New Computer under 1k
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From: TX
New Computer under 1k
I'm helping a friend look for a new computer and their budget is 1k. There are too many to choose from and could use some advice. Basic usage, internet, games, burn cd's etc. No printer needed. Whatcha think?
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From: South...
I'd go with Dell...but make sure you spend the extra $$ and get a 3 year warranty. At least I would. My uncle bought one, didn't get an extended warranty, and just as you'd suspect, shortly after the basic warranty expired, his motherboard went TU.
Scott
Scott
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From: Calgary Canada
Also, it's often cheaper to buy large hard drives and CD/DVD burners from someone other than Dell and install them yourself. Around here, you can get those for much less than dell deals them for. Just get whatever is included with the base system you like, and upgrade them later if you need. Besides, it's handy to have a couple of hard drives instead of one huge one, because they can fail, and if they do, you'll be glad not to loose all your data.
Are you looking to do this deal soon?
Are you looking to do this deal soon?
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From: Tampa Bay, FL USA
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From: Southern MD
Dell has refurbished units on their website. They are brought up to factory specs, and you can get good warranties on them. They are posted several times a day, so ya gotta watch the updates for what you want.
I bought a refurbished laptop 3 years ago, not one problem, and saved a bundle....
I bought a refurbished laptop 3 years ago, not one problem, and saved a bundle....
Elder User
Joined: Feb 2004
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Problem with the cheap dells, or any other, is thaey are just that, cheap. They have built in video cards, built in audio, shared memory with the video, system, and audio. Not ot mention usually the lower end centriono proccessor.
Give us a little more insight. What does he plan to do with it? Multimedia? Gaming? Editing video? All those make a HUGE difference in what to look for. Also, check out online pc mags like pcworld.com. Most have a top ten. Pcworld does a top ten "budget", "muscle" and sometimes mobile.
Anyway, let us know what he wants to use it for. Personally, I think building your own is the best, but alot of people don't want to tackle that.
Give us a little more insight. What does he plan to do with it? Multimedia? Gaming? Editing video? All those make a HUGE difference in what to look for. Also, check out online pc mags like pcworld.com. Most have a top ten. Pcworld does a top ten "budget", "muscle" and sometimes mobile.
Anyway, let us know what he wants to use it for. Personally, I think building your own is the best, but alot of people don't want to tackle that.
Posting Guru
Joined: Dec 2004
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From: Connecticut
for the price of buying a new computer you can get a barebone system from Pricewatch or Tigerdirect and install the hard drive or hard drives you want up the memory and and put the operating system you want to run add internal or on board graphics(Yuck). I personaly like ThermaltakeTsunami Aluminum case. Tiger directs got segate 250 gb hard drives for 80. For a grand you can build a kick butt system some of the companies offer build and pretesting for a fee.
Logistics Pro
Joined: Apr 2005
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From: Georgia
I have never been happy with any store bought computer. The last I heard emachines had the highest customer satisfaction. That is not to say emachines is good infact it is crappy. My advice build your own or have a tech savvy friend build it for you I am always happy with what I build.
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From: charlotte, nc
i built my computer for about 450$, with a AMD athlon 2200, 500watt power supply, about 140 Gigs of total HD space, 512 megs SDRAM, 128 Meg Nvidea card, philips sound card, sony burner and liteon reader, and some cool LED lights and fans and a 8.5x11 window.
this was about a year ago, so the numbers were a lot better sounding than they are now. i just know this one runs hella better than my buddys emachine and his dell, both of which are about equal in specs. i havnt ever been happy with a store bought, unless you put out the real dough and get a alien ware or something like that. try to find a computer store near you to get them to build you a custom PC, youll be a lot happier with it, or you can build it yourself like i did.
this was about a year ago, so the numbers were a lot better sounding than they are now. i just know this one runs hella better than my buddys emachine and his dell, both of which are about equal in specs. i havnt ever been happy with a store bought, unless you put out the real dough and get a alien ware or something like that. try to find a computer store near you to get them to build you a custom PC, youll be a lot happier with it, or you can build it yourself like i did.
Lead Driver
Joined: Feb 2003
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From: Oak Harbor, OH
The only problem with an off the shelf store machine is this, it usually has LESS ram than needed, and more programs running in the background than it can keep up with. I'm running a ~7 year old dell right now... It's a P3 450, thatI got for ~$50 out in MO.. It had no OS on it (D.O.D. wipe), and no ram in it. I brought it home, threw some ram in it and installed Linux. For less than 200 bux I replaced my webserver....
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Senior User
Joined: Apr 2003
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From: TX
Thanks for all the advice... I'll give dell a try and also see if I can find a computer guru here at work that could build one as well. I saw the emachines and they looked like good buys but was told they are poop. I did see the $299 Dell ad lastnight and will be checking that out as well. After personnel touches it may be in the right price slot.. Thanks again guys...