Well, I don’t think you need to apologize, we “techies” also tend to talk “tech” way too often. I also understand your reluctance on the Ebay so ok.
Short version: Nope, those Optiplex 450/480 are not good for what you need. You need a computer with at least 500 Mhz CPU, 1GB of RAM and a HDD of 60 GB or more. Those Dell(s) I recommended are perfect, but you can ask for similar hardware. If you have a link to the website of your local store, or an online store that delivers to you, I can take a look and pick something up.
But, I’d strongly advise you to follow this path instead: get the cheapest laptop you can find for 100-200$ (I can help picking one).
(Funny, I just tried to put that in italics, and I get the feeling it’s not working, but this site also doesn’t seem to allow the standard option of a preview.)
But WHY would the 745/780 not be good? I don’t know the meaning of the specs you’re offering, but this is only used for word-processing, so required relatively little storage, and not hooked up to the internet, even.
I don’t like laptops, though. I find them annoying. Also, I’m pretty sure I’d be constantly knocking them off the desk.
Pretty much because aside from Word Perfect 5.1, you won’t be able to run Corel Draw or Office on it. My impression was you aim to find a computer that does all that.
However, I think if you speak with the guys at the store, they’ll certainly be able to help.
Just tell them what software you need to run and they should be able to advise you.
I used Corel Draw on an AMD 486DX/4-100 in the 90s, as well as Office with Word 2.0 and 6.0 (I think maybe 6.0 was the last 16-bit version of Office, although by then I think we would have been running it on NT 3.51), so probably it would work.
Yes, Mainframetom, I was told I should get Windows 10, not 11.
To my mind, I’d expect the computer to be cheap, because a “normal” person wouldn’t want something that old.
You also noted that I was asking in May originally. In May, I was told my computer might imploded any moment, and I was frantic. The local repair shop attended to some heat paste. (Is that right? I’d never heard of heat paste before.) So far, although there are a few more glitches, it’s still functioning.
And I had NO IDEA when I began asking that it would be so complex - all the separate issues of operating system and drive and bits, all of it over my head. I naively thought that if I could just find a computer from the right time period, when it would have both the USB ports and A-drive, then I’d have nothing else to think about.
Yes, in the last 30 or 40 years there was “some” progress and it’s complex for someone who hasn’t dealt with it much the last years.
Yes there’s a heat paste, but usually modern PCs use air or water cooling.
And new operating systems aren’t recommended at first due to bugs and incompatibility.
You have to learn and read for every new software anyway.
I or we gave our advice and we can’t help much more.
It’s up to you to decide what you want.
I recommend to ask another shop if possible to compare and then buy who you trust more.
And if you’re not happy you might give it back or re-sell it. Especially if they gave wrong advice and it doesn’t work.
Implosion is rather rare. Usually you can measure the temperature.
If you want more advice you should clearly tell what you want or better tell the shop keeper.
As said there’s always pro and cons. And nothing is perfect, especially not when cheap.
If you don’t want to learn much new stuff you also can buy the same computer model that you
have.
I wonder what computer you currently have, please tell us the details, is it DOS or windows? What version?
