Recommendations for a new Computer?

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I am thinking about purchasing a new computer. I need something faster than what I use now, and will be working on manuscripts, doing a lot of internet research, and also listening to music, watching movies, and printing photos on occasion.

Any recommendations? I've been searching the Dell website, but got overwhelmed.

Dell is probably one of the most popular, but I've heard a fair share of complaints about them. They usually are among the cheapest, but you always get what you pay for, and a cheap broken computer doesn't do anyone any good.

Were you thinking desktop or laptop?

HP or Lenovo are also good brands. You didn't mention it, but I'm assuming you are looking at a desktop and not a laptop. As for the specs, I would get at least a Dual core processor, 2 GB of RAM, and at least 300 GB of hard drive space.

I doubt dual core is a must for something simple. For speed, I would recommend maybe a Mac, or if you choose a Wintel, go for XP

Mac!

Ok....

I'm going to be blunt - all of the above answers are completely useless and stupid.

Before I answer your question - what is the application of this computer?

Do you plan on using it for heavy gaming? How about video editing? Audio editing?

First of all, I am looking for a desktop. I don't do a lot of gaming, but I do writing, research on-line, listen to music, and would like to be able to watch movies and burn cds and dvds. Also, maybe print photos.

something with xp is best, but any new computer will work for what you said you wanted it to do. the $300 computer at walmart will totally satisfy your needs.

if you want to spend 4x as much, macs are fun. and if you want something cheaper, used macs are fun too. i just paid $25 for a mac that will do everything you said but probably more slowly than your current computer.

memory is by far the most important. 2 GB absolutely minimum, 3 or 4 GB is better. I'd say that more memory is better than a faster processor.

Welll... I'm currently quite taken with my Acer Aspire One, which cost me £179, on 23rd Dec. I have the 512Mb RAM, 8Gb SSD version. I broke the Linpus OS quite quickly (by trying to get its updates!), so I'm running Ubuntu 8.10 (Intrepid Ibex). Everything seems fine. Utterly silent. The two CPUs, each at 1.6GHz, seem up to the task, and with the fan management sorted out, the whole thing is utterly silent.

I suppose I could have waited a bit, as their next model is suppose to have GPS built in... but I got impatient, and wanted something totally portable.

Next on the shopping list is to get a couple of SD cards (there are two slots for cards), so I can push up the storage to somewhat more (40Gb?), although that's hardly a priority, as I'm only using 4Gb out of the 8Gb, for the whole of Ubuntu, OpenOffice, Firefox (and SeaMonkey), etc, etc....

I'm amazed that I get the full range of Compiz effects out of the graphics chip:

Mac!

Thanks for all the input, guys! I am currently hovering around this one:

http://www.dell.com/hybrid

I like that it is eco-friendly, as well as small.

Those actually look fairly nice. I'm all for compact and energy saving when possible. most of us have no need for large computers, really.

Depending on how much you have to spend, there's a couple things that could be upgraded from the base model:

1. more memory for one - 3 or 4 GB will help a lot
2. core 2 duo processor, instead of pentium. you can't go wrong with any of the core 2 duos

otherwise it is quite nice. Make sure your LCD monitor is compatible, since it says it supports DVI only, not VGA