New build for bride of 44 yrs...

[tcas]

She presently is using a home built P3 450 running XP pro with new sound card and dvd/cdrom and speakers/lcd monitor.

Main programs are Paperport/Pagekeeper and MS office. Paperport has over 1000 images and files and takes a long time to load program. When she scans a new document it takes 45 seconds to return to Paperport(I assume because of number of files). In beginning it was just a few seconds.

Big question is what to buy/build. Staying with Intel.

Wait for Conroe/dual core?

Is it hard drive access causing some of the slow down?

A little concerned that new build won't be "that" much faster so looking for a little advice.

Thank you for your time in reading and replying

michael

 

[pkme2]

Pickup a Dell Dimension E510 Desktop and use the $350 off on a $999 buy.
Check this link. Don't worry it renews weekly.
http://www.******/free_online_coupons/dell.htm.
She will know how much you appreciate her.

 

[InlineFour]

the cheapest pos dell you can find will still be much faster than your old 450mhz p3.

 

[0roo0roo]

dude, get her a mac. sleek, fast, quiet, all around sweetness you would have serious trouble trying to match.
bootcamp ftw!
pwn off the left over components from her comp,use it as a server or somethjing, or add to your comp..whatever

 

[Looney]

ANYTHING you buy new today will smoke that computer... so no worries there. Have you checked out Hot Deals yet? There's a bunch of systems there for great prices, especially laptops.

As for Conroe/dual core... well, Conroe isn't due out for a couple more months. You can certainly wait, but according to you, anything purchased now would be a HUGE upgrade for her.

How about a laptop for $400 (After Rebate)? It's not the lightest thing in the world, but it's much more portable than any desktop. She can carry it from bedroom, to desk, to kitchen, etc. You just need to upgrade the ram to 1GB and you'll be set. http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview...atid=40&threadid=1866856&enterthread=y

Or this laptop: http://www.shopping.hp.com/webapp/shopp...es&series_name=V2000_series&aoid=15536
I had a GF that had this, and it's very sweet... nice and light.

http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview...atid=40&threadid=1867676&enterthread=y

Or you can check out a Dell deal or any desktop deal... try to find one that includes a monitor... because i'm assuming she's still using a CRT? An LCD will be a fantastic upgrade for her. http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview...atid=40&threadid=1866540&enterthread=y

But like i said, anything purchased today (this generation that is) will be a huge upgrade... just make sure you get a minimum of 512mb ram, preferably 1GB (don't buy it from the manufacturer ie not from Dell... but order it online from newegg or something).