Should I get a Dell or a Gateway?

[zmoz]

[ QUOTE ]
Big Tex said:
I've had bad luck with Gateway customer service. If I was buying another computer, it would be a Dell.

[/ QUOTE ]

You don't know what those @$$holes put me through trying to buy a laptop. I hate them so much I still use their logo for target practice...and every sunday when I see their ad in the paper I tear it up. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/mad.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/mad.gif

 

[BentHeadTX]

I just build my own,
My latest box is the nVidia nForce2 Ultra 400 chipset and it is a great motherboard! My old Athlon 950 is usually running at 1GHz with a 133MHz bus speed, the BIOS lets me pick what I want for CPU speed (overclocking) Beat the hell out of it at 1125MHz for entertainment but it is back to 1GHz. Barton 2500's are $90 so I will get off my butt eventually.
Took one of the new Dells apart at work, interesting case with the typical Chinese cheeze mobo and that was it. The video is terrible when attempting to bring a game up on it. They are OK if performance is not in the equation. If you want speed and high quality parts, you will pay for it! Check out Alienware for the screamers. I don't get the point of a 2.53GHz CPU with intergrated video, 256MB of RAM and a slow hard drive.
Now to get one of those Barton Athlons ($90) and tweak it a bit... add a Radeon 9600 video card and get that Antec 430w TruPower to give it some juice.
Dells are fine if you do basically what people do with them at offices...if you want screamers, that would be P4's rolling at 4GHz and water cooling.
And you thought flashlights were bad? If you value your wallet, don't visit www.hardocp.com... you will be sorry!

 

[star882]

"The most important (and expensive) parts in your computer (save for a DVD-writer) are the CPU, motherboard and hard drive."
You forgot one part: the PSU.

 

[webley445]

Well I did not anticipate such responces.
First off, I do not need a super machine, don't play games on the pc. Will be burning cd's, surfing, digital pics, etc., typical home stuff. I think I'll go with a Dell. I think for my purposes a factory built will do fine as opposed to the custom build. Someone told me that Dells can be upgraded but you cannot with Gateways as their components are proprietary [?]
As long as I can keep on doing what I do on the pc but faster with more memory and storage I'll be happy.
Thanks for all the advice.

 

[chamenos]

in my experience both dells and gateways are upgradable...i've upgraded some for a couple of friends. it really depends which components or specific model they're referring to as non-upgradable. in dells i've changed processors and upgraded ram, and i've added extra hard drives to gateways.

webley445: i'll suggest a self-assembled computer but for your purposes i think a dell would do fine too, if you can fine one at a good price /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

 

[richpalm]

Neither. I had my system built by a local shop which cost me *less* than any store-bought system. Intel motherboard and 2.4 GHZ P-IV, Western Digital 80 gig HD, CD-RW, 1 gig RAM, optical mouse. ~1200$ with everything except monitor. (Already have a Sony) Couldn't be happier! Most stable thing I've ever had.

Rich