jdion81 Posted April 12, 2004 Report Share Posted April 12, 2004 Guess no-one likes GW? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bvc Posted April 12, 2004 Report Share Posted April 12, 2004 ..and Build Your Own just doesn't work.. :o :unsure: :lol: :deal: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bvc Posted April 12, 2004 Report Share Posted April 12, 2004 yeah....what's tech support? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VeeDubb Posted April 12, 2004 Report Share Posted April 12, 2004 OtherBuild your own! It's easier than you think! Amen! The best computer builder I've ever met is me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
null Posted April 13, 2004 Report Share Posted April 13, 2004 I also build my own. The reason I started doing it that way was because I didn't like the 50,000 things that every new PC came with that I didn't want. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kmc77 Posted April 13, 2004 Report Share Posted April 13, 2004 I'll go along with most everyone else and say "build your own". I do like the Macs, but I assume when you ask for the better buy, you want to factor in cost, and since Mac uses the high grade stuff, that puts it out of my better buy category. Although if I had some $$$ I'd have to say Mac. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aRTee Posted April 13, 2004 Report Share Posted April 13, 2004 yeah....what's tech support? Aren't we tech support?? :lol: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sarissi Posted April 13, 2004 Report Share Posted April 13, 2004 Definitely buld your own! As a result you get: Far better quality components Only the components YOU want The Operating System(s) YOU want You are not afraid to work on your own computer You do need to read the motherboard manual and take due care in assembling your system. You simply take your time and don't try to force the heatsink to latch onto the CPU socket with too much force (just enough to do the job, without pressing down on the CPU). The connectors in every case are labeled as to what they are. You can buy things as you can afford to get them. Everyone who builds a computer, has the first time experience. The satisfaction of getting everything working (cables on backward or came loose from drive or mobo) is worth it. Basic rule: do not put the case cover(s) back on, until all hardware is functioning. This is when you actually build it. Some mobos confiigure the cpu automatically and some don't. I always install the CPU and heatsink/fan before I install the mobo in the case. It is much easier that way, and no chance of ruining CPU or mobo. Of the poll choices given, I would choose Macintosh. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DragonMage Posted April 14, 2004 Report Share Posted April 14, 2004 Put me inside the build your own computer category. All the computers I have built are stable (other than flaky components, but I can exchange them easy) once it has been built and running for a couple of days. Regarding dell, look, I am a UT Austin alumni and even I hate dell. Their quality has gone way downhill since the late 90s. I have to deal with a few dell laptops and 1 dell "desktops" (a dell dimension that seems to use laptop components for a workstation), and they give me no end of griefs. Since dell has very little presence Indonesia, good luck getting tech support. Yeah, if you are in the US and you have a support contract with dell (since you are a big company with multitude of dell stuffs), then you can get good tech support, otherwise.. hahahahaha.. The only good dell I've ever seen is the original latitiude series.. the one where you can drop it from a couple of feet and it is still running, but that was in the late 90s. Apple is better hardware-wise than both dell and gateway combined. The pricing is somewhat high though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spiedra Posted April 15, 2004 Report Share Posted April 15, 2004 (edited) This will come as a complete shock. The best pc is the one you build yourself. Who better to support your pc than the person who built it, you! It's also more affordable in my opinion then to by one already assembled. As far as one already built, Apple's are very good as long it is OS X or higher. My only complaint is that they are pricey, but you are getting good hardware. Dell, stay away. I don't have any customer service related experience with Gateway. As for Dell, my father has one and a couple of years back, his modem stopped working so after doing all the diagnostics and troubleshooting, I called Dell to arrange a replacement modem, but they didn't want to do it. They wanted to do the diagnostics with me which is understandable, but I already told them what I did and how I did it, but they wanted to see it for themselves. After troubleshooting the determined they problem was the isp so I was referred to the isp. I called the isp, and I was referred back to Dell, then bounced back to the isp, then back to Dell. Dell was going to bounce me back again until I told them it was their defect that was causing the problem to occur. Finally, their last suggestion was to take the modem out of my pc and put it in his. No point in doing that since I already tried using another pci slot i his pc and the modem still didn't work. Finally, they sent me a new modem and it worked. Very poor customer service in my opinion. Edited April 15, 2004 by spiedra Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iphitus Posted April 15, 