Help me buy a computer!

My desktop died (a 2001 Dell Inspiron with a Pentium 4, XP SP3, 1GB RAM, 30GB and 250GB harddrive). I've upgraded it over the years but the power supply hiccuped which killed the main C drive (30GB), graphics card, and possibly the motherboard. The monitor gave up last month (a CRT) and was replaced with a free used flatscreen (with a dead pixel).

I'd like to get a new desktop with a flatscreen, a DVD burner (going to order a HeroCam), and the ability to deal with multiple programs at the same time (for school and work). I've been looking at Dell's but they seem to be expensive, even with discounts. A Core 2 Duo w/3GB RAM runs around $800 -$1000!!

Conversely a HP Pavilion can be had with very similar specs (plus a wireless printer/scanner) for under $600 shipped.

I am way open to ideas but school started TODAY and my laptop cannot deal. I need to order by Wednesday and get it in before Jan 30th...

The only time I ever purchased from Dell, the PC turned out to be a complete lemon. During the first month, they had to send out a tech about twice a week to replace various hardware components.

Additionally, the sales ad listed speakers and sound board as two separate items and I asked for an upgrade on the sound board. Problem was that they shipped it w/o speakers and then told me they would lose money on the deal to include the speakers. I fought with them daily for 30 days over this issue.

In the end, during the 30 day money back guarantee period, I put everything back in the original packaging and sent it back to Dell. I went back to buying from Gateway and have always been happy with Gateway products. I haven't bought a Gateway since their company went belly-up; so, I'm not sure if the newly packaged ones are as good as old.

I built my own 64 bit PC, but it wound up costing quite a bit more than had I purchased one off the shelf. It was good being able to hand-pick every component.

Our family PC is currently a Compaq Presario and, other than Vista, has been a good PC.

Lenovo or Vaio or Mac. Don't consider any others unless you are looking at the really cheap ones; they're getting to the point that they're disposable.

Refurb'd iMac 20" - 2.66 C2D, your choice of ATI or NVIDIA graphics card, 2GB / 320GB, DVD burner - $849, free ship, possibly no tax depending on location. Apple refurb store

Mac's won't run my web and school programs, so absolutely no on those. I have a laptop, I need a desktop, so no on those.

I have a new real copy of Windows 7 Professional so OEM operating system (or any software for that matter) isn't a problem.

I'll look into the new Gateway's...

PS - There's NO WAY I would pay $850 for a "refurbished" PC/Mac! That's ludicrous!

In reply to pigeon:

Damn good deals there.

how about building one from components or do you need to open the box and plug it in?

I'm open to a build, but it needs to happen right now. No waiting for next months "new hotness".

I'm open to a refurb, but it better be sub-$500 shipped to my door.

I just built a quad core workstation - everything came from new egg - arrived 3 days from the order. Took a saturday to put it together (been about 15 years since I built one).

I'll do some pricing out on pieces parts again...

Craigslist.

Get a general sense of what you're looking for, and then hunt for as much of that as you can find. People are constantly unloading equipment because they've replaced it with latest and greatest. I got mine for $250, total.

In order to do that though, I bought the Mobo, CPU, RAM, physical drives, and RAM from one guy. Purchased a good power supply from someone else. Then scrounged the Case and Optical drives from others I already had kicking around.

Careful used shopping is probably going to give you the best bang for the buck, but a lot of people seem to be somewhat delusional when it comes to valuing their used PC. Be careful not to overpay.

Actually, a refurb Apple is usually a pretty good deal - I'm typing this one on and it was indistinguishable from a new one. And you can either use VirtualBox to run Windows on it or just Bootcamp it so it becomes a dual-boot Windows/Mac OS machine.

I didn't pay $850 for my RX-7 or Hornet so it's not a good deal to me for a used computer ;)

I'd kinda like to get something that's "fire and forget". I've played the upgrade/homebrew game for awhile and if it wasn't for my near-OEM laptop (I added RAM, that was it) I would have been computerless! I can't risk that during the last semester...

HP seems to have the best deal now on straight pricing. Haven't had any luck finding any smoking internet deals or coupons. NewEgg has a few towers for $500 that kick butt (quad cores, 1TB harddrive, 6-8GB of RAM). Might be worth going that route?

P71 wrote: I'd kinda like to get something that's "fire and forget". I've played the upgrade/homebrew game for awhile and if it wasn't for my near-OEM laptop (I added RAM, that was it) I would have been computerless! I can't risk that during the last semester... HP seems to have the best deal now on straight pricing. Haven't had any luck finding any smoking internet deals or coupons. NewEgg has a few towers for $500 that kick butt (quad cores, 1TB harddrive, 6-8GB of RAM). Might be worth going that route?

It's very doable to find complete systems on Craigslist. It just takes more time to find one priced reasonably.

Otherwise, the NewEgg or refurb ideas both sound good.

Purdue university is always offloading used PCs. The prices directly through Purdue Salvage are ok ~$100 for a 2ghz Dell tower with 512k, but there's a local guy on Clist who apparently has an inside connection. I bought the same box from him, with a gig of ram, already wiped clean with AVG & Malwarebytes installed, mouse/keyboard & 17" LCD for $80.

The deals are out there.

I've found a few promising leads on CL. Maybe a want ad is in order?

I'll also check and see if my school has any old stock they sell off, that's a pretty good idea.

