To be sure, at this price you don't get a "barn burner" with top-of-the-line performance. However, it is a reasonably good machine, moderately fast with a lot of disk storage space and quite a bit of RAM memory. You can find these bargain PCs at almost all the discount computer stores. All have roughly the same specifications with minor variations. I purchased mine at Staples but similar bargains are available at most other discount stores: BestBuy, OfficeMAX, Fry's, MicroCenter, and more.
The Compaq CQ5210F also includes 64-bit Windows 7, which may be a good thing or bad, depending on the situation. The 64-bit version of Windows 7 is reported to be a bit more secure than the more common 32-bit version. However, if you own an older peripheral, such as a printer, a scanner, or digital camera that plugs into the USB port, you may not be able to find 64-bit drivers while 32-bit drivers are available. Some applications written for 32-bit Vista also may have incompatibilities when running on 64-bit Windows 7. The 64-bit version of Windows 7 also requires a minimum of two gigabytes of RAM memory whereas the 32-bit version only requires one gigabyte. Luckily, this Compaq system included three gigabytes of RAM memory, which should be adequate for most of my processing tasks.
The total price, after instant rebates, was $299.98 plus sales tax. These were not mail-in rebates; the total price paid at checkout was $299.98 plus tax. The sale I found is now over but I see plenty of other $299 PCs still being advertised.
The above prices include a keyboard and mouse but do not include a monitor. I already own a 22-inch monitor and have no desire to switch. My monitor is connected to several computers by a KVM (Keyboard-Video-Mouse) switch, so I only have the one monitor on my desk along with one keyboard and one mouse. I can switch them to my different computers simply by pushing a button on the KVM switch.
I took the PC home and installed it. I must say that the routine that runs the first time you turn the power on is much better than "the old days." Microsoft and/or Compaq has done a nice job of leading the new user by the hand through the myriad of configuration options.
The only problem I encountered was with the printers. I own two printers. I was pleasantly surprised when my color HP OfficeJet 6500 wireless printer/fax/copier/scanner was detected by Windows 7 and installed automatically. This is a rather sophisticated device and yet Windows configured it without any significant action on my part.
Finding and installing my older HP LaserJet 1320 was a different story, however. It is installed on a Macintosh and is shared and available through my in-home network. I installed it on several other Windows systems in the past without difficulty, but Windows 7 couldn't find it.
I downloaded the latest Windows 64-bit drivers for the LaserJet 1320 from the HP web site. When I double-clicked on the ZIP file to install the drivers, an error message told me that stated that I didn't have the proper printer drivers installed. Catch-22! For the time being, I can only use the OfficeJet 6500 wireless printer/fax/copier/scanner which is slower and also costs more for ink than the LaserJet. I'll go back later and try again.
I found Windows 7 to be easy to use for anyone who is used to Vista. In fact, it really appears to be Vista! I would suggest that giving this operating system a new name is a bit misleading. No matter what the name, this is really Vista version 2.0.
To be sure, there are a number of significant improvements. For one thing, Vista is the most obnoxious operating system I have ever used. It seems to constantly pop up warnings about this or that. (The warnings can be turned off but I bet that most people never do that.) Windows 7 appears to have all the same warnings but all interactions are funneled through the Action Center. The Action Center serves as traffic cop for announcements that inform, warn, and often annoy. But rather than a pop-up window, the only alert you'll see is a small flag in the notification area (near the clock) that turns yellow or red as needs dictate. The new Action Center is much less distracting than the old methods of issuing warnings. However, it is so small that one might overlook warnings.
My new Windows 7 system seems to boot up much faster than the Vista system I have been using, even though the Vista system ran on similar powerful hardware.
Windows 7's security is also stronger and less intrusive. Windows 7 reportedly is significantly more difficult to crack than Vista. I must admit that I haven't tested that and probably won't. However, it is always nice to know that something new is more secure than the system you were using before.
The search of the computer's hard drive(s) now works properly. Windows XP introduced a built-in search feature but it was slow, painful, and buggy. Vista's built-in search was better but still often did not find information that you knew was there. In Windows 7, Microsoft has, at long last, made the search part of the operating system itself, not an add-on utility. There's no noticeable system overhead; searches operate quickly, and — most important of all — the results are accurate. You can initiate a search from just about any location in Windows 7: on the Start menu, inside Control Panel, and in Windows Explorer.
