New computer question

[Wolverine]

My wife and I were looking to get a digital camera and did a lot of researching into it, and we realized that we need to upgrade our computer first, so now that's what we're looking at.

I thought I'd look in here to see which companies people prefer or would lean away from.

Right now we're mainly looking at Compaq and Dell. We did look at HP and Micron, but we can get the same things from Compaq for much less, and I'm not convinced that HP is that much better to be worth the difference. I guess I should say that we're looking at computers in the 850 MHz to 1 GHz processor range. We'd like the 1.7 GHz ones, but the price is a little too much to justify it.

Compaq has the advantage that we can take it into Best Buy or Circuit City and have everything taken care of. Dell recently has had a fairly good reputation, but there's the customer service issue if we have a big problem and have to ship our computer to them.

We crossed Gateway off the list right away because everyone we know who's gotten one within about the last year has had all sorts of things go wrong with it, and has had horrible customer service. We don't want to go with a local company because we know we'll be moving soon. We don't want to build it ourselves because we did that once, and don't want to go that route this time.

So that's our thinking to this point. Any advice for us, or things we're overlooking, or companies we should consider, etc?

Thanks,
Dave

[Q-ball]

Given the two choices, I've gotta toss my vote at Dell. I've had good experience with their tech support, and they use good, name-brand stuff that you can upgrade in the future. Com-crap on the other hand, well, the name says it all imo. For what they are, I suppose they're ok, but if you're planning on updating it in the future good luck. They're tech support leaves much to be desired, although I don't know much about the techies at BestBuy & Circuit City specifically. I suppose they can't be any worse than the tech I spoke to at Comcrap while trying to fix a buddies computer. Best use imo for them is a boat anchor, but that's only my opinion of course;) Good luck!

Q!!!

[Bobby115]

I fix and work on computers for a living and would say that both DELL and MICRON seem to be the best.

Good Luck

Bobby

[Flame*Angel]

Dell for sure - I've been using them for years. Here's an example of how great their customer service is - I had a CD Rom drive go bad, I called their toll free number, the next day a guy arrives at my door (house, not business - in Canada too) and takes out the bad one and puts in a new one - totally free of charge. That's the only trouble I've ever had with a Dell and the only time I've had to contact their customer service. I agree with Q on the ease of upgrading too.

[Angel 1]

Dell does make good computers but I personaly like AMD chips and Dell doesn't offer them.

[MrSandman]

I've had both a Dell and a Gateway. What you heard about Gateway was true. Not only is their tech support a bunch of idiots, but their customer service sucks. I had a faulty power supply on my old PC causing my monitor to shutoff unexpectedly and they weren't able to diagnose it correctly. They sent me 3 new videocards, a new motherboard, and a new monitor before i finally figured out the problem myself and gave up on their advice. I tried to tell them the problem twice, but they kept losing my history file and had to revert to standard operating procedures, which is why i had the videocard replaced 3 times. Regardless, the problem was never fixed. After they sent me a new monitor, my Gateway PC was already outdated and i just got a Dell to replace it. :). I've had the Dell for almost a year now and i haven't had any problems with it at all. In fact, i haven't had any reason to call tech-support even once! Oh wait, i did call tech support once, but that was for my Dell Laptop. I'd choose Dell over Gateway anytime.

[joedelt]

well, working both as a systems analyst for a major university And as a team member in the computer/home office dept of a ver largei have to say that its a good deal to get the performance service plan on any system you buy. but i would add one more to your list. at BB there are a pair of sony systems one is a PIII 933 the other is a P4 1.3 i think. these systems are much nicer than any compaq, and HP should have stuck to making printers and scanners :)

so it really comes down to a couple of basic questions. do you want to mail order one or do you want to pick one up at a local store.

if you want to mail order, by all means get the dell. thats all we use here on the university campus, and they are spectacular systems. but their support facilities both for online and on the phone are horrible.

if you have anyquestions about any of the systems at BestBuy feel free to email me and i will give you the details on them.
jacobs35@hotmail.com

/john

[ERRN7]

Buying computers are like buying any other big ticket item. It is personal preference and life experience. Whether it is Chevy vs Ford....RCA vs Sony...Gateway vs Dell you will find people on both bandwagons. The main thing is make sure you get what you want for your money and that you like it and enjoy the features. I have owned a Gateway for 5 years now two different systems. I have had only one problem that required a call to tech support. They walked me through the problem and it was fixed promptly.

[katspaw]

I build my own, It not all that hard, The motherboard comes with a book and when you go to buy one online they tell you it takes what kind of cpu and case and the memory is all stated for you. So the main thing you have to have a choice with is what type of Motherboard P2, P3, P4?? I will then choose the cpu and the memory. So far I have built about nine of them. Two for my shop, 1 for my son another for myself, and five for friends. My thirteen year old son helped me to build the last one. A P3 with 1 gig cpu, 512 ram, 25gig hard drive, and a plextor re-wrtieable CDrom (12/10/32)and a 50x cdrom. This computer I had no used or left over parts in it and I paid only $1100.00 for the whole thing. But if I had to buy a computer from a store:eek:I would not by any means buy a compaq.

Tracey

[Wolverine]

Thanks for the replies everyone. You have us leaning heavily towards Dell. The big problem is that I think I know what campus john is talking about, and I don't know if we can go with the same computers they're using.

Tracey, we had put our current computer together, and I know it's not that hard, but it's still more work than we can put into it now, and we're just sick of little stupid things going wrong that we don't want to deal with (ie, we can have otehrs come deal with them).

ERRN, I've noticed that people who have older Gateways have great success, but it seems that recently they've slipped off a little. Probably that same problem where they got too popular too fast, as we've seen mentioned on a few other threads here on the board.

Dave

[hartman]

Wolverine,

Here is a great DIY system use it to compare

Intel P3 933EB 133FSB CPU----------------166.00
(2) 128mb PC133 Micron mem---------------75.00
Supermicro system board PIIISCD----------110.00
Supermicro case SC501-A (ATX)------------95.00
MILLENIUM G450 32M DUALHEAD, AGP 4x----90.00
Pioneer slot DVD 12x CD 40x --------------100.00
3COM 3C905CX-TXNM PCI network----------40.00
IBM Deskstar 15GB ATA/100 15GB 7200rpm--96.00
Soundblater Live Platinum ver 5.1----------135.00
Floppy ------------------------------------15.00

Total 922.00 plus maybe a little S/H

This is a good system with only name brand stuff.

Hartman

[ERRN7]

Just heard today on CNN....Dell to cut prices that may start a pricing war with the other makers. Seems they are trying to make up for money losses from the last quarter. First quarter losses in quite some time it seems. All the better for you. But no matter what u buy as soon as u hook it up it is already out dated....technology what a boom.