Back to school & need a new computer?

We are only a few weeks away from the beginning of school. Do you need to purchase a new computer for your kids?
First you will need to choose between a tower and a laptop. Towers nowadays are pretty inexpensive, $500 and up. I personally prefer a tower for kids, because you can put it in the living room which allows you to keep an eye on what the kids are doing or watching. Also you can use it for your own email after the kids are gone to bed.
New computers come only with Windows 7, long gone is the lemon Windows Vista…With Windows 7 you get the latest in software and applications. One caveat Microsoft Office, it is still expensive and Microsoft is pushing the new 2010 version. Prices vary wildly from $200 to $450. However Windows 7 will still work well with older versions of Office 2003 and 2007 without any problems. Check out also if you qualify to purchase the “Student Teacher”edition from a university bookstore at a 50% discount, or ask a student you know to buy one for you.

If you need mobility, a laptop is what’s more popular today. 60% all PCs sold are now laptops. You can choose from different brands, and different size screens. From 8”-10” netbooks (without a CDROM) up to the monster 18.4” top of a line laptop barely portable. In quantities sold, HP is still number one, followed by Acer and Dell. Lenovo (formerly IBM), Toshiba and Sony are more expensive but not as much as Apple products. Quality is a problem, as you may know, HP and Dell have been hit with class action lawsuits because of design defects for some HP models and quality issues for the cheap Dell sold to chain stores. Many manufacturers sell select models exclusively through big chains of discount stores. They are not available anywhere else.
Buy your laptop from a reputable computer store. You will be able to test hands on the model you want, you will not be looking at rows of brown boxes with price tags. In some stores you can have your unit customized, software added or removed. Buy a unit with a factory extended warranty. Do not purchase store warranty, unless they cover what breaks most often: dropped laptop, broken screen or broken keyboard or a dead hard drive. Beware of open box deals; sometimes these units have somebody else’s name on it and you can no longer register it for a factory warranty…

Mac versus PC: Apple products are always more expensive, sometimes as much as 3 times more. The big push from Mac aficionados is that the Mac software OS/X never get a virus, for now. Apple keeps a contract going with Norton Symantec so it does not happen… Also Macs do not run Windows software unless you had a layer software (Parallels Desktop5 or VMware) which slows down your unit. But it can be done so you can run your favorite PC software on your latest Mac. If you never had used a computer and you were going to do email and office work and you like Mac sleek design, an Apple may be for you! Remember also that inside a Mac, the motherboards run Intel CPUs like PCs, and that they are made by Foxconn in China, a company that has being manufacturing towers and laptops for Dell for years…
In doubt give us a call!


If it does not work, give us a call! 303-219-0143.



We are Computer Hounds located in the Conifer Market Place shopping center, next to H&R Block.
Check our new website at the end of this month [url=http://www.computerhounds.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;]http://www.computerhounds.com[/url]
or email your questions at
Questions or concerns, call us at 303-219-0143 or 303-816-0270

Do you sell netbooks, I'm looking for a second unit only to be used for internet and email. Any info would be appreciated.

Yes I have sold only MSI or ASUS brand netbooks (motherboard manufacturers). I special order them & buy them with 2GB of RAM memory. They still come with Windows XP or Windows 7. If buying Windows 7, do not buy the "Windows 7 Starter edition", you can open only 3 programs at once. The Starter edition was supposed to be sold ONLY in poor countries not being able to afford the full version of Windows 7. I guess we are a poor third world country according to Microsoft...
Buy one with the biggest drive you can afford. They can run form $350 to $500. Cheapies sold at Walmart or Target can be as little as $250-275, but you get what you pay for!
Do not forget you will get only a trial version of Office of all those mini units and there is no CD to load programs, so you will have to install programs from a USB flash drive.