What Choices in Computers do You Have?
Computers range from a low of about $800, for a relatively up to date model, to about $3000 for the latest, fastest model. These prices are without a monitor. You can get a 15" monitor for around $150. There are computers below and above these prices. Above this range there is almost no limit. Below this range are the risky purchases, the used and the factory refurbished computers. With both used and factory refurbished, you should either know how to service computers or you should learn.
Some of the junked computers are good projects, but you have to know how to rebuild a computer. Some of the junked computers that I bring home get rebuilt but I don't resell them. The risk to my reputation would be too great and/or the repair would cost more than a newer faster computer. Examples of computers that are in need of an upgrade or repair are computers that can't find the hard drive, or cd-rom drive, or floppy drive, the BIOS was not year 2000 compliant, the case was a low profile desktop. Sometimes the only problem with a computer is that the operating system software was "optimized" for that brand. That usually means that modifications in the way the computer operates were made by programers for the computer manufacturer to make the interface easy or cute, possibly without regard to future improvements by the manufacturer of the operating system, (OS). Most OS's get upgrades periodically, often for free, sometimes in stealth when you install one of their non OS programs. In these cases only an update of software or a complete new installation of the operating system after the "optimization" has been removed is the solution.
One such complication was when Internet Explorer 4.0 was installed on a computer using Windows 95 which had a desktop installed by the computer manufacturer. The computer manufacturer's desktop program got in the way of the operating systems desktop. It wasn't the fault of Internet Explorer, but future versions of Internet Explorer have been less adventuresome with the desktop even though there were no problems with computers running an unadulterated Windows 95 installation.
So if you do feel like having the adventure of rebuilding a computer you should plan on installing the operating system clean. That will clear up anything that was done either by the computer manufacturer or by the previous owner. Some used computers are almost free.
As I write this, a number of ISP's, (internet service providers), are offering a $400 rebate if you buy a computer from one of a few computer companies, then sign up with that ISP for a three year contract. Those computer companies are selling new computers that sell for $599 and they are offering a $50 mail in rebate. That means you can have a computer for only about $149. A new computer that is up to date, although not state of the art, for about $149. (The monitor is not included in most of these offers.) That would be good if any of these services have a local access number. In my area they don't. The nearest access number for me is Poughkeepsie. That for me is an 8 cent per minute charge at night, higher during days. For me that would mean $4.80 per hour. If I use the internet connection for only 5 hours a week, that would add up to a bill for the phone service from the phone company of $96 per month. That is in addition to the bill from the Internet Service Provider,(ISP), for about $20 per month. That would be $1152 added to your phone bill each year or $3456 added to your phone bill over 3 years that you wouldn't pay if your ISP had a local, not a long distance, phone number. This is in addition to the approximately $20 per month normal charge you pay to your ISP. That's a free $599 computer for $3456 plus $149 or $3605. That's not a good deal. This may change if any of the ISP's who are offering the rebate put in a local phone access number. If you want to check this for yourself follow the links below. The rebates offered by these companies vary. Please check what I say for yourself. It was true, to the best of my knowledge, when I wrote this. I don't want to do any financial harm. If you are looking for an ISP, I would recommend any of the companies listed here. I don't have any affiliation to any of them. Just be sure to find out what your phone company will charge you to call whatever access number you use. These are not the only ISP's that are offering rebates as I write this. The list seems to be growing daily. These companies either have or are offering rebates. (Rebate offerings are subject to change and may not be as listed on this page currently. Check for yourself.)
To check Compuserve 2000 access numbers, click here.
Some companies sell less expensive computers by cutting corners. They use a power supply with less power, some as low as 180 watts or 145 watts instead of at least 230 watts for a Pentium II or III or an AMD K6-2 or K6-3. And now with AMD Athlon and Pentium 4 the power supply requirements have moved up to an unapproved minimum of 250 watts and an approved minimum of 300 watts. Some use a video card with less memory. Some use a controllerless modem that slows down the computer by requiring the processor and operating system to act as the controller. Many don't supply a CD installation disk of the operating system, often just a system recovery disk. Many set up the hard drive so that it only is recognized by Windows. That can complicate repairs because DOS can't deal with it unless it is set up as smaller logical drives that DOS can recognize. If Windows can't start up and DOS can't see data on the hard drive, it's more difficult to get Windows going again than it would be if the partitions were small enough for DOS to recognize them. If your partitions of the hard drive are no more than 2.1 GB, you can get in to the hard drive even before you repair Windows without any further damage or data loss. But it is easier to let Windows set up the hard drive than to set it up for DOS as well as Windows. Some computer companies save time by setting up the hard drive only in Windows.