[CupcakeF]

I am shopping for a new computer, this one has just about had all it can take. A desktop is preferred but a laptop would be ok if it had a decent battery.
Here's my criteria:

At least 4GB of RAM
A 2GB Dual or Quad-core CPU
At least a 300GB hard drive
A respectable graphics card

32-bit Windows operating system

I'm open to any suggestions

[JohnWill]

What is the intended primary use of the machine?

[CupcakeF]

school-work, music, movies, some games

Pretty much day to day use

[JohnWill]

If you expect to use modern games, put some emphasis on the video capability. You'll want a video adapter with it's own dedicated memory, not one that shares memory with the processor. This will probably be the biggest decision. Games are by far the most demanding use, so if it's optimized for games, chances are that the other functions will be no sweat.

[rehless]

Cupcake, check out maxforcepc.com. You pick the components. he will help you with solid advice, if needed. Very good reviews on reseller ratings and tom's hardware. I have a pc coming from him.

[dock98]

i have 3 year old Acer laptop with all your criteria except it is x64.i recommend at least 8 gigs of Ram and a Quad core with a x64 bit chip.otherwise your games will suffer.plus this is kind of old technology.if it were me i would wait until something new comes out. FYI usually computers are their least expensive in January.

[JohnWill]

8 gigs of RAM is overkill for any game that I know of, or any other application. 4gigs is plenty, why have more stuff to run down the batteries?

[dock98]

Originally Posted by JohnWill

8 gigs of RAM is overkill for any game that I know of, or any other application. 4gigs is plenty, why have more stuff to run down the batteries?

i was assuming he was going to get a desktop.......

[JohnWill]

Originally Posted by dock98

i was assuming he was going to get a desktop.......

Well, maybe:

A desktop is preferred but a laptop would be ok if it had a decent battery.

In any case, for the typical user, 8gigs is still overkill. I have 8 gigs on this machine, and even running four virtual machine sessions and several other applications, I've yet to use 4gigs of the memory. If I had it to do over, I'd have saved some money and just went with 4gigs.

[GTechWiz]

Originally Posted by CupcakeF

I am shopping for a new computer, this one has just about had all it can take. A desktop is preferred but a laptop would be ok if it had a decent battery.
Here's my criteria:

At least 4GB of RAM
A 2GB Dual or Quad-core CPU
At least a 300GB hard drive
A respectable graphics card

32-bit Windows operating system

I'm open to any suggestions

You do realize that you need a 64 Bit Operating system to fully use 4 GB of Ram?
As 32 Bit can only SEE 2 GB total.. (But let's not forget there is a black hole which the computer assigns from the ram to operate the system, therefore you wouldn't even get a full 2 GB!)

[JohnWill]

Actually, a 32 bit version of Windows will be able to access anywhere from 3 to 3.5gigs, depending on the exact location of the mapped I/O devices. I have two that I originally had 32 bit versions of Windows installed on (XP and Win7) and one had about 3.1gigs usable, the other had about 3.4gigs usable.

Both now have Windows 7 64-bit and the only reserved memory is 2mb.

[calvin-c]

You need to watch that memory mapping. A friend has a Dell that he bought in 2007, with 32-bit Vista. He's upgrading it to 64-bit Windows 7 but ran into an issue upgrading the memory. With 4GB in 32-bit Vista it showed 3.5GB usable, as you noted. With 6GB (64-bit) it showed all 6GB, but with 8GB is reverted back to showing 3.5GB.

He tracked down an explanation, but didn't understand it, which is how I learned about this. It seems that the BIOS can only address 8GB. Since 32-bit Vista can only address 4GB it maps the I/O into the upper 4GB as explained. With 6GB it maps it down from 8GB. But with 8GB it reverts back to mapping it from 4GB down. Strange.

He's now looking for a BIOS upgrade before he decides whether or not to replace the PC.

[JohnWill]

Well, the BIOS and the chipset will determine the maximum supported memory. Even the design of the motherboard can affect it.