This might be worth looking at:

Acer Aspire X1200-B1601A Refurbished Desktop PC

Ive bought a few pc's from these guys, http://www.renewcomputer.com/categories.php?category=Desktop-PCs

they are on ebay as well. you can get allot of machine for relatively small money if you dont mind used, and are willing to upgrade the or add the hard drives, software and memory yourself. there inventory seems a bit low right now, but they get in big shipments of off lease stuff often. i have a dual zeon processor intellistation that i added a large hd drive too and a two more gigs of ram, along with my old dvd and cd burners which is an awesome machine, and it cost me less than $300 total. I think this one sold for 5k a few years ago...

P71 wrote: Mac's won't run my web and school programs, so absolutely no on those. I have a laptop, I *need* a desktop, so no on those.

Why? Why do you absolutely NEED a desktop?

If it's a matter of the screen, a keyboard, or run time, dock the laptop.

P71 wrote: Mac's won't run my web and school programs, so absolutely no on those. I have a laptop, I *need* a desktop, so no on those. I have a new real copy of Windows 7 Professional so OEM operating system (or any software for that matter) isn't a problem. I'll look into the new Gateway's... PS - There's NO WAY I would pay $850 for a "refurbished" PC/Mac! That's ludicrous!

What the heck kinda flintstone school is this? They have programs that aren't MAC compatable? Heck, I can't find any programs that don't work on a Mac. And my second mac was refurb'd. It lasted 6 years with not one hiccup. No upgrades, no patches, no service packs, no blue screen of death, and the computer never locked up on me, once.
That my friend, is worth a lot to me.

BoxheadTim wrote: Actually, a refurb Apple is usually a pretty good deal - I'm typing this one on and it was indistinguishable from a new one. And you can either use VirtualBox to run Windows on it or just Bootcamp it so it becomes a dual-boot Windows/Mac OS machine.

That's why I suggested refurb. I'd never buy a new mac - the refurbs are just like new. I've got 2 refurb ipods and a refurb mac mini and they all were just like new. When I cracked open the mac mini to double the ram (within an hour of the computer being delivered to me) it was pristine - looked as new as the components when I built a PC 5 years ago. The imacs I posted are 30% or so off retail, which makes them a deal. Don't let the specs fool you, macs tend to be much less intensive in using their resources.

If you really want a cheap desktop I'd go refurb'd mac mini if available - around $400 for similar specs as the imac I posted, get a 22-23" widescreen LCD for around $150 from any of the deals posted on techbargains.com, add any mouse and keyboard and go. Bootcamp it to install Win7 (which I actually like) and be happy. Unfortunately there aren't any available in the apple store right now - they're very popular - but they get restocked often so keep checking if that's an appealing option to you. Or just pony up the $600 for a new one if you must...

Watch Dealnews.com. Desktops are disposable now. I wouldn't pay more than $400 for a desktop anymore. Buy your own RAM and install it yourself (http://dealnews.com/memory/). DVD burners are almost standard now and flat screens are pretty much a freebie. I've been considering buying a Walmart PC just to have another computer in the house for gaming.

That being said I'm all Mac at home. I bought a refurb Mini and my MacBook dual boots to XP for gaming (Dungeon Siege FTW!). I'm happy with them both.

I used to build my own overclocked machines. My friends and I discussed the other day that the price of "disposable" desktops capable of running at a decent performance level makes it almost pointless to custom build anymore.

If you liked the Dell at all, try looking at their outlet: www.dell.com/dfo

Don't take "refurbished" to always mean it had problems and has new components. A lot of the ones on Dell's site are returns from big orders. I.E. big box store orders 5000 machines and realizes they only needed 4500, so they ship 500 back. Dell is no longer able to sell it as new (even if the box was not opened), so it goes on the outlet.

But deals disappear fast there, you gotta be ready to jump on a deal.

DrBoost wrote: What the heck kinda flintstone school is this? They have programs that aren't MAC compatable? Heck, I can't find any programs that don't work on a Mac.

I LOL'd at this. Programs that aren't Mac compatible? How about most of their own software. Bought my son a Mac Mini to use at home since they have ones at school. Go buy 4-5 game/learning programs for it. None work. Go back to MAC store.

Me: "The box says OS 10.2 or higher, but they do not install on my son's Mac"

Them: "Yes sir. Some programs won't work with 10.3"

Me: "OK. So how do I tell if they work or not?"

Them: "There is no real way to tell except to install and try it"

Me: "OK I would like to return these"

Them: "You can't return them, they have been opened"

Me: "You're kidding right?"

Them: "No sir. I am afraid not. Maybe Ebay them?"

He's now on a Dell Mini laptop and loves it.

-Rob

+1 on the Dell outlet, great deals.

I actually seek out refurbs on almost all electronic components. The best reason is that on a standard electrical product maybe 1 in 100 is pulled from the line for a full QC spot check. On a refurb every one is fully checked before being sent back out. So you get a better price and none of the "oops" moments that can come with mass production.

I pulled the trigger!

First, thanks for all of your help. I nearly went with a refurb'd HP (there's 2 really, really nice quad cores now @ $505 shipped - one at 8GB RAM/640G HD, the other at 6GB RAM/750G HD) and a ridiculously good deal @ $450 shipped on a Core 2 Duo.

In the end I ended up getting a "leftover" new Lenovo (thanks for that suggestion) for $550 shipped. It has an Intel Quad Core Q8300 @2.4Ghz, 8GB DDR2 RAM, DVD+- / CDRW writer, NVIDIA GeForce 9300, and a 1TB HD. It has Vista on it but I have 2 new copies of Windows 7 Professional (real ones in the box through my college) so I will fix that. I'll use the included keyboard and speakers and reuse my existing screen and laser mouse. Not a bad bit of hardware for the price, really.

So thanks for all of the help!