I know this goes against everything his site stands for, and I'm likely to get flamed for this (*puts ass-shield in place*), but I'm going to be in the market for a new off-the-shelf PC here soon. I like having one that I can harass guys in India for on tech-support when it goes wrong so that I have a reliable means to access the site when a project goes horribly awry. That being said, my budget is not particularly large, and I would like some Pimp advice on what I should be looking for in an off-the shelf model. I know I want an AMD and a DVD burner, and at least a fair piece of RAM. I can get bigger HDs and install myself. What else should I look for? Any particular brands that have less issues? Better tech support? I'm relying on your infinite wisdom, so please do not be stingy with it! I'll post more babes if you do! promise!

Judging by what survives to become dumpster dive finds (i.e. lasts long enough to get thrown out, rather than burn out), Compaqs are virtually immortal.
IBMs too, but to a slightly lesser extent ... Dells & just about everything else barely figure, so maybe that tells you something?

If this is going to be your emergency backup, maybe a laptop is more practical?

GAME OVER MAN, GAME OVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
YouTube - Aliens - Hudsons Last Stand

Ok flame over

If you just want a store bought PC, I'd say look for the sales at FRY's , BestBuy, Comp USA etc and find the one that is packed with the fastest cpu and most ram for the least amount. I'd probably stick with an Intel proc, 2gb ram

At the consumer level Dell, Compaq, HP, Acer, Gateway, Toshiba are all the same, they all suck to some extent but get the job done in a pinch. HTRN has the right idea, pick a price point and look for the best sale deal you can find at a big box electronics store.

A family member of mine a few years ago bought a dell and called me 4 months later about it not working. Dell only had one fan in the whole case (not counting the psu fan), it stopped working and then complete disaster.

If you don't have to have a desktop i'd say get a laptop. Reliable same help support, and there resell value higher than a desktop.

Didn't say I wasn't going to add and mod it a bit, so minimal case fan aren't an issue. I'm not worried abotu resell value, and it's not my money, it's my parents money ( I know! GASP!) and THEY want a desktop. But HTRN, why should I stick with intel over AMD?

FWIW, I'm plannign to hold out for either BTS or Xmas sales to find a new machine. My HP Pavilion a320n seems to be dying and my local pimps believe that the reasons are all very bad, so I figured I'd ask you guys, cuz I trust your opinions.

No real particluar reason. Intel as of now is the faster proc and ( I read the sales adds every day in CA.) the Intel systems seem to have more features for the same money. For what your wanting either would be fine so If you find an AMD system with the same basic spec's and $50 less or more then go for it.

Your most likely gonna end up with a bundle deal and around Xmas you'll find some hat may cost $600 out the door but have like $300 in rebates . Rebates are always something to take into account when figuring final cost.

Probably virtually anything they sell is going to be uATX, or worse yet, uBTX, and a surprisingly large amount of the time, under-specced (24-pin motherboard, 20-pin PSU-- I've seen it like 3 times on the big-box machines my boss insists on buying)

If possible, find something with a discrete video card, just to avoid memory pilferage. Too much stuff is "Core 2 Quad 9770 with integrated video."

Quote: Originally Posted by Hak Foo Probably virtually anything they sell is going to be uATX, or worse yet, uBTX, and a surprisingly large amount of the time, under-specced (24-pin motherboard, 20-pin PSU-- I've seen it like 3 times on the big-box machines my boss insists on buying) If possible, find something with a discrete video card, just to avoid memory pilferage. Too much stuff is "Core 2 Quad 9770 with integrated video."

See this is the important stuff I need to know, although I do know about the issues of built-in vid cards, cuz I have one now.

Tell me more stuff like this!

Quote: Originally Posted by Leandra See this is the important stuff I need to know, although I do know about the issues of built-in vid cards, cuz I have one now. Tell me more stuff like this!

Well, since we buy absolute dreck hardware, it also tends to have underwhelming cooling packages-- not the stock cooler, but rather an off-brand version of it, which usually has a PWM fan that spins up to "Can you hear me now?" volume on POST. The cases tend to be both flimsy and counterintuitively designed (for some reason, a lot of the hard discs are mounted on their ends... so the PCB runs parallel to the front panel-- which means you have to figure out how to dismember a cage to get the drive out. Strangely, though, many of them have these horrible tool-free card mounts instead of four screws.

