Which PC company is better?

[Iciesangel]

I'm looking to buy a new PC.
I would like to know what the best company is.
I'm not tech savvy enough to build my own, so I would like to know which PC company to go with that I can build my own online.
I was looking at HP, Gateway & Dell.
I've heard pro's & con's on Gateway & Dell.
I'm on my PC always, I use PSP, gaming (not hard core), mulit-tasking, etc.
Budget is around $1,500
Any input?

 

[LinkedKube]

xps system from dell would be pretty good for the gaming you want to do, or one of Hp's mid area pc's. Avoid Emachines at all cost.

 

[Iciesangel]

Yeah, tell me about it. That's what I'm running right now.
Crashes everytime I try to play a game

 

[mopar man]

I personally would go with the Dell.

You may wanna look around for a computer shop that will custom build a computer for you.

 

[Iciesangel]

Well I think I've decided on the Dell. Thanks for your input guys.:approve:
Here's what I came up with. Let me know what you think, or if I should tweek anything.

PROCESSOR Intel Core 2 Quad Processor Q6600 (8MB L2 cache,2.4GHz,1066FSB)
OPERATING SYSTEM Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium Service Pack 1
MONITOR 19 inch SE198WFP Widescreen Digital Flat Panel Monitor
MEMORY 4GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 800MHz- 4DIMMs
HARD DRIVE 640GB Serial ATA Hard Drive (7200RPM) w/DataBurst Cache™
OPTICAL DRIVE Dual Drives: 16x DVD-ROM Drive + 16x DVD+/-RW w/ dbl layer write capable
VIDEO CARD ATI Radeon HD 2400 PRO 128MB
SOUND Integrated Sound Blaster®Audigy™ HD Software Edition
TV TUNER AND REMOTE Hauppauge HVR1250 hybrid TV Tuner with Remote Control
KEYBOARD & MOUSE Dell USB Keyboard and Dell Optical USB Mouse
BLUETOOTH OPTIONS Dell Bluetooth Wireless Media Hub (13-1 Media Reader w/Bluetooth 2.0 EDR)
FLOPPY & MEDIA READER Dell Media Card Reader included in Dell Bluetooth Package
MODEM 56K PCI Data Fax Modem
WIRELESS Internal PCI 802.11g Wireless Network Card

SPEAKERS Dell A525 30 Watt 2.1 Stereo Speakers with Subwoofer
OFFICE SOFTWARE Microsoft Works 9.0
TOP SELLING SOFTWARE Pcmover Essentials moves everything to your new PC

WARRANTY AND SERVICE DellCare Plus
PROTECTION AGAINST ACCIDENTS Add CompleteCare Accidental Damage Service to 3Yr Lim Warranty
DATASAFE ONLINE BACKUP DataSafe included with DellCare Service bundle

ALSO INCLUDED WITH YOUR SYSTEM
Mouse Mouse included with Keyboard purchase
Adobe Software Adobe® Acrobat® Reader 8.1
Network Interface Integrated 10/100 Ethernet
Labels Windows Vista™ Premium
ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE I chose Security with Value, Plus,or Premium Warranty Bundle

 

[TimeParadoX]

You don't want to build it yourself and save a lot of money? Ok.

Well, the parts you picked from the Dell website are good except the videocard, it's kind of a low-end one, If you can spend the extra money then get a ATI HD4870 or atleast a HD3 series.. You should not get Vista though, just get Windows XP Professional. Also, what games do you plan on playing?

 

[fullmetalvegan]

Why shouldn't he get Vista? It's absolutely fine on new computer systems, better than XP.

You're better off building your own PC or having a custom one built at a local PC store. Dell rip you off something chronic for what you get.

 

[TimeParadoX]

Why shouldn't he get Vista? It's absolutely fine on new computer systems, better than XP.

You're better off building your own PC or having a custom one built at a local PC store. Dell rip you off something chronic for what you get.

The main reason I discourage Windows Vista is that in only a year it's going to be replaced by the next Windows coming out in '09. It's only a person choice but it saves the money of the builder if they just use XP for now.

 

[fullmetalvegan]

Yeah but XP Pro is much more expensive than Vista Home... in Australia anyway. XP Pro is $250, same price as Vista Ultimate, Vista Home being $150. Besides, you're better off getting Vista for now anyway if you're buying a new os, no point buying the old old one - point being, the new Windows replaces XP as well as Vista so buying XP over Vista doesn't solve the problem anyway. =P

Better off with Vista because it is newer, more secure and more supported in terms of updates / compatibility nowadays, everything is made aimed at Vista now.

