Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion The Water Cooler new computer

The HTPC was not costly becasue we had several pieces of hardware for it. But the puter system we built for my main system about 15 months ago was close to $ 1,600 including 19" LCD Viewsonic and wireless keyboard mouse. Total price was with shipping and lowest prices at the time, and also spent extra on the case, wiring, and lighting of it, got carried away with it. lol

DIY:

(good to great pricing)

CPU - $200-500
Mobo - $100-200
RAM - $100-200
Video - $150-600
Hard Drive - $100-200
CD/DVD/R - $50
Case/PS - $50-?
XP Home/MCE - $100
Other Software - $?
Display (LCD) - $200-800

So the low end is about a grand for everything (low end = still a good PC) and the high end is whatever you can justify spending. Building your own PC is not too hard once you know what you are doing.

3K is a load for a computer nowadays. I like Dell, but that's because we use them here at work and have very few problems (I'm a sysadmin here). I have never been a fan of Gateway or HP. Alienware makes fine machines but they are geared for the gaming/fanboy/benchmark crowd and are more expensive than they need to be. I spec'd parts for a computer in the class you are talking about a couple of months ago and came it at $2K for a completely fully loaded machine with a Samsung 19" lcd monitor. I mean 250G HDD, 2GB low latency ram, whatever GeForce was new at the time, DL DVD burner, etc. A quick swipe at Dell.com shows you can get the same thing plus a warranty and 20" LCD and a dual tv tuner for about $2400 USD.

is it the XPS home and office gear ?? this was one of the considerations......

Yes it was an XPS in the Home/Home Office section. Solid computers. Dell (and I would guess all tier 1 manufacturers) spends about 6-7 months designing and integrating new platforms and they usually end up as rock-solid systems.

I personally build all of my own systems and I do occasionally suffer because of it. Things such as memory sticks that just will not work in a certain manufacturers motherboard. But the margins just keep getting tighter and tighter to the point where I don't really save a lot of money even when building a high-end machine. I certainly can't build a "granny" machine that's just used for internet, email, and word processing for $400 including an LCD like Dell, HP, and the like can. At least not with the parts I like to use.

Anyway, for $3K you should get a real performer with all the bells and whistles. You really could spend 2 bills and get a really good machine. Heck, if gaming with the newest titles like Doom3 etc. wasn't in the equation you could spend under 1K and be happy. Just depends what you want out of the system.

Having recently built a computer with Roger, and then another for a friend, I've found that if you're looking for an entry level system (which nowadays is really quite good, except for gaming) you can't do better than Dell pricewise. Once you start upgrading though, Dell starts getting pricey. More RAM? Ka-Ching! $$, nicer video card? KA-CHING! $$$ (And beside that, you only have about two or three choices of video cards to choose from!)

If you're looking for a really suped up computer (and with $3K, you certainly could) you really should look into getting a custom built system. www.monarchcomputer.com makes some good systems and doesn't charge an arm and a leg.

thanks for the link.....never heard about the monarch computers.....i will try and see what i can come up with

I'm just adding a recommendation to stay away from computers like Dell.

As a technical person at a school, lots of problems come my way from many people. Software problems are an easy fix, but Dell by far has had the most hardware problems. Just had to replace a dead power supply on a 1 year old computer yesterday, and had to tell someone their Dell laptop's hard drive died (many, many have) and they need to get a new one, etc.

In reply to:

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I'm just adding a recommendation to stay away from computers like Dell.

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Dan;
I always thought that Dell was about the best? What brands do you recommend, then?

Dell is about getting supplier prices as low as possible. Doesn't necessarily mean that they make shoddy computers, our PowerEdge 2600s seem pretty damn solid, but I wouldn't class them as the best. Biggest, perhaps...