Other then a cheap laptop I got, I have never used a brand name PC. I would rather just build myself a PC and know what I got and how to upgrade it. I have seen alot of those name brand PC's do stupid stuff like Glue the chip in the socket or use oddly shaped drives so you have to buy there overpriced brand name upgrades. Plus about all your brand name pcs have a sticker on the outside of the case. If those stickers are broke (IE you try to upgrade the ram or anything) your warrenty is voided instantly.

My aunt has a HP that has the same amount of ram, faster processor, bigger HD and my PC is way faster then hers. I imagine it has a crap motherboard, and needless to say a 8 meg shared memory video card.

I bought a Dell last January. It lasted 2 months, and then the HD Crashed (For those who play Raid Addicts and read website, you know about this.). The comp was crap anyways, Could barely run anything.

So I returned it, and got a customized computer from Http://www.cyberpowerinc.com . I won't disclose the price, but ill tell you it was less than $1500. Heres what I got:

Intel Pentium 4 3.0, 800 FSB, 1 MB Cache, HT
Asus P4P800-SE Motherboard
1 Gig (512x2) of Corsair XMS High-Performance Ram
ATI Radeon 9800 Pro 128MB
Western Digital Raptor, 10k RPM, 37 GB
X-Blade Case w/ Temp Display, 5 Fans

Pictures at Http://www.rogean.com/images/comp/

t
 

thats a good deal rogean, im sure you could find better if you looked through every hardware site, but thats good for being froma company :D

I had a friend that took advantage of a HP deal.
I ended up replacing the Mainboard when his comp crashed.
Apparently HP used the wrong IDE cable on the hard drive and it caused some major hardware failure, even afer replacing the ribon with the right one, there was damage done to the mainboard.
There was an easier fix though, but after spending $2.00 an hour talking to a tech and him explaining that all I had to do was send HP $60.00 for a 3.5" disc that works around the bios configuration, by degrading the performance of the hard disk/motherboard combination. Well I decided to pricewatch a $38.00 replacment motherboard.
I was told that the warranty was up since we retooled the computer settings. Lol, damn i felt bad, now how can HP charge them additional fees even after they spend $200.00 for the warranty? Computer manufatures are extreamly business savey, and well, pc buyers are ignorant to a point.

PS: NEVER EVER BUY A COMPAQ, unless you want the case/PS, not bad cases and powerboxs. super easy to upgrade with the turbo rails and such, too bad the hardware sucks.

I got a DELL PowerEdge 600SC server, and I've been really pleased with it. I was even more pleased with the price.

I've built more computers than most of you guys have seen in your life, trust me, after awhile , you'd rather just let someone else do it.

Keep in mind looking at sub 500$ computers, yes, you're going to get what you pay for.

While this may be true, I've built at least 40 machines, i've lost count been building them for friends, work for quite a while. And i've always been happier with machines with actual good parts in them as opposed to the companies who shave a few bucks off their production costs by using a cheaper alternative. You can't trust anything the big companies put in your box, you really can't

Recently, I recommeneded getting a Dell to my friend - mainly because he has the uncanny luck of somehow breaking anything. He's one of a handful of people to get Norton Antivirus to hate his Windows installation and stop the whole computer. Don't ask, I still don't know. Regardless, you can't beat Dell's support. If you don't know what you're doing around computers, that's essential to have.

But personally, I usually suggest buying through CyberPower (mentioned above). I've had my computer for four to five years, and it still works great.

I've always built my own computers, but when it was time for this last one, I couldn't build one for as cheap as I got it from Dell.

17" LCD
3.4 ghz P4
1gig DDR
120GB HD
GEFORCE 5200
etc

asdf
 

dosnt matter dude, its dell parts that they make, shitty faulty parts that break down right when the warrinty ends, name brand products are twice the quality and will last you much longer

I agree that the best computer for the price you can get is a home-built system with name-brand parts. But, any decent homebuilt system is going to cost you a minimum of $750 including OS(assuming XP) but not counting monitor/keyboard/mouse. When you are piecing together a system costs just add up. If you are on a tight budget a Dell box is not a bad option.

For a budget box you really cannot beat a Dell. My el-cheapo place of work buys Dells. We have Dells here as old as 8 or 9 years. Pentium 60's, 90's, 120's, 133's. We also have Dells as new as <1 year to 4 years. All of the Desktop Dells that are in the 1-4 year range have had ZERO problems. We have had to send back one of the newer laptops because the mainboard fried, but that was under warranty and we didn't pay a cent for it. We also have several Dell laptops under 4 years old that are running fine, including the centrino badass that we had to send back for warranty work. We also have several compaq's that are around 5 years old, we have never had a problem with.

The worst thing that our ancient Dells have ever had a problem with is hard drives. Those older Quantum drives were crap, they started dying after only 6 or 7 years of humid and dusty use. Sheesh. I think we had a video card die once a couple of years ago.

So there you go, I've probably been around 100 Dell's with relatively minor problems. Not a huge number, but a decent sampling and we put those computers through the ringer. (environment wise, it is dirty and dusty as hell here, no climate control in part of the building...midwest weather)

YMMV, but seriously Dell puts out a good product, one that I recommend to the people whom I don't want to work on their stuff. (If something goes wrong, they have a 3year warranty to fall back on...I still haven't heard of any friends or family having a problem with their Dells....well...the soon-to-be-wifes Dell lost a hard drive a few months ago, but I've lost a half dozen hard drives myself on machines that I bought all the parts for. The shit just breaks sometimes...even my favorite western digital hard drives don't last forever.)

If you have the cash to do it, build your own, or buy a custom machine from one of the companies suggested in this thread. But if you are on a budget, a Dell is a good option for you. If they would just put an AGP slot or a nice PCI-Express slot on one of those cheap Dell systems I'd buy one of those for a backup computer.

Kidder. from what you've described you work in a warehouse environment. So ya. im not surprised you have no issues. You run some proprietary custom program on them. And that's the only thing running. Any computer will run like that without problems.

This thread is more talking about home users / people that actually do more than 1 software program at once. =) Warehouse computers are little more than a big calculator.

you must be joking:D i paid 600 dollars minus a monitor,cause i already had one, i put in a MSI KT4V mainboard, 655mb DDR 333 RAM ATI Raedon 9600,Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 2zs platinum 2 burners, both 52x32x52 several fans AMD Athalon XP 2400+ 2 Maxtor 80 GB harddrives wireless lazermouse and keyboard, and i will gaurentee that my computer DESTROYS a Dell, i HIGHLY doubt that any dell could handle what i do with my computer, like running Doom 3 at 60fps with the graphix ALLLL the way up, and several other high end games, name a Dell that could do what my computer can do, PLUS i have ALL name brand parts, and a life time warrenty on ALL of my parts. and that was all only $600 dollars,ohhh and a new case too.

The monitor doesnt make the computer.

Simma down now!

Actually, I'm not joking. I just went to Newegg and pieced together a machine with the specs you listed. Minus the fans and a case, it did hit $600.00 although they no longer sell that Kt4V MoBo and I have no idea how to arrive at 655MB ram. I went as ghetto as possible and chose oem wherever I could. The actual price was $591.xx, but without a case or fans yet. That would be with MANUFACTURERS warranty...most of which are 3 year. There is no such thing as a lifetime warranty.

Anyway fellas, I give, cry uncle, mercy!!! Dell sucks! I just want to go back to talking about Eqemu now. Sotonin...quit worrying about my dumbass and work on Kunark!! =)

Kunark is done kk thx

(Kingston has lifetime warranty on its ram and honor it)