i was talking with you the other day about buying a computer.you said you trouble shoot so i wanted to know your opinion on the sony's.i had my eye on something else but they knocked a hundred off this one cause it was a display model.2.0 gig processor, 80 gig hard drive, 512 megs ram, cd-rw, dvd-rom.17 inch viewable flat screen monitor.i had a couple questions for you.

i have been calling around and internet access through cable and through dsl is really ****ing expensive around here so i was gonna go dial up.with a 56 k modem and that quick of a processor and that much ram, do you think it will be fairly quick in the loading spped of web pages and downloading songs?

i've never set up internet access before, i have been using my parents comp so i have not been through the motions.the phone company said they basically flip a switch on their end for the access but they will send me the necessary discs to download.what are the discs for?i just got an aol8.0 disc in the mail.can't i just load that one and then hit the net?

thanks a lot waylander.i appreciate your input.

Having a fast processor will not help your internet speed. (within reason). Cable or DSL is a must!


Setting up Internet access is very easy. If you use aol throw in the disks and have a blast. Make sure your modem is plugged into the wall, we dont want The Jake to have to go thru that again.

Anything else?

what are the discs that the phone company said they were going to send me?

The dial up software that they want you to use. You can set it up w/out it if you know the access numbers and have an active acct.

Mut is right, 99% of the limitations found in surfing websites isnt the specs of the machine but the speed of your connection.

Dial up-56k, but phone lines using the analog signal can only handle 43 in most areas.
Dsl-taps out a 1.5, or 1500 opposed to the 56. So if your downloading a song on kazaa with a dial up your max speed theoretical is "5.6" with a dsl your max speed would be "150"
Cable- its like communism, its a pooled bandwidth but more so than not theres plenty to go around. I would say you got a 66 percent chance of getting better speeds than with the usual dsl.

Whats the price on this pc? Also find out the other specs that arent as known, front side bus, the speed of your ram, rpms on the harddrive and bus speed, ATA 100 etc.

i paid 749 for the tower and bought the moniter seperate.i paid for them but have not picked them up yet.i was gonna shoot the specs out to you and see what you thought of it.i can always go back and switch to another one, as i have not picked it up yet.
here are the rest of the specs
model-pcvrxa842
prosessor brand-amd
processor type-athlon xp
frontside bus speed-266mhz
ram expandable to-1gb
maximum optical drive speeds-dvd:16*max, cd-rw:32*max write, 12*max rewrite, 40*max read, cd-rom:40*max read
usb ports-2 front/2 rear
video memory-32 mb shared graphics memory
operating system-windows xp home edition
software included-word pefrect, office 2002, adobe acrobat reader, photo shop elements, apple quick time, outlook express, intuit quicken 2002, sony application and system restore cd's

hopefully you can tell me something off of that.as i said, i cruise around the net and read ****, download and burn music and that's it.also, all those programs i mentioned, do they already come installed into the comp.?or do i have to load the discs for everyone of them like i just bought them off the shelf?

thanks a lot waylander

For what you are wanting you will be fine, the only red flag that I got would be the video card, but thats just the gamer in me. Not saying it won't play games, its just one thing that If you get into you may want to consider upgrading.

All in all you got a good buy, congrats, and enjoy your new PC.

thanks man.i appreciate it.it took me like 2 hours to decide on which one i wanted.i keep what you said about the video card.

Also I would rather have XP pro.....comes with some neat **** that the home edition doesnt.

mut, any major difference?like i said.most of the **** in the comp i don't need, i just don't want to upgrade for a while.the only program i really wanted was the photoshop so that i could **** around with some pics.sony was the only pc that came with it

You may not need it but I like the remote desktop sharing. You can access your machine's desktop remotely without any additional software.



Photoshop RULES!