Yep. Call Dell. They'll be able to build you one with all that stuff. The only thing that's a rip-off is if you go for the top-of-the-line processor. You don't need to pay $600 for a 3.0 gigahertz Pentium 4 when you can pay $250 for a 2.4 gigahertz processor. No popular program taxes even a 2 GHz CPU, so it's wasted money to be on the bleeding edge.
Excathedra - if you give me a budget number, I would be glad to put a system together for you from Dell with their online configurator. I could email it to you and then you could order it.
Do yo want one of the flat screens? They are more expensive and actually not as good quality as a nice high end monitor. Only advantage is how cool they look and how they take up a small space on your desk. If space is not a problem then save some money and get a regular CRT with aperture grill technology. Better quality.
They all come with DVD players and CD burner/players these days. You can even go a step further and get a DVD BURNER. But that is only if you forsee wanting to make COPIES of DVD's.
This will be the next headache for the movie industry because it makes digital quality copies, as good as the original!
Oh, and one other thing, get nice speakers with a sub. Dell's speakers usually suck but you could always get their cheapest ones and throw them away and go to Best Buy and get some decent ones. Unfortunately Dell doesn't let you order a computer without certain components like speakers or a monitor. That's where they make their money.
JR
jricheso@tampabay.rr.com
[This message was edited by igotout on April 03, 2003 at 23:19.]
It used to be that Dell computers were loaded with proprietary parts, which meant that Dell computers had to be shipped back to Dell Inc for servicing.
Now that's true of Gateway.
If you end up with a computer that doesn't need any servicing, then it doesn't matter, does it?
All the people I know with Dells are fairly happy with them.
The school uses Gateways, a lot of them, and for the most part the newer ones are pretty good.
At work my group uses IBM NetVista, and our problem rate is higher than average.
So either way you go - Dell or Gateway - you should be okay. Which one will save a little more money?
As far as a DVD burner - how often have you made copies of videotapes? If the answer is "never", then you probably wouldn't use a DVD burner either.
And if you figure out that you really COULD use one, somewhere down the line, you can always upgrade that part of your computer.
I've shopped around lately, in order to purchase for a couple of my employees and a neighbor. Dell is simply cheaper and more bang for the buck. Both are good but there is a reason Dell is huge and profitable and Gateway is struggling with losses.
Never lease a computer in this day and time unless you are heavily cash strapped. Heck, just buy one on payments or credit card if you have to. Leasing makes no sense except for maybe a laptop for a trip or something like that.
Steer clear of HP, Compaq. THey are cheap as hell but.... they are cheap as hell.
Alienware http://www.alienware.com/ can now be also purchased at Best Buy. Steer clear. Too expensive. You are paying for pretty colors and some nice speakers. Nice components but too expensive for the everyday user.
Though I personally will not buy a Dell again (I own 7 of them), I recommend them as the best for the everyday user.
Go to Dell.com begin your selection. The price will adjust as you piece together the components you want.
Come back here to this thread and I'll help you choose piece by piece.
No flopppy drives come with Dells anymore. They are the first. All others will follow within a few years. Floppy's are about dead. They take up space and resources. Same is true of Zip Drives.
Oh, and also... there us not really anything you can just take out of the box and plug in and go. I mean you can and it will work but unfortunately there is a lot of configuration to do with a new computer, especially regarding the operating system and some of the hardware as well.
A a good bit of the work is in getting rid of all the junk they give you preinstalled on your computer for advertising reasons and to get you to buy their product.
Sometimes when I get a new ready made computer from a Dell or equivalent I feel like just wiping the hard drive clean and starting with a fresh install. It's a little ridiculous sometimes.
Dell was ordered today. You are gonna love it. 512MB DDR SDRAM, 64 MB Nvidia graphics, 19" monitor, 2.53 Intel processor, 120GB hard drive, integrated NIC card for your cable modem, DVD player, CDRW, XP Home, Word, Excel, Outlook. These things are getting so cheap. What a bargain. I should receive it next week.
Gateway was more expensive than Dell for slighlty lesser components.
Gateway is going down! They better do something fast.
Dell dominates for the every day user. Yes, their older stuff was not so good. But they have improved greatly the last 2 years. Lousy tech support, but solid mainstream hardware.
I gaurantee those systems that are down all the time are NOT Pentium 4's.
For me, a power user, Dell, Gateway, HP, Compaq and any other other mainstream box is CRAP. Workable... but CRAP.
Pick all the highest components of that link incl. 1GB ram and triple 22" monitors with 7 speaker klipsch 500 watt system, 3.06 Intel processor, Raid configuration with three 180GB hard drives, Sound Blaster Audigy 2, and lots of pretty sound activated lights and fans and you will start to see what I mean.
