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[Riley Casey]

This probably will get kicked down to the basement but I'll take my chances.  We use Quickbooks for accounting and payroll ( well lets say we rent the program ) and the installer for the current version just sneered at our venerable IBM Thinkpad.  I need a current model Windoze machine and a cursory look at the usual suspects on the net has an enormous range in prices even from what I would consider name brand vendors such as Lenovo.  I'm looking at both towers and laptops priced from $400 to $1500 with a sort of lump of units around $750. Now I use Macs exclusively.  The Thinkpad is the only Windoze machine in the shop aside from an old Winbook that is kept around to talk to the Ashly & BSS processors.  In the Apple kool aid universe $400 doesn't even buy a tablet.  Can I depend on a $500 computer to keep the books, get everyone paid each week and more importantly keep the tax man at bay?  It doesn't need to run ANYTHING but Quickbooks.

[Charlie Zureki]

This probably will get kicked down to the basement but I'll take my chances.  We use Quickbooks for accounting and payroll ( well lets say we rent the program ) and the installer for the current version just sneered at our venerable IBM Thinkpad.  I need a current model Windoze machine and a cursory look at the usual suspects on the net has an enormous range in prices even from what I would consider name brand vendors such as Lenovo.  I'm looking at both towers and laptops priced from $400 to $1500 with a sort of lump of units around $750. Now I use Macs exclusively.  The Thinkpad is the only Windoze machine in the shop aside from an old Winbook that is kept around to talk to the Ashly & BSS processors.  In the Apple kool aid universe $400 doesn't even buy a tablet.  Can I depend on a $500 computer to keep the books, get everyone paid each week and more importantly keep the tax man at bay?  It doesn't need to run ANYTHING but Quickbooks.

  Yes, any brand name Windows machine will more than do your Quickbooks accounting.  You don't need to spend a lot of money. ...nothing fancy.

  Cheers,
 HAmmer

[Tracy Garner]

  Yes, any brand name Windows machine will more than do your Quickbooks accounting.  You don't need to spend a lot of money. ...nothing fancy.

  Cheers,
 HAmmer

My recommendation is to purchase a Dell from their refurb website.

Most of those machines are from some corporate purchase that was returned for some reason.

Here is an example:

About 10 years ago, the company I worked for ordered 400 new laptops from Dell. The national sales rep promised us this line had a parallel port. We really needed the parallel port for proprietary reasons. When the machines arrived to our warehouse, we opened one and sure enough - no parallel port. We opened 1 box out of 400. Once we returned them all, they were required to sell them as refurbed even though the boxes had never been opened.

Purchase a refurb Dell ad get the same warranty as new...

[Tim McCulloch]

This probably will get kicked down to the basement but I'll take my chances.  We use Quickbooks for accounting and payroll ( well lets say we rent the program ) and the installer for the current version just sneered at our venerable IBM Thinkpad.  I need a current model Windoze machine and a cursory look at the usual suspects on the net has an enormous range in prices even from what I would consider name brand vendors such as Lenovo.  I'm looking at both towers and laptops priced from $400 to $1500 with a sort of lump of units around $750. Now I use Macs exclusively.  The Thinkpad is the only Windoze machine in the shop aside from an old Winbook that is kept around to talk to the Ashly & BSS processors.  In the Apple kool aid universe $400 doesn't even buy a tablet.  Can I depend on a $500 computer to keep the books, get everyone paid each week and more importantly keep the tax man at bay?  It doesn't need to run ANYTHING but Quickbooks.

Don't fear the Redmond Reaper....

Hammer is right, almost any contemporary Windoze machine will run Quickbooks.

Lenovo is having a sale that ends tomorrow.  I'm a happy Lenovo owner...

http://shop.lenovo.com/SEUILibrary/controller/e/web/LenovoPortal/en_US/special-offers.workflow:ShowPromo?LandingPage=/All/US/Landing_pages/Promos/IdeaPad/weekly-sale&AID=10394873&PID=227502&SID=F011A00A0A114B001138B0A01A0A00&CJURL=http%3A%2F%2Fshop.lenovo.com%2FSEUILibrary%2Fcontroller%2Fe%2Fweb%2FLenovoPortal%2Fen_US%2Fspecial-offers.workflow%3AShowPromo%3FLandingPage%3D%2FAll%2FUS%2FLanding_pages%2FPromos%2FIdeaPad%2Fweekly-sale

Have Phun, good luck.

Tim Mc

[Robert Weston]

This probably will get kicked down to the basement but I'll take my chances.  We use Quickbooks for accounting and payroll ( well lets say we rent the program ) and the installer for the current version just sneered at our venerable IBM Thinkpad.  I need a current model Windoze machine and a cursory look at the usual suspects on the net has an enormous range in prices even from what I would consider name brand vendors such as Lenovo.  I'm looking at both towers and laptops priced from $400 to $1500 with a sort of lump of units around $750. Now I use Macs exclusively.  The Thinkpad is the only Windoze machine in the shop aside from an old Winbook that is kept around to talk to the Ashly & BSS processors.  In the Apple kool aid universe $400 doesn't even buy a tablet.  Can I depend on a $500 computer to keep the books, get everyone paid each week and more importantly keep the tax man at bay?  It doesn't need to run ANYTHING but Quickbooks.

