25 {{ upvoteCount | shortNum }}
25 {{ upvoteCount | shortNum }}

Desktop PC Recommendations Needed

by Zeus66
20 replies
This may well belong in another part of the forum, and if so I apologize in advance. But my question involves getting a new desktop PC for business primarily, so I figure it's relevant here. Eh, whatever. Sue me.

I got a habit ingrained in me growing up from my old man - never buy new cars unless you can pay for them outright. I think it took too well, though, because I tend to follow that habit with just about everything. My current car is a Chevy that's over 10 years old. My current computer is a Sony that's 5 years old now.

Anyway, I've put it off long enough and I'm gonna bite the dang bullet and get a new computer. I'm not happy about it, but I guess I'm less happy about the prospect of nursing this one along another few months. It's just too slow.

So I need recommendations. Here are the rules before you chime in:

1. Must be a desktop PC
2. Must not exceed $700 (I don't need a monitor or any other hardware)
3. Must have an advanced video card, etc. so I can play the latest cool games when I'm not making money with it

That's it. Let's see what you guys can come up with. I'll possibly reward the "winner" who recommends the one I end up buying. Who knows - maybe a $25 beer or something. You just never really know with me. Could be $25 in your Paypal... could be a flaming bag of dog turds on your front porch. I like to keep 'em guessing.

Thanks,
John
#desktop #needed #recommendations
  • Profile picture of the author Goatboy
    I usually hit Newegg or Tiger. If you're handy they often have kits and if you prefer something prebuilt they carry those too. Prices are about as good as I've found anywhere.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1813389].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author businessmatt
    Here's two options that you may like:
    Option 1: If you want to save a buck or two, and still get some good performance, you can probably just buy some parts and reuse a lot of your old stuff - you can likely keep your hard drive, any other cd/dvd type drives, keyboard/mouse, all that type of stuff. You'll probably need to buy a case, motherboard, memory, cpu, graphics card and operating system. If you go on Newegg.com, or other similar sites, you should be able to get some good stuff and stay within your budget. That's if you're comfortable building your own that is.

    Option 2: I'm kind of partial to Dells for ready made systems. I don't own any myself, but have used them plenty, and they make a good, solid system for a decent price. Where I use to work (a big office building) we got hundreds of new Dell systems every year, and they had very minimal problems.

    Where they get you is on the upgrades, so make sure you pick a base system that is close to what you want (I'd say Studio or maybe Studio XPS would work well for you) and again, try to reuse components where you can. No need to spend $100 for a DVD burner upgrade if you already have one that works.

    Good luck finding your PC

    Matt
    Signature

    When life gives you lemons, at least you don't get scurvy.

    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1813413].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author globalpro
    John,

    I would also recommend Tiger Direct. They have some good prices for some powerful PCs and if you are handy, you can get a kit for about half the price.

    Have bought several from them and have always been happy with the results. Excellent customer service too.

    If you get on their mailing list, they send out special sales on a regular basis. Have some money this way.

    Thanks,

    John
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1813485].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author Zeus66
    What do you guys think about this Gateway PC? It got some good reviews and seems pretty inexpensive for some good features.

    Gateway DX4822-01 Desktop PC - Pentium Dual Core E5300 2.6 GHz, 6GB DDR2, 1TB HDD, SuperMulti DVD-RW, Windows 7 Premium 64-bit at TigerDirect.com
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1813564].message }}
    • Profile picture of the author businessmatt
      That machine looks pretty decent for a good price. Just buy yourself a video card and it should work fine.

      Originally Posted by Zeus66 View Post

      What do you guys think about this Gateway PC? It got some good reviews and seems pretty inexpensive for some good features.

      Gateway DX4822-01 Desktop PC - Pentium Dual Core E5300 2.6 GHz, 6GB DDR2, 1TB HDD, SuperMulti DVD-RW, Windows 7 Premium 64-bit at TigerDirect.com
      Signature

      When life gives you lemons, at least you don't get scurvy.

      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1813649].message }}
    • Profile picture of the author sparky.ebiz
      I had picked out a Gateway that I fell in love with and the price was fantastic. I decided to call Dell and see if they could beat the price with all the same features. (I was gonna rub it in real good if they couldn't do anything!) But they did!!! Here's how ->
      The Dell sales guy said they would beat it by $100 by offering the same computer but with free shipping. He had me go back to Gateway and sure enough their shipping (at the time) was $100. So I bought the Dell.

      Sparky
      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1813706].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author Loren Woirhaye
    The state of the art is quad-core machines. I don't expect
    you play the latest games though, and games exploit the
    latest hardware developments first.

    Almost everything comes duo-core these days. Quad-core
    is overkill unless you play serious games, render lots of
    video, or want to run a digital audio workstation on the
    machine.

    I have a dual processor machine with 4GB - it runs digital
    audio recording fine. It renders video pretty fast too.
    It has Xeon processors, which are more "commercial"
    graded processors buried in the case under huge aluminum
    heat sinks.

    People are going for 6 and 8 GB ram these days, even if
    they don't need it. Quadcore machines are pretty spendy.
    I don't know if you can get one new on your budget,
    but you'll have your choice of a lot of fast duo-core
    machines.
    Signature
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1813569].message }}
    • Profile picture of the author Killer Joe
      John,

      That PC you have the link to should be good for everything but heavy video work.

      The reason is the integrated graphics.

      However, the price is cheap enough you could upgrade with a plug-in video card for less than a hundert.

      I'm on TDs list and I actually looked at that PC the other day. The only thing that stopped me buying it was the integrated graphics.

      But the price rocks.

