Update!...I bought a Dell 9100...thanks for your help!


This weekend my home PC went tits up.  My last 2 PCs were Dells and I have had nothing but good experiences with them.  I have heard the rumblings of Dell quality not being so good anymore.  I decided to try and buy one through a store.

First stop Micro Center.  The salesman must have flunked out of car sales school.  Whatever I looked at was the best.  I decided to try Frye Electronics.

The first problem is finding the PCs...this store is huge.  Once I found the correct department, I was amazed at all the different models.

The Frye PCs have chrome cases and flashing LEDS.  They looked like an accessory to mount on a Ricer.

A salesman, Alwin, approached me and asked if he could help.  Alwin is from Bangalore, India. He knows his stuff.  He showed me a Sony and an HP with identical features and tried to steer me toward the HP because it was $300 cheaper.  It looked great to me until he came to the remote control and video editing stuff. I have no interest in that.  The HP was a little over $1200.

Then he showed me the next model down.  It was $600, but it came with nothing.

I came home to try and buy a Dell online.  It comes with a printer.  I don't need or want another printer.  If you don't want the printer you do not get any money off.  Then on the last page they add sales tax.  Since when did we pay sales tax for Internet purchases?  The company is not located in my state?

Please do not suggest I build my own.  I have no time for that.

Where do you guys buy PCs and what do you suggest?

I do my homework for my MBA, I play a few games...Ghost Recon...Rainbow Six..and a ton of email...and surf ARFCOM.

Money is not the issue, but I don't want to get ripped off.

What do you suggest?

damn, looking in retail stores for computers is generally a waste of time/money.

The best thing you could do is to order parts yourself and build it. It will save a LOT of money and you'll get a PC suited towwards your own needs.

If you don't want to do that, go to dell's website and customize your own order.  YOu'll get a nice computer for your money as well.

I have one of those HP's that you described... the media center line.  Its a great computer.  Mine is about a year old.  Kicks ass for games, being able to record live TV on it like a free TiVo is great.

I really like it.  Whenever upgrade time comes I'lljust get another one of these.

I could send you a list of components to get, and where to buy them. You go buy them, and pay some nerd a few bucks to put it together for you.

I will get you something that is really good, but not top of the line, with lots of room to upgrade in the future.

Have you ever heard of PC5400 RAM?
i can get you a gig of it-new - for 158 (corsair. Or Kingston for $171

Ram is DAMN cheap right now

Go to Tigerdirect or newegg.com

Happy shopping  


I just recently upgraded my box from a 1.2 Athlon to a 3200+ 64 bit system.    1.5 gig DDR400 mem and 2 160 gig Hard Drives and a new motherboard for pretty cheap.

They have decent systems ready to run at both sites.

Not to hi-jack, but I've been thinking of building my own gaming PC?  How much are you talking about saving versus buying something put together???  Can your really save alot?  

EPOCH

i build all my computers from scratch...  dells = THE SUCKAGE

Friends don't let friend's buy Dells    

IBM T42

Building a PC might be a little cheaper than a Dell, but if you want any software like Word, or Excel you can't buy it anywhwere cheaper than Dell.

Get a Dell, keep the free printer for a spare, or sell it.  

If you want better customer service for any repairs buy it as a "small business" customer and you will not have to deal with the overseas service people.

Building a box yourself is fun, but you don't get much of a warranty and no customer service.  Fine if you can deal with these issues, but not good if you might need some assitance later with a hardware problem.

For less than $600 you can get a good Dell with Word, Excel, flat panel display, etc. etc.

Quoted: Not to hi-jack, but I've been thinking of building my own gaming PC?  How much are you talking about saving versus buying something put together???  My budget is a little over 1K EPOCH

Since you have to buy all of your own software...well, you don't have to
Then it comes out to about the same amount of money. That is building one vs. buying an HP, Sony, whatever.
Only all of your components will be MUCH better with room to upgrade.

Most PC manufac. give you a motherboard that is barely capable of running with the hardware yhou have plugged into it.

This means when your ram isn't quite up to speed, you can't go out and buy more ram- faster ram...you're screwed. Time to buy a new motherboard.

And if by some miracle you are able to upgrade one piece of it, your power supply won't be up to snuff.

Buying a PC bundle is not a good idea for gamers in particular. DON'T DO IT!

I build my own.  That way I get what I want and avoid the crap.   If you do not want to do that,  order a Gateway or a HP.   You can go online and order HP's direct if you want.

At the very least, you need to select each part.
DO NOT BUY SOME POS BUNDLE THEY ARE TRYING TO SHOVEL YOU.

Dell lets you upgrade parts.  Like choosing from a list of motherboards for your PC...etc. Get someone who knows what they are doing to help you with your purchase.

ps. pricewatch is the only place to go to buy pc components.

