Best Computer for Amateur Photographer?

[Sunny AZ Girl]

Thanks! I went to Best Buy and Costco today to look at their computers. Costco will not have their computer that I have the coupon out for yet, so I could not see it. The coupon starts on Monday. I am off on Wednesday, so I will have to see it then.

 

Best Buy had a clearance going on several of their models. I saw a Toshiba, Intel Core 2, 4GB, 250 GB hard drive for $599 also.

 

Costco also had a Gateway, 4 GB, 320 GP ADD, Vista 64 bit with SP1. It was $799. Any thoughts on these?

 

The sales clerk at Best Buy said that I should have some added security since I am on the internet a lot. I will check on Pierces' links. It seems Best Buy uses Norton a lot. I believe we had that once and DH took it off since we were having problems. If it doesn't ever leave, maybe that is some of my issues?

[judynorth]

Thanks! I went to Best Buy and Costco today to look at their computers. Costco will not have their computer that I have the coupon out for yet, so I could not see it. The coupon starts on Monday. I am off on Wednesday, so I will have to see it then.

 

Best Buy had a clearance going on several of their models. I saw a Toshiba, Intel Core 2, 4GB, 250 GB hard drive for $599 also.

 

Costco also had a Gateway, 4 GB, 320 GP ADD, Vista 64 bit with SP1. It was $799. Any thoughts on these?

 

The sales clerk at Best Buy said that I should have some added security since I am on the internet a lot. I will check on Pierces' links. It seems Best Buy uses Norton a lot. I believe we had that once and DH took it off since we were having problems. If it doesn't ever leave, maybe that is some of my issues?

 

I bought my HP laptop at Best Buy and at that time they wee not recommending Norton. I still think they recommend something else. I had them set up my computer and uninstall Norton (it comes on HPs) and install Trendmicro. The nice thing about Best Buy was that they were there to take care of any little problems that I encountered.

 

My DH has a Gateway desktop and is very happy with it. We also have a very old Gateway laptop which was good in its day.

 

Whatever you buy, you would probably do well to get a service contract.

[Suzieb]

Thanks! I went to Best Buy and Costco today to look at their computers. Costco will not have their computer that I have the coupon out for yet, so I could not see it. The coupon starts on Monday. I am off on Wednesday, so I will have to see it then.

 

Best Buy had a clearance going on several of their models. I saw a Toshiba, Intel Core 2, 4GB, 250 GB hard drive for $599 also.

 

Costco also had a Gateway, 4 GB, 320 GP ADD, Vista 64 bit with SP1. It was $799. Any thoughts on these?

 

The sales clerk at Best Buy said that I should have some added security since I am on the internet a lot. I will check on Pierces' links. It seems Best Buy uses Norton a lot. I believe we had that once and DH took it off since we were having problems. If it doesn't ever leave, maybe that is some of my issues?

 

Just over a month ago we purchased a Toshiba laptop similar to the model from Best Buy and the first thing I did was remove Norton and load AVG as Pierces mentioned. And it is loaded on all our computers at home. We use Zone Alarm Free for our firewall, but beware Vista x64 is not totally compatible with all programs. We were not able to load Zone Alarm and had to find another firewall so we are using Comodo Firewall. As for graphic programs I only have Polyview loaded as I just scan in photos and if needed I will work on the photo on another computer, but the laptop would be more than capable to handle graphics and other Office programs.

I would go for one you like and it should work fine

 

Good Luck

[eagle12]

As of late I found that AVG is becoming bloated like the rest of them. I prefer Nod32. It is very fast, effective and there is little to no affect on the speed of the computer.

 

Microsoft also has a spyware tool, and I have found it to be really good as well. It was written by another company and purchased by MS, so it functions as it should.

 

If you don't want to shell out the money for word, there is always the open office suite. I use it for all of my word needs, and it performs great, and is compatible with word. It has a built in PDF distiller, which I found nice.

 

If I were you, I would try and get the core 2, as generally it is faster. I have both the AMD x2 and the Core 2, and my core 2 far out performs the x2.

[Sunny AZ Girl]

We went back to Best Buy tonight and DH found one I had previously missed. I honestly do not believe it was on display earlier in the day. It is a Dell, Intel Core 2, 4GB, 320, Vista X64, 15 inch screen. It is $599. They were out of stock but are receiving 2 more tomorrow at 3PM. I am planning on being there to get it! For an additional $40 they will get it set up the way I want it. It has the Norton already installed but they can take it off. She did admit it was difficult, but they can do it. Now to figure out what to put back on it.

 

We have the disc for Word from 2006 and DH can install that. I have been using AOL & I am going to also let that go as we have both that & MSN Deluxe. Since the MSN has Picture It! included and DH is convinced that AOL is slowing me down I will switch my e-mail account to that.

