Need a new computer.

[Creighton]

Well Linda's box is showing it's age. We buy new puters every two years or so. Anyone bought one of late they would recomend? Have searched the review sites and it appears that Gateway spends the most ad dollars and big shock gets the best reviews. Never liked Gateway. May end up building from scratch. Would prefer off the shelf.
Thanks in advance,
Creighton
 

[collecture]

I don't really know! I am stuck in my ways - never liked Gateway either. My mom had a Compaq many years ago and I didn't like it (are they still around?).
I have always bought Dell, but I don't do a lot of downloads that mess with the registry, etc. - just keep it like it came pretty much. Another thing I always do is have all the files (that I would be pissed if lost) stored on a separate HD or partition -same for programs. OS has it's own dedeicated drive. Has served me well for a while - I've had 3 desktop computers in 15 years and never have lost data. I can probably pull up emails from Y2K (on my 2nd computer).

[Creighton]

Thanks Tom,
Have always used Dell or HP here. Very fond of the Passport archive device. Forgot to note looking for a desktop.
Thanks,
Creighton

[mznb1u]

I bought a laptop for my wife earlier this year and I went with Dell because I have had good luck with their products from a reliability standpoint.  One tip that I will give you is that Costco can usually give you a better deal on a Dell than Dell can!?!?!? Figure that one out!

I got her laptop for about $150 less than Dell's best price--which to me makes absolutely no sense.  Plus Costco has the 90 days return no questions asked policy, they extend the warranty from 1 year to two years at no cost and if you use your AMEX you wind up with a 3 year warranty.   The only item that is downgraded on the Costco box is the McAfee is 90 days whereas the Dell boxes come with a 15 month subscription.  But price wise Costco is still the way to go.

My desktop is quite old (approx 10 years - - still running Windows 2000 Professional) so I recently called Dell again to give them another shot.  I have a $275 gift certificate for Dell that I have been attempting to use but Costco beats Dell on their own box!  Costco carries HP and Gateway as well and I suspect that you would find the same thing on the pricing.

In the meantime, I am still looking for a way to use that Dell GC!

  Tim

[Kilroy]

I bought a refurbed Dell on Ebay  that's still goingstrong. And maybei I'm partial since that's what we use at work.
i used to build myown, but it came out cheaper by several thousand dollars to buy one of the rack, and not have ot deal with hunting frivers, or troubleshooting incompatibility issues, I echo  the other thoughts here, if you are going desktop, Dell or HP for best quality, and support

[SIGNGUY]

I buy Dell Systems for our office, we run 10 computers and I uprade about every 2-3 years on one.. been good machines for basicing computing, running internet based software mainly. Can't complain yet.. seem like good machines and reasonable.

[loman4ec]

I know the transition is difficult and can be frustrating but I am a die hard apple lover. I love my Macbook and now that apple uses intel chips you can run windows on your mac. I have mine partitioned to run snow leopard (Apples version of windows) for daily use and I use Windows xp pro for business since I can use outlook and the office products. I had a friend that is a computer builder on the side load windows and office on my macbook for under $100. When you call apple to buy a desktop or Macbook ask for the refurbished department. I bought a refurbished macbook aluminum with full factory warranty for $1,100. I love this computer and I will NEVER go back to PC.

With that said I would say that the majority of PC brands are basically the same. For the most part the majority of internal parts are about the same and most parts are even manufactured by the same company. So go and pick out what you need and then buy the best priced.

Why are you buying a desktop? This is just my opinion but I love my notebook. At my desk I use an external monitor and a seperate keyboard and just basically use my notebook and a dektop PC but then I have the flexability to take the computer where ever I need it. During the day I use my computer in the office and then in the evening I use it in the living room in my lazyboy. And everywhere I go my notebook goes with me. There are so many hotspots now that you can get internet access anywhere. So when I go on a road trip to pick up a machine or jukebox I can check ebay, craigslist and local papers to make sure there isn't something else I am interested in buying in the local area. It has come in handy several times. Just my two cents.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

[Chris]

I have used HP products for 10 years now. I would not buy anything else. They have never broken down i have replaced them because of age but never broken. I have a desktop, Laptop, Printer and server in the house and they all work great!

[Pat Pixley]

We used Dell in all our office's and we have 7 locations and we have 30 computers and we just order 5 more, replacing 2 older ones and added three more agents .I just bought a dell laptop and like it alot, Dell has been good to us and they  work with us pretty well. I would recommend Dell.

[bubba]

Biggest think I hate about the box computers is that they come loaded with so much extra garbage it takes more time to clean it out than build and load from scratch.

[collecture]

Biggest think I hate about the box computers is that they come loaded with so much extra garbage it takes more time to clean it out than build and load from scratch.

Ditto! I hate all the extra garbage they load on them!   

[tkaz]

One great place I found is the Dell Outlet, you can buy nice 'refurbished' computer for a lot cheaper, if you're just looking for the box.  Keep an eye on the deal websites, like Fatwallet.com for the 20% off coupons and you can get something real nice for a decent price.  People were getting Intel Core i7's with terabyte drives for around $500 last I saw. 

Here's one of the threads: http://www.fatwallet.com/forums/hot-deals/1029817/

About 6 years ago I thought about building my own, priced it all out, then checked out the Dell Outlet.  I got an insane deal at the time, and picked up a box for around $175, which was great.  I got it shipped (for free) and wiped all the dell software out, reloaded windows (it came with the disc), and it ran great for the last 6 years, with a few small component upgrades over time (TV tuner card, RAID setup, DVD burner).

Here's the dell outlet link as well: http://outlet.us.dell.com/ARBOnlineSales/Online/InventorySearch.aspx?brandId=2202&c=us&cs=22&l=en&s=dfh

[Pat Pixley]

The one 's we get go straight to our tech guy and he unloads all the crap on them.

[jnapp18]

MAC MAC MAC MAC MAC... i have always used a pc until liiek 6 months ago... I am a computer geek/programmer ect.. and i havent regretted on bit.. i love my macbook

[David D]

If you're looking for a deal I've had good luck with slickdeals.net and dealnews.com both have good links to vendor online sales, I've also had good luck with Dell outlet, the deal sites generally have dell coupons which offer a percentage off.

[Creighton]

Thanks all!!
Linda has a mac laptop. This box will have digitizer pad and all sorts of other usb stuff attached. Looks like another Dell from Costco. Boring but reliable. Again thanks!
Creighton