Need help with Pc :)

[Tweak]

I have owned a few computers, both laptops and dektops in my life. I know a small bit about comps, enought to keep me afloat. Recently, we were in market for a new computer and contacted Dell about it. We went through all the BS of customizing a computer, and when we got our total price we decided to shop around a bit.

The point I am geting at is, we ended up buying a computer @ Wal-Mart for 200 bucks that seriously makes the brand new dell we got six months ago look like complete crap. Where are planning on buying your computer?

 

[Revo Rancher]

I already scratched the Dell idea. To proprietary. Hard to get service, quick.

I plan to use someting like WalMart, Circuit City, etc. I think I will go middle of the road and get an HP.

 

[mr_bob]

I have always had problems with HP i would stay away from HP all together


I've you know how to peice together a computer new egg is a good place to get parts cheap

ill be getting my next computer parts from there

motherboard
3 gig processor
1 gig ram

all for about 350 to 400

not too bad

 

[WoodiE]

Michael, thanks for the offer.

For the record, I am shopping for anew home PC so my fatal exception errors are about to disappear.

As to the laptop, my wife bought it for me last Christmas at Best Buy and got suckered for the service contract. Right now the RW CD/DVD is not formatting, so they just need to pop in a new one as it is removable. They want the whole thing to come into the shop before they will do anything. They want it for 2 weeks just for that. Ridiculous. (gotta erase some, errr, ahhh, "files", first)

Revo - Since you're looking for a new computer I'd suggest looking around for public computer shops. For one that keeps guys like me in business plus you'll find those guys are usually more willing to work with all your needs and will do just about anything to keep you happy. Going with a custom built computer also has many pluses and one of which you already mentioned about Dell's "proprietary" - a custom built computer would be anything BUT proprietary.

If you really want to get into the nitty gritty build it yourself - just an idea.

As for the laptop, I don't know for sure how much you paid for the service but I have an idea and with that I can assure you the CD-RW drive that will need to be replaced will just about pay for that service plan as any kind of CD-ROM drive is expensive for laptops. Though two weeks is a bit much, usually just need the laptop for 5mins to get all the serial numbers and model numbers then another 2mins when the drive comes in the mail.



Tweak - I won't arugue that Norton doesn't un-install easily, however if you do a little searching on Norton's website you'll find some really good un-install utilities and instructions if you really need them. Then again I've also used a great deal of software, utilitiy and non-utility based programs that don't un-install well. At any rate when it comes to Norton products, their anti-virus would be the ONLY program I'd recommend using - Anti-virus and nothing else.

You also made another good point - BACK UPS! I can't tell you how many computers I've worked on because the hard drive died and now I get to try to recover as much as possible because the customer failed to make any kind of backup. :\


mr_bob - NewEgg is great! I just built a computer last Thursday (AMD-64 3000+, 512MB RAM, 80GB HD, Sony DVD-RW DL, Case and so on for $480) Newegg had the parts to me within two days!




-Michael

 

[Revo Rancher]

Woodie, I am not sure by what you mean by "public computer shops" but I will presume you mean small, independent shops. I do like the idea of making my own PC. My screen is new (flat panel) and keyboards are a dime a dozen, so maybe I should check out the "egg" thing. Most expensive thing may end being buying an OS. I plan to use XP as my work computer (I work at home) uses this so at least I can be using the same OS and not have to learn anything new.

Michael (R squared)

 

[WoodiE]

Yes small computer shops, just look in the yellow pages under computers - also ask around and I'm sure someone could recommend a company in town.


-Michael

 

[Revo Rancher]

Woodie, is this your business? If it is do you ship? I may consider a custom.

 

[redhatman]

I got all our computers hooked up on a network, and I say. It makes things so much easier after I did it. I also added another router so all the wireless get great signals. So if any computer gets junked up and after weeks of trying different tools, I have to reformat all I do is backup the info onto one of the other networked computers. If you can't do that, burn multiple cd's and make sure they work before reformatting.

If anyone is interested, when january comes i can make custom computers to suit ur needs.

-Pat

 

[Plaidfish]

Revo, building it custom is definately worth it.....I use tiger direct for parts on my P3 too.......it's being put in my kids room now so she won't have to stop daddy to look up stuff for "homework"......my company got me a new PC for home but I won't put it on my network.....only VPN tunnels to the server at work......kind of sucks to not really have the screamer I want at home but I have an older laptop to surf w/.......woodie do you build custom PCs???

 

[WoodiE]

woodie do you build custom PCs???

I've been building custom PC's since I was about 14 years old... I'm 15 now!
















LoL - J/K, I'm older then that - but I have been building them since I was about 14.


-Michael

 

[Revo Rancher]

PM me if you think you might be able to help set me up, Michael.

-Michael (R Sq'd)

 

[rocknbil]

I couldn't agree more with Woodie on Norton. It worms it's way down into your system like a jealous stepmother and is impossible to uninstall and if is screws up - it takes your system with it. I bought a brand new IBM and it was frought with corrupted registry entries, all Symantec. A fresh install without Norton and this is the best comp I've owned so far.

AVG Personal Edition free.grisoft.com/doc/1

- System virus scan
- email virus scan
- Update and scan scheduling
- One daily auto-update (Pro version you can set DLs per day) WITHOUT having to pay for a subscription

FREE.

Came recommended by my previous employer's sysadmin, he'd been using it for 2 years, I've been using it for almost a year on this comp and it works perfectly and transparently.