Please build me a computer (NOT GETTING A MAC UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES)

Originally Posted by Piobaire

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Don't get a Dell!

Unless you don't mind over paying for under power. I went through a "home brew" phase in the 1990s, when I built my own boxes, but then got boxes for both wife and me from Dell for several years. When I decided to game a bit again last fall, I wanted a gaming notebook, so priced Dell XPS line (what Tiggy is suggesting). Got more computer for 1/3 the price from Toshiba. Almost a year old, and flawless performance.

Yoru toshiba is ugly as sin and weighs a ton too.

The Dell XPS notebooks are pretty nice imo.

For desktops, I'd definitely recommend building your own (or paying the local comp shop to assemble one for you). What I am running right now is ******* sweet and it makes no noise at all.

Originally Posted by Pennglock

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I feel like the "build your own PC with parts" business has devolved into a bit of a racket these days. How is the end-consumer going to source components for less money than giants like Dell and HP? The answer is he's not.

With the incentives big PC manufacturers are offering do to the economy, I doubt you'll build cheaper buying through Newegg or Tiger Direct.

The reason to build your own PC would be if you want pack it full of nerdy gear like double-video cards, 5 extra fans, 1000 watt power supply, and liquid cooling. Nevermind that this extra $1,000 worth of **** is only going to get you the smallest marginal bit of increased preformance. In the age of console-to-PC game ports, current games aren't even close to maxing out PC hardware that's over 1 year old.

You want a computer that just loads **** fast in Windows. Google a promotional code for Dell or HP and for less than $1,000 you ought to get:

-New intel i7 chip and Vista 64 or Windows 7
- 6MB of tri-channel ram.
-Big hard drive
-Good video card

That's what I did last december and this desktop is very easy on my nerves. I hate using my laptop because it is sloooooooow.

I agree with this. Dell has good pricing, and their computers aren't as bad as people say. They use commodity parts, so how could they be? People love to hate Dell for the same reason as people love to hate MS. Some people told me to avoid dell servers at all costs. Well, I bought a bunch of them to run our virtualization infrastructure and our SAN, and I haven't had any problems with them at all. They have been rock-solid.

Anyway, I build my own PCs because I value silence and I want to pack them full of nerdy ****.

Originally Posted by Teger

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seriously. buy a macbook pro, install windows on it and you're fine. I honestly don't think you'll be able to really tax it, it's simple to use, the customer service is decent, and if you know nothing about computers, why do you care if it's a mac? I don't know why you want to **** around with buying parts and building your own. even if someone here gives you a list and you pay someone else to assemble it, upkeep can be a total *****.
Macbook Pros are overpriced, too heavy, have ****** keyboards, and are Macs.

You don't need to build a computer. You have very basic requirements. Buy a Lenovo T400/T500 if you want a laptop. High quality without Mac faggotry. Buy a Lenovo D10/D20 if you want a desktop. I have 24GB of RAM in mine and a GTX 260. No noise, no heat, no crashes. It Just Works (tm) for everything. Use Lenovo CPP (www.lenovo.com/cpp) and 'familyandfriends' code for 28% discount or whatever it is this week.

Originally Posted by GQgeek

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Yoru toshiba is ugly as sin and weighs a ton too.

The Dell XPS notebooks are pretty nice imo.

For desktops, I'd definitely recommend building your own (or paying the local comp shop to assemble one for you). What I am running right now is ******* sweet and it makes no noise at all.

Originally Posted by GQgeek

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I agree with this. Dell has good pricing, and their computers aren't as bad as people say. They use commodity parts, so how could they be? People love to hate Dell for the same reason as people love to hate MS. Some people told me to avoid dell servers at all costs. Well, I bought a bunch of them to run our virtualization infrastructure and our SAN, and I haven't had any problems with them at all. They have been rock-solid.

Anyway, I build my own PCs because I value silence and I want to pack them full of nerdy ****.