 

I will let you know tomorrow once I have gotten my new baby home. You guys are the greatest!:)

[judynorth]

Ginny, just be sure that whatever you pick for your antivirus and anti-spyware is compatible with the 64 bit operating system. The Geeks at Best Buy should be able to tell you that. That is one advantage to having them set it up for you.

[hkolln]

It has the Norton already installed but they can take it off. She did admit it was difficult, but they can do it. Now to figure out what to put back on it.

 

 

Really? I have taken Norton off my computers myself before with no troubles. Not sure why someone would say that? Maybe to get some extra money?!! :)

[Sunny AZ Girl]

Ginny, just be sure that whatever you pick for your antivirus and anti-spyware is compatible with the 64 bit operating system. The Geeks at Best Buy should be able to tell you that. That is one advantage to having them set it up for you.

Yes, that is one reason that we went with Best Buy instead of Costco. Unfortunately, all the Circuit Cities in this area have closed.

 

Really? I have taken Norton off my computers myself before with no troubles. Not sure why someone would say that? Maybe to get some extra money?!! :)

I have heard that before & she just confirmed it. Removing it is just part of the $40 set up fee for doing everything for me. DH supposedly removed MacAfee from this computer. He had to do it several times before it was completely gone. Those little buggers like to hang on!!!:eek:

[judynorth]

Really? I have taken Norton off my computers myself before with no troubles. Not sure why someone would say that? Maybe to get some extra money?!! :)

 

I tried removing Norton from my computer and even using the Norton removal program downloaded from the website didn't remove it all. I had continuing problems and finally wound up reformatting the harddrive to get rid of the program. The problems started when I downloaded an upgrade to Norton from the Symantec website. It was a disaster. After that I swore that I would never use Norton again. I think the program is a little easier to remove now than it used to be but I still stay away from it. Other programs are better and don't cause the problems that Norton does.

[FinelyCruising]

Soooooo....does somebody have a new computer???:D

[Sunny AZ Girl]

Soooooo....does somebody have a new computer???:D

 

I am now officially typing on my new computer!:D Just think - it hasn't shut down once and I've had it on five whole minutes. It was a comedy of errors getting it today. Suffice it to say that I left home at 2PM and got home at 10PM. One store did not have it as promised - sent me to another store 45 minutes away. They had it and 'optimized' it. It took two hours, so I went grocery shopping at an unfamiliar store. Picked it up and went home to discover they had forgotten to pack the power cord in the box and I had left a bag of groceries at the unfamiliar grocery store. Back 45 minutes to the store(s), this time with DH in tow. Picked up forgotten grocery bag and power cord. The good thing - I got a nice dinner out with DH!:cool: However, now it's late and time for bed, so not much time to play. After a discussion with the Geeks and DH we opted to install Trend which DH has been happy with on his work computer and the Geeks agreed was great. They even said to stay away from Norton and completely removed the trial that was on it, along with other 'sample programs'. Now we can install the programs we really want.:)

 

I haven't had time to play with pictures yet. Maybe I can squeeze some time in tomorrow. We still have programs to install before I am completely up and running.

 

But thanks to all of you. I now have an expanded vocabulary and a better idea of what I am doing when I fire up the 'puter.;)

[donaldsc]

Just over a month ago we purchased a Toshiba laptop similar to the model from Best Buy and the first thing I did was remove Norton and load AVG as Pierces mentioned.

 

Good Luck

 

The problem with Norton is that it is bloated at tends to take over your computer. Also, once you install it, it is a real problem to get rid of every trace of it. Uninstall does not get rid of everything and there is a special utility that you can get from Norton that sort of does the job.

 

I use Kapersky as my protection program. Seems to work well and does not have a large footprint. You do have to pay for it, however.

 

What computer vendors should do it make their computers available with and without the addition of bloatware. I realize that one without bloatware will cost mor but IMHO, the additional cost would be worth it. I believe that Dell has this option for some of their computers.

 

DON

[hkolln]

 

What computer vendors should do it make their computers available with and without the addition of bloatware. I realize that one without bloatware will cost mor but IMHO, the additional cost would be worth it. I believe that Dell has this option for some of their computers.

 

I purchased my new laptop from dell.com a few weeks ago. I asked for NO antivirus software and got it without. I then just used hubby's college to download free Mcaffee and it worked well.

