Need a new computer, any recommendations?

[Elements]

eh I'm pretty pleased with my Alienware Laptop, though for a desktop I would probably custom build a workstation with the right parts for me.

Your budget and your needs are the correlated limits. My friend is quite pleased with his asus laptop.

 

[Jomarcenter]

You know I been using Dell XPS M1330 laptop for over 5-7 years and I have no trouble at all. beside replacing the hard drive (but it was cause by my side not dell side and the hard drive is old now). Unless if dell gave me a better quality than other batch during manufacture of laptop. and it works great even in graphic intensity program/games. So what the problem with it?

I think it depend on the model and it's manufacturing date or I'm just lucky.

 

[Sharm]

Asus' customer service is no longer that good.  I had a failed hard drive that corrupted my windows beyond repair.  I had to buy a disk from them that only worked on this specific computer to try and put windows back on, found out that it was the hard drive, then send the laptop to them to get fixed on my dime.  It took over two weeks to get back to me and they didn't even install windows on my new hard drive and it came back with brand new problems that I've just decided to live with.  My brother got his Asus (different model) a few months after me and is just now having the same exact problem.  His laptop's been with Asus for about 3 weeks now with no word about what's going on.  It's a real shame too, Asus was supposed to be the more expensive but more reliable brand.

 

[Sindaine]

Hi there,

I am a computer technician for a fairly reputable company. I can confirm that you should not pick based on manufacturer name. ALL systems have issues, all brands have issues. I service Sony, Dell, Hp, Compaq, Samsung, Asus, Acer, Gateway, E-machine and MSI products. I see literally each brand come back. There really is no "better" brand based on sales figures. Also, support from manufactures is generally terrible, and sometimes, even hard to get at all. One thing to remember too, is a lot of the parts in any computer are not made by the same brand. Take Dell or Hp for example. They use Toshiba, Hitachi or Samsung hard drives typically. So when the hard drive fails, really, it's Toshiba, Hitachi or Samsung's fault, not Dell or HP's necessarily. And when people say "buy a mac, it'll last forever", tell them when it fails they have to buy you a new one. Yesterday I had an IMac come in for service, the hard drive was dead. Guess what I find when I open it up: A Toshiba hard drive, no different then other PC manufacturers. Apple may control their products better, but the parts are still sourced from Foxcon or a similar company the same as PC parts are.

If you can custom build your PC you'll be a lot better off. The parts are still mass produced, but on a much smaller scale then a "branded" PC would be. Also, then you can get exactly what you want, and not settle for "I want this feature, but this feature also comes with it...." that branded PC's have.

Hope it helps,

Sindaine

 

[Jomarcenter]

Hi there,

I am a computer technician for a fairly reputable company. I can confirm that you should not pick based on manufacturer name. ALL systems have issues, all brands have issues. I service Sony, Dell, Hp, Compaq, Samsung, Asus, Acer, Gateway, E-machine and MSI products. I see literally each brand come back. There really is no "better" brand based on sales figures. Also, support from manufactures is generally terrible, and sometimes, even hard to get at all. One thing to remember too, is a lot of the parts in any computer are not made by the same brand. Take Dell or Hp for example. They use Toshiba, Hitachi or Samsung hard drives typically. So when the hard drive fails, really, it's Toshiba, Hitachi or Samsung's fault, not Dell or HP's necessarily. And when people say "buy a mac, it'll last forever", tell them when it fails they have to buy you a new one. Yesterday I had an IMac come in for service, the hard drive was dead. Guess what I find when I open it up: A Toshiba hard drive, no different then other PC manufacturers. Apple may control their products better, but the parts are still sourced from Foxcon or a similar company the same as PC parts are.

If you can custom build your PC you'll be a lot better off. The parts are still mass produced, but on a much smaller scale then a "branded" PC would be. Also, then you can get exactly what you want, and not settle for "I want this feature, but this feature also comes with it...." that branded PC's have.

Hope it helps,

Sindaine

Totally boring and unnecessary comment: Well this doesn't violate the TOS for advertisement.

Normal comment: he got a point everything isn't perfect, even manufacture make mistakes sometime since any company need to relay company that also relay to other company for parts (unless if a company manufacture everything). So it could be anyone fault at this point.

like the last post some It was running great without problem, But for other on the other end complain that it got problems.

So it just a chance that you may get a high-end quality computer or a totally broken PC.

Tipsh yeah sometime you have to not trust someone with a brand like some user who also try to make you think it a bad brand.

and remember Everybody make mistake.

 

[Touchfuzzy]

Idk, I've had two problems with Asus products, and both times they came through really quickly with fixing it (and I own a good many Asus products now). I've had two dells total, both were awful, and Dell customer support was abysmal.

Asus also tends to price in a better range than a lot of companies for the specs.

And saying there is no difference because they all source their parts from the same companies is inaccurate. While yes, all the components are sourced from the same companies (generally foxconn, because they have a hand in everything), the overall design is done by the company and heating problems are almost always design issues. Either bad airflow or just overpowered components with insufficient fans. This usually isn't a BRAND issue though, but something you should check reviews of individual laptops with. And heating issues are the things you want to look out for anyway, because those don't get solved by just replacing the part that broke. They are going to be recurring issues as the heat causes different parts of your computers to fail.

Seriously, I'm not joking about the Dell laptop I had being designed so bad there was a class action suit against Dell because they caught fire.

 

[Elements]

I find it amusing that for every friend I have who claims Dell went to their homes directly and fixed their problems, I meet another person who claims it was terrible.

The strange scale of universal balance!

 

[byrdbones]

My first personal computer I had was a dell like...13 years ago...(wow) I loved it, for what is was at the time. Don't get me wrong, it completely sucked. But it worked and let me play a few games and screw around with stuff. However pre-mades are even worse now I feel. Crazy amounts of bloatware, poor specs to price ratio. I highly recommend building or finding someone who can at least help you build one if you're really nervous, I know I was when I built my first but it turned out to be a lot easier than I thought and I didn't have YouTube to help! Seriously, just YouTube how-to's, do some light reading about parts, etc. Lastly before you pull the trigger you can post your idea for a build here or on TomsHardware (they're great help for PC builds). I use Newegg for everything PC related, though TigerDirect is good too. Hope this helps!