With the greater standardization of PC's, a $500.00 computer will do just fine.  I think sticking with HP, IBM, and Dell will yield consistent good results; there's more quality control with those companies than many others.  However, I think a wet-blanket on any PC hardware is going to be Winblows.

<<standing on soap-box>>
From your "Windoze" reference, I assume you do not tolerate it as an real operating system?  I don't.  My home and small business computing is UNIX and Linux based.  It's been about 11 years since having to run Winblows as a computer operating system.  With this said... I run an HP latptop (6 years old), and IBM T-41 (~4 years old) and new HP Pavilion (dual-core $500.00) - all on Linux.  The machines have never had any issues and alway perform well.  The point I'm getting at is whether new or old PC hardware, Linux doesn't really care.  If you looking for an alternative to Windoze, consider Linux.  Apple is great, but it costs.
<< off of soap-box>>

[Tim McCulloch]

My recommendation is to purchase a Dell from their refurb website.

Most of those machines are from some corporate purchase that was returned for some reason.

Here is an example:

About 10 years ago, the company I worked for ordered 400 new laptops from Dell. The national sales rep promised us this line had a parallel port. We really needed the parallel port for proprietary reasons. When the machines arrived to our warehouse, we opened one and sure enough - no parallel port. We opened 1 box out of 400. Once we returned them all, they were required to sell them as refurbed even though the boxes had never been opened.

Purchase a refurb Dell ad get the same warranty as new...

You were spared the agony of the Dell.  My neighbor is a repair tech and he said "no Dell, no HP, no Compaq, no eMachines, especially laptops."  Perhaps it's due to market share, but he felt those manufacturer's personal machines were sub-standard to Toshiba, Lenovo and Panasonic.

Considering the suit that Dell had to defend regarding a Mobo defect rate that was near 50% and the lies they told corporate buyers trying to hide it... I wouldn't buy a Dell of any kind, but that's just me.

Have fun, good luck.

Tim Mc

[Matt Errend]

You were spared the agony of the Dell.  My neighbor is a repair tech and he said "no Dell, no HP, no Compaq, no eMachines, especially laptops."  Perhaps it's due to market share, but he felt those manufacturer's personal machines were sub-standard to Toshiba, Lenovo and Panasonic.

Considering the suit that Dell had to defend regarding a Mobo defect rate that was near 50% and the lies they told corporate buyers trying to hide it... I wouldn't buy a Dell of any kind, but that's just me.

Have fun, good luck.

Tim Mc

I've got an uncle who does about $5m in annual business with Dell and it's true that he got burned by the capacitor issue years ago, he still sells Dell. It's for many reasons  and he isn't about to risk his reputation by selling clients he wouldn't personally stand behind.

I would trust one of their business class machines (which are equivalent to the consumer product, just without all the junk installed) for any "around the office" task.

[Josh Duke]

I would just go with WMWare Fusion on you Macs and load Windows and QB on them.  I have been using Fusion on my MacBook Pro to run XP so that I can access certain Windows-only things and have had no problems whatsoever.  Much better than running Boot Camp and having to reboot to access.

[Charlie Zureki]

 Hello,

   I'm with Mr. McCulloch and his neighbor on the Dell computers....just crap...had two of them, both a laptop and desktop....junk....not like their first computers. Too expensive to repair or buy extra batteries...

   I've had a Toshiba lap top... well built machines...except for the power supply/battery charger input and the key covers falling off.... the weak circuit board power connector repair was 3/4 the price to replace the computer.

   I've bought 9 HP laptops and three desktops in the last 3 years and do not regret any of the purchases.  They're relatively inexpensive too.  3x cheaper than a Mac.

  Cheers,
  Hammer

 

[James A. Griffin]

Hello,

   I'm with Mr. McCulloch and his neighbor on the Dell computers....just crap...had two of them, both a laptop and desktop....junk....not like their first computers. Too expensive to repair or buy extra batteries...

   I've had a Toshiba lap top... well built machines...except for the power supply/battery charger input and the key covers falling off.... the weak circuit board power connector repair was 3/4 the price to replace the computer.

   I've bought 9 HP laptops and three desktops in the last 3 years and do not regret any of the purchases.  They're relatively inexpensive too.  3x cheaper than a Mac.

  Cheers,
  Hammer

 

I would agree if you're talking about off the shelf Dells from your local electronic discounter, and the lower end ones that you order from dell.com.    But my experience with the higher end stuff is that that are great.   I've had two XPS desktops and one XPS laptop that have been my best 3 computers of all time, and I've been buying since the mid 80's.  I bought the laptop in 2006 and it still outperforms the Toshiba and Gateways that I've bought since.

[ProSoundWeb Community]