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My home computer has unexpectedly kicked the bucket. Does anyone have any suggestions about what brand of pc to go with? I do require a more powerful pc...since I do use alot of graphic intensive applications plus I like gaming.
I have been looking at Alienware but I don't know of anyone that has had one so I'm not sure if they are as good as they claim.
At work we use Dells so I could see going in that direction since my experience with them has been mostly positive.
If anyone has any suggestions or advice from personal experience, please share.
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Get an upgradeable graphics card-- one you can take out and replace, not one that's soldered in. No matter what you do, it's going to be outdated in about three seconds.
Posts: 21182 | Registered: Sep 2004
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Yes. All the systems I've had have had upgradeable graphics cards. The system that I've been looking at (read as fantasizing about)at will support dual-graphic cards.
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As much as I hate to say it, if he likes gaming, he shouldn't go with a mac. There is a mac game market, but it's a tad pathetic. Especially compared to that which is available on the PC side of things.
I have a rather old alienware (it's nearly 5 years old), and it's worked pretty well. Their customer support is pretty bad, or was when I got mine. They forgot to include the system restore disk, and when I called to complain they said they would send one out but never did. I probably could have gotten one out of the if I'd cared enough, but the mere fact that it was not included, then I was told one would be sent to me and it never was is a rather strong mark against their support. The computer itself is great though... still chugging along after nearly 5 years and without any significant problems (that I didn't cause myself by doing studpid things)
The Dell XPS systems are pretty good, and there are some vendors somewhat simmilar to Alienware that I don't have any experiance with but are suppoused to be good (Falcon Northwest comes to mind). I haven't looked into any of these in years though so I don't know how everything stacks up nowadays.
EDIT: or of course you could build your own...
Posts: 187 | Registered: Jan 2005
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Even though I do find them very stylish, a mac is not an option I'm considering. All my software wouldn't be supported and I really don't feel like buying all new versions of everything I own.
I'll check out the Falcon northwest... I haven't heard of that one yet.
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Unless budget is really NOT a consideration, don't bother looking at SLI yet. It'll lock you into TWO Nvidia cards -- which are still overpriced individually -- and a more expensive motherboard. AND you'll need a more powerful power supply. And you'll only get about a 25% boost for that 40% increase in cost. The price/performance ratio just isn't there.
My AMD 3200 T-bird with Radeon 9800 AIW has been able to run everything I've thrown at it -- from Doom 3 to Half-Life 2 to F.E.A.R. -- at 1024x768 with full detail. It'd probably choke at higher resolutions, but since that's the resolution at which my HDTV tops out, it doesn't matter to me.
I tinker at home with a pair of Dell 8200 series that are nice, safe, and play anything. But I have an HP laptop zd7058cl 17" widescreen with a 2.8GHz, 512MB RAM, and a 64MB GeForce graphics card in it. I rarely go to the office to play on my towers any more. I even played through Half-Life 2 on my laptop. But games like Doom 3 and Far Cry tanked, even on low settings.
But if I bought a PC tomorrow, I would go with one of the Dell XPS laptops. Laptops that can play any of the games out there are just too darn convenient.
Boutique companies like Voodoo and VisciousPC are nice and overclocked and all, but I like the safety of big old Dell. So why do I have an HP laptop? It was over $1000 cheaper than a Dell laptop...
If you are drooling over boutique PCs, try grabbing a copy of MaximumPC.
Posts: 1870 | Registered: Mar 2003
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Make sure the motherboard supports PCI Express. Mine only supports the AGP graphics standard, and the major vid-card companies are starting to abandon it.
I'd also recommend (if you can find out in advance, which may be difficult) getting one that has four slots for memory. Memory is cheap right now, but it's still often cheaper to get, say, two sticks of 512 MB RAM than a single stick with 1024. Rendering tends to be memory-eating, in my experience.
I'm fond of AMD's Athlon line of processors, but that's me. Some feel that with their lower clock speed, they're not as good for things like rendering as the Intel equivalents. On the other hand, they theoretically support greater amounts of RAM, and some gaming magazines suggest they're actually better for gaming than their supposed Intel equivalents. In my experience, they tend to be more power for the buck.
I recommend going with someone who prides themselves on their cabling. My computer (from PC Club) is pretty nice, but the cabling is a mess, and I'm _certain_ that's contributed to heat issues I've had at various times.