Most programs that operate on Vista should operate on Windows 7. After all, the two operating systems are almost identical. I still think this latest version is really Vista version 2. However, older programs designed to run on Windows XP may have some difficulties. Higher end versions of Windows 7 can run in XP Mode, a feature that gives users the option of running older applications that aren't compatible with Windows 7. XP Mode is really a free, virtualized copy of Windows XP. That is, your system will run both Windows 7 and Windows XP simultaneously. This requires some powerful hardware and the Windows 7 Home Premium version, however. My $299 system won't do this.
Windows 7 centralizes control of all devices: printers, MP3 players, phones, keyboards, mice, fax machines, and anything else you plug into your computer. The controls all appear in a place called Device Stage. It had no problem finding and installing my all-in-one printer, scanner, copier, and FAX machine that connects via wi-fi wireless networking. However, it never could install my LaserJet printer that is available on the network.
On the downside, the new operating system requires a lot of computer hardware: a minimum of one gigabyte of RAM memory (two gigabytes for the 64-bit version), a lot of disk space and a lot of processor power. Of course, that's nothing new. Almost every new version of Windows and even of some other operating systems have required more and more system resources than the previous versions.
For many people, upgrading from an older operating system to Windows 7 may not be cost-effective. By the time you buy the upgrade version of Windows 7 ($120 or more) plus all the new hardware required to make your old computer compatible, you may find it cheaper to simply purchase a new computer with Windows 7 pre-installed. That's the route I chose.
Is Windows 7 worth the upgrade? The only answer I can offer is "maybe."
I do like Windows 7 better than Vista. It seems that Microsoft learned well from their Windows Vista debacle. The refinement just might be what the PC industry needs to overcome a devastating recession. Even so, keep in mind that Windows 7 offers only modest new functionality when compared to Vista, along with some ease-of-use improvements.
If you already have a Vista system thatmeets your needs, I see no reason to upgrade to Windows 7. Yes, there are improvements but they are mostly minor tweaks. I don't think the minor improvements are worth the $120 upgrade cost. In short, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it." If you have some specific problem that requires an upgrade, however, it might be worth the expense.
If you are using Windows XP, the decision is a bit fuzzier. If you are the only person who uses the computer and if all your present and planned applications are meeting your needs, I'd suggest you not upgrade. However, if you share your computer with family members and if some of them are not security-conscious, the new security features in Windows 7 might prove to be very worthwhile. You will probably need some hardware upgrades also.
If you are using a Windows system older than Windows XP, an upgrade is probably a good thing but you will probably need to purchase a whole new computer. Very few of the Windows systems built prior to Windows XP have the necessary hardware required to run Windows 7. In most cases, purchasing a new system will be cheaper than purchasing the individual piece parts needed to upgrade an older system.
As for me, I'll keep the Windows 7 system and I expect to use it occasionally to test and write about genealogy programs installed on Microsoft's latest operating system. However, I see nothing in Windows 7 that tempts me to switch from the Macintosh as my daily workhorse system. The Mac already has better security, doesn't get viruses, and is more user-friendly. I expect to use the Mac for most of my work, switching to Windows 7 only when some unique requirement dictates the use of the Windows operating system. I can't imagine any Mac user ever wanting to switch to Windows 7.
The bargain price of $299 plus tax for the Windows 7 system I purchased is very attractive and certainly is much cheaper than a Macintosh system. However, the price is slightly misleading. To be sure, I only paid $299.98 plus tax for the computer. However, the system also needs a monitor (I already had one), and an anti-virus program (costing anywhere from free to about $60, depending upon the program selected). The system I purchased came with a 60-day version of Norton Internet Security, but it will obviously need to be renewed or replaced in sixty days.
Windows 7 has a wide choice of drivers but still may not work with older printers and scanners. You may need to purchase a new printer or scanner or other replacement devices for your older equipment. Indeed, it has not yet been able to connect to my LaserJet 1320 printer. I am hopeful that will be fixed, however.
The $299.98 system I purchased is more than powerful enough for casual computing use: surfing the web, writing with a word processor, and running any modern genealogy program. It will run two or three programs simultaneously, as long as none of them are particularly resource-intensive. However, if I wanted to run CAD/CAM programs or to edit videos or to do intensive work in Photoshop, I'd want more memory and a faster processor. Perhaps the most demanding application of all is computer games. The graphics-intensive games require high end processing and video cards, along with a lot of memory. I don't play computer games so I don't need that power. Your needs may be different.
Is a $299 computer worthwhile? I'd say "Yes" if, and only if, your computing needs are modest. If you have specific processor-intensive applications, be prepared to pay more.
UPDATE: After working on it for more than an hour, downloading, installing, and uninstalling three different printer drivers, I finally got the Hewlett-Packard LaserJet 1320 installed and working. It wasn't easy!
