What brand computer should i get?

[Nifty-Chicken]

I use to "build my own" but the prices have come down so much it doesn't really make sense economically unless you are building a very high end system.

For the past 5 years my brothers and I have all purchased machines through the "Dell Outlet" and have been very happy, especially when there is a free shipping / no tax / 10% deal on their already marked down systems! I believe all the outlet stuff comes with the same warranty as new systems.

 

[FutureChickenMan]

Quote:
Ok, lemme ask you this. How many computers are in your environment? How large is your company?

According to my experience going all the way back to 1988, following statement is true. replacement parts are rarely refurbs/reconditioned.

article on the battery recalls: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15254251/

 

[FutureChickenMan]

Quote:
Ditto that. My first career job was building PC's and Servers all day long. You are absolutely right on the economics. Unless you are planning on playing the latest and greatest games, ripping videos are mixing music there's no reason to build your own anymore. Kinda sad 'cause I really liked building machines. There's something about slapping 4 processors on a mother board, dangling a raid array off of that and firing it all up for the first time. I guess it's the frankenstein feeling.. Look I've created life! haha

 

[Guitartists]

Nothings worse though than buying a new brand-name machine and your teenager and DH deciding they want to play the high graphics games on it, only to find out that your 1 year old machine can neither handle the graphics.. OR be upgraded to something that can... HAHAHA Not me that it happened to, but my friend. Poor thing...... I think she is having computer buyers remorse

 

[seedcorn]

1) how many computers in company? over 600 if you count all but most are laptops. If counted parent companies, not sure how high the total would be.

2) company is large......

Never said Dell were terrible, just they are over hyped. Like all companies, when in price wars, quality is cut. Dell is not different from our experiences. On their warranty they never tell you they use reconditioned parts, guess what, they do. In 7 years, I'm on my 3rd lap top from Dell and I'm not unique in our company.

To Dells' credit, they do ship replacement parts out fast.

 

[FutureChickenMan]

Quote:
If you wanna play those high end games (like WoW) you have to spend big bucks on that laptop. Like in the 4,000$ range. Not worth it when you can build a desktop capable of playing those games for half of that. Laptops are best for internet, email, word processing, you know, work stuff. Desktops are better for games. Or do what I do, use the computers for work and the Playstation for games.

 

[Guitartists]

Oh, it was a desktop

 

[BuckeyeDave]

So many pages, so many opinions and this is one of the few instances that everyone’s right. You’ll buy the same machine as a friend and then you’ll be wondering “why doesn’t my (fill in the brand) work as well as Nancy’s”. The reason is, it isn’t the same computer. Everyone has a personal story and a reason for choosing their particular brand, but the brand really doesn’t matter. You will get what you pay for; if you buy the least expensive comp you will end up with the least expensive parts in it.

Every machine I buy for home is a broken one from Sam’s Club, it doesn’t matter what brand, if the motherboard works and it gives me a boot I will buy it. I bought a $ 800.00 dual core Lenovo last Christmas for $ 350.00 including 1 Gb Ram, a 19” LCD monitor and Vista Home, all my son had to do was reload the operating system, it took 15 minutes of labor. He repairs and updates all of our home PC’s, it’s a good way to get him some knowledge on how to take care of machines. He’s had a machine since he was 3, he’s 17 now, he’s well above the curve on repair, he isn’t scared to get into a machine and learn. I figured it could only benefit him knowing about computers. They aren’t going away, you might as well learn as much as you can to become self sufficient, to be able to repair and to be prepared for most of your own issues, pony up, just do it, it isn’t going away or getting any easier. Save yourself a ton by learning the basics of repairing your machine, there are millions of places on the net you can learn how your machine works.

In business I recommend the medium priced business class machines, you pick the brand; just don’t buy the cheap one, $ 900.00 - $ 1,200.00. They’ll have a little better power supply, a little more ram, a nicer video card etc. The machine will last longer; it’s more of an investment.

Here is the key, take care of your machine, put it on a battery backup if you have power issues or you live in an outlying area, keep the HD clean with antivirus and ad blocking software and back it up off site. We’re talking $ 100.00 a year to do so and it is the most important part of the whole thing.
Everyone seems surprised when a machine stops working, but THEY ARE BUILT TO FAIL. Forget the hardware think about the ton of info, time, labor and those irreplaceable photos WHEN it fails, not if, but WHEN.

Customer: Oooh I only had it for _ years and now this happened. I lost everything, pictures, data, this thing that thing. Can you recover it?
Computer Guy: Was it backed up?
Customer: ………. No.
People are happy to spend hundreds getting their old info off of the machine but won’t take the time to make sure it’s backed up to protect their info.
http://www.carbonite.com/raf/signup.aspx?RAFUserUID=353377
I have 47.8 GB of my life and business backed up at Carbonite; it still costs the same $ 49.00 per year.

Customer: My machine is running terribly slow, and there are always pop ups when I’m surfing.
Computer Guy: Do you run any sort of spyware blocker?
Customer: ……. No.
AdAware
http://www.lavasoft.com/single/trialpay.php
Run this weekly.

Customer: My computer doesn’t work right and I’m sending a lot of email and I seem to be one of the millions who had their identity stolen.
Computer Guy: Do you have an updated antivirus?
Customer: ……No.
CA Antivirus
http://shop.ca.com/virus/antivirus_plus.aspx
Now only $ 49.00 for 3 machines…. WOW. Cheeeeeep!

I repair business machines and my son and I repair our friend’s personal ones. Our most common repair is running AdAware and CA Antivirus. It really will make a huge difference in the way your machine operates and will save you repair bills.

You can pay them now or pay by losing files, time and the computer guy later. Backup, protect and expect your machine to fail by being prepared and you’ll have a much more enjoyable computing experience.
Peace,
Dave

 

[roosters97]

mac!!!!

 

[roosters97]

I have 5 mac's and there great!

http://www.apple.com/imac/ if your computer works on it