Oh, and my wife has had two successive "e-machines". Some say they're flimsy, and they do tend to be somewhat minimalist on the parts (hers only has a 250 Watt power supply, for example.) But on the other hand, they tend to be less expensive, and both computers continued to perform without needing maintenance long enough to become obsolete. Posts: 3826 | Registered: May 2005
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Learn how to build one (It's pretty easy, just follow instructions carefully). I built a computer for my dad for $600 (he had monitor and accessories already). My brother emailed me and said it hasn't faltered on a game yet (in 1280x1024x32).
Building your own is really the only way to get all the good parts without paying a fortune. (Just get the graphics card that is under $200 and upgrade it in a year if you need to.)
I'd avoid e-machines if you want to play games.
Posts: 1592 | Registered: Jan 2001
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Alienware = Good computer, but you'll pay almost double what they cost to build. Falcon Northwest = Same as Alienware, but slightly more expensive. E-Machines = Garbage Dell = Good for a cheap computer, but the motherboards they use are horrible for performance.
I also don't recommend SLi. It's nice to have it for the future. You can get it with just one of the cards and then get the dual card setup later (The cards DO have to be purchased at the same time due to compatibility issues). I suggest it to people merely as an upgrade possibility.
If you don't know how to fix most problems a computer has, I actually wouldn't recommend building your own. Warranties are very handy if you're not already good at fixing problems. Warranty service is usually the biggest difference between computer companies.
I always tell people to find a smaller company that has a local store-front to get a computer from. Smaller chains often have better warranty support than the bigger companies, especially since you can just take the computer to them and have it back quickly (if you find the right place) rather than shipping to Dell or whoever and waiting 2-4 weeks for repairs. If you're lucky, you may find a shop that offers a full service warranty. You'll pay out the nose for that, but it may turn out to be worth it. Be careful about getting things from a smaller company, though. Make sure they have a good reputation first, and have been around for a while.
Things to remember about certain companies...
Dell uses a lot of parts that you can only replace through them. Once your warranty goes out, you are seriously SOL if the motherboard or power supply go out. And don't ever think about upgrading a low-end Dell. They say you can do it, but that's only because the BIOS can handle it. The case, motherboard, and power supply cannot handle the demands of upgraded hardware (Except RAM), and if you upgrade any of those, you have to get a kit from them that fits their case style. Also, their low-end systems do NOT have graphics card slots. If you want one of those in a Dell you'll have to spend over 600 dollars just for the system (Not including warranty). They are pretty solid systems, though, even if they don't perform as well as a custom built system. You probably won't have too much trouble with the hardware in them, but remember that if something *does* break, it's a real pain in the neck. Oh yeah, they'll also charge you out the nose for most of the upgrades they offer on their systems.
HP is okay for everyday use, but since you want graphics capability, skip em.
Gateway. They own E-Machines, so they suck, too.
Dollar for dollar, a custom build is usually your best bet, but you really need to shop around to make sure you're not getting ripped off. The unfortunate thing about custom computer builders is that most of them have the business mind of mechanics (aren't we glad mechanics don't build cars?). The local computer nerd can build you a system for cheap, but sometimes they don't really know what they're doing and you may end up with a sub-standard system.
And if you've never built a computer. PLEASE get professional advice before doing so. Building a GOOD computer is not as easy as you might think.
(That was probably incoherant and completely pointless...but what the heck)
Posts: 3003 | Registered: Oct 2004
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I just found an old note to myself I wrote when I was working in an office that used Macintosh computers:
"Things I've only had happen to me since I started working on a Mac:
Being told I didn't have enough memory to see how much memory I had available.
Being told I didn't have enough memory to shut down or restart.
Having a computer hang while trying to print."
And I'll reiterate: e-machines are definitely made on the cheap, but we've had no significant hardware problems with the ones we've had. Something I couldn't say about my current computer, which I ended up having to re-motherboard and reinstall when I started getting unpredictable crashes subsequent to installing a new video card.
Posts: 3826 | Registered: May 2005
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I'm going to have to disagree. While this was certainly true a few years ago, my wife and I priced out a number of laptops about eighteen months ago and the only ones that made the price/performance cut were from eMachines and Averatec. I was skeptical of buying an eMachine, honestly, because I'm a bit of a computer snob, but a $400 rebate pushed me over the edge.
