Help me choose a new PC

[Keyser Soze]

i'd tend to believe jack because of the volume of machines he has coming in and out of that place.

[Goatweed]

Im not saying he's lying, I'm saying that in my experience, Dell has been very good when/if there are hardware failures. I dont know about the substandard hardware argument tho, as I've opened my case several times and I know I have a dell-modified Intel board, a Maxtor drive, etc. My mom has a 4 year old Dell, it's never had a problem also. For every pro story there's a con but I trust them - they've given me no reason not to (thus far).

Whichever machine you get Gonzo, just make sure there's a rock-solid warranty & good extended coverage. Thew last thing you wanna do is drop $500 on a machine, only to have some fan or drive stop working 3 months later & find out it's not covered.

[Gooch]

the emachine will fill your needs Gonzy....go for it. and offers much more bang for your buck.

[Keyser Soze]

i've had sterling experience with dell myself, but goat and I might just be lucky. jack has seen far more machines pass through so there a better sample to make an assesment from. i'd be curious how many of those issues those folks had with dells were more users related or if they were ALL hardware issues.

[Jack]

We get probably 2-3 times that amount listed above (20-30) per week with software issues where we just format the hard drive and start clean.

The 10-12 I quoted above were the machines that have hardware failures.

I checked in a Dell Laptop with a bad hard drive, 2 Dell desktops, 1 with a bad power supply, the other a software problem already today.

I have a feeling that the reason we see so many Dells, is because our store is within 2-3 miles of MSU. It is possible that that the market there is just saturated with Dells.

[Keyser Soze]

thats what im trying to determine. maybe you just see more dells come in for service cause most people own dells.

[GonzoStyle]

thank you jack, gooch and cnet.

goat and keyser suck ass.

I'm goin with the e-machine.

Now another question, I asked the homeboy at best buy about the dvd drive and he said that I could not copy dvd's like say an original dvd to make a copy. But he said if I downloaded one offline that I could burn it. I asked hedcold and he explained it but I wanted to be sure. So i'd need a second drive to basically put the original in and have the original drive to copy it, correct? But if I choose just to keep the one drive I could still burn dvds that I download?

Also whats it cost to up the memory to 1gb?

Cause 512 sounds amazing, but then again I have 63 on my HP.. yes 63.

[Jack]

To Copy DVD movies, you do not need a second drive.

I have just my DVD-Burner and a CD Burner. I use DVD XCopy Platinum to make my copies. (I have it and the crack if anyone is interested)

I just simply make the program copy everything to my hard drive, then burn it back onto a disk. Its one of the easiest things to do. Insert disk, click copy, it does its thing then pops out the disk, and you then insert the blank disk and burn it.

[Jack]

For the memory:

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.crucial.com/store....+PC3200">http://www.crucial.com/store....+PC3200</a><!-- m -->

Crucial has a 512MB for $63.99.

If this system utilizes Dual Channel Technology, which I am assuming it most likely does, get the 512MB kit (2X256MB). If you only put in 1 stick, it will actually hurt your performance more than it will help it. Going from Dual Channel mode to Single Channel mode slows it down.

[GonzoStyle]

awesome! you really are the bestest.

so I can save the extra dough on the drive and just spend it on upgrading the memory to 1gb.

I'll get that program and crack once I get the new comp.

Also is the upgrade on the memory something they can do for me or I have to install it myself and if so how much would that run?

[Jack]

I am not sure what they would charge to install it. We charge $30.00 for installations.

Installing memory is easy though. There is only 1 spot inside the computer and you put the memory in that slot and push until you hear 2 clicks.

You might even get the memory cheaper in store. A lot of times, we run deals (Best Buy does too) on memory, especially when purchased with a computer.

[GonzoStyle]

ok, well hopefully even I can't fuck that up.

so I assume thats somethings I could just buy at a staples or comp store, maybe even best buy.

if anything I can prolly get my cousin to do it, he's an evil fuckin genius he just works in maryland 4 days a week now.

[Mad]

Or get Goat to come over and do it, to redeem himself.

[Keyser Soze]

i showed you c|net you ungreatful bastard!!!

[The Brain]

I can't believe not a single one of you has warned him that those rebate-offering PCs (HP/Compaq, eMachines, or even Dell) come pre-loaded with so much crap software, they'll slow even a fast CPU to a crawl in no time. If you can get your hands on a cracked version of XP Pro that you install on the PC after formatting the drive, then fine.

If you want to try something different... <a href=http://www.alienware.com/Configurator_Pages/bot.aspx?SysCode=PC-BOT&SubCode=SKU-DEFAULT target=new>AlienWare has a low-end machine, rebate included.</a> It has Windows XP Home on it (not as good as Pro), but that's OK for you. The money does start tacking on once you're tempted to upgrade a few things-- it lists at $429.00 (and that's post-rebate), but an extra $100 will boost you to 512MB RAM and get you a 16x DVD-rewritable drive.

And you will want at least 512MB of RAM for just about anything you want to do (63??!!!). But try for 1GB if possible.

[Keyser Soze]

who gives a fuck what software they load. format and load your own cracked shit.

[Goatweed]

memory is cheap as hell, like jack linked - crucial is the bestest.

goat and keyser suck ass.

I'm goin with the e-machine.

fine, make sure you get jack's address when you need to ship it to him for repairs.

I love my Dells, and I'd buy another one tomorrow if I needed to. Pfft!

[HedCold]

the one complaint i have about my dell 700m laptop was that the myway search bar came preinstalled and was a pain to uninstall. everything else i just uinstalled with no problems, and the computer is still snappy

[The Jays]

they ever have that squad of geeks running around Staten Island ready to fix shit for you. what's their name? they drive funny cars and stuff too.

[HedCold]

geek squad?
i saw one of them in their yellow cars once. he had his collar popped on his yellow shirt