HD DVD & Blu-ray News

Upgrade computer or buy a new one?

By Jim Harmening

This week, I'll answer a reader's question related to the time frame for purchasing a new computer.

A home user we'll call Kathy Rubino has a 5-year-old computer that is coming to the end of its useful life. Her family upgraded the memory and hard drive space two or three years ago so it would run Windows faster and give them a few more years of usefulness.

Home computers are lasting from four to six years for most families. The exceptions are those families sending kids away to college. They are adding computers for their recent college graduates.

I am a big fan of getting a relatively inexpensive computer — not the fastest on the block, not the biggest hard drive, not the biggest screen, unless money is no object to you! Then I can spend about $5,000 and get you a home theater system, PC, big screen TV and Windows Media Center all built into your home PC.

For most of us working stiffs, we don't need that. We need a reliable computer that will run the latest versions of software — e-mail, word processing, Quicken, Turbo Tax and be able to get online fast.

There are some great deals from HP, Lenovo (the old IBM), Dell and Sony that get you what you need for under $800. Add a monitor for $100 or keep the monitor that you already have!

Here are some of the important things that I like to recommend for upgrades:

1) Get a DVD burner. Most basic systems come with a DVD reader, but adding the ability to burn DVDs is really sweet (see last week's article). It shouldn't be more than $50 to $60 for this upgrade. For those of you techies who are watching the new high capacity DVD (Blue Ray or HD DVD), the upgrade is too expensive for me to recommend, now. Plus, I am not sure which technology will win out in the long run.

Netflix (what a great service!) is gathering information about what format people have — with plans for expanding their service in the future to include these formats. Right now, there are only a few titles (less than 50) that are available in the high-definition formats, but that could change in the next year.

2) Get Windows XP Professional. This is one of those toss-ups. If you have only one PC at home and aren't doing anything too tricky, then Windows XP Home is fine. For safer networking and more advanced security, XP Pro is the way to go. Warning: You will be hearing this from me a lot in the next few months. Windows Vista or Windows 2007, or whatever Microsoft is going to call it — is coming out in 2007. I am not sure it will be ready for prime time in January, but it will definitely be the operating system of choice by the end of 2007. You probably will be able to get it for the same price as Windows XP. One problem for you Christmas shoppers — you probably won't get a coupon for the new Vista if you buy the computer before 2007. Sorry, send an e-mail to the new guy at Microsoft.

3) Memory, memory, memory — if there is a choice between doubling your memory (1GB would be great!) or getting a bit of money off the price, take the memory.