And I'm glad. The laptop has held up well, and is actually one of the better ones Christy's owned -- a roster of which includes HP, Sony, and Toshiba. By all accounts, Gateway's purchase of eMachines has improved eMachines' quality, not significantly depressed Gateway's.
Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
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Ooh. Stay away from Averatec laptops. Their prices are good, but I've heard a lot of stories about design flaws that crush the LCD screen into the keyboard and tech support that's rude and unhelpful.
Posts: 3826 | Registered: May 2005
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I'm going to have to disagree. While this was certainly true a few years ago, my wife and I priced out a number of laptops about eighteen months ago and the only ones that made the price/performance cut were from eMachines and Averatec. I was skeptical of buying an eMachine, honestly, because I'm a bit of a computer snob, but a $400 rebate pushed me over the edge.
And I'm glad. The laptop has held up well, and is actually one of the better ones Christy's owned -- a roster of which includes HP, Sony, and Toshiba. By all accounts, Gateway's purchase of eMachines has improved eMachines' quality, not significantly depressed Gateway's.
Oh, E-machines does good with laptops. But desktops? No. (I say this because of the general lack of online support, most specifically basic driver information for their systems. If you don't have any support disks, good luck finding drivers if you need them.)
Posts: 3003 | Registered: Oct 2004
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*hijacks thread* I'm in a similar situation, my computer is dying, we've decided to buy a not very expensive one for me, until i transfer colleges so just a few months, and it's down to another compaq or an Emachine, similar price, similar specs, yes I know these aren't the best, but which would be better? It doesn't need to do games, graphics, or anything major, just internet, a bit of music downloading, word processing, and my digital camera.
Posts: 5362 | Registered: Apr 2004
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We bought a gateway laptop last year. Never heard of gateway before (they aren't known in Europe), but I must admit, it serves us great! Very happy with gateway.
I've had some bad experience with E-Machines so I will probably not go in that direction (nor Gateway). I'm going to look into building my own and see what the cost would be.
Posts: 512 | Registered: Jun 2002
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PC Gamer has a very brief breakdown in the hardware section of thier magazine of what you might want to put in an entry level, intermediate, and high-end system. They also reference prices straight from the pricewatch.com website. Good general information on what you might want or need, especially if you have a monitor laying around.
P.S. Computer Gaming World magazine also has a nice hardware section, and each month they build their very own "killer rig". Don't forget MaximumPC magazine for some major PC building goodness...
Posts: 1870 | Registered: Mar 2003
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Alienware has great PCs, but they are way overpriced.
I have had good luck with gateway (my last two computers have been from them). I built my own computer once when I was younger...and it was great, since it was exactly what I wanted (and very upgradable). It does take a lot of work though, and with my last two computers I didn't think it was worth the trouble.
I have had friends that really liked HP computers as well.
I also like the media center PC (a microsoft thing that several makers...ie: gateway, dell, alien ware...) have. It turns your PC into a TIVO (though with a free guide), and also has music, dvd, and picture features as well. If you watch much TV, you should look into it.
Posts: 1901 | Registered: May 2004
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Well, my eMachines certainly was garbage. It wasn't very upgradeable, it was somewhat unstable (even after switching from Windows ME to 98), and it came preinstalled with spyware. But the specs of their new systems do look better than they did a few years ago. Hopefully they've improved in quality.
Posts: 9945 | Registered: Sep 2002
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If you bought a computer with Windows ME on it, you deserved anything that happened to you.
But, yes, that was the period during which eMachines justly earned their reputation for making cheap crap. Luckily, they appear to have come a long way since being acquired by Gateway.
Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
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I was young and foolish and didn't know anything about computers. I've since learned the error of my ways.
Posts: 9945 | Registered: Sep 2002
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I'm in the build your own PC camp. You can control exactly what parts you'll get, and it's less expensive. You can reuse parts from your old machine like the floppy drive, monitor, and CD/DVD player(s). You can find some pretty good deals on eBay on barebones systems (with motherboard, processor, memory, and a case). Other things can be gotten from CompUSA, staples, and the like for cheaper with rebates.
Posts: 178 | Registered: A Long Time Ago!
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