Topic Title

If you're a one-man shop like I am, with limited (and possibly dangerous) computer skills, is it better to buy a PC through one of the "name brand" sources versus the propably-cheaper though less well-known off-brands you see advertised in the various CAD magazines? From the looks of things, Datacad-12 is going to be very demanding on my current PC; and I suspect I'll need to get a newer model before shifting-over to version-12.

In the absense of advice to the contrary, I'll probably buy another Gateway...or a Dell, or off-the-shelf at Staples or Circuit City.

Hello Ted,

In general, I prefer the smaller OEM builders -- if they use a "retail" motherboard, rather than using a motherboard that was made for them, it will have a full-featured BIOS. Also, they won't have hidden partitions on the hard drive, and you'll hopefully be able to order it with WinXP; with the upgrade to Vista as an option you can do in the future. Some big OEM's (HP/Compaq I think) have this as an option, too.

I think that avoiding Vista (for the moment, anyway) is the biggest issue with buying a new machine right now.

Another thing that I like to avoid is having a bucket-load of software preloaded (much of it trial-ware, anyway); clogging up the HD. If it has just Windows, and maybe a full version of a good antivirus, and a full version of a good firewall -- that's ideal.

The main issue you'll face, after you install all of your critical programs -- is transferring your data files. If your old machine is running, you can use a network connection (either a hub/switch, or a crossover cable); or if it is not running, you'll want to have the old hard drive installed in the new machine. If the old hard drive is functioning, then you can just copy them over; but if it is not fully functional (running but not "seen" by Windows), then all is not lost -- you can use a program like to read and recover your data files, and copy them to the new hard drive.