Brandon. Speaking for me, if I EVER thought about who was on the other end of the post, I would NEVER post again.

Too many liberal maniacs (most with guns) with access to where I might be on a daily basis.

Michael.

While I can't argue with getting a new machine buying RAM for this machine will be dirt cheap. Ebay has a few good vendors that will nearly give it away.

I was also aprehensive about XP. I have several laptops and a desktop running with no problems here at home.

Rick,

Were this my machine and I was going to keep it, I would find some cheap RAM and install it. Then put a new 60-80 gig 7200 rpm hard drive in it as the "C" drive and install a new fresh OS on it. This way he could keep all the old data on the old drive, which just became "D."

This could be done for under $100-150 and keep it going for another year IMHO but its just a matter of time for a 5-6 year old computer.

Joe A

Expansion and upgrages are difficult on an E Machine. It has what you guys know as a "welded" motherboard. I'm not sure about exactly what that means, but I take it that it is short on slots and plug ins.

I'll go buy a machine. I had a nice PM about iMacs and since I want to do some mixed media stuff (videos and music), I'll need some much better stuff. I want to rip all my old vinyl onto CD's and usb memory. I don't want to wait a week for one song to be digitized. Or pour thru a video a frame at a time. ;)

If you know where to go for the software, you're set. CompUSA has Apple mini-stores that stock MS Office, various utilities, etc. Apple retail stores have games and more OS X software. They also have the distinction of tech support in person or while you shop elsewhere, not that you use it all that much. You can also order software online through Apple.

What do most people do with their PCs beyond browse the Net, type documents, and IM/email? Maybe a few play with home architect software and other specialty stuff, but that's about all I can see.

If you like the convenience of a Walmart for getting software, a Mac isn't good.

Brandon, dude! Did you forget to take your pill this today?

I was talking about your "soapbox" comment. Geeze, in two consecutive posts you spew the wonders of a Mac and then have the ballz to tell someone else to "get off their soapbox"?

Personally, I could give a rats a$$ how many computers with whatever Windows version, Linux, BeOS, or any other OS. Just having the OS doesn't make you an expert. He!!, I own a Porsche AND a Vette, but I know very VERY little about maintaining them.

"Lighten up, Frances!"

Randy

So your saying my Dell with Windows ME is outdated?

I think the main problem is that the kind of RAM that his machine takes is going to be hard to find and because it's hard to find, actually more expensive than much newer, faster RAM. I just bought another 256MB of RAM for 3 laptops, the RAM for the oldest laptop was the most expensive. At the time it was nothing special, but now it's not the norm. The two newer laptops were half the price of the older, and all three are much older than what he's got. I'm sure we're not even talking SDRAM here, probably not even DIMMS. It's the OLD stuff, so he'll probably need SIMMs that are 66MHz.

Actually, I take it back. With a little search I found some RAM cheap. We'd still have to know for sure what sort of RAM his motherboard would support, but even then he'd still have Win98. Ugh.

Point taken, but I won't get off my Microsoft soapbox...I like it up here.

ME is a terrible OS, pls go to W2000 or something else newer. Its so buggy that no one likes it and was a stopgap measure anyway.

JoeA

Early Windows PC.
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1136704675.jpg

:) Just kidding.

I started with a CPM machine, then to DOS and Windows before I decided I had better things to do with my time allocating memory and spending days getting SCSI devices to work with a PC. I gave up and went to the MAC platform when Windows 3.11 was the rigeur.

Still, the three PCs in our household (kids and spouse) seem to be holding up fine (especially the XP versions); so I say, go with a current PC (they're cheap and seem to be faster on the internet) or a MAC (great interface). You won't lose with either one although fending off the latest Windoz viruses can take a toll on your patience.

MHO,
Sherwood

This is almost as much fun to watch as asking a couple attendees at a Star Trek convention if Jean Luc Picard or Kirk was the better captain.