Hi Dick: I also bought Windows 7 and while your article describes your experience with Windows 7, I was surprised to find that you didn't mention that it comes in three different versions. The one you purchased must have had the "Home Premium" version which is the one that comes with most units sold in stores. There is also the "Professional" version and the "Ultimate" version of Windows 7. I recommend spending the extra $80.00 and getting the "Professional" version as it includes a Windows XP mode that isn't in the "Home Premium" edition. One of my most cherished programs wouldn't function in Windows 7 unless I was in the XP mode. It was worth the upgrade. "Ultimate" costs only $20.00 more than the "Professional" edition and adds some 37 languages plus some extra security that may or may not be needed. Rather than equate Windows 7 with Vista (not well liked by many XP users), I would say that Windows 7 "Professional" edition is an XP with some really nice perks...like the snipping and snapping tools as well as the "post-its".
Posted by: Larry Bowles | November 01, 2009 at 04:44 PM
---> I was surprised to find that you didn't mention that it comes in three different versions.
The article title of "I Bought a Windows 7 PC" indicates this is a report of my experiences with Windows 7. I have only used one version: 64-bit Windows 7 Home Premium. There are other versions available, but I do not have any experience with them so I didn't write about them.
- Dick Eastman
Posted by: Dick Eastman | November 01, 2009 at 05:59 PM
Dick,
I have installed Win 7 Home Premium on my Asus Netbook 1000 HE. I have installed my Genealogy program (TMG) and my utilities - PathWiz! and TimeLiner! and am connected to my NAS. I have added a 32Gb SSD as the main drive and have put the internal 160Gb HDD into an external enclosure for all of my Genealogy exhibits and other data.
I have increased the resolution to 1024 X 768 by using the XP Driver so I have a 'full screen' view of my apps ( It's a scrollable screen to see the lower portion.)
With the long battery life ( up to 9 hours) I can dable with my genealogy, network and the Web from the lounge room via the wireless connection and thus spend more time together with my wife. ( With one eye on the flatscreen TV too!)
I have also tried a USB TV stick which works perfectly with a decent aerial.
When the TV is not interesting I can replay TV shows I have recorded onto my external drive.
Bryan
BeeSoft
Posted by: Bryan Wetton | November 02, 2009 at 03:25 AM
Hi Dick,
If you could tell us how to turn off those obnoxious pop-up warnings on Vista, I'll bet many people would appreciate that little bit of information. I know that I sure would be a happy camper!!!
Posted by: Joseph | November 02, 2009 at 07:16 AM
I pre-purchased the Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit last summer. I have been running XP Pro 64 Bit for 3 years, then went to Vista 64 bit a year ago when my motherboard fried during last December's ice storm in New England.
I was fortunate enough to have been chosen to do a Win 7 Launch Party and received the Windows 7 64 bit Ultimate for free - and received it two weeks before it was released. Although I needed to update drivers for my Canon Pixma 850 all-in-one, my HP Laserjet 1320 had no issues at all. I have been real pleased with the new features, and it really does start up much faster than it did with Vista. I am running 6 gigs of ram though, as I use Photoshop, Illustrator, and Quark XPress all the time.
Attendees of the launch party received coupons for a free year of Kaspersky Internet Security when they get Win 7 - either as an upgrade or on a new machine. I should also mention that college students can purchase a Windows 7 upgrade through January for just $29.99.
Posted by: Cheryl Rosen | November 02, 2009 at 07:16 AM
I also was curious and went to my neighborhood WalMart and found an e-machine with Win7 for $398, with speakers, mouse, keyboard, no monitor but I had a 22" on my smaller XP e-Machine. It came with no rebates but did have a 750gb hard drive and 6 MG of RAM. It flies. My Brother laser printer works with it, as does my Linksys router. I love it, and will use it more than now and then. I use Legacy and it installed beautifully, and the image quality on the monitor is outstanding, in my humble opinion.
Posted by: Patricia LeBeau | November 02, 2009 at 08:40 AM
---> If you could tell us how to turn off those obnoxious pop-up warnings on Vista, I'll bet many people would appreciate that little bit of information. I know that I sure would be a happy camper!!!
I don't know of any single thing you can do to turn ALL of the obnoxious Vista pop-up messages off but you can get rid of a high percentage of them by following the instructions at http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/000571.html
- Dick Eastman
Posted by: Dick Eastman | November 02, 2009 at 11:30 AM
Just another mention - I too have a LaserJet 1320. I did an upgrade from Vista to Windows 7. Windows 7 identified all of my peripheals and installed the drivers except my Fujitsu ScanSnap scanner (great product, by the way). I am running the 32 bit version, which might make a difference!
