Need advice on a computer purchase

[Brugdor]

Trackballs ftw!

[BlueCross]

Ugh!  I hatses trackballs!

Our secretary/admin insists on them and I can't stand to work on her PC.

It is sort of interesting.  I really can't put my finger (or thumb) on why people like or dislike trackballs.  I don't like them because I don't feel like I get the control and sensitivity I need; but clearly others think they do.

Ugh!  (again)

[Doombot]

Yeah... unless I'm playing Marble Madness...

Wait... EVEN when I was playing Marble Madness... trackballs irritated me.

[Solwyn]

I like trackballs if you're being ultimately lazy. You can lean back in your chair and put it on the armrest.  A friend of mine had a "gaming chair" that he installed a fps-style interface on the left arm and the trackball on the right, he'd just lay back and destroy people in counter-strike.

Whatever floats your boat.

[Brugdor]

Just fyi, I was as dead set against trackballs as you guys are. A friend of mine had one and I couldn't stand it but he talked about how he owned with it in FPS games. So when my mouse died I gave a trackball a shot and I've been hooked ever since. That was several years ago and as long as they make trackballs I'll never go back to a normal mouse again.

Funny story -

My step-dad who has worked with computers for almost his entire adult life had to take a seat at my computer a while back. He grabbed the trackball and tried to move it around the desk like it was a normal mouse. I still pick on him about that one. 

Another funny story -

Whenever someone playing a FPS on the same server as me asks what everyone uses for a controller I say I use a steering wheel. 

[Doombot]

Well... I guess I'll listen to Bluecross and get that monitor he posted...

I should be ok by listening to Bluecross right?

[The SysMan]

Trackballs ftw!

I agree

[Chucara]

I have a 22" monitor that I can recommend.. I have never owned a 20", so I can't really recommend anything there. If you want to know, I have a Samsung SynMaster 226BW, which is an extremely nice monitor, both in regards to look and specs.

[Doombot]

Oh! I think I'll get Chucara's Monitor! I like the look of it!

I think I'll go with Bluecross's suggestion since his equipment looks speedy. Other computers aren't really doing it for me.

Now I have a question. IF I change the configuration of the computer too much will Vista give me issues?

Here's the situation. I have two drives on a dead computer. I need to hook up the drives and transfer the data to the new drives.

So If I install Vista with the new drives, take the second drive out, put in the old drive, transfer the data, take Old drive 1 out and put in Old Drive 2, transfer the data and then put in New Drive One... will Vista consider it another computer and ask me to re-register Vista?

[The SysMan]

So If I install Vista with the new drives, take the second drive out, put in the old drive, transfer the data, take Old drive 1 out and put in Old Drive 2, transfer the data and then put in New Drive One... will Vista consider it another computer and ask me to re-register Vista?

Err... I'm assuming you mean Drive Two there. If you're replacing drive one, you've removed vista from the equation
And no, I don't see Vista giving you that kind of problem. Vista is a little more freeform with drives, as far as my experience takes it.
As long as you don't mess with the drive that Vista is installed on, things should go well (albiet a little slowly)

Also, make sure that the pins on the old drives aren't set to master. That makey compooter go wah

[Doombot]

So If I install Vista with the new drives, take the second drive out, put in the old drive, transfer the data, take Old drive 1 out and put in Old Drive 2, transfer the data and then put in New Drive One... will Vista consider it another computer and ask me to re-register Vista?

Err... I'm assuming you mean Drive Two there. If you're replacing drive one, you've removed vista from the equation
And no, I don't see Vista giving you that kind of problem. Vista is a little more freeform with drives, as far as my experience takes it.
As long as you don't mess with the drive that Vista is installed on, things should go well (albiet a little slowly)

Also, make sure that the pins on the old drives aren't set to master. That makey compooter go wah

Oh I should be more clear.

My new computer will have two new drive.

Let's call New Drive one Lilo and New Drive 2 Stitch

The Old two drives will be Twiddle Dee for drive 1 that's old and twiddle Dum for the old drive 2.

SO Lilo has Vista and Stitch is my new 2nd drive. I take Stitch out and put in Twiddle Dee. The data from Twiddle Dee goes into Lilo (which has Vista) or a External Drive. Then I take out Twiddle Dee and replace Twiddle Dee with Twiddle Dum. The data from Twiddle Dum also goes into Lilo. Once I'm done with Twiddle Dee and Twiddle Dum (My two old drives), I'm left with LIlo and Stitch my new drives. I then seperate teh data as necessary and defrag the drive. Twiddle Dee and Twiddle Dum then go into the closet and I'm left with Lilo and Stitch.

[BlueCross]

There are some traps here.

The new drives will (or should be) SATA drives; the old one were undoubtedly IDE.

Some (most?) of the new motherboards have only one IDE slot which can support two devices.  One of these will be your CD/DVD/whatever.  If you have two IDE drives you want to connect, you cain't do it.  If you wanted two CD/DVD stuffs, then you have a worse problemo.

[Doombot]

There are some traps here.

The new drives will (or should be) SATA drives; the old one were undoubtedly IDE.

Some (most?) of the new motherboards have only one IDE slot which can support two devices.  One of these will be your CD/DVD/whatever.  If you have two IDE drives you want to connect, you cain't do it.  If you wanted two CD/DVD stuffs, then you have a worse problemo.

So what's the best way to get the data off those drives? I also have a similar issue with the boyfriend's old old OLD computer thats about 10 years old. There's no USB or firewire on there so how can we transfer the data to another computer either my new computer, my external USB or his Mac?

[BlueCross]

1.  Most old computers will have Serial Ports and you can transfer the data that way.  You will have to buy or make a cable and then download some software that allows to transfer data.  Slooooooooow.....

2. USB memory sticks.  They make pretty big ones now.  But you would need to add a USB board to the old PCs and some older PCs have an Operating System that may not like USB very well.  Efficient, but could be spendy, and rather inconvenient.

3.  Slave drives.  If you have an IDE port on the new PC, add one of the hard drives as a slave to the new PC.  Then copy files from the old drive to the new drive.  Repeat for each old hard drive you have.  When done, stick in your DVD or whatever else you have that uses an IDE interface.  Fairly simple but you have to have confidence in adding/removing hard drives to your new PC.  Plus jumper settings on the drive could be critical.  Easy, fast but slightly dangerous when you mucking about with exposed m/b's, etc.

4.  Nework.  Add a network card to your old PC and then connect a network 'crossover' cable from one PC to the other.  Sometimes with different operating systems on either side of the cable you may have trouble convincing them they can really talk to each other.  Easy, fast but could be messy to set up.

5.  Type in all the old data manually into the new PC.

[Chucara]

Just copy the data from the old drives one at a time, shutting down the computer before you remove an IDE drives, or boot partitions SATA drives.

It's the fastest option, even including the time it takes to switch drives. Most motherboards have atleast a single IDE slot still.

Did you find a store where you wanted to buy, and I'll give it a check before you buy?

Oh, and let me know if you want me to take a few pictures of the monitor so you can see it..