Advise, please help!!!!!!! Or find someone that can help

yoshito · Post by **yoshito** » Wed Aug 03, 2005 8:24 am

Cloud wrote:I see. all mine

Wow, Cloud is claiming 4_degree as well.

On-Topic:

Since I have no idea what you do on the PC can't really give you any suggestions. Considering you're buying a pre-built, I'm assuming you don't do any graphics intensive gaming. Probably more along the lines of occasional Photoshopping and programming (maybe?).

I haven't opened/played with a Gateway since the old P2 days so no idea how reliable they are these days. From what I remember though, the P2s sucked as a computer and we went with HPs then Dells. I only recommend those two pre-builts to my friends since I've worked on both. Leaning more towards the HPs since they're using real components these days and not so many "custom" parts like the crappy Dells I've been gutting. Heck, my P4 3.0GHz (old Rambus one) only has a 105W power supply... >.> My SFF has a bigger one than that (and only about 1/4 the size too).

Um... so... yeah... until I know more what you dink around behind the keyboard I can maybe suggest one or another alternative.

<- long winded on occasion, gomen.

Cloud · Post by **Cloud** » Wed Aug 03, 2005 8:24 am

I will take that under consideration.

zerospace · Post by **zerospace** » Wed Aug 03, 2005 8:39 am

Hmm.. Yoshito - you're running into proprietary parts in new Dells?? Even their lower-end systems? Wow. That's news to me. But, no matter how you slice it, buying a pre-built is likely going to get you into proprietary parts no matter what manufacturer you choose.

Cloud · Post by **Cloud** » Wed Aug 03, 2005 8:39 am

Studies show that 99%25 of people spell Hmm with 2 M's.

zerospace · Post by **zerospace** » Wed Aug 03, 2005 8:40 am

Cloud wrote:Studies show that 99%25 of people spell Hmm with 2 M's.

That's great, Cloud.. hmm....

Cloud · Post by **Cloud** » Wed Aug 03, 2005 8:40 am

Studies show that 99%25 of people spell Hmm with 2 M's.

kittens · Post by **kittens** » Wed Aug 03, 2005 9:00 am

zerospace, Cloud is staking you

Anyway, I wanna have a LAPYOP!!!!!!!! CamDawg, hint hint???

Cloud · Post by **Cloud** » Wed Aug 03, 2005 9:00 am

Are they exactly the same?

CamDawg · Post by **CamDawg** » Wed Aug 03, 2005 9:07 am

kittens wrote:Anyway, I wanna have a LAPYOP!!!!!!!! CamDawg, hint hint???

What is a yop, and why would you want one on your lap?

In a vain attempt to be on-topic, my general issues with pre-built systems (and especially with ones from large manufacturers) is that I don't have all of the customization options I want and there's generally a few really crappy components hidden in the box--generally you see it in audio cards, though motherboards, power supplies, and video cards are also common suboptimal offerings.

zerospace · Post by **zerospace** » Wed Aug 03, 2005 9:17 am

Staying on-topic, I've seen awful motherboards in Gateways and E-machines. Last I checked, Dell used Intel motherboards, which isn't great, but it's not the absolute bottom-of-the-barrel crap I pulled out of an E-machine this past week.

And you're definitely right about the crappy video and audio offerings - however, if you buy a 'gaming' system, you might end up with more decent stuff - but of course, you'll pay dearly for it (thinks of prices on the Dell XPS gaming series machines).

yoshito · Post by **yoshito** » Wed Aug 03, 2005 9:28 am

I meant as in the heat sink, mounts for the heat sinks, and power supply power. I tried to up my brother's power supply in his Dell and it toasted the motherboard. Then figured, "eh, can just replace the mobo with another" then found out that it doesn't even have standard mounting holes, let alone backplate. >.> So tossed the entire thing, used the drives (optical) for another computer I built for him. Then went and bought a rambus mobo for his old ram and CPU.

Now the PoS motherboard is sitting on my desk here at work. Worthless, other than the bios battery. Mine (bought two months after his) has a better heat sink (still not aftermarket modifiable since the mounts aren't standard) but still not a standard motherboard.

Oh and never replace the case fans... Stinking things have propietary plugs as well (had to splice the plug).

To also add to CamDawg's statement. Don't forget the substandard, no-name optical drives they put in there. I've been amazed that HP and Dell both still use SoundBlaster audio cards. Would have guessed they pick up a no-name for those considering they use junk modem, network, and video cards. Dell is infamous for using a junk modem card.

