HP or Dell?

[Devek]

It edges a little on the side of a gaming machine.. if you never ever planned to play anything besides ffxi or wow or games like that you could get a little cheaper graphics card in exchange for a full 2 GB of ram.

Me personally, I wont touch a machine with less than 2 GB of RAM or without a core 2 processor.

[SephYuyX]

Daahan, generally speaking, if a computer is good enough for high end gaming, it can pretty much tackle anything else.

Looking at the CPU (6400), the vid card and the ram, id say its a medium end gaming PC, meaning the were going for playability and not excellence, while trying to keep the price down. If anything it looks like that comp was made for video/audio editing, that sound card kind of threw me off.

The CPU is the second lowest of the core2s, the vid card is a year old, but the price is good for what it can do, and might as well have 2gb or ram.

As far as every day stuff goes that comp will work damn fine, it will work for gaming too, but dont expect 'teh uberness' out of it.

[Devek]

Keep in mind too that a low end core 2 is better than everything else out there

The switch to core 2 is about the only upgrade to my computer I found noticeable in the last 3 years.

[SephYuyX]

Yeah, definitely, the low end Core 2s arnt a joke, and the 6400 is the best price per power out of the group. If you know how to wisely overclock, you can get that 230$ chip to act like the 600$ chip and be fine, you could get it to the 1k$ standard, but dont expect it too last very long.

[Tirrock]

My problem with dell computers is that they don't tell you anything about the motherboard, and in both cases that I've bought from them, it was the single weakest part.

My parent's computer was one of their cheaper models (about $650 - 4 years ago), and they skipped on costs by putting in a motherboard that didn't have an AGP slot. (It may have been a mini-ATX motherboard, I haven't cracked open that computer in years.) And on my computer, they threw in a motherboard with a 512MB limit on RAM and 4x AGP instead of 8x.

Check out this article for video card recommendations:
http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/03/06/ ... the_money/

[Epical]

a) It's not the lowest end Core 2... that's the E6300.
b) You can downgrade your video card and throw in a sound card in there or something (although onboard sound works fine).
c) Either way I recommend going with the E6300, and upgrading to 2GB of RAM. A Core 2 at it's most basic point is still a damn Core 2.
d) They didn't offer anything less for a power supply... what you have there is a little overboard, but oh well.
e) Get that shit. 8)

[Septimus]

Daahan, just do what I do. Beg Sonomaa to find a good computer for you, it worked for my laptop. (Still have to pester a bit more for a new desktop.) :D

Oh, and Epical is correct, HP builds pretty good computers, Compaqs are a swirling vortex of blue screens and misery that will devour your life. I currently have a Dell, and I cannot really complain about it, in fact, I am giving it to my dad once I get a new computer.

[Slott]

if you're going to build your own pc, zipzoomfly and frys.com had better prices than newegg, by alot.

I was pricing out dells, and after you end up putting in the shit you want which they wont supply, you end up paying a shitton more than building your own.

Building your own PC has become piss easy nowadays too (no longer have to put a jumper on the bios, there arent a billion single pins to plug in for leds and shit. Took me maybe an hour and a half? and worked perfectly

And if you ever get stuck? RTFM its really simple tbh ;o

[Isiolia]

Oh, and Epical is correct, HP builds pretty good computers, Compaqs are a swirling vortex of blue screens and misery that will devour your life.

Because it's not like they're the same company or anything.

[evilbau]

The link you put evilbau has an intergrated graphics card by Nvidia. I would go with the 256mb ATI over that any day. Also Intel Duel core > AMD. That is where the price difference comes into play as well. AMD tend to overheat because they have nothing to stop them going full blast like Intel. Also I would def go with 2gigs of memory over 1gig. Like I said before though, yes with dell you get the tech support line and CS that is good but Dell tends to use the lowest price parts they can afford to on your machine. I see no warranty listed but I know they at least give a 90day warranty. With the money the OP has he could build a far better computer on his/her own then they could buy from Dell.