Maybe I should ordered one of those for Ex's kid. He would thank me when he was older.
PS - Your Dell arrived today. I'll break it open this weekend.
[This message was edited by igotout on April 17, 2003 at 19:41.]
just do your thing with my crap, my dear guru, okay ?
my kid will thank you for THAT
he's already so happy about the monitor. he keeps asking me when is john getting the da da da and sending it to us da da da
there is some 3-D pinball game that his friend got when he bought his Dell. i imagine it was a store promotion or something. but that's the whole reason he wants a dell. do you know what game he's talking about ?
He and his Dad will like Half Life, QuakeIII, America's Army, Return to Castle Wolfenstein and ???
You'll never see your computer again once they discover those.
Say bye to it.
Your computer now boots up from dead off to being able to open programs in 35 seconds! It was fast to begin with but I made it faster by getting rid of some stuff that was in the way.
I don't know what you can do with that old Pentium I computer except give it to the nearest homeless shelter. Try getting more memory for it and maybe a new hard drive. But honestly, you might want to consider another new one some day. Just steal one from your workplace.
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Zixar
Yep. Call Dell. They'll be able to build you one with all that stuff. The only thing that's a rip-off is if you go for the top-of-the-line processor. You don't need to pay $600 for a 3.0 gigahertz Pentium 4 when you can pay $250 for a 2.4 gigahertz processor. No popular program taxes even a 2 GHz CPU, so it's wasted money to be on the bleeding edge.
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pawtucket
As Zix said call Dell.
2.5 ghz will do you fine
512 megs of RAM
120 gig hard drive (for your music)
CD Burner
if you are going to do gaming the nifty flat screen thingy might not be for you. They don't do real well with games.
Ask for a router, wireless 802.11g
with that you will need two wireless devices one for each computer
Then get a warranty that will get in house service for your computer.
Someone may want to add to this, but you can just read this over the phone and get what you need.
Another possibility is to find a local shop that will build it for you.
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igotout
Excathedra - if you give me a budget number, I would be glad to put a system together for you from Dell with their online configurator. I could email it to you and then you could order it.
Do yo want one of the flat screens? They are more expensive and actually not as good quality as a nice high end monitor. Only advantage is how cool they look and how they take up a small space on your desk. If space is not a problem then save some money and get a regular CRT with aperture grill technology. Better quality.
They all come with DVD players and CD burner/players these days. You can even go a step further and get a DVD BURNER. But that is only if you forsee wanting to make COPIES of DVD's.
This will be the next headache for the movie industry because it makes digital quality copies, as good as the original!
Oh, and one other thing, get nice speakers with a sub. Dell's speakers usually suck but you could always get their cheapest ones and throw them away and go to Best Buy and get some decent ones. Unfortunately Dell doesn't let you order a computer without certain components like speakers or a monitor. That's where they make their money.
JR
jricheso@tampabay.rr.com
[This message was edited by igotout on April 03, 2003 at 23:19.]
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excathedra
oh man you guys are the greatest !!!!!!!!! i mean it
john i gotta figure out how much i can spend (not sure about dvd burner)
i don't need flat screen based on what you and paw said
ps. one more thing, a 21 year old who is a computer guru type said the way dell builds theirs is not as good as gateway ? any opinion there ?
also you guys, do you lease or buy ?
THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU
and
thank you
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Steve!
These 2 companies have been up and down.
It used to be that Dell computers were loaded with proprietary parts, which meant that Dell computers had to be shipped back to Dell Inc for servicing.
Now that's true of Gateway.
If you end up with a computer that doesn't need any servicing, then it doesn't matter, does it?
All the people I know with Dells are fairly happy with them.
The school uses Gateways, a lot of them, and for the most part the newer ones are pretty good.
At work my group uses IBM NetVista, and our problem rate is higher than average.
So either way you go - Dell or Gateway - you should be okay. Which one will save a little more money?
As far as a DVD burner - how often have you made copies of videotapes? If the answer is "never", then you probably wouldn't use a DVD burner either.
And if you figure out that you really COULD use one, somewhere down the line, you can always upgrade that part of your computer.
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igotout
I've shopped around lately, in order to purchase for a couple of my employees and a neighbor. Dell is simply cheaper and more bang for the buck. Both are good but there is a reason Dell is huge and profitable and Gateway is struggling with losses.
Never lease a computer in this day and time unless you are heavily cash strapped. Heck, just buy one on payments or credit card if you have to. Leasing makes no sense except for maybe a laptop for a trip or something like that.
Steer clear of HP, Compaq. THey are cheap as hell but.... they are cheap as hell.
Alienware http://www.alienware.com/ can now be also purchased at Best Buy. Steer clear. Too expensive. You are paying for pretty colors and some nice speakers. Nice components but too expensive for the everyday user.