      KJ
      Signature
      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1813604].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author Floyd Fisher
    Originally Posted by Zeus66 View Post

    This may well belong in another part of the forum, and if so I apologize in advance. But my question involves getting a new desktop PC for business primarily, so I figure it's relevant here. Eh, whatever. Sue me.

    I got a habit ingrained in me growing up from my old man - never buy new cars unless you can pay for them outright. I think it took too well, though, because I tend to follow that habit with just about everything. My current car is a Chevy that's over 10 years old. My current computer is a Sony that's 5 years old now.

    Anyway, I've put it off long enough and I'm gonna bite the dang bullet and get a new computer. I'm not happy about it, but I guess I'm less happy about the prospect of nursing this one along another few months. It's just too slow.

    So I need recommendations. Here are the rules before you chime in:

    1. Must be a desktop PC
    2. Must not exceed $700 (I don't need a monitor or any other hardware)
    3. Must have an advanced video card, etc. so I can play the latest cool games when I'm not making money with it

    That's it. Let's see what you guys can come up with. I'll possibly reward the "winner" who recommends the one I end up buying. Who knows - maybe a $25 beer or something. You just never really know with me. Could be $25 in your Paypal... could be a flaming bag of dog turds on your front porch. I like to keep 'em guessing.

    Thanks,
    John
    No complete box sold retail will ever have that combination.

    You are better off just upgrading the motherboard and video card yourself, and keeping the rest of the old system in there.

    For $700 you can buy a top of the line moboard, processor, and video card. The rest is sweat labor replacing it all.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1813617].message }}
    • Profile picture of the author Killer Joe
      Originally Posted by Floyd Fisher View Post

      For $700 you can buy a top of the line moboard, processor, and video card. The rest is sweat labor replacing it all.
      If you do this you may need to upgrade the power supply, as well.

      If your old one has a 250 watt, you may want to get a 350-400 watt unit.

      Performance equals power...

      KJ
      Signature
      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1813634].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author Zeus66
    Awesome! Thank you so much fellas.

    John
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1813667].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author PCRoger
    Gateway sucks.

    For $700 you will have to be content with only 1 year warranty, most likely.

    4GB RAM minimum

    Windows 7

    A decent video card will also make it hard to stay under $700

    I buy Dell with 3 year warranty (extendable) for my business clients. Usually dimension, Optiplex Ok.

    To save money you will have to go with AMD instead of Intel.

    Regards,
    PCRoger.
    Signature
    Track your affiliate sales back to the ARTICLE or WEBSITE that generated the sale. CBSaleTracker

    I was making money in days with the 4 Day Money Making Blueprint
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1813718].message }}
    • Profile picture of the author TelegramSam
      Hey John,

      Why not just buy 2 or 3 that you like the look of.

      You can afford it

      One of my cars is almost 10 years old and I haven't bothered to change it as it is a real workhorse and we can make such a mess in it with kids and everything else that I really don't mind it being so old...

      Sam
      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1813745].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author Mark Hess
    I just picked up one of these: HP Pavilion p6210f Desktop - NY544AA#ABA - 451008 | pcRUSH.com

    HP Pavilion p6210f Desktop

    Extremely happy with it (so far)...
    Signature
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1813741].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author Lisa Gergets
    Jesus christ dude...don't buy a READY-MADE computer. Ya dork. Go to a local computer repair shop and have them make you one. For $700 you can get a whole lotta computer...
    Signature
    Sign up to be notified when Success on Demand goes live, and receive a FREE mindmap that you can follow to create and launch your OWN IM PRODUCTS!
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1813763].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author Goatboy
    I would add that if you have a couple of weeks or more before making the purchase, both Newegg and Tiger offer daily sales and will email you the sales data. I get stuff from both of them and there are some good deals that come around every now and again.
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1813766].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author Dennis Gaskill
    John, I had a Gateway, it was a great computer. I never had a problem with it. That was years ago though. I have a Dell right now. It's been a good computer too, although I think think either the hard drive or a fan is going out. Be careful buying a Dell online. That's how I got this one. They charged me five times for one computer and only refunded me for one. I had to file fraud charges with my bank to get my money back. As a result, I wouldn't trust that company as far as I could spit.
    Signature

    Just when you think you've got it all figured out, someone changes the rules.

    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1813807].message }}
    • Profile picture of the author bgmacaw
      I bought a Lenovo desktop about a year ago from Tiger Direct. The hard drive died after a few weeks but Lenovo sent out a tech to fix it pretty quick. It was my son's school/game PC so no real data was lost but I was kind of surprised it bit the dust so fast. At least their support was efficient.

      I'm leaning toward going with a HP again when I buy a little later this year. My desktop is about to hit the 3 year point and my wife has commandeered my new laptop (also HP). I'm wanting a quad-core with 6-8GB RAM, 1TB HD and a decent video card.
      Signature
      Product Reviews | Earn Online Cash | Free HTML Templates
      Free WordPress Themes: Boring Memo | Dateless Mini-Site | Info Magazine | 100 Twenty-Ten Niche Headers
      Discount Templates, Graphics and Scripts: Templates for Website
      {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1813867].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author Bossman34
    I would definitely build your own! It's pretty straight forward and you can get much more for your money.

    I have built my last two computers and I'll never buy a Dell/HP/Gateway again.

    I have put together a list of components at Newegg that comes in at just under $700. It will handle pretty much anything you throw at it...even the latest games. It's a darn nice desktop for $700...I challenge you to find a better deal at this price!

    I'm not sure how to link to that list here so I'll email it to you so you can check it out.

    Adam
    {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1813830].message }}

Trending Topics