I recommend Dell’s Outlet site. You can get a substantial discount, or more machine for your money. For desktops, you shouldn’t need to spend more than $500-$600 for the PC, and another $200-$300 for the monitor. If you want special features, like super high performance or storage, you will pay more.
Every time I go the Dell’s Outlet, I drool over the goodies available for cheap.
I had an old Packer Bell with an 8 GB HD which was huge at the time. That was a great computer.
I like Dell but my HD went in a little over a year and I must have talked to 5 people that had the same problem. I liked that I was able to customize for gaming but I’m not at all thrilled with their tech support.
Hey, I wanted to thank you for this site. I just ordered a Dell laptop this weekend from there.
Thanks!
I will second (or third) the “stay away from Compaq” advice. I used to do computer repair, and I’d say a good 60-70% of the machines that had actual failed hardware were either made by Compaq or eMachines.
My general advice is to buy the most processor you can for your dollar. It’s the must non-upgradable thing in the box. CPUs can technically be upgraded but usually they’re matched to the motherboard so the board can’t support anything faster than what it’s sold with.
Video cards are upgradable (make sure you have an appropiate video slot - watch out for integrated video), hard drives can be added, memory can be added to a limit, etc. Paying for premium sound cards and speakers is, IMO, overkill.
It’s all about the Gigahertz and these days, the core counts. If it’s dual-core pentium or X2 athlon, there there’s more than one CPU on the die and you can kind of multiply their lower speeds kinda-sorta by two since there’s two cores.
I just built a machine from scratch so here’s what I did:
[ul]
[li]Athlon 64 X2 4600 (not best of the best but pretty high up there - it’s 64-bit native which appeals to my inner-geek and dual-core so it should perform pretty well. It has 2, 2.4GHz cores on it.)[/li][li]2G RAM (considered practical lower limit for Vista)[/li][li]Integrated two-channel audio.[/li][li]DVD/CD burner[/li][li]240G hard drive[/li][li]Geforce 7600GS video (I’m a believer in getting the best $125 video card I can - not too much but usually not too little).[/li][li]Windows XP (Vista on free-upgrade order, it’ll get tossed in the closet until SP1 or 2 is out.[/li][li]19" LCD flatscreen (paid up for the better quality - they’re the only eyes I have).[/li][/ul]
It all came together two months ago for just over $1000 plus shipping.
$.02, FWIW, YMMV, ETC.
-B
Virtually any large computer manufacturer will have a legion of detractors. You’re better off going to the PC magazine or Consumer Reports to see the statistics.
My best friend bought an Alienware machine last year, in part because they have a reputation for amazing quality and customer service. His experience was an absolute nightmare; they sent him two computers, both of which were hopelessly non-functional. Alienware’s service was amazingly slow, entirely inept, and they kept trying to nickel and dime him. Finally he gave up, demanded a refund, didn’t get one, and had to have his credit card company chase them for the money.
He then ordered a system from Dell. Service was great, machine worked perfectly and performs magnificently, and it arrived five days after he placed the order. Oh, and it was cheaper, despite being just as good in every single way.
Does this prove Dell’s better than Alienware? Well, to be honest, no; it’s just one guy’s experience. My bud may simply have bene unlucky. I know many people who have received bad shit from Dell, too. I wouldn’t trust anecdotes. Find the stats in the trade mags.
And joining Consumer Report’s web site is worth the investment, btw, for any number of products.
You’re Welcome!
I’m not sure a 1000 dollar hp will help you any in playing Supreme Commander. Couple review sites (like PC magazine and X-play) had top of the line stuff (3-4k) with dual top end video processors and they complained about how it wasn’t enough. Best bet, wait a year or two until the next great video cards are out and cross your fingers.
edit: Thats what I am going to do, and I can hardly wait to be able to play that beautiful looking game…
Belrix, where did you order your PC from?
I got it as a bunch of parts from MWave and assembled myself. It’s really pretty easy if you’re willing to load your own OS. Note, I got the XP because it had the “free” upgrade to Vista by mail-order. That deal has expired. Also, the DVD Burner is discontinued but there’s lots more where that came from. I reused my old keyboard.
Mwave has a deal where for $14, they’ll assemble and test your MB, CPU & RAM. Money well spent, IMO. Order it as a MB Bundle and it’s a cheapie add-on. Oddly, they didn’t install my CPU cooler with that - I had to do that afterward (removed the stock heat-sink and added the new).
Here’s the list from my invoice:
OS:
MICROSOFT WINDOWS XP MEDIA CENTER 2005 SP2
DVD/RW:
HP DVD840 16X LIGHTSCRIBE DUAL DVD REWRITABLE SUPER MULTI DVD WRITER Bare drive w/Nero Software (Black)
Motherboard:
ABIT KN9S nVIDIA nForce 550 CHIPSET SERIAL ATA300 ATX FORM FACTOR 1xPCI-E(X16)/3xPCI-E(X1)/2xPCI/4xDDR2 W/SATA2 RAID,LAN(Gb),USB 2.0 & AUDIO (CPU TYPE:AMD - SOCKET AM2)
CPU:
AMD ATHLON 64 X2 4600+ - WINDSOR
RAM:
2GB DDR2 667
Case & Power Supply:
ATX MID TOWER W/485W POWER SUPPLY 4x5.25" 2x3.5" 4x3.5"(hidden) W/ FRONT USB CONNECTOREXTRA FAN OPTIONS
Monitor:
ACER 19" AL1917CBMD 1280X1024 700:1 5MS VGA/DVI-D (Black) (Retail)
Hard Drive:
HITACHI 320GB 0A33435 SATA2 7200RPM 16MB ROHS (Bare drive)
Video:
EVGA 512-P2-N548-TX GEFORCE 7600GS 512MB GDDR2 PCI EXPRESS X16 VIDEO CARD w/HDTV & DVI
CPU Cooler:
COOLER MASTER HYPER TX-AMD (RR-DCH-S9U1-GP) RoHS CERTIFIED COPPER BASE COOLING FAN FOR AMD (SOCKET 754/939/940/AM2) PROCESSOR
Speakers:
LOGITECH S100 2-PC 2.0 SPEAKERS 3.5MM 5W
This is true, but even the statistics won’t help you very much if your computer happens to be a problem computer.
When i bought my current computer almost three years ago (it’s a Dell, and has served me well), i did a bunch of reading online about different models. I read customer review sites, and magazine reviews and consumer organization reviews. I was mainly comparing Dell, Gateway, HP, and Sony. I came to a few conclusions about the whole process, in terms of the different manufacturers:
They all have their fair share of customers who get a lemon, and who swear they will never buy anything from that company again.
They all have their fair share of customers who like the computer, but think that the after-sales support sucks dogs’ balls.
They all have their fair share of customers who think that the computer they’ve purchased is the best, fastest, coolest piece of electronic wizardry ever offered to the consumer.
I’ve concluded from this that:
a) No matter which of the companies i buy from, there’s a chance i will have problems with my computer.
b) No matter which of the companies i buy from, if i don’t have problems then the computer is likely to do everything i want–and more–for the amount of time that i’m likely to keep it.
Did you know that Alienware is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Dell? Doesn’t change the point of your story, of course; just an interesting piece of information.
Ep, that’s my scenario exactly. I’ve got the fricken game and nothing I run it on can keep up. Even if I cobble together my own rig from NewEgg it looks like it’ll run better than 5 grand. I think you’re right about waiting a year.
They were independent until about a year ago, when Dell bought them.