I'm buying a new computer. Any advice on what brand to buy? I'm thinking either gateway, emachine or HP.

thanks

what do you want to use the computer for?

work, home stuff, mostly the net and email, games, video editing

what you want to use it for will determine what and how much of upgrades you'll need

I want to use it for my plans to kill everyone

Some gaming, some downloading, some CD/DVD burning, and of course, some tax stuff.


EDIT: I saw a gateway with multimedia that can be used as a tivo, a dvd recorder etc. It comes ready to hook up to my cable box to access on demand and all the other channels. It has an AMD 64 processor (?), 512 DDR ram upgradeable to over 2 gigs and a double layer cd/dvd burner (again, ?) It was about a grand and it comes with a monitor, wireless keyboard, mouse and speakers. The hard drive was 200 gigs.

thoughts?

i dont know to much about what is a good computer and what isnt, but ive always heard people kinda make fun of E machines which makes me think they arent that good, or else they didnt use to be to good

To be honest, I really dont like "brand name" machines. I usually just put my own machines together with the parts I want. But obviously that takes a bit of know how. If I had to get an already built, popular brand computer, I would go with a Dell. My company gets Dells and they have all been solid computers.
I would not recommend getting a Gateway. Half the people I know who have Gateways do nothing but complain about them.

Although I cannot personally vouch for them, I hear some really good things about Alienware built computers:
http://www.alienware.com

and i believe that dell's are fairly inexpensive which is always a good thing

I'll agree with Dell.

The newest computer I have came from MPC, and I've never had a problem with them at all.

(Plus, it supports an Idaho business. )

well, I have a dell now, and it's about 2-3 years old. My drives are crapping out, I have no USB ports and my memory is capped out at 512 SDRAM. This is why I'm going for a new system. It would cost as much to rehab this one as it will to get a new one.

Anyway, I don't like the fact that my drives are dying on me after such a short time so I'm trying to avoid a dell this time around.

Body slamming your pc is never a good idea, no matter what brand you get.

Clearly you don't know what you're talking about.

I have a Dell laptop and a Dell Desktop and both have been fantastic. Plus they have incredible customer support.

for every ten people you talk to about how good dells are, you can find 10 who say they suck, conversely, for every ten people you talk to about how good gateways are, you can find 10 people who say they suck

our college is nothing but dells now (with a few scattered gateway 3110's still around) and while the PC's run fine, we have had some problems with mother boards being delivered bad or shortly there after, nic cards not working, video cards not working and bad power supply/cooling fans, and these problems have been right out of the box.

dell pc's are no better than gateways as gateways are no better than dell's

Yes, but the customer support is what keeps me coming back to Dell.

case in point, ive had nothing but hassels from dells customer support

So, did you read about the computer I saw that I'm thinking of getting? Opinions?

for a little more than a grand, i think 1300 or so, dell has a nice XMS i believe the model is called

though i know, you dont want dell

the model you put up there looks decent enough, you can always buy a new hard drive and use it as secondary storage if it gets filled up

Honestly, the components in all the big brand systems are pretty identical. What you really want to look at is price and customer support. For customer support, Apple blows every other brand out of the water (according to consumer reports). Of course, Macs suck so that doesn't help you much. I've always had Dells (3 desktops and a laptop) and I have never had a single issue. I personally am tech savy enough that I've called customer support maybe oncer per machine, so I can't really comment on their tech support, but they were always helpful when I called.

Alienware machines are top notch gaming machines (along with Falcon Northwest and the likes), if you're not looking for a top of the line gaming or video editing system, you won't get a good deal from Alienware. Sony is similar in catering to multimedia users, but Sony computers have come down in price (not to mention their cases look really cool!). If you're looking for a decent all around machine I would recommend Dell or HP/Compaq. If you have a nice and tech savy friend who would be willing to build you a machine and who would be willing to help you with any tech problems you will have, I suggest you do that. By building your own computer you will save $100-200 on a budget machine and $500+ on a nicer system. If you want to buy one, I think a sytem from any of the major brands would be fine. I'd stay away from eMachines and other small budget brands like it.

thanks everyone for the replies. I'll let you know what I decide.

in general, what is everyone's opinion on AMD processors? how much of a difference is there between there's and Intel's? any?

dan

I'm curious about this too.