you know dell sells both ... and most mobos come with integrated video, it still has a pci-e slot not like you can't buy a video card... it was kinda my point

[evilbau]

E-VALUE CODE: 65017-bdpcyge

Intel® Core™ 2 Duo Processor E4300 (2MB L2 Cache,1.8GHz,800FSB), Genuine Windows Vista™ Home Basic Unit Price $1,039.00
$250 OFF Dimension 9200 special offers from Dell Small Business!
Special offer
- $250.00

Catalog Number: 4 BDPCYGE
Module Description Show Details
Processor Intel® Core™ 2 Duo Processor E4300 (2MB L2 Cache,1.8GHz,800FSB)
Operating System Genuine Windows Vista™ Home Basic
Memory 1GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHz- 2DIMMs
Keyboard Dell USB Keyboard
Monitor 22 inch E228WFP Widescreen Digital Flat Panel
Video Cards 256MB nVidia Geforce 7300LE TurboCache
Hard Drive 80GB Serial ATA Hard Drive (7200RPM) w/DataBurst Cache™
Floppy Drive and Media Reader No Floppy Drive Included
Mouse Dell® 2-button USB mouse
Modem No Modem
Adobe Software Adobe® Acrobat® Reader 7.0
CD or DVD Drive Single Drive: 48x CD-RW / DVD-ROM Combo Drive
Sound Integrated 7.1 Channel Audio
Speakers No speakers (Speakers are required to hear audio from your system)
Office Productivity Software (Pre-Installed) Microsoft Works 8. DOES NOT INCLUDE MS WORD
Security Software McAfee Security Center 30-day trial
Digitial Music No Digital Music Software Requested
Digital Photography Corel Snapfire Basic - Organize and Edit your photos
Warranty & Service 1 Year On-site Economy Plan
DIAL-UP INTERNET ACCESS 6 Months of America Online Membership Included
Miscellaneous 9200
Purchase Intent Purchase is not intended for resale.
Labels Windows Vista™ Basic

TOTAL:$789.00

heres another

E6300 for 30$ more and a 22" flat panel

[Xfaustx]

HP's new laptops are tight as hell. my sister just got one and its awsome. i have an HP computer also. My dad has a Dell and it sucks compared to mine. Not really sucks but I just dont like it as much. i personally like HP obviously but yeah Ive had no problems with my HP yet and ive had it for almost 3 years.

[*Shinzon*]

Never ever had a problem with any of the Dells that my family has purchased over the years. None have been hardcore gaming computors though. Anyway, for all you who reccommened the build your own path, is there a place where you can learn what components are compatible with what and an overall tutorial on how to go about this? I've upgraded the dell I have by myself, and yeah you are kind of locked in with what you can buy off them. I've been looking into getting a New PC and I would really want the most for my money, and I assume that would be done with the building it myself. But yeah, I know where things are and where they go, but I'd rather be 100% sure before purchasing parts and then having someone come complete my build because I messed something up without realizing it.

[Ikith]

If your looking for a laptop go Acer... They have quality shit I've heard from friends that have them and my father owns one and has dropped his 3 times now and everything still works and looks like new! If a desktop go HP!

[Shadida]

Go easy on people who don't want to build a computer. It's not for everybody. If you're comfortable doing it and know what you want, then it's great.

Telling someone they should build their computer is like telling people they should make their own pizza instead of calling Pizza Hut. Sure, everyone knows how a pizza is made, but if you order it, you save the time you spend picking out ingredients and toppings, throwing it together, and cooking it yourself. Also, in case you suck at cooking, if you get a burnt pizza, you can call Pizza Hut and get your money back or another pizza, but if you baked it yourself you're SOL.

[Isiolia]

Arstechnica runs a decent series of guides for basic component selection, usually updated quarterly so I'd guess a new one is coming soon. http://arstechnica.com/guides/buyer.ars
Probably look at the budget box and hot rod configurations to get an idea of what to look for.

