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Who's the best manufacturer of desktops

post #1 of 11
5/19/04 at 12:34am
Thread Starter 
My roomie wants a new desktop and wants one of the brand name companies from best buy. Which is better: sony, compaq, H-P, etc? He's looking for one mainly for net, email, some gaming.
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post #2 of 11
5/19/04 at 1:25am
why doesnt your friend just order a dell? would be better then the ones you just mentioned. lowest priced dell desktop ive seen is around 500.00.
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post #3 of 11
5/19/04 at 4:22am
All the PC manufacturers essentially use the same parts to build their computers. I dont really see too much of a difference between them. I would stay away from Sony though. Their quality has gone downhill across all its product lines PCs, TVs, PS2s, etc. My friend is a technician at Best Buy and he sees a lot of broken Sonys compared to other brands.

Just some advice.
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post #4 of 11
5/19/04 at 4:28am
You will hear good things and bad things about all brands... just go for the one that is cheapest in price.
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post #5 of 11
5/19/04 at 5:39am
Enderet's advice is best, your friend will either not know (nor care about) the difference in quality, if there is any, or he'll likely be getting a new machine in 2 years anyway. At the very least, upgrading it until it's hardly reconizable.
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post #6 of 11
5/19/04 at 5:55am
Quote:
Originally Posted by mrbreakit
All the PC manufacturers essentially use the same parts to build their computers. I dont really see too much of a difference between them. I would stay away from Sony though. Their quality has gone downhill across all its product lines PCs, TVs, PS2s, etc. My friend is a technician at Best Buy and he sees a lot of broken Sonys compared to other brands.

Just some advice.
Woah woah woah there. Some of the conglomo-companies (like Dell) take up the initiative to 'make sure' the user can only get parts from their company.

My friends, its called proprietary parts; and in the end when you want to upgrade or replace a certain piece of hardware (usually things like power supply, case design, etc.), you would have to get the part from the company.

This isnt true for all parts, but some companies design their own hardware for exclusive use for only their brand of PC. My friend learned this the hard way when a short circuit fried his power supply and motherboard. He pretty much said 'screw it' to the proprietary Dell parts and assembled his own PC from the non-fried, non-proprietary parts.

So in fair warning, if you wanna upgrade for yourself in the future, buy a PC from a company that doesnt use proprietary parts (in a bad way).
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post #7 of 11
5/19/04 at 6:45pm
Build one yourself if you think that is possible. There are many online guides on this if you feel unsure about how to approach it. It's probably a lot simpler and easier than you think. Plus building your own, you will run into a lot less upgrade problems in the future. Plus you can get EXACTLY what you want, as you order component by component. If you have any questions feel free to ask. Biggest thing about it is price. If he really wants a name brand computer company..I'd say just go with what looks like the best deal at that time.

Aaron
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post #8 of 11
5/19/04 at 7:07pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by RdLdr1
Woah woah woah there. Some of the conglomo-companies (like Dell) take up the initiative to 'make sure' the user can only get parts from their company.

My friends, its called proprietary parts; and in the end when you want to upgrade or replace a certain piece of hardware (usually things like power supply, case design, etc.), you would have to get the part from the company.

This isnt true for all parts, but some companies design their own hardware for exclusive use for only their brand of PC. My friend learned this the hard way when a short circuit fried his power supply and motherboard. He pretty much said 'screw it' to the proprietary Dell parts and assembled his own PC from the non-fried, non-proprietary parts.

So in fair warning, if you wanna upgrade for yourself in the future, buy a PC from a company that doesnt use proprietary parts (in a bad way).

This is totally true. I had a teacher in an IT class in college talk about this. Dell reversed the power supply and made it imposable to upgrade anything without getting it from them. I am sure all the BIG name companies do this. It’s a terrible policy if you even want to upgrade, but if you never have a plan to do so it might be the cheapest way to go. I agree about building a computer, I am thinking about doing so for the first time. If not, look at some of the ‘customize” computer places, their prices aren’t always expensive. I have priced a Voodoo desktop for only a few hundred dollars more then it would coast me to build it.
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post #9 of 11
5/20/04 at 1:45am
Quote:
Originally Posted by tiwaz
....This is totally true. I had a teacher in an IT class in college talk about this. Dell reversed the power supply and made it imposable to upgrade anything without getting it from them...
Are you sure about the reversed power supply and which models was he/she talking about.
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post #10 of 11
5/20/04 at 2:05am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Computer_Potato
Are you sure about the reversed power supply and which models was he/she talking about.
Well, this particualr (new) Dell's power supply definitely was not standard.
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post #11 of 11
5/20/04 at 2:09am
That was a few years ago that I had that class, but I am sure it would of been on most of their desktops. The teacher said something about the power supply connector being reversed, much like the situation that RdLdr1 mentioned, that he knew someone who replaced a motherboard and it got short-circuited. I am sure if you contact them and ask them specifically, they should tell you wither or not their products can be upgraded without going purchasing from Dell.
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