Posted by: Carmen Johnson | November 02, 2009 at 12:00 PM
True, although I suspect the difference is caused by the fact that my HP LaserJet 1320 does not plug directly into the PC. It is connected to a Macintosh and is accessible to all my systems through the network. Windows XP and Vista systems always connected to it without difficulty but Windows 7 refused to acknowledge it was there until after I installed and de-installed drivers.
- Dick Eastman
Posted by: Dick Eastman | November 02, 2009 at 12:30 PM
I had a computer failure on 11 October and ordered a new system from Dell and only received it on Friday 30 October. I was tempted to get a computer with XP installed on it, because I know of the dangers of getting a brand new o/s and hoping that all the old s/w will work on it.
Boy, was I right and should I have stuck with that decision and not been convinced by the salesman, who assured me that with the new XP Mode available with Windows 7, I would be able to run all my XP programs flawlessly, as if I was still running XP. I wound up getting a new computer, a work horse for $800 with Windows 7 Home version (good and bad, since I know you usually get what you pay for, and I knew this would take care of multimedia needs associated with my own genealogy), and was told only later that I had to either get Windows Professional or Ultimate, and spend another $250 for the upgrade to Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit.
The salesman had also neglected to tell me this. The o/s upgrade was a pretty clean install for the basic elements. But after purchasing the upgrade, I spent 8 hrs. trying to get XP Mode to install. Dell couldn't help me and Microsoft couldn't help me. They upscaled it to another team at Microsoft and called me the next a.m., fairly prompt. The tech was FINALLY able to get XP Mode installed on my machine.
I have dozens of older programs that don't have more modern versions and I needed XP to be able to run them. Imagine my horror, however, when almost NONE of my programs, including Nero, Adobe Standard, and many others, would install correctly. Printers would not install at all. I still have yet to install my printers in XP Mode and the drivers are supposed to be completely compatible with XP! Basically, if a program didn't work in the Windows 7 environment, it wouldn't work (properly) in the XP Mode either. XP Mode is a very cheap-o version of XP after playing around with it for a couple of days and and I would warn anybody wanting to go to the expense and pain of downloading and installing this 500 MB file, which hasn't worked for me at all, with the exception of one program (Irfanview), which already works in Windows 7 anyway. MANY were the times I tried to install an XP program on XP Mode and got the message "not supported by this o/s". Well, I know it is, because I have the program on 4 other XP computers.
The next thing I tried to do was install my HP printers. I installed the old drivers and they wouldn't work, of course. I looked for new drivers for 2 hours, to no avail. Finally, I found a person on the Internet with my same exact problem and printer. He said that basically 64-bit Vista drivers from HP would make the printer work, and Microsoft had told me that Windows 7 was pretty much built on the Vista platform, so I used this as my guide to future programs/drivers. I would get the Vista 64-bit version, and haven't had problems with these programs, e.g., Apple iTunes. (Imagine that one of the very few programs that worked on a Windows system is an Apple program, when not all the Windows programs (even very recent) will work!)
But most of my programs are actually much older and won't work at all, even in XP Mode. I found myself having to bite the bullet and buy lots of other software. Just an upgrade to Adobe Standard cost me $100. Since my Nero wouldn't work on anything, I had to purchase Roxio CD/DVD burning s/w (and I've heard nothing good about the later versions of Nero, and didn't even know if they had a Vista version). That cost me another $100. And on and on.
I had to buy a card with more USB slots, since my newer, more expensive Dell, didn't have as many USB ports as my old Dell, that died after only 22 months. That was another $50.
Now, I'm finding out that only about 1/3 of my programs work on the Windows 7 platform, and XP Mode has been basically worthless to me, with programs working on it only if they already work in Windows 7.
Some of the only programs that worked were Microsoft programs -- of course. However, I was blown away that a 2007 version of their travel/mapping program didn't work at all! So much for Microsoft compatibility!
At least most of my most vital s/w works now. I was so extatic to learn that my genealogy program of choice, Ancestral Quest (It is fully Unicode compatible, and I use Arabic characters, Russian, Czech, Norwegian, German, Spanish, Greek, Japanese, Chinese, Georgian, Armenian, Russian, and other characters - yes, we're a very cosmopolitan family.), seemed to work just fine on it (clean install, no obvious problems), but alas, when I started the program and did the first thing I usually do, a search, alphabetically by surname, I found that it would not do a search at all. It kept flipping over to RIN search automatically, each time I wanted to do a search for someone. To edit that person, I had to go to my XP computer system and look up that database for the RIN #. I've reported the problem to the company that created Ancestral Quest, Incline Software, but it does me precious little good until they've fixed it. Fortunately, they are a good company that listens to their customers and the owner often is the one who e-mails me back. I imagine this is one of the first things that will be fixed, especially as the o/s becomes more prevalent.
