Computer Question

Welcome to the site.

It all depends on what you want. And for what price.

The best deal for the cheapest price would be a "Frankenstein" computer that you or someone else builds. Generic if you will.

You don't need to build it. Many people sell computers this way.

Then you have beand names. I have only recently returned to the US so I am not an expert in US computer prices but while shopping for my company I chose Dell.

Dell makes great machines but the do run slightly higher than Gateway. Both are fine choices. Here at work we run Dells but most of my friends who don't have work supplied machines at home use either Gateway or FrankenPC's, as CDK mentioned.

HP/Compaq is likely your next choice, but I don't know much about them, unless you want to talk HP/9000 (Unix).

I bought a Dell computer around the end of last year. There was a rebate and free shipping offered. I compared prices with Gateway and found that Dell was a better deal, at least at the time I bought mine. I like this Dell computer a lot!

I've looked at dells and for their power they don't offer prices good enough for me. I'm looking for a pretty good computer for this point in time, that won't completely bite in 2 years(expecting alot aren't I?).

Anything you buy will be obsolete by the time you get it out of the box!!!

Then you need to go FrankenPC.

If you already have a copy of the operating system you use you can get a few hundred off the price by buying a puter with no OS installed.

If you already ahve a monitor you can shave off more bucks.

What configuration are you looking for?

What do you paln to use the puter for?

Zebraman - Before you blow off the Dell's as to expensive on the high end do some research. If you sign up for e-mail ads on Dell's site (use a junk mail acount through Hotmail or something) they often send out coupon's for up to $300 off on a system. If you buy through MSN shopping using "MSN Wallet" right now (through August I believe) you can get a 20% rebate through MSN. Dell often has other specials that they run on their site as well and they usually allow for "stacking" of the coupons/rebates (i.e. you can use more than one on one purchase) so a $2,000 PC can be whittled down in price into the $1,200 range if you are willing to put in a few hours to jump through the hoops.

Plus Dell's quality is tops.

Crap or get off the pot.

You don't sound like a PC builder so buy a Dell or Gateway and be done with it. With Intel introducing the 865 Springdale and 875 Canterwood chipsets plus re-releasing the 2.4, 2.6, 2.8 Gigahertz CPU now with 800 Front-Side-Bus with Hyper Threading, you can get a smoking computer that will last for a good while.

I have a Dell PC, Dimension4100, I bought it as brand new, it's working perfectly till now.

I recommend Dell's, you wont be regret.

Lots of good posts here. I have to say, though, that I agree with Craven. I'd say that you should find a PC build company close to you.

I bought my new system from a local here in Cambridge, MA that the engineers I work with recommended. I love my computer. Love it, love it, love it. I just said - give me something that won't be junk in two years, and make sure it has this, this and this. The best part is if I ever want to upgrade or I need something fixed I just drop it off and pick it up. No shipping, trying to find an 'authorized repair center', etc..

However, my brother bought a Dell laptop and seems happy with it. I just got frustrated with the fact that the systems included things I didn't want and charged too much for the extras that I did want. I ended up thinking 'well, if I just called them and asked them if they could change this, this and this....'. I was already on the road to just getting one built.

I know people who have Alienware love it, but at the moment it seems overpriced. I think you could get the same system built for hundreds of dollars less. Doesn't hurt to ask.

Here's an interesting article that I saw in PC Mag - The Perfect Computer