 

My desktop has norton on it. I can remember when we first setup our network and I had Norton on my desktop it wouldn't let us. My computer thought the other computer was a hack attempt and hubby had to work around that. Luckily hubby is a computer programmer and he's pretty good with computers :)

[FinelyCruising]

You know I dont think I have any antivirus software on my Mac.:eek:

[pierces]

You know I dont think I have any antivirus software on my Mac.:eek:

 

If you're writing a virus, why target only 6% of the world PC market? :D;)

 

Dave

[Sunny AZ Girl]

I just discovered that the Picture It! program I like so much is not able to run on this new Vista program.....now what?!? What picture fixing software are those of you who are using Vista using? I suppose Photoshop has a software for Vista?

 

I downloaded the Google Chrome. I'm playing with it - still trying to figure it out.:cool: I haven't found out how to make it my homepage, though.:confused:

[judynorth]

I just discovered that the Picture It! program I like so much is not able to run on this new Vista program.....now what?!? What picture fixing software are those of you who are using Vista using? I suppose Photoshop has a software for Vista?

 

 

How powerful an image editor do you want? Picasa is a good basic editor with a very good organizer and it is a free download from Google. A lot pf people find that it is adequate for them. I use PhotoShop Elements 7. It is a great program and is a subset of its big brother, Photoshop CS3 (or CS4 now). However, it costs much less - just $79 at Costco. I highly recommend it if you want a powerful image editor.

 

BTW, congratulations on your new computer. I am sure that you will love it.

[pierces]

I just discovered that the Picture It! program I like so much is not able to run on this new Vista program.....now what?!? What picture fixing software are those of you who are using Vista using? I suppose Photoshop has a software for Vista?

 

I downloaded the Google Chrome. I'm playing with it - still trying to figure it out.:cool: I haven't found out how to make it my homepage, though.:confused:

 

Ditto on Photoshop Elements! Great program.

 

BTW, google's Picasa has an excellent set of basic editing tools built in.

 

Google Chrome: Top right corner - click on the little wrench - choose "Options" - on the "Basics" tab is the setting for home page.

 

 

 

Dave

[Sunny AZ Girl]

Hi Judy - I just started taking some photo classes and I am far from a pro. I would like a program that will enhance my photos, remove red eye, straighten & crop essentially at this time. Will picasa do that? I'll check it out. I will probably want a more powerful program soon, but since I just bought this computer and have a cruise to make final payment on this month.....:eek: ;)

 

I love what Picture It was able to do to my underwater shots using "Auto Fix":

 

Here is one of my favorite photos from the Dominican Republic, using Auto Fix, Straighten (I was in a moving truck) and Crop:

 

I want to still be able to do all that and then move on to some more advanced techniques!:D

[Sunny AZ Girl]

Ditto on Photoshop Elements! Great program.

 

BTW, google's Picasa has an excellent set of basic editing tools built in.

 

Google Chrome: Top right corner - click on the little wrench - choose "Options" - on the "Basics" tab is the setting for home page.

 

 

 

Dave

Dave - you have been such a help this whole time. I 've been playing with Google Chrome and I really like it.:) I will go to the wrench.....

 

I will check out Picasa for now as I want to get going with my family's "2008 Album" & have pictures to add. Then I will go out and look for Photoshop Elements. I would like a more advanced program for my next cruise pics.

[FinelyCruising]

If you're writing a virus, why target only 6% of the world PC market? :D;)

 

Dave

 

 

Hmmmmm......pays to be under the radar then...:D

[Sunny AZ Girl]

Dave - I went to install Java & got a message that since Google Chrome is new, Java has not recognized it in it's applications yet and to install at your own risk. Do you use Java? I know it is used in many things. I need it for a photobook. Should I be concerned? I don't want to mess up my new computer!;)

[pierces]

Dave - I went to install Java & got a message that since Google Chrome is new, Java has not recognized it in it's applications yet and to install at your own risk. Do you use Java? I know it is used in many things. I need it for a photobook. Should I be concerned? I don't want to mess up my new computer!;)

 

Worst case, it would do some odd things running Java applets on web sites. I haven't had any crash on me as yet. I wouldn't be concerned.

 

Dave

[lsane2]

I just got a brand new computer yesterday too. I loaded Google chrome onto it and liked what I saw of it, especially the windows open of the different web sites I visit. But after I downloaded it, my computer got real slow. I would try to do some things and would get the message that it was not responding. After uninstalling it, I haven't had any problems like that. Has anyone else experienced this too?

[pierces]

I just got a brand new computer yesterday too. I loaded Google chrome onto it and liked what I saw of it, especially the windows open of the different web sites I visit. But after I downloaded it, my computer got real slow. I would try to do some things and would get the message that it was not responding. After uninstalling it, I haven't had any problems like that. Has anyone else experienced this too?

 

Not at all. In fact, I find it loads pages considerably faster than either IE or Firefox.

 

What anti-virus are you running? Have you checked their site or Google's site for any known conflicts?

 

Dave