What's a good brand of computer?

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Just picked up a 19 inch lcd from dell for $89 plus tax using slick deals and looking at the price of two custom builts above I would suggest using this site to get better prices. Also sign up for emails from tiger direct who has lately been cutting some really good deals on parts and nearly complete barebones. I have to ask though why would you need 12gb of ram and a system that would cost that much?
 
I have a buddy who is looking for his first computer and wants something cheap.
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$2,114.92, $600? Since when are either of these prices cheap?

He wants to connect to the net, print and play kid's games. Find an old computer on craigslist for $100 or less.

If he's submitting to technolust and has to buy something new then I'd recommend a laptop for around $400 at best buy. I've had a compaq from there for about a year and have been happy with it. As noted in other posts you can make a laptop pretend its a desktop but its going to take a car battery and lots of duct tape to make your desktop pretend to be a laptop.

My biggest concern with a laptop would be the 8 year old. I'd suggest that he get the laptop and have an old desktop on hand for the kid.

As far as a brand of computer... I see a fair number of Dells and Compaqs that are still kicking 10 years later with the original processor, motherboard and power supply. I would avoid emachines.
 
Computers are tools. Use the right tool for the job. With computers cheap is exactly that, you pretty much get what you pay for.

1. If you don't travel get a good solid desktop with warranty from a name brand manufacturer.
2. If you only travel occasionally add a mid range laptop to that.
3. If you travel extensively and can't afford both, get a top of the line laptop and a dock for use at work/home with an external monitor, KB and mouse; also spring for the inadvertent damage warranty, it usually pays for itself.

NightRyder
 
Actually I would recommend skipping over Vista if possible and waiting for Windows 7 to come out which shouldn't be too much longer.
 
Nightrider- excellent advice!

So tell me because I'd really like to know-

Why is Windows 7 so much better than Vista? Is 7 guaranteed to have absolutely no problems or your money back? ha ha!

I could never understand the logic behind the idea that the unknown is better than the known.
 
NightRyder said:
1. If you don't travel get a good solid desktop with warranty from a name brand manufacturer.
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I don't fully agree with this point. I personally like to sit in on the couch and have the laptop right next to me so I can use it whenever I want. I hate having a desktop sitting in one place that you are pretty much away form everybody else when you are using it. This is why I will always buy a laptop from here on out. Laptops are very good for people even if they don't travel.
 
Don Landis said:
Nightrider- excellent advice!

So tell me because I'd really like to know-

Why is Windows 7 so much better than Vista? Is 7 guaranteed to have absolutely no problems or your money back? ha ha!

I could never understand the logic behind the idea that the unknown is better than the known.
Click to expand...
I agree with you, 7 is in the beta stage and I find it exceedingly odd that microsoft has suddenly turned out a good working product that's still in the beta stage, makes me think that they've either turned off features or what users are seeing and using is a 7 lite version. My experience with vista has been remarkably well with the only real problem being the learning curve since xp and vista is like osx and windows.
 
JAG72 said:
I don't fully agree with this point. I personally like to sit in on the couch and have the laptop right next to me so I can use it whenever I want. I hate having a desktop sitting in one place that you are pretty much away form everybody else when you are using it. This is why I will always buy a laptop from here on out. Laptops are very good for people even if they don't travel.
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Each to their own but I support these things for a living and I would not have a laptop for my primary computer if given a choice. On a price to performance level you'll pay more initially, upgrades are very limited, the batteries have a limited life span and are expensive to replace, repairs, both parts and labor, cost more and you will likely be without your computer for a longer period of time. Finally the lifespan of a laptop is shorter than a desktop PC.

NightRyder
 
Van said:
I agree with you, 7 is in the beta stage and I find it exceedingly odd that microsoft has suddenly turned out a good working product that's still in the beta stage, makes me think that they've either turned off features or what users are seeing and using is a 7 lite version. My experience with vista has been remarkably well with the only real problem being the learning curve since xp and vista is like osx and windows.
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Windows 7 should be Vista SP2. But, MS decided Vista's name was too tarnished and why not make some $$ by making everyone upgrade yet again. It is not new and revolutionary, it is Vista that has been tuned up and polished. It has the same device driver model, so the same device limitations as Vista. It is just now a couple years later and hardware manufacturers are finally using the new Vista model so Windows 7 works.
 
NightRyder said:
Each to their own but I support these things for a living and I would not have a laptop for my primary computer if given a choice.
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Well I support used to support them for a living as well and I would rather have the laptop. I haven't supported desktops for around 10 years, but I have moved from desktops to pure server support. This is what is so nice about today's market, you can choose what is best for you and the pricing will be very comparable to each other.
 
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Don Landis said:
Nightrider- excellent advice!

So tell me because I'd really like to know-

Why is Windows 7 so much better than Vista? Is 7 guaranteed to have absolutely no problems or your money back? ha ha!

I could never understand the logic behind the idea that the unknown is better than the known.
Click to expand...

Thanks Don!

I've had quite a bit of time to play with Win 7 and it's pretty impressive; on the same hardware it installs faster, is snappier, uses fewer resources and on install recognized every piece of hardware in and connected to my machine. Hands down, even in beta, I think it is the best thought out OS from MS that I've ever used, and it's stable enough in beta that I wouldn't be concerned to use it for my primary OS even at work.

That said, I don't have a problem with Vista, and I think that MS could have made made most of the improvements in Win 7 to Vista, but I believe MS realizes Vista has a insurmountable PR problem with the general public, and that it was easier to come out with a newer version of Windows rather than put more time and money into trying to salvage the public perception of Vista IMHO.

NightRyder
 
Back to Win 7. Will that replace a Vista64bit system with Hardware that only runs on Vista 64? ( as in 8Gb RAM plus appluications that are 64 bit only)
 
yep, win7 er, um, "Vista 6.1" will do most everything the current vista does only "better" and "faster".

The reasons for calling it "Windows 7" instead of "Vista SP2" are many and varied:
Code: 
1. need something we can charge money for instead of giving away for free

They are now in the obligatory "change things to work differently so that people will think it's different" phase between beta and release candidate.

Regarding Vista's failure, I find the same people saying Vista is crap are the ones praising Server 2008. They are both the same core system.

Regarding my previous statement about "all brands are crap" - that's based on my point of view as a tech who prefers to build my own.
 
I just wanted to add that you can build a PC cheaper and get better parts than any dell will ever be... I built a pc that would meet the OP's specs (minus monitor) for about $350... dual core amd processor, built on video card (plays EQ2 without issues), 2 gig ram, 500 gig hard drive... Cheap computers from places like dell are CHEAP... no name parts, duron/celeron processors, ect... You are not going to be runing any game released in the past 7 or 8 years on that machine...
 
hendrix04 said:
Cheap computers from places like dell are CHEAP... no name parts, duron/celeron processors, ect... You are not going to be runing any game released in the past 7 or 8 years on that machine...
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This is not always true anymore. All of the Dells that I have seen for around the price you paid were Intel Core 2 Duo processors.
 
the sub $500 computers at dell (just looked) are pentium dual cores... this IS NOT core 2 duo (pentium dual core is basically a dual core celeron)
 

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