I’ve been skimming through the Dell and Gateway sites and the prices are actually similar to what we’ve seen at CompUSA.
I do have some self-taught computer building skills, but not extensively enough to do the kind of job I’m looking for, so that’s pretty much out.
I don’t want to dole out 21% interest, so a credit card is out.
So far the best of both worlds seems to be the big retail tyrant CompUSA.
Yes, Sailor, we are on a budget, but we’ve looked at this from all angles. We consider this a wise investment, not only for my wife’s education, but also the prospect of a future home business. We don’t see any reason to skimp on equipment like this if it means we’d just have to do the whole thing over again a year and half later. But thanks for your concern.
Well I am not sure what you configured on Dell’s web site but I ran the config that Giraffe mentioned and I came out with $1500 and I am guessing about $100 for shipping, but likely no tax. If you get approved for their credit card, it is 6 months no payments and 0% interest. They can have it to you in about a week or so.
I personally would go with the Dell. My parents love theirs and my sister likes it so much that she just bought a Dell laptop.
When you go to Dell’s website, be sure you choose the “Dimension 4100” series. I set up the identical computer using a different series name, and it was about $150 more expensive. You also may be getting default options for things you don’t want. The total should only be $1538 (and you get a free color printer – hooray!) Shipping is about $100.
If it helps, the “E-value code” for the system I mentioned is 6V934 - 500812z.
Please don’t buy from CompUSA – you’ll be wasting over $500 to get an inferior product and no support.
$1000? Hmmm, that can get some nice systems from buy.com
Watch very carefully shipping on these thing anywhere. You can pay $85-295.00 just for shipping [I kid you not]
However, buy.com does offer free shipping if you buy enough stuff or special stuff. Shucks, they have great deals too. The other day I could get a 19" monitor .26 dot pitch on $239.00 includes tax & shipping…but I didn’t want a 66 pound monitor on the desk
I just checked the price, and got $1518. However, that free color printer I mentioned ($100 value) is no longer being offered. Limited time offer I guess.
I agree - don’t get a Gateway. Or a Packard Bell. (They don’t call it “Packard Hell” for nothing!)
I am no computer techie, but I have heard a thing or two about computers, and I have read a computer magazine or two in my day. I think Dell would be a good choice. It gets good reviews and customer reports, from all I have read.
I personally got a “generic” box custom-made for me by a local computer business (which has gone out of busines after many years, alas…) It has been a good computer, overall. I was able to choose the amount of HD, RAM, motherboard, the case it would be in, everything. (Not that I had much of a clue of what I wanted, but there were a few things I KNEW I wanted, and I made sure I got them.) I really liked this approach, and am glad I got my generic box. The company who built it was a good company, and did right by me. Too bad they went out of business. IF you can find a local computer-geek place that makes good custom computers (you’d have to ask some computer techie friends for a recommendation) it might be a good way to go. You could probably save a lot of money, and get just the kind of system you want. I bet you could get something quite nice for $1000.
Gee whiz, I was going to announce my new plan, but Homer’s and Yosemitebabe’s posts shot me down.
There’s a Gateway Country store (whatever that is) on the way to Sue Duhnym’s house (where I’ll be with a few other select dopers tomorrow afternoon - see you there ). We thought we might check that out before caving in and heading to CompUSA.
I’m really in a quandry, mostly because I’m all geared up to get this puppy tomorrow. You don’t know how maddening it is to do, well, anything on this piece o’ crap i got me right now. and to be perfectly honest, I’m jonesing for some decent computer gaming too
I’ll let you know what the ultimate verdict is tomorrow night.
I like being cheap too. WHy for a paltry $70.00 you can get a 300hz processor & board [tigerdirect.com] & slap them in your old case [assuming it fits that sort of case] …
And assuming a great many other things as well. I think building a Frankenputer is great (that’s what I always do) but I don’t think that’s what the OP was looking for.
Well, although a few have said “no” to Gateways, I will add a “yes” for them. $2100 should be able to buy a top-of-the-line system from http://www.gw2k.com, or a local gateway store. Especially since they use the Athlons in their best PC’s, as opposed to the Pentium 3’s.
I have purchased 4 Gateways over time for home use, and used/worked on literally hundreds at work. I don’t see any problems that are really anything I would not also see with Dell’s, IBM’s, HP’s, et al.
As to your OP - I really don’t think cash will improve your bargaining position much if nay at a place like CompUSA. After all, they get interest off of financing you, and they have such a high volume of sales I don’t think that will be much influence.
I’ve heard wonderful things about both their machines, their pricing and their customer service. If I wasn’t going the way of the Mac, I’d be getting a Dell.
And I add my foreboding to buying from a big box. Some 16 year old kid is going to tell you whatever he needs to to make the sale, and isn’t going to give a rat’s ass when the printer craps the bed or what-have-you.
I’d recommend against buying a system faster than an 800 MHz Pentium III (or Athlon equivalent). You’ll pay a lot more for a faster system, and gain very little performance. (A system with a 1 GHz processor does not run twice as fast as a system with a 500 MHz processor. It runs about 0-10% faster, depending on the application.)
Uhhh…and what is your experience with this? I challenge that statement. You are saying the difference between 500Mhz and 1 Ghz is at most 10%?
I could direct you to several web sites that list comparisons of different-speed processors run with “real-world application” benchmarks, but I’d rather see where you are arriving at your numbers first.
Anthracite, without getting hooked up on numbers I do think his statement is valid. What I think he means, and I would agree with, is that processor speed is a small part of overall performance and yet a big part of the price if you go to the top end. Compare dealer prices for PIII:
PIII 667 = $200, PIII 800 = $400, PIII 1000 = $1000
A P1000 processor may run 50% faster than a P667 but the computer it is installed in will not run anywhere close to 50% faster because everything else in the computer is moving at the same rate. What Giraffe means is that the increase in speed comes at an expponentially higher cost which you do not need to incurr unless you absolutely need that top notch speed. Increasing your computer performance by 15 - 20% at most, will increase the price tag by 60% at lest (I am making the numbers up but I think they are valid). So you get more bang for the buck if you stay below 800Mhz which I think is what Giraffe meant to imply. Don’t you agree with that?
Do you think that is really valid? 0-10% faster at most?
I know there are price points that give you the most bang per buck, and I know that a doubling of CPU speed does not equate to a doubling of overall performance. I’ve been wrestling with these issues, including performing of real-world benchmarks (Visual C compiles, engineering analysis runs, massive SQL Database inserts, etc) for many, many years. I challenge the notion of the extremely low magnitude.
In my experience, I would have said an increase from 500 Mhz to 1 Ghz, all other things being equal, would result in a 50% to 80% speed increase - not 0-10%.
I’ll bet Tom’s Hardware would have some very interesting things to say about real-world speed increases.
Depends on the application(s). If, as an engineer, your apps are very processor cycle/FPU performance intensive, as many engineering apps are, then you could see a 50%+ speed gain for the number crunching portion of the PC task(s) at hand in a given situation. However, in the majority of home/office situations where the PC use is more office suite app + internet app based + light gaming based, the CPU is loafing most of the time and performance is boundaried by disk IO (especially), video IO, etc etc. In these standard scenarios doubling processor speed will have a much smaller real world affect on overall perceived improvement in performance, typically in the aforesaid 15% to 25% region.
). We thought we might check that out before caving in and heading to CompUSA.