A friend is buying a new computer

DELL, better warrenty, better customer service.

My advice? Tell him to get a Mac

well said, kicky!

from another mac fan

I just ordered a G5 today. Might be here by the weekend. So excited!!

eoe . . . nice. I'm drooling over here.

I know.

ok, so mac's are good. Buuuut, between a gateway anda dell which is better? Safecracker, that was my general feeling about dell.

Mac's are nice now that their using OSX based on FreeBSD (any other mac sucks)

Mac sucks? I think not, safecracker.
Sorry we got off track, littleK. Seems to me, just from the tv commercials, that Dell is by far the best deal in town.

Dell has better customer service, and better systems, IMO. All things equal, I would take the dell.

However, there are other good systems out there as well. Have your friend check out www.buyabs.com and Systemax computers. I'd rather have the ABS, myself, but a friend of mine swears by Systemax. He had a problem with a CD burner in one of the systems he bought, and he said they changed it out no problem.

Systemax is more a 'value' type system than Gateway or Dell, and ABS has a lot of gaming systems that are cheaper than Dells. They have the basic entry packages as well as they high end systems. Last time I priced through them, they were quite a bit cheaper than Dell.

eoe can you tell me how a mac not running OSX compaires to My NetBSD or Slackware install? Please be specific in how it out preforms it.

I have a Gateway and am reasonably happy with it, not so much with their customer service.

No, safecracker. I can't tell you about any of that. All I can tell you is that my Mac system does not suck.

heehee
ok, folks, thanks for the help. I'm off to bed. Will collect opinions and links to send to my friend tomorrow.

eoe what OS is it running?

Mac for gaming has always been a horrible idea and still is

Mac for software is comming around.

If I were to spend 1500 I would not go with Dell. I'd go for a Frankenstein. If I were spending 800 I might go for the Dell.

But between Gateway or Dell I'd pick Dell.

BTW, tell him to shop around. That quote sounds high for what he says he wants. Heck I got a Dell laptop that plays some resource intensive games for less (even when including the 1 GB RAM upgrade).

IMO for what you say he needs he could go with one for 800 and do just fine.

And Macs suck! Tee hee.

I recall Stoat once saying Dell was the best, but problems with telephone support.

I have a compaq. This is not the hot tip!

I'm a Mac user, but I doubt your friend would buy one. So I would suggest building his own PC. It's very easy. And if they have any problems they can ask here and someone should be able to help. Plus It's a good way to learn about computers.

I would check out the guide at ARS. If you buy the parts they mention it should be as smooth as butter to slap it all together.

http://arstechnica.com/guide/system/index.html

{edit: dell>gateway}

Sorry littlek, but I have to say that PCs are wonderful, if you want to learn to be a computer technician. You'll get to learn a whole bunch of fun error messages, and how to talk to support people. Macs are good if you want to just turn it on and have it work.

I can't help it, I love the Mac/PC debate!