended up with an incredible machine according to my geek friend but this was sheer luck. Paid mid-range for it but wanted to walk out of the store, into my house, plug it in and go. Also believe that a general rule of thumb is that price bears some reasonable relationship to quality. Wanted to be able to do that easily in reverse if it didn't go. Have had it for over two years and am not even thinking about upgrading yet because it is incredibly fast. I do have a Nvidia card. Bottom line, my only requirement when I went in was it has to run like stink and have good graphics. And, yes, it had to look good. (Sorry, techies). This was before I started scrapping. To my joy, it handles that just fine ie. I am often working on layouts around the 2mg size and it doesn't start to choke until I go over that. I told the salesman I would be returning it only if it didn't fly. It did. I didn't. All of the techie stuff took care of itself. I am not saying that this is smart or recommending it as the way to go--I am just saying that I treated it much like a car. It felt comfortable, and it had the two features I wanted. It was bought locally so I could return it easily if I had to. Beyond certain basics, I figure I just don't have to know and I just don't want to know.

Of course you can build it cheaper if you buy the parts yourself! Ditto with clothes, furniture and houses--but unless you have a burning desire to develop expertise in those areas or need a Frank Lloyd Wright or Coco, why the heck would you bother? As far as name brands go, if you throw any one out you will generally get the fans and the detractors. It is like asking people how they feel about GM.

I don't think it has to be complicated (although you don't have to make it as idiotically simple as I did). Figure out the two or three things that are crucial to you--probably price, graphics and speed. Walk into Best Buy or the box store equivalent of your choice, go straight to a salesperson and ask for what they can deliver. That gives you the specs that are important to you (I find it hard to believe that you really care about a 1mg cache on die level 2!). Use them to research online at home etcetera if you want to make sure you get the best deal for what you want.

P.S. I went the opposite way with my printer. I researched until the cows came home and I had no hair left. After many days, I was no further ahead than I was after my first ten minutes of research. There were two models available at that time. Both had fans. Both had detractors. I picked using the difficult choice paradigm--eeny meeny miny mo. My only regret is that I spent so much time looking into it.

Nevermore - you crack me up!

So much of what you say is dead on. I am one of those analyze/paralyze people - I will research something to death, ask a million questions, get completely overwhelmed with information and, if I ever actually do make a decision, never feel comfortable with it because who knows what little miniscule tidbit of info I might have overlooked? When my husband caught me researching the cost of acid free tissue paper and realized I was spending over an hour to see whether I could save $1.25, he actually turned my 'puter off and put me in "time out" so that I could think about my actions for awhile. Doesn't help that he's the exact opposite of me - got a problem, get your facts, solve it, move on. Annoys me to no end.

Anyway, even though I've gotten responses that range from "awesome" to "yuck", I'd still like to thank everyone for their input. We haven't yet ordered one, but we're very close.

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Andy
MY GALLERY



(avatar photo from stock.xchng)

Yes.. but you can also go down that route and have a horrible experience.. also.. it depends on what "mid-range" means... $400 or $1200. Pc's can cost upwards of $3000 for a top of the line gaming rig..

Getting a PC built for gaming is most likely overkill for someone that is mainly interested in scrapping.. In fact, you are wasting money since the 3D graphics card in all gaming machines will NOT be utilized for photoshop type applications. A solely 2D card like the Matrox Pirranah will speed up your photoshop system like you wouldn't believe.. and other cheap 2D cards will equally do.

You will most likely overpay by buying a best buy machine... stay away for emachine, compaq and HP though.. Sony Vaio.. while more expensive than the rest.. are decent machines with good parts. I still believe Dell are the best though for the non do it yourselfer.

If you have a local PC store.. perhaps you could talk with them and they could put somethign together for you cheaply.. often times they have extra parts lying around from older pc's that they would love to just get rid of cheaply and they will work just fine.. such as: older 40GB 5200 speed HD's ($30), 2D or early 3D video cards ($40), unused copies of Windows 98 (free), slightly older memory (512MB for $50), Cases ($20).. etc..

Really you just need to determine what you want the PC for.. if just browing the web, email and PSP 9.0 scrapping... you can get a really low end PC that will work for you. I use an old celeron 1.3mhz with a 20GB hard drive and integrated video with 128MB running XP at work (I know..l garbage..) and it run PSP9.0.. albielt a bit slowly.. but this is a $200 PC!

Anyway.. don't stress over it.. just get what you can.. but please...... don't overpay! I hate when others pay too much for infeerior machines.. kinda like people who pay sticker price for a new car.. !