"Help me out here" Topic

I now a lot of you are professional computer techie types.

I once was but have not bought a computer for my office in over 12 years. Well I have hit the wall. It's time to buy something new.

My life is all about multi tasking. I often run 6-8 programs at a time and would use three screens if I could get away with it (two is all my beast can manage). Graphics, photos and videos are often accessed and displayed. In addition this machine is part of a network and acts as the administrator for a relational database (Amicus)

When I bought my last machine I bought the biggest, fastest, thing on the market.

Looking at stuff today it appears that there are a number of "gaming machines" which may or may not be a good thing.

I have a quad core (?? i3) at home which is wonderful.

Everything in my office is a Gateway machine. I intend to continue to use these:

link

If it wouldn't be too much trouble, please tell me what I should be looking at, and why?

mjc

I like Dell

Really comes down to how much are you willing to spend.

It isn't the money I am concerned with its getting a machine that will do what I need done.

The multi-tasking is quite often my bug-a-boo

I'm not helpful, since I multi-task on two machines.
Home desktop runs Pandora, TMP, and FB. Occasionally, I use it as my "clean" PC image to test to see if a current client implementation requires any special ActiveX controls or other plug-ins (.Net, Silverlight, etc.)

Work laptop handles work: mostly e-mail, writing spec docs, testing client applications, and running an occasional database query. Works nicely for me…

I am hard on machines myself and run to much stuff at once like you do. I have a dual core and wouldn't live without it. Next time I will want a quad core.

I'd think a quad core with the extra vid card would be the way to go, but don't buy piece of crap Dell's. I have had the best luck with HP/Compaq's and that is probably what I will stay with.

Get a SSD for fastest possible speed.

Get a CPU that has hardware virtualization built in. (I often run VM's set up for development etc, leaving my main OS very clean)

Get a good graphics card to run the 3 screens. Many flight sim aficinados use a 3 screen set up (or more), so look at a graphics card suitable for flight sims. This may require two graphics cards. (Sorry -- graphics is not my forte)

IMHO

The brand you pick is often not that big a thing.

I started with Gateway back in the mid-80's. Tried other brands but ran into compatibility issues (despite the howls from the maker that there were no such thing). Where networking is concerned I suspect they all try to make things difficult if you switch . . . and conversely, pay attention to making sure their own stuff is compatible with stuff they sold before.

My current Gateway machine was purchased right when XP came out . . . or maybe a little before. Never a problem until recently when it has demonstrated its inability to handle some of the new software.

I figure if you can get 10 years out of a computer in a business setting, you are probably doing OK.

Here's my new baby!

link

mjc

Most of my stuff is database/word processor/ internet search engine stuff . . .

I may have to upgrade the graphics card but considering what I've been using, this may be as good as I need.

Thanks for your comments.

I have had the best luck with HP/Compaq's and that is probably what I will stay with.

Probably want to wait to see what they do with the impending sale/spin-off of their PC division before you profess your devotion for life.

The first two (or so) years of Lenovo PCs (nee IBM) were decent, but they have fallen significantly since then…