You pick the part, they give you a list with the best price at the first of the list.
Sometimes it's from Newegg, sometimes it's from some no-name comp. company at the far corner of the internet.

You will not get a better deal.

I second the notion of building your own. If you can't or absolutely won't, try to find some local shop to do it for you. Be VERY specific in what you want, and do your research first, so you'll know exactly what you want. Get it all in writing too.

outpost.com

Can't you guys read?

Quoted: Please do not suggest I build my own.  I have no time for that.

christ....



Roadhawk,

Dell is hard to beat if you are not looking to build a system.
Go to their Small Business site and pick out/customize a Dimension that suits your needs.
Pay a little extra for the 3 Year On-site Economy Plan and you should be all set.

Quoted: Can't you guys read? Quoted: Please do not suggest I build my own.  I have no time for that. christ.... Roadhawk, Dell is hard to beat if you are not looking to build a system. Go to their Small Business site and pick out/customize a Dimension that suits your needs. Pay a little extra for the 3 Year On-site Economy Plan and you should be all set.

That idea is looking better all the time.  I just thought it was strange that they charge tax.  I looked at my last 2 PC orders from Dell and I didn't pay tax.

Quoted: That idea is looking better all the time.  I just thought it was strange that they charge tax.  I looked at my last 2 PC orders from Dell and I didn't pay tax.

They charge tax in a lot of states now. They usualy have some type of store in that state and are required to charge tax even on internet orders.

Quoted: Quoted: That idea is looking better all the time.  I just thought it was strange that they charge tax.  I looked at my last 2 PC orders from Dell and I didn't pay tax. They charge tax in a lot of states now. They usualy have some type of store in that state and are required to charge tax even on internet orders.

Thanks.  I just looked at the small business section on Dell's website, and the PC is cheaper than through the home PC section.

I build all my own computers but to quote myself.... "Dell is the best of the crappy computers.".

Seriously if your going to order one from one of the big companies I vote for Dell but I would never buy one so take that for what its worth.

alienware

Quoted: alienware

...is expensive crap

 Best price I could find on my last ne was from cyberpowerpc
 Last one I priced out last month they where still the best priced and I could only build it $40 cheaper for what I wanted.

dell charges sales tax on most orders now,but you can usualy get free shipping. If you play any games at all, get the 5100 system,  with the pci-e video card.

You have NO time to build a PC but you have wasted numerous HOURS on looking in stores at them ???WTF??

I ordered my parts over several months (to avoid plunking it all down at once)...

then a computer geek friend came by my store one weekend when I decided to put it all together ..


and it took an hour....a FREAKIN hour to put together....essentially.  Took a little extra time to wait for all the software to load and boot and reboot.

Its not like it takes weeks to build one and it would have cost me a couple hundred dollars more to order one.

Essayons

I'd say go with a Dell.  It's true you won't get premium parts like if you built one, but at least you can expand them easily.

Deals on Dell (Home) computers are posted almost daily at this website.  You can always find a package deal or a coupon on something.  There's a current deal for their 3.0 GHz Dimension 8400 that comes with a free 19" LCD and printer, free shipping for something like $749.  I don't think you can build one that cheaply.

I just purchased a Dell XPS Gen 5, and have to say I regret buying it.

Make absolutely sure that the system you buy from Dell either has the AGP card you want in it, or that it indeed does have an expansion slot so you can upgrade later. I've seen MANY people buy the grandma $399 special computer, and then complain they can't play their games on it (it has onboard crappy graphics and has NO AGP slot)...so be sure it's what you want.

Go to cnet.com and review every one.

Quoted: Make absolutely sure that the system you buy from Dell either has the AGP card you want in it, or that it indeed does have an expansion slot so you can upgrade later. I've seen MANY people buy the grandma $399 special computer, and then complain they can't play their games on it (it has onboard crappy graphics and has NO AGP slot)...so be sure it's what you want.

Didn't you read his update? He found a Dell at a good price

His thread, we tell him NO NO NO
He does it anyway

He will be back 6 months from now saying why why why

ETA: looking at the price when buying a comp is about as dumb as looking for the cheapest meat at the grocery store.

You have to dig down DEEP into the system specs - mainly the motherboard to know if you are buying a sack of shit at a good price.

well don't say no one warned you.

Essayons

I'm generally in the "build it" crowd but I can see why some people are buying the Dells.  For that deal on the $750 8400, getting the deal for solely the 19" LCD (normally $400-500 by itself, not to mention shipping), free printer and enclosed software make the computer itself almost a freebie.  If you're not of the mind to build, the cheap Dells are a good alternative IMHO.

Try this for a great system with little problems...