Late adopter seeks educated input

July 22, 2011 4:10 AM

Late adopter looking to upgrade 7yr old work and personal desktop & laptop. Please expand my mind and options with reference to gadgetry and software.

My work-provided top-end seven year old Dell desktop & laptop running XP are due for retirement. I can choose my replacements. Ipads, android tablet, Imac, new desktop, brother electric typewriter - all are up for grabs. A smartphone is not - we are not in adequate mobile range. I work from my own premises so these are also my personal computers. I want to buy new with warranty, I want it to last for five years or more, and I want to pay $3k or less to keep the boss happy.

I use the desktop around 1-3hrs per day to manage business orders and online presence, plus extra for my personal use. I like my large 19in!! screen and the 2gig ram!! But the boss says upgrade and I'm a mere employee destined to obey.

A lot of my desktop work - responding to emails etc - could be done on a smaller unit that makes me more mobile within my wifi range. But I want a big screen and a 'box' for my sit down content management work my plus personal use and storage. The laptop is only used when I need to travel for work every three months or so and usually only for emails or browsing.

I think I want a table plus big screen & box all integrated. I'd like to keep using my office 2003, photoshop 6, etc on 'the box' because they suit my needs and I have the programs. But I don't mind if other economic, easy to learn options are available I like the idea of a mobile tablet device to adore like my 1995-2000 psion pda.

I like elegance, lack of hardware and wires, a bigger screen (wall mounted perhaps, with remote control?) and the idea of a 'brain box' that operates major programs, plays dvd/cs and stores stuff as well as simply connects and integrates with the tablet / laptop replacement.

What should I buy?

posted by the fish to Computers & Internet (7 answers total)

Best answer: Buying expensive computers and hanging on to them as long as possible is terribly inefficient cost/performance wise.

You are much *much* better off buying a $1500 computer every 2.5-3 years than spending $3000 every 5-6 years.

I think you should get a 22-24" monitor and a $1500 middle of the road 15" HP or Dell business laptop with 8GB of ram.

You don't like wires? Stash the laptop under the desk and use a wireless mouse and keyboard. Nice day out? Grab the laptop and sit on the porch with a glass of lemonade.

I really don't believe there's any reason to spend $3k on a computer unless you are doing professional video editing or 3D rendering or something.
posted by j03 at 4:34 AM on July 22, 2011 [1 favorite]

Best answer: You can go with the dell xps 8300. For 1530 you can get a system with 8 gigs ram, 24inch monitor, windows 7 , 3 year warranty, blu-ray burner 6670 vid car, and 2 tb hard drive. core i7 2600 processor

ITs a very very fast system almost top of the line except the vid card and should last you the 5 years.

I have the same machine and its a great machine.
posted by majortom1981 at 4:41 AM on July 22, 2011

If you want to go whole-hog, you could create a server environment - put a mini rack in your basement, use powerline or wireless routing or a mix (depending on the size of your home).

Buy a tablet for your 'walking around email' thing, and drop a mid-ranged desktop somewhere.

The rack will have all your storage, you can connect it to your xBox and whatever else in your house (tivos, security cameras, air, heat, etc).

You can even get touch-screen access panels for various rooms, control your lights, etc

I'm just saying...
posted by rich at 5:45 AM on July 22, 2011

Best answer: Get the new, top of the line MacBook Air laptop, it will run you about $2000 maxed out with full warranty. It is so thin and lightweight, truly amazing. And powerful, will easily be powerful enough for the next five years.

Spend the other $1000 on a Apple 27" Thunderbolt display. Use the laptop hooked up to the display (only one cord needed) instead of a desktop.
posted by gus at 7:58 AM on July 22, 2011

Dell Latitude E Series and an E-port Dock - then you have your big monitor, full size kb, mouse, etc, and just remove the system for portable use. Designed to be carried around as a business system, but you can get the power, etc - no bluray at the moment, but the pretty-well integrated dock solution would make a lot of sense in your case, for just a single solution.

I'm not a fan of the all-in-one systems, solely because it makes it a lot harder to diagnose and repair issues - if your monitor doesn't have an image, you can't swap cables, monitor, etc to isolate the screen Vs. video card, etc - but ymmv.
posted by pupdog at 8:03 AM on July 22, 2011

ps you can add an ipad to my recommendation and still be under $3k
posted by majortom1981 at 8:28 AM on July 22, 2011

Response by poster: Thank you. I looked at all the options suggested, read reviews and calculated need, desire etc. After two days I crossed over and decided on a iMac 21.5in 2.5ghz etc, with a wifi 16gb iPad addition later when laptop goes kaput.

Boss said no. Boss said get 27in 2.7ghz iMac and wifi 3g ipad later. Boss believes in providing the tools necessary to do the job as pleasurably as possible. It's times like these that Boss is worth every other infuriating moment.
posted by the fish at 1:12 AM on July 25, 2011