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COMPUTERS: THEY DON'T HAVE TO BE AN EXPENSIVE PROPOSITION! -PLUS- BEN'S TIPS ON UPGRADING YOUR CURRENT SYSTEM...AND HOW TO SEND THE KIDS OFF TO SCHOOL WITH AN AFFORDALE LAPTOP.
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Have you ever noticed that no matter how hard you try to prepare and plan and shop and be a smart consumer, you always seem to get hosed when it's time to upgrade your computer? Yeah...me too. But I think after going through this brain-damage a few times, I may have figured it out. Let's try to make your next trip to the computer store [or better yet, do all of your shopping on-line!] a little less financially damaging by taking some steps to try to make reasonable improvements on your existing system, if possible!
Step 1: Who says you need to get a new computer? Junior wanting to play games? No surprise...but in many cases, you can improve on the computer you have and avoid having to spring for a new system. "Define your uses" says my trusted computer expert, Ronnie Neighbours of Take It Home Computers in Arlington, TX. "Unless the consumer got stuck with a lousy system on the front end (that's impossible to improve or upgrade) we can usually go in and add some components to give them the storage space, the memory capacity and the speed they're looking for!"
Step 2: Are you out of space? Running out of storage space on your hard drive? It's no surprise: "Today's programs are pretty complex and much bigger than "the old days" and earlier generations of software from as recent as even 18-24 months ago" according to Ronnie. "With the explosion of CD burners and people creating their own CDs, those .wav files chew up the space; but with the huge drop in prices for hard drives, there's no excuse for not upgrading your hard drive or adding a whole new one drive in an open/existing bay in your case." Plan on spending under $200 for 10 GIG of hard drive space. That's GIG...amazing. It is so cheap compared to the "old days"...
Step 3: Is your system bogging down? Is it running slow? My guru Ronnie weighs in with his educated opinion once again: "You might benefit from something as simple as increasing the amount of memory on your motherboard and really see an immediate improvement. It doesn't take much to jack up the speed...but if you decide to add alot of memory, plan on upgrading your operating system to Windows 2000, since the older operating systems can't manage over 196 meg in RAM, anyway." Once again, the price of adding RAM [memory] has dropped so much, this is an easy-fix. And if you're tired of those dastardly "blue screens" when your Windows software blows up from time to time, you can eliminate this problem from your computing world by upgrading to Windows 2000. "The Windows 2000 operating system is based on their NT (networking) platform that's extremely stable. You'll like it." He's right on all fronts. I upgraded mine recently and iit has yet to crash; the system runs faster...I'm tickled
Step 4: Going blind? (From staring at your old screen, I mean! Not from other on-line activities!) Why not simply get a new one...and avoid spending the big bucks! Buy a pre-owned monitor! "There's a huge market and availability of pre-owned monitors out there. We've got a slew of 21" Dells that are actually Sony Trinitrons...and they're less than half of what a new monitor would cost!" Anyone that knows TV monitors knows how great Sonys are; these monitors come with 30-days warranties...and sell for under $400...so what are you waiting for? [Call Ronnie today before he runs out: 817 275-4425 or 817 226-4446. By the way: He ships all over the country; if you're outside of Texas, you'll save on the sales tax!]
Step 5: You're backing up all of your data on a regular basis. Right? C'mon! You know if this has become part of the plotline on HBO's "Sex and the City" it's gotta be a mainstream problem. If you're not backing up [making a safe copy] of your data on a regular basis, you're inviting trouble. According to Brother Ronnie: "With the prices of things like zip drives and CD burners dropping so low, there's no excuse for not backing up your data on a regular basis! Especially with the virus problem becoming an increasing hazard...it's not a question of "if" but "when" are you going to get infected and see all of your hard work disappear in the blink of an eye!" Zip drives for less than $100; CD burners from $150 - $300...what's your excuse, again?
Step 6: Gotta send Junior or the "Apple of your Eye" to school with a laptop this year? You're not reallygoing to drop that much $$$ on a new one...are you??? Why spend premium dollars on a new laptop that could be dropped or stolen at school [regardless of their age/grade level...stuff happens!] when there are so many deals on pre-owned/refurbished laptops to be had? "We get at least 10-20 pre-owned laptops in here every week...really good computers that we've taken in trade or bought from companies that are upgrading their computers and need to unload their "old" laptops" says Take It Home Computers' Ronnie Neighbours: "We've got perfectly good laptops--all checked out and ready to go. Sure, they're "slower" because they're 12-18 months old, but if you're simply needing a laptop for Word Processing or e-mail or some surfing on the Internet, these are Pentium IIs and IIIs with plenty of speed for 97% of the users out there. And for about 1/3 the price."
Ben's closing advice: Spend your money on computers if you want to. Or use the cash to pay off your credit cards, improve your home, pay for a wedding [or a divorce!] or take a vacation. But don't blow your dough on a computer if you don't have to.
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