Help buying a new desktop

[Soonerz]

Again I turn to the good folks here at ES to get some feedback.

I'm changing jobs but one of the perks from my old job was a desktop computer for my home office. I will have to return it at the end of May.

So, now I have to get a new desktop. I'm looking to spend less than a $1K for the thing.

I don't do any of the high end video work, but I would like to get something that could push most of the games out there. My work would basically be db/spreadsheet related. I'll also have a accounting program but I'm not worried about it. I do have a lot of music (35G) on my current desktop and I imagine I would transfer it over.

So I have a couple of questions:

What is your take on AMD v. Intel?

Where should I spend more of the money upgrading?

Any specific brands to avoid? (I currently have a HP laptop that is pretty good and the company's desktop is a Dell.)

I welcome any suggestions. Thanks!

[Soliloquy]

Are you savvy enough (or want to learn) to build your own? That's cheapest. You can get just about all of the components from newegg.com.

I've been happy with the Dell's I've had at the office.

[Leonard Washington]

Originally posted by Soliloquy

Are you savvy enough (or want to learn) to build your own? That's cheapest. You can get just about all of the components from newegg.com.

I've been happy with the Dell's I've had at the office.

i agree with everything he said. i have a dell laptop and self built PC. i would avoid compaq.

[Leonard Washington]

Originally posted by Leonard Washington

i agree with everything he said. i have a dell laptop and self built PC. i would avoid compaq.

in terms of building your own PC. its really easy. the "hardest part" is putting the mobo in the case. if you ever added memory or a graphics card to a computer, you can do it! no soldering required!

[Soonerz]

Originally posted by Soliloquy

Are you savvy enough (or want to learn) to build your own? That's cheapest. You can get just about all of the components from newegg.com.

I've been happy with the Dell's I've had at the office.

I've thought about this angle. I've built one before but it was a long time ago. I'll check out the newegg site to get some pricing. Thanks!

[Soonerz]

Originally posted by Leonard Washington

in terms of building your own PC. its really easy. the "hardest part" is putting the mobo in the case. if you ever added memory or a graphics card to a computer, you can do it! no soldering required!

Thanks for the vote of confidence! I'm heading over to newegg now.

What kind of set up do you have on your home built computer?

[SnyderShrugged]

I teach a class on decision making using a scoring matrrix. I actually used it to make a computer purchase.

Decide on all the features that you MUST have first and list them(like price under 1K, memory needs, etc.).

Then determine all of the DESIRED features that you would like to have, but won't die if you cannot get them all.

After making your desired list rank the features from one to 10 with 10 being the most desired and 1 being the least desired.

Now, find all computers on the market that contain your MUSTS and lable them A,B,C, etc, accross the top of the matrix.

Then list all of your desired features down the left hand side.

Put the rating score in the column below each corresponding letter column and then just add the scores at the bottom.

The computer with the highest score wins!

computer - A- -B- -C-

17" monitor 10 5 1

DVD Burner 5 5 10

total 15 - 10 -11

See? Computer A is what you buy because even though A,B,and C all have the features you MUST have, Only A has the best 17" monitor, and a good quality DVD burner.

[Leonard Washington]

Originally posted by Soonerz

Thanks for the vote of confidence! I'm heading over to newegg now.

What kind of set up do you have on your home built computer?

Athlon 64 3500+

MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum

2x512mb Corsair pc3200

epower puma power supply (i think 400 or 450W)

i paid about 450-500 for everything off of newegg.

from my old computer i had a dvd burner, dvd rom, x800, 2 160gb hdd, 17in dell monitor, and floppy.

you can probably build a comparable system for cheaper even if you don't have stuff from your old computer to swap over.

[riggins44]

How hard is it to build your own PC? I probably know just enough to get myself into trouble.

Usually buy my PC's from Dell, but have often wondered how

difficult it would to build one.

[SnyderShrugged]

I have a few friends that are heavy advocates of Apple. They swear they will never go back to an intel nor windows based product again after using an Apple.

Is there any validity to this?

[Leonard Washington]

here is a nice link that shows all the steps. again if you can add memory or a graphics card to your computer, you can build your own pc. no soldering or jumper manipulation required for modern build-ups.

http://www.buildyourown.org.uk/

http://www.pcmech.com/build.htm

[Soonerz]

Originally posted by Leonard Washington

Athlon 64 3500+

MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum

2x512mb Corsair pc3200

epower puma power supply (i think 400 or 450W)

i paid about 450-500 for everything off of newegg.

from my old computer i had a dvd burner, dvd rom, x800, 2 160gb hdd, 17in dell monitor, and floppy.

you can probably build a comparable system for cheaper even if you don't have stuff from your old computer to swap over.

Cool. I don't have anything to swap over since I had a company computer, but this gives me a good start point. Thanks for the info!

[Leonard Washington]

Originally posted by skin-n-vegas

I have a few friends that are heavy advocates of Apple. They swear they will never go back to an intel nor windows based product again after using an Apple.

Is there any validity to this?

i use G4s and G5s everyday and they are just as buggy as XP installed PCs to me--which is not very much. you run into snafus now and then but nothing as horrible as win98 or 95 systems.

i don't know anything about building your own apple, but i would guess that parts are mega expensive.