2004 Report Share Posted April 15, 2004 (edited) HP rule Gateway IMHO -- wait no -- they DO SUCK!!! They pulled out of Australia pretty much overnight, they made no announcement, they just retrenched a whole shitload of people - the whole aussie arm - and left thousands of customers in the lurch. As for HP, they now offer Mandrake on their boxes. Most of their printers and nearly all of their recent printers are supported and they develop an excellent fully fledged driver. There are 4 HPs in this house, one is 9 years old and still works like the day we got it. And all four of them work perfectly on Linux. We have a HP scanner that works, and my old desktop was a HP, and it was excellent. Havent had a problem with it, it still runs perfectly fine. Its about 6 years old now. Its still using the original keyboard, monitor, speakers, everything except the OS (put a better one on ;)) and mouse (got a laser mouse.) HPs products I have found are of the highest quality. Every HP product we have has worked flawlessly, and we have never needed to call in the warranty or have any damage repaired. When I damaged the motherboard on the HP desktop -- stuffed all the serial port pins -- HP's service was excellent and it was fixed up very very quickly. HP ROCK Edited April 15, 2004 by iphitus Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Technonoid Posted April 15, 2004 Report Share Posted April 15, 2004 Between Dell and Gateway... We have more Dells than GWs, I have worked on more GWs than Dells.... All in all.. Its absolutely best to build your own. You know for sure what your getting, all the while learning about PC hardware, which in turn will help you with your OS installations. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neocytrix Posted April 25, 2004 Report Share Posted April 25, 2004 lol I think its clear that building your own is the best way to go, and yes you can do it! They make it a lot easyer than you think, buy a case, motherboard, processor), RAM, optical drives, and anything that you need that your motherboard might not have (video card, sound card, NIC card, USB ). My motherboard (ASUS P4C 800 delux) came with everything besides the video card. -Neocytrix Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AussieJohn Posted April 26, 2004 Report Share Posted April 26, 2004 The advice is right. You CAN build your own.. In October 98 I bought my first computer from an OEM (Other Equipment Manufacturer) and not a big name brand one. Even though I checked as carefully as possible, with my totally zero knowledge of computers, I found after gaining a bit of knowledge over 12 mths that I had basically been conned. They used parts that were big name parts but I found that they had used the very cheapest versions of each part. The computers they submitted to magazines for comparison testing used the same named parts but only the best versions as it turned out later. I started replacing one part after another with better ones and eventually had rebuilt it entirely by March 2000. I then decided to build a totally new machine from scratch and using only the best practical components ( not a gaming machine............not interested and never will be) . I bought a MacCase Full Tower case and went from there. Its internals have been rebuilt twice since and I have even modded it with side window, extra cooling fans, cold cathode lighting, leds and so on.. I now have a Mitsubishi 21inch Monitor, Epson Photo EX Printer (A3 size paper), an Epson Perfection2450 Photo Scanner, and an Altec Lansing4.1 Sound System. And even if I say so myself, it is a pretty hot machine and system. Well even my much younger friends say it is so I guess it must be right. I have now also built 2 complete and new systems for friends, naturally with Mandrake included. I ordered the appropiate parts and components, they paid for the parts etc and I assembled and set them up. They have been running for almost a year now without any real problems apart from one which had a HDD failure and is being replaced under warranty. The point I am trying to really make is that if someone of my age then, 65yrs old, with no experience can do that, then ANYONE CAN DO IT. That is why I feel so comfortable in joining with the other posters in saying...... BUILD IT YOURSELF. You will have a superior machine than most and it will have cost a hell of a lot less into the bargain.. You will never regret it. What many do not realise is that Dell, HP etc have custom BIOS chips on their Motherboards designed to make it extremely difficult to use other supplier components and use specially modified internal modem and audio cards that will work ONLY with their own proprietry drivers. That shows up in the number of posts of newbies trying to install Linux on these machines. Cheers. John. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iphitus Posted April 27, 2004 Report Share Posted April 27, 2004 What many do not realise is that Dell, HP etc have custom BIOS chips on their Motherboards designed to make it extremely difficult to use other supplier components and use specially modified internal modem and audio cards that will work ONLY with their own proprietry drivers. Absolute poppycock Although some vendors may have done that on SOME computers in the past, it is not a common practice nowadays and it would be a totally impractical one. HP/Compaq, IBM and Acer I know now offer Linux preinstalled on their computers. Or at least in Australia. iphitus Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.