Octopus Overlords

As much as it goes against my personal grain, a colleague of mine wants to buy a pre-built computer, and I told him I would help.

Since I always build/upgrade my own computer, I have no clue where to find reputable pre-built systems online.

I have looked at Dell, ibuypower.com, Monarch and Neocomputers, but still have not found what I want for the right price (<$1,000). In some cases, the selection for the video cards was just completely whacked...you either pay $300 for a 9800 Pro (?!?) or $684 for one of those Ultra Platinum XXX Mega Insert more Hyperbole here cards, and nothing in between.

Any suggestions are welcome (oh, I also tried mwave.com)

Look into resellerratings.com and go from there. Its not worth it to buy from a disreputable place that will give bad service and will probably have issues delivering in the first place.

You might want to look for a local mom&pop shop.

Otherwise - take him down to CostCo and hook him up. They have decent prices anda good return policy.

HP?

I am still happy with the Neocomputer for which I paid $1000 in April '03.

And you can trust Ironrod, he's an expert.

For prebuilt computers, they're all similar. Dell, HP, Gateway, etc. are all going to be about the same. NeoComputers, iBuyPower and those types will generally get you a little more for your money but won't have the name of Dell.

I actually would prefer to buy from a site like ibuypower or neo, because in general they have more hardware options available than Dell, but their prices are signifcantly higher for similar rigs (makes sense due to Dell's buying power).

No Costcos here (East Coast) so that's out, and I really want to customize it for him (he is starting to become a gamer) to get him the best bang for buck.

Some of the prebuilt HP's have really fast CPU's lots of ram, and good sized HD's, but the most awful video card you can think of, or worse, an onboard processor.

Avoid HP/Compaq. In general, they are unstable, unreliable, underpowered crapola. I love HP printers and scanners, but their PCs are trash.

For pre-built, I'd go Dell or one of the Neocomputers, ABS, ibuypower, etc bunch. For Dell, you may not be able to get the exact components you want right up front unless you add them later, and the other companies will end up costing you a little more for better selection. Unless you build your own, you usually have to compromise on something (price or selection).

EvilHomer3k wrote:NeoComputers, iBuyPower and those types will generally get you a little more for your money but won't have the name of Dell.

Or any of the bundled software. Which is a good thing, IMO...they come with a lot of preinstalled garbage.

Freezer-TPF- wrote:Avoid HP/Compaq.

Amen to that. The Bride's Compaq was the worst desktop we've ever owned.

I work in the hardware manufacturing community. I can tell you this: Dell demands our components achieve the strictest of test parameters. I personally purchase Dell PCs because I know that they parts they assemble their machines out of are going to be of the highest quality available on the market. At work, I hate jumping through the hoops Dell forces on us, but as a consumer, I'm happy to pay a bit extra to know that I'm getting components of a quaility I could not find on the street.

~Neal

I bought a Dell desktop 2 years ago that I am still using. Been very happy with it, never had one ounce of trouble with it. Just about anything can be changed on their configuration page also, so you can pretty much build whatever you want easily.

The India tech support isn't as bad as people make it out to be in my experience. I could understand them easily and they were as computer savvy as almost any tech support I have ever called (which means they know more than your average fool, but not a lot).

Now Dell notebooks? Can't say I am overly thrilled with them, but you do get a lot of bang for your buck.

i've owned a Dell in the past, as have just about everyone else in my family, and we've always had very good luck with them. i have a 4-year old Dell that i use as an mp3 server and it has always worked flawlessly. i still recommend them to anyone who asks me about a pre-built computer. i built my own system about a year ago, but if i were to buy from anyone now it would still be Dell.

I have 2 HP's and they're both over-achievers.

I've had zero problems with them, other than having to remove some of the crap software they pre-install.

My current HP I bought for $550 many months ago, and included a fast-for-it's-time AthlonXP 2800, 512mb RAM, 120gb HD, DVD burner, and media card reader.

All I had to do was install my own video card to disable the onboard., and it's been smooth sailing ever since.

This one also has the Asus mobo based on the nforce2 chipset.

There's nothing crap about it.

what does your friend want to do with the computer? If he doesn't need a high power graphics card than the Dell 4700 or 8400 are both under 1k. Falcon Talon's are reasonalby priced at 1300 if he needs power. Heck buy him a top of the line eMachine and upgrade his graphic card for him.

When you say you haven't found what you want, you might need to be more specific about what that is.