I was recently doing the same thing, and bought a Dell desktop with Windows 7. It's my fourth Dell, and I'm happy with it. The previous Dell is still going strong, but I had to stop using XP so it was time for a new one. The old one is running Linux now, so it's still useful, but I'd rather have Windows on my main machine. Actually, the Dell before that is still going too. It's just on the slow side.

I think that any wireless device you would buy today would work with any of the standards.

ThinMan

My question is why would you want to go backwards? W10 will be out later this yr., and you don't even want W8.1 which is great, if you download Classic 8 Start then it will look and run just like a W7. I have 4 PC's in my home two W7 and 2W8.1's to me they are the same. And they are all HP's I would have no other. AMD is a great processor, fast, durable.

urlee,

In that price range, from a good source (like Costco, or Newegg, or directly from the manufacturer), you should have no problem getting a suitable machine to be happy with.

AMD vs Intel, plastic vs metal case, one Wifi signal vs another......ignore them. None of these differences will contribute to a difference in the user experience for you. The biggest mistake people make is to get something that's overequipped for their needs. You probably don't need 8 GB of memory, a 2 TB drive, super graphics processor, etc., Just as in buying a car, many models get overloaded to provide the sellers more profit. Stick to equipment specs that serve your purposes and leave the excess to the hardcore gamers.

As far as brands are concerned, everyone has a favorite. The truth is, many of the sub-assemblies inside come from common sources. Some companies do better with customer service than others, but true hardware differences are more cosmetic than actual. Do a google search looking for PC ratings, that will give you an idea of which are the better ones to consider. pcmag.com always has a current feature that rates PCs.

Good luck.

snidely-
That was the best short course in computer selection I've seen in a while!

Aw shucks, thanks. I'm sure there are other views and other things to consider.

I struggle and usually fail in being succinct. I try to compose comments with care but I'll often look at something afterwards and think to myself "why did I say this, not that, and take so long to do so?"

THANK you all for your replies here. I appreciate and value them.

Aputernut: The reason for Windows 7 is, I am into working with photos/graphics and know my favorite PSP7 and 9 work with Win7 and other software I have which I doubt will work with 2 steps forward new computers.
I am in need of a new desktop right now because that is what I use for my main computer. (online + photo work)
I have been waiting & waiting for win9 but then it was changed to win10 with a longer wait to where I can't wait any longer because my WinXp is not being used anymore online which I need.

I work with photo editing and making slideshows, etc. and all Windows have a compatibility feature which works great!

PCMag does an annual Readers' Choice Awards, basically querying readers for their experiences.
You might want to have a look - I'll put the link below.
For a desktop, see pg.3

To see their chart where it's broken down into scored criteria for each manufacturer, go to the bottom of the last set of bar graphs, where you'll see a link named :
"See all of our survey results for Desktop PCs."
It's just above the first "Winners".

Apple always comes out on top because of their very tight hardware control and tech support, but that won't be of help to you.

Maybe even check the past few years of that to get a more overall idea - and you have to google for it, otherwise you just get their page of the winners.

Win7 is a very stable and well designed OS. Under the hood, Win8 is about the same thing - mostly it's the UI that's different. When Win10 comes out there will probably be an upgrade option - you could do that if it's really that much more superior and desirable.

Anyway, good luck.

-Kent

Here is a link that might be useful: Readers' Choice Awards 2014: Laptop and Desktop PCs

Thank you Kent.

As I was saying . . . . Microsoft announced today that Windows10 will be a free upgrade for users of Win7 & Win8.

(Which kind of shows you how well migrations to Win8 have been going.)
;-)

yes it was in our newspaper today good news!
And it sounds awesome! comes with a new browser that talks kinda like Siri.

This post was edited by Aputernut on Thu, Jan 22, 15 at 17:10

I am running an AMD 5 core processor and not had any issues with it, Its really a 4 core chip with a video processor included. I prefer the Intel processors, but my new Acer Desktop came with the AMD chip. I suppose that cost was the reason.

I hung on to XP sp3 as long as i could and then changed to Win 7 Professional in the new computer. There was a learning curve, but Win 7 has proven to be a good operating system.

The main issue, in crossing the boundary from the X86 architecture to the upgraded system, was that I lost the use of several old favorite programs. One of these was a sketching/drafting program. Since I have retired, I can not justify the cost of updating the old programs. I kept my old computer to run those.

Thank you jemdandy,
That is the sad part of having to move on to a whole new operating system whether we like it or not. Our hands are tied.

Is anything known of Win 10?
This thread caught my eye bec. I have windows XP.
While I am happy with it, I can no longer get Netflix bec. XP doesn't support silverlight which I need for Netflix. Anyway that is what Microsoft told me.
I HATE win 8, I was going to try to find a computer with Win 7- but now that I see there is a Win 10, perhaps I should wait for that.

I agree, Urlee, I don't like not having a choice.

Ellen,
I feel it in my bones that Win 10 is going to be so far out of my league in that it is going to be much too different from Win XP & 7 to be able to get used to, and be comfortable with, let alone be able to use the software I am using every day.

I found and ordered a windows 7 desktop Monday.
Thank you all.

This post was edited by urlee on Tue, Feb 3, 15 at 11:23

Received my new windows 7 tower yesterday and have yet to play with it.

I am on my laptop right now. Wanted to see if GW would let me type and send this.

My desktop is a Cyberpower tower and keyboard with Intel i5 processor 16gb ram from Costco. They offer it in Win 7. I made the mistake and got Win 8 at first and Costco took it back. I am very happy with this desktop. Get the largest power supply available. Mine is 500w. Also the more ram memory the better. I transferred the 3 HDs from my old pc including the one that came with it so I have a lot of storage.