Many times, the PSU isn't even 'SATA ready', with the hard disc on one of those little adapter cords. The optical drive is frequently still IDE too.

Some eMachines boxes contain ECS mainboards-- that's how badly they slum.

(Idle puzzler: Why is it that manufacturers can find money in the budget for "pretty stealthed front drive bays" but not for a 24-pin PSU plug?)

What was the budget on this stock PC




***Stand back as the DEAL MASTER does his magic***

I'm with T2, how much are you planning to spend? And I'm also with HTRN, Intel is the superior cpu and looks to stay that way for a while.

Well, since I'm not in charge of the budget, I'm nto entirely sure. A lot of it is going to depend on how long my HP can hold out. If it can make it until BTS deal time, I'd say inthe $500-$700 range. if it can limp until xmas, cloer to $1000. I will say that despite the reputation of emachine, my sister has one and hers is running great, plus because of the mobo, she can use a a very cheaply priced type of RAM, which comes in handy.

Well since your not buying anything in the "immediate" future I suggest you just keep looking at everything and just post us some links to PC's you see and are interested it. Besides, we may even teach you enough to build your own and save you some Big Bucks :-) Or there are a handful of people here that are honest and extremely trustworthy. HTRN, T2 or Lokie would be 3 off the top of my head that could easily build you a fine PC. Their Honesty and Integrity is at a level that few humans ever acheive, I'd trust them with any amount I sent them.

Disclaimer: There are many others here that are also trustworthy, but I'm not going to post a list as anyone excluded will hate me :-)

Well, like I said, the main reason I'm getting an off-the-shelf in this instance is so that if something were to blow up, I have tech support that I can harass at any time of day or night at no extra charge. I doubt T2, Lokie or anyone else would want me calling them at 3 am because my fan is sparking. I just need to knwo the types of specs to be looking for so that i don't end up with some little hoe-box that needs to be babysat.

Oh, fwiw, I don't do much gaming on it, mostly emulation of older systems if I do. I do a lot of downloading, however, and I need a machine that doesn't need to be babysat. I also intend to downgrade it to XP if it comes with Vista.

HeHeHe, I don't think T2 ever sleeps. When the time comes it wouldn't hurt to ask them. I bet they could provide better tech support than most major manufacturers. It's just a though.

I would look for a system with a Intel C2D cpu that runs at 3 GHz minimum. You may not need all the power now but next year you'll be glad you bought it.

It needs to have a minimum of 2 GB of PC2 6400 DDR2 800 memory. 4 GB would be better. Once again were future proofing it.

Make sure it has a dedicated pci-e graphics card. It doesn't have to be powerful, but if the card goes bad you can replace it without sending the whole PC back. And if you happen to change your PC usage you can alway upgrade the card for better performance. Once again were future proofing.

It must have at least 500 GB of Hard Drive space to store your anime pic's and music collection :-)

20x speed DVD Burner and a 16x DVD/ROM would be nice.

Edit: and Windows XP is going to soon be unsupported as in Microsoft will no longer be supplying updates. I luv Vista, the spec's I listed will run Vista good

A very useful listing! And I've tried both and prefer XP. Oh, and I'm not too concerned with HD space because that's easily modified and I'm a big believer in externals. Speaking of I have a wild idea for externals, but this is the wrong section to discuss them!

Right now the stuff I listed will probably be at the high-end of your budget (Xmas time budget). But hardware prices drop so often they'll soon be within your price range.

Okay, well the maternal unit and i discussed this issue this morning, and here;s what she said:

She's looking for a tower only
She's aiming to spend no more than $500 (I'd say as high as $700, though, he's can be persuaded)
She understands the basics of computers even though she really doesn't use one
She's not in any immediate hurry to buy, but she knows my poor HP is on its last legs
She knows I'm talking to you guys about what to buy!

I repeat: there are certain things i know I don't need, like a top-of the line vid card, although I'm trying to avoid a built-in. however, i do know I need a good processor and good ram to start, preferably with the ability to upgrade my RAM at a future point.

With that in mind... any further suggestions? We're counting on you!