Computer problem & advice on buying new one..

[dietvanillapepsi]

In fact, my Dell completely crashed the day after my warranty expired.

Are you serious? My motherboard, video card, sound card, and ethernet card all died at the same fucking time...shortly after my warranty was over.

Give that warranty guy in Dell a raise. He would make a good bookie in Vegas. Warranties are basically indicators on when the manufacturer expects a product to breakdown. This is true for all products, not just computers, and not just Dell. Judging from your two experiences, Dell seems to do a real good job on knowing their product's life expectancy. Don't hate the playa, hate the game.

As for the OP, you got two routes, buy each device separately and assemble yourself (with help of course) or buy an already built computer.

If you are picky about your computer and have a healthy budget then go the build your own route. Hand pick each of the devices you use. If you want to assemble it yourself then there are plenty of places on the web with step by step instructions for dummies. Or you can pay someone to do it for you as previously mentioned. Or get a geeky buddy to do it for a pizza and beer.

The advantage to this is you are in total control of what is in your system. You can choose to put in the best of something if you want or not. You can load in only the software that you desire rather than all that bundled software crap that Dell/HP/Gateway/etc likes to integrate into their Windows package making it almost impossible to delete.

The disadvantage is cost and lack of warranty and customer support. You will probably end up with a high end computer. Nobody I know has ever ended up building their own low end computer. For a high end computer it will probably be cheaper than your Alienwares of the world but you're still in the high end price bracket.

You said you are not computer saavy so you better hope it doesnt break down on you. Having "crappy" customer support is probably still better than no support at all.



If you buy a system from a major manufacturer then don't be fooled by what everyone else will tell you. The truth is that they are all basically the same. Its like Coke and Pepsi. You can always find a million people who say Coke is the shit and they know someone who found a finger in a can of Pepsi. And you can find another million who say Pepsi is the shizzle and Coke slept with their girlfriend and upper decked their toilet.

Everyone (Dell, HP, Gateway, etc) uses many of the same components. And computer devices are very standardized so that much of a person's computer is pretty interchangable and upgradable.

I recommend you find the system configuration that suits your needs and let price be the determining factor. Look for special offers or interest free financing to help with the costs. You can get an entry level system (with monitor) for $500 or less nowadays.

If you eventually get sick of the software that came with the system and have some extra cash then format the drive and load in your own OS. This will let the computer run cleaner since it doesn't have all that extra crap on it.

[Coraphane]

Just buy eMachines. there are some really good value pc's. Not too bad either and maybe cost you a couple hundered bucks

[Genosync]

yeah, if u want a piece of shit for emails and what not then get a dell or emachine or whatever.

a piece of crap is a piece of crap.

[Andarvi]

lol geno i love you.