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Hi, ok right now i have a Dell p4, 384 megs of ram xp pro fully patched. anyway it was made in about 2001 but my harddrive is dying i have memory issues and some other prbblems... so i have decided it would be more cost effective for me to get a new pc than fix all of it. I have a perfectly good LCD monitor but i need suggestions on a new pc? Im not a HUGE pc gamer but i game here and there.... preferrably one under 650 dollars.. any suggestions? thanx!
Check on ebay :killcompu
If you are on a budget...you can try and purchase a used machine...
I have been replacing some very old machines with used PIIIs and w2000 oem.
I pick them up for about 200 cdn
I have seen Dell offering some pretty good deals starting at 400 or so cdn....Dimenson 2400 celeron or the 3000 P4 (500 cdn). although you may want to update the ram to 512 for XP.
Go to a couple of places and get quotes...
Post back with the specs and we may be able to help you pick
(I just love spending other peoples money :D )
MLF
I like Dells, they are so easy to service. Just avoid gateway like the plague. An evil, conspiring, unholy plague.
I appreciate your help, I have a dell now and I like it besides the fact thats its falling apart lol.. but their customer service sucks! so i hope i dont have any problems with the new one.
Ummm you might want to stay away from dell. I am a repair tech at a national chain of stores and statisicaly speaking about 65% of the machines we service are dells. Of all of the major brands i see HP's the least.
Im a techie at international consulting and service company, contracted by dell and gateway for outsourcing. All my service calls are between Eastern Nebraska and Central Iowa. Dells are pretty good except when they ship with the maxtor drives (I find that the 80GB models fail the most). If you think Dell CS sucks, give gateway a try.... I had to have them ship 4 parts (and 2 weeks) before they finally shipped what I originally asked for (MoBo). Dell usually DHL overnights while gateway is UPS ground and sometimes FedEx Air. Although it is true that I am servicing Dells 60-70 percent of the time, the rest are gateways, and it can take 3 days to 3 weeks while dell takes 1-2 days. With Dell, once something breaks, they get on it. Hell, I've had to do a 200+ Data migration/MoBo swap site on a preventive maitenence. The drives and MoBos were't even failing yet. 200+ computers on preventive maitenence. THAT is what I call customer service.
True story: EU calls gateway saying that system will not boot up. GW sends screen. I replace screen. Doesn't boot. Call GW and tell them that the comp wont even POST. They send CPU. I replace CPU. Doesn't boot. They send memory. I replace memory. Doesn't boot. I finally call CS and tell them that I am fed up with it and that they need to send a return box, I will HDD migrate. Only after this do they send MoBo (which I originally asked for). I replace it and call GW CS to confirm. Come to find out that CSRs (Cutomer Service Representatives) aren't even supposed to field service the particular model.... After I replace MoBo.... They want to send a return box AFTER all that.
Whatever you do, man I beg you, stay away from gateway. For your own sake. (hell, if you live in the midwest, Im probably the poor bastard that has to come to your office/home and replace the crap)
well this brings up a good point, i know Dell is a major player in the computer industry but if i didnt want a Dell what would be the next best choice?
My next choce would be a white box.....built to my specs...from my local computer shop.
I would qote the Dell I want...and walk into the store with it in my hand..
They will try and match it..usually.
All depends on what you use the machine for.....???
some gaming??
I got a white box..cheaper than dell...from my local guys.
P4
1gig RAM
80gig hd
128 video card
XP pro
works for me...........and cheaper than any xppro system I could price from dell.
the processor, RAM..and video card....are the things I wolud compare..oh yeah and XP pro..is about 200 cdn more than xp home.
If yo do not require logon\access to a ms domain.......you can skip the pro version....unless there are other features of pro you may require.
celeron or... p4........or amd
depends on the apps\games you run and thier requirements
Basic system ........celeron,xphome, 512 ram, 64mb video card....lan,wan,usb and cdrw are pretty standard now with any system.
Thing to do..is write down a what you want\need list...then go from there
MLF
Buying a laptop at the local Rental shop - it's an older Inspiron, but the price was right. After I pay for a month or two to build credit I'll pay it off. Might be a viable option for those of you who can't do a lump sum for a new machine. This particular place also has desktop systems - 2.6 and 3 gig machines.