I don't hate on Dell. I still have my last Dell notebook that I use for things (just not gaming). Dell makes a good product, and when I first started buying them, it was because I could not build a computer for the price they were willing to sell me a comparable box for. It seemed that things had changed last year, and they had lost ground as being kings of a price point, at least in notebooks. We just got my wife another Dell desktop, just as her home office machine, and also to run a couple terabyte external HDs through. It was a bargain at $400 (just CPU).

I guess you get the point by now but +1 on not building your own. I build my own systems but it's really not necessary. Plus, as was said, if you don't know what you're doing there's no point and you don't have a warranty. You'll need someone to fix it if something goes wrong in any case. The big plus to building your own is complete control over the components (for those who are heavy into game or have specific technical needs) and the ability to upgrade parts more easily.

I say buy a high end system from any manufacturer of your choosing and add a nice 3 year warranty to it so you're covered for whatever. Make sure you get in-home service. For myself, I go with the standard 1 year warranty on my laptops (unless I get more thrown in for for free via a deal/coupon) but you seem like you have the money to pay for it and the lack of patience to want stuff fixed a.s.a.p and with as little hassle as need be. Also, look into whatever extended warranty your CC may offer for any purchases. Many of them do; just make sure to read the specifics of this extension.

Also, FWIW, I've had good luck with the Dells (only laptops) I've ever owned.

Originally Posted by BubblyMasquerade

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norton sucks. got nod32.
+1 on both counts. I use Eset nod32 myself and I would recommend either this or Kaspersky for antivirus. Use this with an updated Windows System, a firewall (if you use a router, it most likely has one built in), Firefox with the Adblock Plus and maybe NoScript extensions and some common sense and you should be quite safe from 99% of what's out there on the web in terms of trojans, viruses and spyware/malware. Also, check this site for some info about the HOSTS file and how it can help to protect you - http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm

What Hell did you end up with?

Originally Posted by Rambo

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What Hell did you end up with?

some XPS thing that cost me like $2000.

I like avast for virus protection

Originally Posted by j

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Meh. I know how to build computers and I don't do it for people anymore. I have a place nearby where I know the service is good, I call them and spec it out, and they build the computers and warranty them for 1 year labor/3 yrs parts, and the custom build costs like $80 (ridiculously cheap for the level of service). That is what I would do if it were for anyone but me. For myself, I would build one myself (or buy a Mac Pro and run Windows/Linux on it, since you can't come near the power for $) but if you don't know how to work on it, get a warranty.

Huh? Macbook pro is the best power for $? Where did you get that idea from?

Originally Posted by Pennglock

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I feel like the "build your own PC with parts" business has devolved into a bit of a racket these days. How is the end-consumer going to source components for less money than giants like Dell and HP? The answer is he's not.

This is only somewhat true. Pre-builts tend to gouge the bejesus out of you on things like RAM and hard drive prices. 4GB of Corsair Dominator DDR2 for an upgrade price of $250, you can get the same off Newegg for $87. A 750GB 7200RPM 16MB cache hard drive upgrade comes in at $100, the same you can get on Newegg for $69. It's a little better with DDR3: 12GB of DDR3 1066 is $2100, 12GB of DDR3 1600 is $1198. Even video cards are marked up, which sort of surprised me. Upgrading to SLI GTX285 1gb is $750 ($850 or so counting the cost of the 9800GT 512), 2 GTX285s come in at $700 on NewEgg.

It's much, much cheaper to build it yourself. However, then you have to deal with the pain ********** that getting a DIY system to POST can be, especially if there's a DOA part or some weird RMA where everything is on individual warranties. The ability to call a company up and say "hey, its broken, fix it" can be worth the markup to some folks.

I can build you a real nasty machine for under $1K.

Originally Posted by SField

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some XPS thing that cost me like $2000.
The XPS lineup is generally geared towards gamers. Do you game?

Why build a machine anymore? Just get a Dell on Sale. They have good warranties. Upgrade RAM and the graphics card yourself.

I don't even bother anymore with building my own. I just buy what is prettiest.