What brand computer should i get?

[wendy]

everyone has a different opinion. we just bought one in april, i researched for months. compaq is now owned by hp, my dad has had two compaqs and they did not last him long. my friend has a e machine and loves it, she has had there laptop for two years and with a walmart special on Christmas eve only paid a couple of hundred dollars! i have a friend who hates dell but her husband bought one, where i have worked that is all we had was dells, we are talking about 20 computers, NEVER a problem with them! Acer's i was told was great if you were a gamer. Now as to what we have, we had a dell desktop for 6 years, it still worked but was slow and some new things i liked out there we did not have enough space on our computer to add. So we bought a laptop for anniversary to each other and it is a dell! i love it, have had to get use to windows vista somewhat, it is a little different!
dell walked me through deleting off all personal information from our old computer! and when the new one got here i had to call because of a question and they were very helpful! as far as the help desk, you do get some foreign people in other countries but i read the samething online with hp help desk. we have dishnetwork and i get the samething with them. i guess that is just what you deal with with some companies.

wendy

 

[Guitartists]

My opinion after having owned some store and company models.... get a knowledgeable person to build you one. You will get for the same price, or less, a better machine with no throw-away parts that will run better and last longer than any factory line computer.

 

[FutureChickenMan]

Dell is my first choice, then HP or Toshiba.

I have 5 dells right now, 1 HP, 1 Sharp that's on it's last leg and two home built PC's.

I work with PC's all day long. Dell and HP have good customer service and are pretty fast about repairs. Stay away from Sony, their customer service stinks. IBM now Lenovo isn't as good as when it was IBM. The Lenovo support/quality isn't as good as IBM's was.

 

[bluie]

I am Mac all the way now. Had a Compaq. It was adequate at the time but became completely obsolete too fast. Got an expensive Dell desktop. Worst computer-it ended up on the MSN top 10 worst computers of all time. Also had a Dell Inspiron laptop-its a workhorse. Won't hold a charge anymore but otherwise still going strong after 4 hard years. My son has a Dell laptop that he probably abuses but its still going. DD has an iMac and it is her favorite possession. I got my Macbook last summer and it took awhile to get used to Mac but now I love it. I hate my Dell at work, but today the tech guy switched it for an old (4 or 5 + years) eMac (or maybe a powerMac) and I am a happy camper. It is loaded with Photoshop CS2 and bunches of other fun stuff. I have always heard good things about HP. I am looking for a cheap laptop for my other son. I have also heard good things about Acer. Probably won't ever buy a Dell again.

 

[wendy]

someone put go with windows xp, i would not do that. that is going by the way side. the more i am on vista the more i like it and you can do some cool things with your screens when you have more than one open, my daughter thought that was the coolest thing she has ever seen, she is 13.

we have never bought ours at a super store or walmart. i think that is why my dads compaqs have been crap he buys from sam's for one of them and the other was office depot. we ordered both of ours from dell, i got on the phone with the dell people and told them what exactly i wanted to do with my computer, i would not even use there website to build one!

wendy

 

[FutureChickenMan]

You're right about XP. Although it's a great OS microsoft is going to kill the support for it pretty soon. I'd say within the next 2 years. I've got all kinds of different OS's and they all work. There's some stuff about vista I like, other stuff I don't like. But I'm a tweakaholic and got spoiled with the continuity of the prior windows versions. Vista is very different and does take some getting use to.

I've never been much of a mac person. Probably because while the mac OS is nice, functional, looks good, but the same problem Mac has had from day one it still has.

1. Over priced! (especially considering its using the same kind of hardware as a regular old PC it should not cost twice as much)
2. Software Availability
3. Upgradeability

Somebody mentioned Acer.. I had one, it was ok but the Acers (laptops) tend to be heavier than other brands. Not a big deal if you don't travel much, but something to consider if you're a jet setter. Also I found the battery life on the Acer to be poor. One last comment on the Acers... The frame around the LCD is quite weak and you can break the LCD very easily. Been there done that, had to buy a new screen for $125 and replace it myself.

The laptop I have now is an HP Pavilion DV2700 Special Edition and so far I like it a lot. (only had it a month) Nice sturdy metal case, decent battery life, lots of RAM and big hard drive. All for $800; was a better deal than any of the dells, lenovos, toshibas, etc. So I went for it.

 

[Crunchie]

I'm possibly the world's dumbest when it comes to computers, but I'll throw my $.02 in, anyway. I have a little Dell laptop. Inspiron 1501 is what it says right in front of me (or otherwise I'd have nooooo clue

) We've been happy enough with it!

Good luck computer shopping!

 

[CarriBrown]

We've had the best luck with computers from PC Club. They build them how you want them and our last computer lasted 8 years with some upgrades here and there.
We just bought two computers with dual processors, flat screens, wireless mouse and keyboards, all the bells and whistles, for around $1400 for the two of them. The best thing is you don't have to pay for something you don't want or need.

 

[Feathers Acres]

I own an Acer Aspire 5050 laptop, very light and speedy internet
built in wireless personaly I like it better then my old HP laptop that was super heavy
and had alot of mouse pad problems and the charger outlet broke very
easily, having to fix it multiple times costing alot of $ plus it over heats
alot and we had to get a new main board twice. So I say from my personaly
experience get a Acer.


Just wanted to add I owned my HP laptop from 2006-2008 we got tired
of fixing it and sold it.

My dad owns hes own computer store and repairs and sells laptops, monitors
the whole nine yards and he will stop people right at the door with dells and
tell them "Sorry, we cant help you" because its down right impossible! to find
parts for those things, compaq is okay if you like there laptop designs, HP is
good-ish if you like getting it repaired every couple months for one little problem
(trust me my dad charges 72$ per hour for a repair and thats usualy how long
it takes to repair little stuff)


Hope I helped!

 

[brooster]

I am looking at an acer desktop, but i would imagine that quality would be the same as a lap top.