how do the brands stack up?

Mellon Head said:

Lordbob75 said:

Don't buy a pre-built desktop, period.

Winner for best comment in thread.

Thanks.

~Lordbob

monster528 said:

yea i do agree with that, building your own is the best way to go, theres no doubt about that, but i was still wondering how you guys thought they stack up, just for general knowledge.

just out of curiosity where do you build ur own? what site do you use to buy the parts? or do you scout around all different sites to find what your looking for for the price you want

I buy mine off NewEgg or my local Fry's Electronics (depending on price).

~Lordbob

Lordbob75 said:

In my experience...
Don't buy a pre-built desktop, period.
I have worked with ones from Dell, Compaq, HP, etc and the components inside are the cheapest money can buy, and the cooling is non-existent. They are simply VERY low quality.
Build your own desktop...

I guess that would depend upon what you buy. On the Dell's that i purchased, the CPU's were Intel, the hard drives were Seagates, the optical drives were Lite-on's, the video cards were Nvidia or ATI chipset controlled and the sound cards were genuine sound blaster's. <-- Not all that different from what I would put together if I built myself. As far as cooling goes....keep in mind we are technical fanatics who believe that we need tons and tons of cooling and we often push our PC's to the limits. These small form factor Dells for instance, get used almost 24x7 in business environments and run for years and rarely fail due to a heat issue. I think the cooling is more than sufficient for a stock box that you won't overclock. Plus, these companies offer warranties...and I doubt they would short the system on proper cooling and then end up paying tons in warranty repair work.

monster528 said:

just out of curiosity where do you build ur own? what site do you use to buy the parts? or do you scout around all different sites to find what your looking for for the price you want

For me, it's usually 1 site and 1 site only if I am buying multiple parts. For me, that site is Newegg and buy buying all from 1 place...I get it all at the same time and often save on shipping. If it's a 1 off part, I might order from someplace other than NewEgg if they have a much better price.

Petey7 said:

I'd never buy a HP. My dad actually works at a HP production plant. All the servers are IBM, as are many of the older computers. Any new ones are lenova (they bought part of IBM), so that should tell what HP thinks of their own computers.

Ummm....I would disagree about HP servers. The ProLiant line that they got from Compaq during the merger are very solid and highly reputable servers. No matter what data center I have been in has had quite a number of HP DL360, DL380, etc in the racks. I've been using and purchasing HP servers for 10+ years and they are great. In fact, it's only recent that I actually took ownership of 4 Dell R710 servers and have found them fantastic. Great price, great performance, good build quality and very low heat output...which in a fully populated rack is a big deal. And working with Dell support on servers has been very easy and they are quick to replace part and make sure that I am satisfied....much more willing to do what I want right up from than HP.

NoN said:

The second was an HP that had last three years, the battery is weak but still hold 50 minutes powered.

3+ years on the same battery is quite good. These are really rated for about 1 year and begin to dwindle quite a bit between 1 year and 2 year. i've always recommended replacing laptop batteries every 2 years if you travel and rely on portability.

pparks1 said:

Lordbob75 said:

In my experience...
Don't buy a pre-built desktop, period.
I have worked with ones from Dell, Compaq, HP, etc and the components inside are the cheapest money can buy, and the cooling is non-existent. They are simply VERY low quality.
Build your own desktop...

I guess that would depend upon what you buy. On the Dell's that i purchased, the CPU's were Intel, the hard drives were Seagates, the optical drives were Lite-on's, the video cards were Nvidia or ATI chipset controlled and the sound cards were genuine sound blaster's. <-- Not all that different from what I would put together if I built myself. As far as cooling goes....keep in mind we are technical fanatics who believe that we need tons and tons of cooling and we often push our PC's to the limits. These small form factor Dells for instance, get used almost 24x7 in business environments and run for years and rarely fail due to a heat issue. I think the cooling is more than sufficient for a stock box that you won't overclock. Plus, these companies offer warranties...and I doubt they would short the system on proper cooling and then end up paying tons in warranty repair work.

Perhaps, but I would feel more comfortable if they put at LEAST 1 fan in for exhaust or something.

Their higher end PCs (such as gaming ones) tend to be better, but their bargain base models really suck.

~Lordbob

Lordbob75 said:

Perhaps, but I would feel more comfortable if they put at LEAST 1 fan in for exhaust or something.

Their higher end PCs (such as gaming ones) tend to be better, but their bargain base models really suck.

~Lordbob

Again, that's your desire to have extra cooling. And apparently it's more cooling than in really needed. If the box actually needed extra cooling, they would put it in rather than paying for tons of warranty work. My Dell's that I've owned (Dimension 4550) and a (Dimension 8400) never have experienced any heat related issues....even with playing tons of games on the 8400.

Have you ever purchased any of these machines and experienced actual heat related problems?

pparks1 said:

Lordbob75 said:

Perhaps, but I would feel more comfortable if they put at LEAST 1 fan in for exhaust or something.

Their higher end PCs (such as gaming ones) tend to be better, but their bargain base models really suck.

~Lordbob

Again, that's your desire to have extra cooling. And apparently it's more cooling than in really needed. If the box actually needed extra cooling, they would put it in rather than paying for tons of warranty work. My Dell's that I've owned (Dimension 4550) and a (Dimension 8400) never have experienced any heat related issues....even with playing tons of games on the 8400.

Have you ever purchased any of these machines and experienced actual heat related problems?

No, I have not had a heat problem with them (which says something for the components I suppose), but it still makes me nervous.

The average user does not clean out their PC, and I can only image how hot things get, which can't be good for the life of the components.

~Lordbob

PC makers tend to bid out the components in their pcs, but most I've seen have been similar under the hood (they use either Intel or AMD cpus...). So, I rate by warranty and customer service. In terms of that, HP has been great (warranty & cs), but their hardware reliability seems inconsistent. I have 3 HPs, and only 1 hasn't ever had to be sent in under warranty - my oldest (5 yr/old laptop).

Custom builds are theway to go in terms of selecting good quality components...

Its been my experience that you get what you pay for. Spend little, get little. This goes for Dell laptops too. I have had a couple of good Dell laptops and a couple of bad dell desktops....I have found that dell uses the cheapest parts compatible with the model you want and that is the problem if you are trying to save money.

My other choice for laptops is IBM.

As to desktops I prefer to build my own. I use TigerDirect.com and NewEgg.com for parts. If you don't want to build your own then I like Systemax and Alienware for pre-built.

I personally think dell makes some of the best servers I have ever worked with and would choose them over any other brand when building/configuring any databases that I would be responsible for.