A reliable computer?

Norton is a bit of a system hog. The best paid anti-virus i have seen is definitely ESET. Although you can run an manual scan from there site (for free) for continued support their products will offer it. Or if you don't want to mess with windows virus then Linux is still an option.

Bit off topic ..

As for the rise in hard drives, it could be a year before the factories can be made or manufacture them. For the larger capacity drives you could be looking around 200+. Had the same issue but found that a supplier was selling old Vista machine that where cheaper so we got them all and stripped the hard drives which are all new plus we have the extra parts such as the graphics card, mother boards ect.

I have noticed that the 500gb Buffalo Ministation that I bought from Amazon at the end of October for £48.40, is now priced at £69.30, and a 1tb model, which was £79.99 on November 8th., is now £89.98. In fact, the 320gb model is now more expensive than the 500gb model was.
I don't know if this is just a temporary increase or part of a long-term trend, but I think I will buy a 1tb drive before they go up again.

Firstly Hi everyone, and happy new year, at our works we buy lots of memory just latley we have had several batches of faulty memory most of the time it will run Ok but if you use a program that uses a lot of memory they crash it was branded under various makes main one is "zeplin" cames as ddr2 and 3

Bogget

Oh also we supply schools with anti virus for "apple" as they have had problems this year with viruses Norton now do anti virus also for apple the advantage they had with virus is now gone.
If you go for Norton use NAV2012 NOT 360 or Internet security as both slow the computer, as for FREE AV i would not use them these companies also sell AV so why would they give one away free if it was as good as a bought one they would never sell one would they!!!

As for reliable hardware we build coputers for a local radiostation so they have to be 100% or as close to, we build both Intel and AMD but we find Intel to be most reliable and with an intel MB and make sure you DONT use a western digital hard drive the failure rate is very poor.

Bogget

"As for reliable hardware we build coputers for a local radiostation so they have to be 100% or as close to, we build both Intel and AMD but we find Intel to be most reliable and with an intel MB and make sure you DONT use a western digital hard drive the failure rate is very poor."
My Dell has an Intel Core 2 Quad CPU and a Western Digital Hard Drive, but I don't think the H.D. is the problem.
I suspect that the problem is with Windows 7, which seems less robust than Windows XP, but I can't prove that.
It's possibly the way the other software interacts with W7, but since it is too complicated for me to understand, I will never know.
By the way, I don't want to be, or need to be, a "computer expert".
I just want a computer that is reliable.

I agree completely you dont have to me a mechanic to drive a car, we actually find win7 to be very robust it may be your software was not written for win7?
does it say on it win7?

@Twister i think the reverse would be true if the free product was good why would you buy one?
They also lack the full virus definitions so only stop something like 80%

Bogget

"I agree completely you dont have to me a mechanic to drive a car, we actually find win7 to be very robust it may be your software was not written for win7?
does it say on it win7?"
I'm not sure which software, if any, is causing the problem, but it is possible that I am not using the most up to date software.
Of course that is all part of the continuous rip-off of windows, in which you have to "upgrade" to a new version because the current software
runs too slowly on the previous version, and then you find that your old software and/or hardware no longer works with the new version.
The end result is that despite the ever increasing power of computers, some software runs no faster than it did on a TRS-80, or Windows 98.

Yes what issue are you facing? Your Specifications you have posted so far are not an issue. Perhaps you computer just needs a servicing as like cars they will get bloated with unneeded or unwanted software. Try a piece of freeware called CCleaner, that can be used to clean temp files, and fix Registry issues.

I do prefer Windows 7 over Windows XP, and have not had many issues with it and with with official Microsoft support for it to end soon you will find software will perform faster and more effective with a newer. Also on Windows XP and other 32-Bit operating system you are limited on RAM and with applications becoming more complex their requirements for them to run will increase.

Also Windows 8 will be coming out later next year.


EDIT

I have 5 of them, 4 of them in a server under heavy load so far no issues could be a bad batch?

Oh dont get me wrong we do use Western Digital hard drives ,....................to keep the door open in summer.

Western digital drives give several problems Thermal calibration is a big fault on them, the induction motor on the head is another, over the past few years we have seen a large return rate on them more than double any other make.

Bogget

"Yes what issue are you facing? Your Specifications you have posted so far are not an issue. Perhaps you computer just needs a servicing as like cars they will get bloated with unneeded or unwanted software. Try a piece of freeware called CCleaner, that can be used to clean temp files, and fix Registry issues."
Just the odd sudden crash, the worst of which prompted the initial post in this thread.
Also, repeated failure to re-boot when turned off after it gets too slow to use.
My first computer, a TRS-80, crashed all of the time.
My Windows XP computer never crashed, although it did require the occasional re-boot.
Surely an operating system which "gets bloated with unneeded or unwanted software", and requires "cleaning",
is not a very good operating system, since it should take care of that as a matter of routine.
My experience with "registry cleaners" is that they can make things worse.
"Also Windows 8 will be coming out later next year."
More software and hardware made redundant and new software and hardware to buy.
More billions in the bank for that great philanthropist Bill Gates.

I agree i would NEVER use a registry cleaner to are a general fix and often get it wrong, if you dont want a program uninstall it properly the reg will be cleaned as you do it (in most cases) as for win8 we have an advanced copy from Microsoft very odd frontend not sure if i like it at all, but hey if your happy with an OS why update? if it aint broke !!!

Bogget