Tom's Hardware also ran a three-part series of articles last winter about how to build a PC. Linked off of here... http://www.tomshardware.com/howto/index.html

http://www.tomshardware.com/2006/11/20/ ... ld_part_1/
http://www.tomshardware.com/2006/12/04/ ... ht-vender/ (one could pretty much just ignore this and say "go to newegg.com" though).
http://www.tomshardware.com/2006/12/14/ ... pc-part-3/

Tom's also has a series of charts (on the right hand side of their homepage http://www.tomshardware.com/) that can give a decent idea of the relative performance between various parts. Plus reviews of course >_>

There are plenty of PC hardware sites out there though. http://www.hardocp.com/
http://www.anandtech.com/
etc

Pretty much, if you are familiar with PC hardware enough to be doing your own upgrades and things, you should be savvy enough to build a PC. It's just basically upgrading everything all at the same time =P

But yeah, I know where things are and where they go, but I'd rather be 100% sure before purchasing parts and then having someone come complete my build because I messed something up without realizing it.

It's...kinda hard to do that. The only thing that tends to be finicky is RAM, and that's generally only on the cutting edge of speed.
Generally speaking, if you buy name-brand and run at stock speeds, things work. If you go to Newegg or some other sites with feedback, just check and see what kind of luck people had. Just take the comments with a grain of salt.

The main thing IMO for building it yourself is that you can get what you want for each component. It's not necessarily cheaper, though over time it may work out being that way if you start reusing parts instead of buying all-new.

[Manako]

Seeing as you seem to be against building your own comp (which is what I did and loved) I would go for the Prelude. You definitely want an Intel chip, they are much better than AMD now. I just got a new vid card for my computer but it looks like I am going to need to redo the whole thing in the future ( I still use AGP, and my chip is from 2003) and while I was always a fan of AMD they really don't compare to the core duos.

Another option is to nag your friends to hook you up with a good comp, I normally make my friends double check what I end up getting.

[Septimus]

Go easy on people who don't want to build a computer. It's not for everybody. If you're comfortable doing it and know what you want, then it's great.

Telling someone they should build their computer is like telling people they should make their own pizza instead of calling Pizza Hut. Sure, everyone knows how a pizza is made, but if you order it, you save the time you spend picking out ingredients and toppings, throwing it together, and cooking it yourself. Also, in case you suck at cooking, if you get a burnt pizza, you can call Pizza Hut and get your money back or another pizza, but if you baked it yourself you're SOL.

Bingo!

This may be a better comparison. You can make your own clothes. Anyone can go buy fabric, needles, thread, etc. It's just that most people know that they would look worse than your garden variety hobo when the process was over.

[evilbau]

I agree... i used to build my computers always always always but now I don't build computers for my own use, only for others (basically from spare parts from deals/old computers + ram/cpu/mobo/vid card). It just isn't as cost efficient anymore (in my opinion) and tech problems with the comps are probably the same/less with a pre-built. I haven't had to call tech support for one of my comps but its nice to know its there.

I don't know if you have looked inside a dell recently but they have a lot of conveniences which make it easier to work with and make it run a lil better (i.e. fans designed to direct airflow to CPU instead of just into case, quiet PSU, drives on rails for easy removal/insertion) which can be found on other nice cases/computers also but are standard on dell.

I kinda got over my tricking out my aluminum Lian-Li with rounded IDE cables, neon lights, case mods, etc. but I totally understand if thats what you want because I used to do it myself. My computer is much more pragmatic rather than an expression of myself now.

i'll never say these dell deals are the best computers, but its just an efficient use of my money. also i wipe the hard drive as soon as I get it, I agree the pre-installed stuff is junk. I then image the clean install after installing my critical/often used programs and then when i ever need to wipe it again, I can just load the image rather than re-install everything over again (i guess thats just a general tip)

[Daahan]

As far as building my own computer goes, stop recommending it because I'm not going to risk it. I'm not going to resort to online guides; if I mess something up, I'm not getting my money back, no matter how easy it is.

I'd prefer to leave it to the professionals.

Anyway, this is going to be a tough decision