Though I personally will not buy a Dell again (I own 7 of them), I recommend them as the best for the everyday user.
Go to Dell.com begin your selection. The price will adjust as you piece together the components you want.
Come back here to this thread and I'll help you choose piece by piece.
No flopppy drives come with Dells anymore. They are the first. All others will follow within a few years. Floppy's are about dead. They take up space and resources. Same is true of Zip Drives.
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igotout
Oh, and also... there us not really anything you can just take out of the box and plug in and go. I mean you can and it will work but unfortunately there is a lot of configuration to do with a new computer, especially regarding the operating system and some of the hardware as well.
A a good bit of the work is in getting rid of all the junk they give you preinstalled on your computer for advertising reasons and to get you to buy their product.
Sometimes when I get a new ready made computer from a Dell or equivalent I feel like just wiping the hard drive clean and starting with a fresh install. It's a little ridiculous sometimes.
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excathedra
thanks john, you're really generous
i'll be in touch
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igotout
Dell was ordered today. You are gonna love it. 512MB DDR SDRAM, 64 MB Nvidia graphics, 19" monitor, 2.53 Intel processor, 120GB hard drive, integrated NIC card for your cable modem, DVD player, CDRW, XP Home, Word, Excel, Outlook. These things are getting so cheap. What a bargain. I should receive it next week.
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excathedra
damie i love you, you're my favorite
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excathedra
((((john)))) i got the monitor
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Zshot
Oh hell, I mean Dell
-->
I just opened this thread...
At where I work we have Dell computers, servers and routers. We have been useing Dell's stuff for years...
They are down more than they are up...
What can I say...
we got the "best" computers the lowest bidders could provide...
I just got myself a new gateway computer for home in Jan. it's great.
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igotout
Gateway was more expensive than Dell for slighlty lesser components.
Gateway is going down! They better do something fast.
Dell dominates for the every day user. Yes, their older stuff was not so good. But they have improved greatly the last 2 years. Lousy tech support, but solid mainstream hardware.
I gaurantee those systems that are down all the time are NOT Pentium 4's.
For me, a power user, Dell, Gateway, HP, Compaq and any other other mainstream box is CRAP. Workable... but CRAP.
This on the other hand......
$4,100 gamer supreme
Pick all the highest components of that link incl. 1GB ram and triple 22" monitors with 7 speaker klipsch 500 watt system, 3.06 Intel processor, Raid configuration with three 180GB hard drives, Sound Blaster Audigy 2, and lots of pretty sound activated lights and fans and you will start to see what I mean.
Maybe I should ordered one of those for Ex's kid. He would thank me when he was older.
PS - Your Dell arrived today. I'll break it open this weekend.
[This message was edited by igotout on April 17, 2003 at 19:41.]
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excathedra
i didn't click on your link when i saw the price
just do your thing with my crap, my dear guru, okay ?
my kid will thank you for THAT
he's already so happy about the monitor. he keeps asking me when is john getting the da da da and sending it to us da da da
there is some 3-D pinball game that his friend got when he bought his Dell. i imagine it was a store promotion or something. but that's the whole reason he wants a dell. do you know what game he's talking about ?
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igotout
He and his Dad will like Half Life, QuakeIII, America's Army, Return to Castle Wolfenstein and ???
You'll never see your computer again once they discover those.
Say bye to it.
Your computer now boots up from dead off to being able to open programs in 35 seconds! It was fast to begin with but I made it faster by getting rid of some stuff that was in the way.
Oh, and the 3d Pinball comes with XP.
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excathedra
my dear elder guru, you are sooooooo awesome
quakeIII, they'll think they died and went to heaven
3D pinball comes with it ? well then it was ALL worth it
**
i will be calling you to tell me how i can speed up a friggindinosaur a teeny little bit
is self-sacrifice the passion of all great women ?
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igotout
I don't know what you can do with that old Pentium I computer except give it to the nearest homeless shelter. Try getting more memory for it and maybe a new hard drive. But honestly, you might want to consider another new one some day. Just steal one from your workplace.
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excathedra
darn 2bad i don't work for arthur andersen anymore, they had an overabundance of computers, and i don't think they frowned on stealing
i only need the sheety one for attending church and shopping
yougotbrains, you're the greatest
[This message was edited by excathedra on April 23, 2003 at 9:31.]
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igotout
My home computer is NOT A DELL. (Sorry Excathedra. Yours will not quite be like this one)
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igotout
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igotout
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igotout
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excathedra
i think i saw all this once in roswell NM
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excathedra
dear yougotbrains&heart,
THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU
you are AWESOME
and so is the computer
all my love and thanks
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