I am very much in agreement with this. Of course, I am also biased, because I also know how well the people who support HP business machines are. Perth and I both worked with them. I would discourage him, however, from purchasing any of the consumer level products from any of the major computer labels. Dell, IBM, HP...they are all crap when it comes to consumer support. And a person with little technical knowledge is going to have much less luck with the average dimwit in Pavilion or Presario support than someone with a technical background of any kind. The other idea behind this belief is that *if* he buys a consumer machine he *will* have to call support, but if he purchases a business machine, he will have less of a chance of that. Pavilions and Presarios come preloaded with so much crap that it's a wonder the systems boot at all (when they do). He will pay more for a business system, but he is paying for better support and less of the stupid crap that pavilion owners must contend with.

Also, Dell is in the process of moving their business support back to America due to the volume (sound and mass) or complaints from their business customers.

First benchmark for a minimally acceptable computer: manufacturer provides comprehensive diagnostics for all hardware, for free, and on web site. This eliminates Gateway and inferior manufacturers.

Avoid pretty much all the major brands, Dell, HP, Gateway,, they all bite, EMachines is meant to be good.

Particularly avoid HP at the moment, massive QC problems, particularly with packaging and distribution. IBM aren`t too bad but not cheap. A good local store is a good bet.

Personally I only buy apple gear now.

I bought an Acer system last year from PCConnection, and got the extra 2 year onsite service. Anything goes wrong, they come out and fix it. They've been out twice - once for bad RAM (an addon, but the stick was toast when I got it) once for a CD-RW that didn't function.

Good prices, good equipement, I'd buy another if I was in the market.

IBM ThinkCentre Desktops
 

Heya,

I've had very few problems with the 50 or so of these that I have either bought or bought for clients from PC Connection. They've been known as the PC 300, Netvista, or ThinkCentre desktops. They changed the name a few times, but they're good. Barnes & Noble uses them for kiosk and Point of Sale I still think.

You will pay more, but these machines running NT 4, 2000, or XP Pro are stable. Except for the iteration of the PC300 series where they used VIA chipsets, these things are rocks, especially with Intel chipsets.

They're recommended because you pay less over time due to not having to service them as much.

However, I have donated 15 of them, still stable as anything.

Mitch

Is he in southern ontario?

Infonec Computers

I've had nothing but success with these guys, time after time after time.


Go to a small computer dealer that offers their own warranty. They're not dealing with hundreds of sales per minute, so they NEED every sale they can get. Hence, they'll go out of their way to get your business and make you a repeat customer.

I've referred about 5 people to these particular guys, and all have been fully satisfied.

SOUTHEAST PENNSYLVANIA

After all of the stink he made, he still watches DELL's specials evry wednesday to see what the new promotion is. I say he should buy from them anyway, but use his bad experience as leverage to get a "make up kiss" deal.....
we'll see.....i think he enjoys shopping, and is afraid to pull the trigger for fear of a better deal coming out after he does......analysis paralysis

I priced a system from Infonec that was one thousand dollars cheaper than the same Dell setup.

Small places can always make you a better deal.

OK. OK. Next time he comes back with a Dell get the price and specs - monitor size/type and CPU speed and how much disk, and I will see what newegg and I can do building something from scratch.

Just for fun, for starters...

DEAL

Tiger Direct has extremely adequate PCs starting at $300.

I bought my factory recertified IBM Thinkpad from them over a year ago, it came with a warranty of at least a year in length and I've zero problems with it.

And unless he's looking to do 3d modelling they are more than sufficient for his needs.

All I recommend is really big harddrive, because he sounds like one of those who installs everything he sees and will download anything can find.

I'm sure it's not a tw-certified power supply at that price.

True, but then again, what is?