Helping a friend buy a pre-built computer

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sm8000

Gawd
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Aug 5, 2004
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So I am helping a friend at work invest in a new PC to replace her six-year old Dell. Her budget was $2,000, and together we managed to score the Dell 2405FPW for just under $900 after tax. Now she needs a nice new PC to go with it.

I'm suggesting the eMachines T6524 or T6412. They're well within her budget, quite capable of what she wants to do (mid- to heavy photo work mainly), and seem to offer much more value for the money.

Unfortunately I'm not the only one she's consulting on this (you know what they say about too many cooks). Her other friend dismissed (as she put it) the eMachines ideas without much to say. Then this morning she sends me this email:

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can you take a look at these? i think i'm consulting too many people on this computer purchase. the 2nd one is a bit of a stretch for me, but if i economize (ie eat at other people's houses) i think i can get by on whatever's left over after the purchase.
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And "these" were a couple of Dell systems at $1,000 and $1,500. We're trying to keep it below $1,000.

So what is the way to go with pre-built OEM systems? eMachines? Gateway? HP? Dell? IBM? Am I on the right track?

Oh yeah, her friend has told her to avoid graphics cards with shared memory. He probably meant integrated video, but in any case no HyperMemory or TurboCache cards for her. My idea is to make it easy, get one of the eMachines (pickup or delivery) from Best Buy or CompUSA (or delivered from eMachines itself), and in addition get an X700 or X600 AIW from one of those stores fairly cheaply within budget. No gaming here.
 
If your friend is using this computer for work I would probably go dell. They are cheap and will work fine for the office.

Its not like she plays games at the office right?
 
Any of those will be fine as long as she has a warranty to cover the parts (most likely the HD will be the first to go). If she's dealing with a lot of pictures, 512MB minimum is what I would recommended with a +80GB HD and AGP video card.
 
go dell, they are cheap and they sucks:D. just configure it to ur budget, get 1gb ram dell comes w/ 512(most of them) and uninstall the crappy dell software pre installed- that's wer dell sucks the software installed on their machines, slows ur system a whole lot.
 
eMachines/gateway have gotten a lot better in the last few years. I have no problem recomending them. The reviews that the others mentioned are good reads as well. One thing to consider in support. If something breaks do you want her bugging you or do you want the ability to take it somewhere and let them deal with it.
 
one place i work at they have had gateways since thebeginning of time. they are fine. no big flaws with them at all. they had 600mhz p3s when i started. they are upgrading to 3.2Ghz ones now. Their hardware rarely commits suicide.

another place i know of used to get HPs. the vl420 was the last model they got. A psu blows about once a week. All of the dells they have been getting are blowing capacitors. All of the older last style optiplex machines do it. the newer style ones haven't been around long enough to make a call on their quality.

So, i would recommend a Gateway long before i recommend a Dell or HP or compaq or.....

Hey if you are trying to help her, help her build her own. If she isn't listening, don't help at all....
 
Explain to her that unless she does any type of 3D gaming that she'll never use more memory that what's included on a card with HyperMemory or TurboCache (16 or 32MB).

I HIGHLY recommend PC Club as an inexpensive OEM that builds quality PCs without bloatware or the need to immediately reformat.
 
3) Furthermore, people coming into this forum asking advice on prebuilt systems, either for themselves or for their family, typically do not appreciate a response of 'build your own'. That is not what this forum is for. If someone wanted to know your opinion as to whether or not they should build their own, then that response would be appropriate. There are perfectly legitimate reasons for people wanting to buy or recommend a prebuilt system, so please don't insult their intelligence by suggesting something that doesn't address the original question.
 
The Dell "home" support is bad. I do not recommend Dell systems from their "home" section at all. Their small business support is great.

Like others have said, check out some of the other companies which offer AMD based processors, such as monarch computer, HP, compaq.

2D graphic work does not require a high end graphic card. It instead requires a lot of memory and a fast hard drive. Those are the important things, oh... and fast CPU. I would say a minimum of 1gb of ram. Plus a quality monitor with good color reporduction.... but seeing as how she just plooped down 1000$ on a monitor, I'll assume that fits her needs.

for around 1300$us you can get a very good dual core amd64 processor, 1gb ram, 74gb raptor drive, winxp, good case, good power supply, good motherboard, warranty, etc. I would take that over the 1500$ dell anyday.

~Hope this helps, and your friend is lucky to have someone like you helping her out.
 
I'll probably get sent out on a rail for this ....but try HP.
I bought one for my son who does alot of Photoshop and cad stuff
It's doin ok
Get at least 1 gig ram and an AGP or better slot so that you can add a better graphics card
 
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