My friend's HP has (shocking) a Coolermaster fan and CPU heatsink, along with a real video card (ATi's own). Which makes me wonder if HP is starting to use aftermarket components since their name is in the mud after buying Compaq.

zerospace · Post by **zerospace** » Wed Aug 03, 2005 9:45 am

yoshito wrote:I meant as in the heat sink, mounts for the heat sinks, and power supply power. I tried to up my brother's power supply in his Dell and it toasted the motherboard. Then figured, "eh, can just replace the mobo with another" then found out that it doesn't even have standard mounting holes, let alone backplate. >.> So tossed the entire thing, used the drives (optical) for another computer I built for him. Then went and bought a rambus mobo for his old ram and CPU.

Now the PoS motherboard is sitting on my desk here at work. Worthless, other than the bios battery. Mine (bought two months after his) has a better heat sink (still not aftermarket modifiable since the mounts aren't standard) but still not a standard motherboard.

Oh and never replace the case fans... Stinking things have propietary plugs as well (had to splice the plug).

To also add to CamDawg's statement. Don't forget the substandard, no-name optical drives they put in there. I've been amazed that HP and Dell both still use SoundBlaster audio cards. Would have guessed they pick up a no-name for those considering they use junk modem, network, and video cards. Dell is infamous for using a junk modem card.

My friend's HP has (shocking) a Coolermaster fan and CPU heatsink, along with a real video card (ATi's own). Which makes me wonder if HP is starting to use aftermarket components since their name is in the mud after buying Compaq.

Oh MY... and here I thought they'd finally gotten away from that! The last pre-built I ever bought was my Dell laptop back in 1998. I got rid of that thing 2 years ago when I built my desktop. I've heard about Dell servers using non-standard motherboard mounting screw holes and I've seen slot 1 PII/PIII machines with non-standard heatsink combos, but I hadn't heard these things about the newer Pentium 4 -based machines. Yikes. I'm finding it so hard to recommend ANY manufacturer now... I don't like the way HP puts your Windows CD (if you could call it that) on another partition on the hard drive, cuz if the drive goes... say bye-bye to your copy of Windows.

Not Sir Phobos · Post by **Not Sir Phobos** » Wed Aug 03, 2005 10:20 am

Gateway! NOOOOooooOOOOOoooooo!

*Rolls around on floor frothing at the mouth*

If you can't build your own computer then this is the only pre assembled computer I reccomend:

http://www.falcon-nw.com/fragbox.asp

Other then that I don't know anything about the other computer option you posted.

yoshito · Post by **yoshito** » Wed Aug 03, 2005 1:07 pm

zerospace wrote:Oh MY... and here I thought they'd finally gotten away from that! The last pre-built I ever bought was my Dell laptop back in 1998. I got rid of that thing 2 years ago when I built my desktop. I've heard about Dell servers using non-standard motherboard mounting screw holes and I've seen slot 1 PII/PIII machines with non-standard heatsink combos, but I hadn't heard these things about the newer Pentium 4 -based machines. Yikes. I'm finding it so hard to recommend ANY manufacturer now... I don't like the way HP puts your Windows CD (if you could call it that) on another partition on the hard drive, cuz if the drive goes... say bye-bye to your copy of Windows.

Gah, they went back to that system??? Next will be the old Compaq, "We put our BIOS on the HD because it is easier that way" system. >.> Wait... that's weird, my friend's HP has a Windows CD. Hmm... need to look into that more.

Dell's do give the Windows CD that "supposivly" will work on another computer. Haven't tried it yet.

Falcon are pretty close to custom built, haven't heard anything bad about them yet. Problem is that you pay for it though. ^_^;

After all that hatred towards Dells though, only one I can recommend since they seem to be pretty rugged and last for most of the people I know. Plus all they do is surf the web, e-mail, and writing in Word. >.> No need for a super machine for that.

hanaeleh · Post by **hanaeleh** » Wed Aug 03, 2005 1:30 pm

OK, the non-computery person will step up now... understood most of what you'all are talking about, but....

I'm a teacher and for a few years we bought Gateways. Worst computers ever- motherboards would die and the harddrives would as well- we also replaced almost every single CD player at least once, and sometimes more. They crashed several times and were, overall, a bad investment.

The Dells we bought are still running and are doing well. Go figure. I did end up buying a new Dell for myself- the gaming that I do is nothing in comparison to most people, and it is my understanding that you can always replace video cards and sound cards in a decent machine. My opinion is that the cover is on the computer for a reason, and should probably stay there.

My new investment is a laptop and I will probably end up purchasing a Dell, although my computer-y brother bought a HP for himself.

I would go on Dell's website and play around with whatever deal you can get. You can also get some pretty good coupons if you check on these websites regularly:

http://www.techbargains.com
http://www.slickdeals.net

The laptop I want is about $1500, but I just saw a coupon that had it at around $700- you just have to catch it at the right time.

Good luck!