 

[TimeParadoX]

Actually, Windows XP will be around until 2014 declared by Microsoft. The newer OS coming out will introduce the real and true version of DX10 and will introduce many new titles for DX10 such as Alan Wake ( I'm really looking forward to it ) and since more hardware is coming out in Quad and Dual core, you'll be able to utilize this even more with games than Vista could.

 

[SNGX1275]

On modern hardware Vista is going to run fine. I also doubt we see the next version of Windows in the next 18 months, it will be delayed, then delayed some more. I don't look to see it until 2011. IF it manages to come out on time, there will be a lot of feature drops.

I too think that video card is a bit weak, if you are really hurting for money (didn't list what price that dell is) you could drop the Quad down to a Dual and still be fine. Almost nothing you'd do really utilizes 4 cores anyway. I don't think you need to go as high end as a 4870 though, especially when you say you don't do hardcore gaming. An 8800GT or a 4850 would be a good choice, or a 9600GT if those are too expensive.

 

[TimeParadoX]

On modern hardware Vista is going to run fine. I also doubt we see the next version of Windows in the next 18 months, it will be delayed, then delayed some more. I don't look to see it until 2011. IF it manages to come out on time, there will be a lot of feature drops.

I too think that video card is a bit weak, if you are really hurting for money (didn't list what price that dell is) you could drop the Quad down to a Dual and still be fine. Almost nothing you'd do really utilizes 4 cores anyway. I don't think you need to go as high end as a 4870 though, especially when you say you don't do hardcore gaming. An 8800GT or a 4850 would be a good choice, or a 9600GT if those are too expensive.

Yeah, I forgot about the delays that Microsoft tends to do with their products. Also, he hasn't really told us what kind of games he plans on playing so I just offered a higher end card ( 4870 ) with another mid-ranged card ( 3 series ). I have a 8800GTS at the moment and every game I've played has been rather easy to set to max settings without a problem.

 

[fullmetalvegan]

And doesn't XP lack native support for dual and quadcore processors? Not to mention 64-bit XP costing an arm and a leg to just utilize more than 3GB of RAM, whereas Vista 64-bit is cheaper and natively supports current processors. Doesn't seem logical to purchase XP when on a new system Vista will be a better choice.

 

[mopar man]

Vista will not always run perfectly. My grandmothers Vista has some really dumb issues, such as certain programs that are supposed to work fine on vista not wanting to work at all, and they are simple things (such as peer guardian, though it isn't supported by vista, its the TYPE of program I am talking about. I think you should get VISTA if you are patient, XP Pro if not.

 

[SNGX1275]

I have no problems with any of my software on Vista, and I have quite a variety. I think you have to be more patient with XP because it doesn't support SATA drives out of the box, most LAN chipsets still require drivers, same with sound. Vista has naitive driver support for all of that now, much less of a headache to get things up and running. Without specific examples it is nothing more than generalization/speculation and that is probably the cause of 90% of XP users not liking Vista.

Anyway to answer fullmetalvegan's question. I believe XP will run quads and duals without problems. Perhaps you are thinking of multiple physical processors. Although Vista is probably better written to utilize multi cores and processors.

 

[fullmetalvegan]

PeerGuardian is the only program that I am aware of which won't work with Vista yet, other than that, all my software runs fine. Never had any driver or software issue and I'm running 64-bit as well as Vista, so yeah, I agree with SNGX1275 - it's mostly speculation that Vista doesn't work where the reality is that Vista is a completely stable and fine operating system.

 

[Didou]

Anyway to answer fullmetalvegan's question. I believe XP will run quads and duals without problems. Perhaps you are thinking of multiple physical processors. Although Vista is probably better written to utilize multi cores and processors.

It can (in some cases) bring new problems that don't exist in Windows XP.

From AMD's Phenom X4 9950, 9350e and 9150e
Our minds then wandered over to what we saw when we looked at the AMD Power Meter. Since Windows Vista takes it upon itself to move threads between cores in fairly stupid ways, during the Photoshop test we saw what looked like threads bouncing around between cores or cycling through them in rapid succession. Whatever was actually being done, the result was that one processor would ramp up to full power (1GHz up to 2GHz) and then drop back down as the next CPU came up to speed.

 

[Iciesangel]

Thanks for all the great input everyone.
I appreciated all the posts.
I went ahead & ordered the PC today.
My budget was $1,500 & with tax & one extra software I spent $1,545
The games I'll be playing are just casual games, no hard core games like Halo or WOW.

Why shouldn't he get Vista? It's absolutely fine on new computer systems, better than XP.

Not that it matters, but I'm a female. lol

Well, the parts you picked from the Dell website are good except the videocard, it's kind of a low-end one

The one I picked is actually a step up from the one they were offering that came with the PC.
The next one up from the one I picked was $100 more.