[jbooma]

After owning and AMD I am never going back. It just wasn't stable enough and there were to many issues, now the computer has lived for over 5 years now and is a gateway so maybe it isn't that bad.

I also would get a laptop over a desktop, they are now very similar and you can get a nice one for $1K

Then again I love wireless internet

[TheREALJBird]

tigerdirect.com has a lot of great products much like newegg and their prices are great too. i went to tigerdirect and ordered all my stuff seperately and put it together. for the record mine is AMD based, and i prefer AMD over Intel. Dell computers are good but i think they are just overpriced

[Leonard Washington]

Originally posted by jbooma

Then again I love wireless internet

me 2...i love stealing it from neighbors!

[Larry]

My perspective may be a bit different from most folks.

I have built computers professionally. I service systems now, and perform warranty service for HP/Compaq.

I wouldn't even consider building a system now. To me, buying one is not only less work, it's cheaper.

In the last 18 mo, I've bought eight systems (for myself and for family), and every one has been a refurbished Compaq commercial system.

They usually run as low as $350 each. (I'm buying pretty much the bottom of their current models. If I want it for something more than surfing and word processing, then I up the RAM.) If I were buying my own components, there's no way I could get the MB and CPU for that. (OK, maybe I could, but the RAM would push it over).

One advantage of this system: I have a warranty. If you build your own, then yeah, your MB will have a warranty, from some company in Tiawan. If it fails, they'll replace it. If they're still making it. If you pay to ship it to them. If you can convince them the failure is in the MB, and not in your RAM. With my Compaq, it doesn't matter whether it's the MB or the RAM, either way, it's Compaq's problem. (Note: Nobody's warranty covers software. Don't lose your CDs.)

Don't forget, if you're building it yourself, (and if you don't want to steal it), you're looking at $200 for WinXP Home. (You can get it cheaper if you find somebody willing to sell you an OEM copy. Last time I checked, though, if you buy it to install on your own computer, you're in violation of contract. However, I'd bet the odds of MS saying "boo" about it are real slim. They're after the folks who just steal it, before they'll go after folks who're buying it at half price.)

(Another thing that may be affecting my cost analysis is that I've seen too many people who bought cheap hardware, and they've been abandoned by the no-longer-in-business people who made the stuff. If I buy a MB, it'll be an Asus or another name I trust. Yes, there's cheaper stuff out there, but I won't use it.)

Although I have done their warranty work, I would advise against the HP/Compaq retail systems (Presario/Pavilion). The warranty on them, nowdays, is virtually non-existant. (If they fail, you call India. If you can convince them that the unit really has failed, then they will allow you to ship the entire system to them for repair. OTOH, commercial systems can be taken to an Authorised Service Center, where turnaround is typically (speaking for myself) about two days.)

In addition, a lot of home systems are now comming with spyware pre-installed at the factory. (But not the commercial systems.)

There are advantages to homebuilt systems. One big one is that you can upgrade them, piece-by-piece. (Whereas, most prebuilt systems, nowdays, can only be upgraded a bit, and then it's time to buy a new system). But to me, a guy who builds his own has paid twice the price of a factory-bult. And yeah, he can upgrade his MB three years from now, and add a bigger hard drive, and a faster CPU, and by the time he's done that, he'll have paid four times the price of my Compaq.

[Leonard Washington]

good post larry...2.5 questions:

1. how can the average joe get one of these commerical systems?

2. what kinda stats do these commerical systems have and what makes them so special verses the retail versions?

[Prosperity]

AMD is cheaper and better than Intel IMO

and what he said

Originally posted by Leonard Washington

good post larry...2.5 questions:

1. how can the average joe get one of these commerical systems?

2. what kinda stats do these commerical systems have and what makes them so special verses the retail versions?

.

[Larry]

2. The commercial systems are targeted on business, so they're optimised for reliability rather than the latest and cheapest. Typically, for example, when a new product comes out, it goes in the retail systems first, and then gets moved to the commercial systems after they find out if it lasts six months. The business systems typically have a slightly slower CPU, an older video card, and so forth.

Some of them come without floppy or CD drives (the assumption is they're going to be used on a network).

They usually (but not always) come with a three-year warranty, as opposed to one-year. (The refurb units only come with one year, though.)

1. here is the link to their direct-to-customer sales. I notice their prices are not as low as the prices I've been seeing, and the selection is lower. (I get an e-mail daily with the day's inventory.

Or (slaps head with hand) I can sell you one. I don't normally sell refurb products to my customers, but I'm allowed to. (I'd have to tack on the price of shipping to you.)

What I'd need is a fairly detailed list of what you're wanting, and then I'd just have to start "watching the ticker". The things I've been looking for (cheap basic box) typically come accross the wire about once a week. Then they take a week for them to arrive at my place.

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If you decide to go the route of getting things direct from HP, check the model you're looking at carefully. For example, the units on their page labled "TCxxxx" aren't computers, they're "thin clients". They're useless unless you have a Windows Terminal Server on your network.