Computer help?

Just to round out my options, if I could get together $500 or $600 for a new computer, what could I get for that much? What would you all recommend?I need MS Publisher, not Word, and Excel, and I'm on the internet a lot both for work and play, but none of that takes a lot of power. But I do tend to collect a lot of stuff on the computer, would like to be able to store all the back years of work, plus quite a bit of stuff I download from emails and the internet, without taxing the system. People do send me a lot of pictures and I now have a scanner so I send some myself. It would be REALLY nice to be able to hear a streaming audio or watch an online video without all the stopping and buffering, but maybe that's because I'm on dialup and not about the computer itself?

I suspect that a geek could make mine work great, but I'm not a geek and my niece is currently on the outs with my geek nephew-in-law, and others I have known don't seem to be around any more, so you may be right, and I just wrote the post at the same time as yours inviting recommendations. Edited by Faith, : No reason given.

So a processor, all that pentium stuff, is on those boards in the CPU, and the hard drive collects information or something like that.

I glanced at Open Office but don't want to spend too much time at links since the computer often freezes up when I do. But I can get Publisher there? Have to have Publisher.Only $400? Wow.Funny you mention AT&T. I've been thinking about going there. I think I will do that. MS Windows XP
Home Ed
Version 2002
Service pack 2Intel Celeron processor
901 MHz
256 MB of RAM

I believe it. Geeks know what they are doing.

I guess I have to actually LOOK inside the CPU when I dust it out.I've seen a hard drive before, before it was put in. But all those boards inside ...I used to have a co-worker graphics designer who was a Beta tester for Corel (Corel is unbelievably complex it seems to me, I played with it once or twice) who would occasionally erupt in a fit of fury at her computer, get up out of her chair and take the CPU apart, doing who knows what with this board and that. It was all very impressive but for all I know it was more to keep the rest of us entertained than truly useful. I could be wrong.

OK. With that information I'll take a look at Best Buy. Thanks. Yes I already have Celeron, I'd like to do a bit better if possible.Working months later won't do it. This thing I hope will last years. And if I need more RAM I don't know who could get it for me.

Oy. OK, keep a lookout for single core vs dual core. If dual core is too expensive, though, then what?Edited by Faith, : No reason given.

Thanks for the reminder. I use Zip disks. And I will need a modem.

That makes sense. I'm not going to be branching out into anything too demanding. The few games I used to play I finally erased from the computer because they were addicting. I don't miss them.

IF you are a geek and know what you are doing.

Good advice I'm sure, although I don't know what the "cache" is. I'm keeping track of all this however.I always have at least two documents of Publisher, and sometimes many more, plus Word and the internet open at the same time, and sometimes a couple of windows of Excel as well, and may have half a dozen websites open too, minimized. And that's been fine on my system as is until recently. Now I can't even print something while I'm typing or opening or closing a document or the whole thing freezes up. Edited by Faith, : No reason given.

Yes I have XP. I did do System Restore early on, I'm pretty sure. But if it's a damaged file, then reinstalling Windows XP would cure that. Maybe I'll yet do that.I know the fewer programs open the better but I really do need to have two docs of Publisher plus Word open at all times, and I use the internet a lot so having that open too is necessary. I can do Excel docs as a separate operation with everything else closed, but that's about the only accommodation I can make without making my job unnecessarily difficult. Right now of course it's a difficult as possible since I only do one task at a time very carefully to avoid a crash.Jazz's suggestion to shut off the msconfig startups was probably the best advice yet. Hardly any freezeups since I did that. But I still don't dare open a link.But I get it: bigger cache, bigger RAM if I can manage it.

Problem is I wouldn't know how to install a motherboard and I'd end up paying someone, which is what I've been trying to avoid.

Uh oh. Thanks VERY much for that reminder. That crossed my mind a few times but then I forgot it. It's internal. Problem there. I'm backing up everything onto Zip disks.