But for now, I'm quite stuck. I feel like my right hand has been cut off with a system like my 64-bit Windows 7 Ultimate. Many people on Amazon comment and have been praising the system, but I have to suspect that these are probably computer experts that don't have much to lose s/w or h/w-wise. They usually seem to have only a couple programs to install (usually newer), and are just excited to play around with a new o/s. I haven't found much in it that I actually like. By that I mean, that is new that I actually use.
The one thing that I DO like is that while copying files, if a glitch is encountered, Windows doesn't just abandon the copy procedure. It asks you if you want to choose a variety of options. You can choose to overwrite certain files, not others. You can choose all files or go file by file for a certain process, like overwrite, copy with a new name, or not copy. This is something I've wanted in Windows for years and now they finally have it. But many things on it are to me just cooking my breakfast. I don't need my o/s to cook my breakfast for me; I just need it to compute. And it's not working so well in the most important areas for me right now -- compatibility. I've already spent twice as much money as I did for the initial computer on software and hardware -- just to keep the computer going at the rate it was going before it blew up. And if I keep going, it will cost me 3x as much.
I guess my message would be "buyer beware". Please be careful when you upgrade and don't do it just for fun or to check out the new o/s unless you can afford to do it. In my case, I had to buy a new primary computer and am now stuck with everything. That's not a nice feeling, to be "stuck" with a computer and o/s that doesn't do what you want it to do. Good luck. I hope you have a choice about it and don't get "stuck".
Posted by: Shon R. Edwards | November 02, 2009 at 01:20 PM
My 6 year old Dell is giving me signs that it is tired. It blue screened about 6 months ago, was able to save most of my backups. Have noticed the sales on HP in the paper. Checked with Office Depot about tansferring from Windows XP to a new 7. One store told me they do not charge to come to the house and charge only for the amount of gb transferred, About $80.00 for 10 gb. Called the other store in town and they will sell a USB line that can transfer from the XP to 7 with a small amount of instructions, do it yourself, about $50.00. I have a portable/stationary HP 3 in 1 printer. May have to upgradeon the printer. I have not used Vista. I live in a metal buidling and was told by the Direct TV installer that I can not use a wireless system. Hope to purchase a LP as well and use a router, if possible.
Susie Perkins
Posted by: Susie Perkins | November 02, 2009 at 03:43 PM
A genealogy research tragedy
Last week someone reported that he had upgraded to Windows 7 and lost 7 years of family history research. He had not made external backups, so he lost everything. Upgrades from Vista (of the same number of bits) is supposed to fairly straight forward. Any other upgrades seem to range between difficult and impossible.
Posted by: Bill Buchanan | November 03, 2009 at 12:11 AM
Could Windows 7 accomplish everything that's expected of it? I can say probably not, but it makes a damn good attempt. I found installing XP, Vista and Windows 7 on the same hardware over the space of a week also proved that point: Hardware just worked when I booted up Windows 7 for the first time, while my machines were practically catatonic with XP until I dug up the drivers, and gimped with Vista until I dutifully updated. So, i think you have chosen right think.
Posted by: micro sd | November 03, 2009 at 04:34 AM
Thanks Dick for sharing your experience with Win 7! I'm sure it will run quite well on my home-made monster running XP, but will wait for the kinks to be ironed out of 7. Also, as mentioned in other posts here, moving from XP to 7 will require a complete reinstall of all programs used - see Microsoft's guide for doing so at http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows7/help/upgrading-from-windows-xp-to-windows-7?T1=tab03.
Just one correction please, Macs DO get viruses, although much less frequently than Windows-based machines. With almost 90% of the world's comptuers running Windows, the perverts that crank out viruses get more of a kick in the possibility of infecting such a large number of computers.
Posted by: Red Sanders | November 04, 2009 at 08:47 AM
You are correct: in theory, Macs can get viruses. But it is so rare that you can ignore the possibility. In actual use, 99.999% of the Macs do not become infected, unlike Windows systems.
- Dick Eastman
Posted by: Dick Eastman | November 04, 2009 at 08:51 AM
99.999% Wow Dick! That's cleaner than Ivory Soap!! :-)
Posted by: Red Sanders | November 04, 2009 at 04:46 PM