does the brand matter?

[mazzz]

are all PCs the same besides the stats or does the company matter?

 

[ainwood]

IMHO, Yes.

I don't buy ready-made PCs, I buy upgrade components. In reading reviews, it becomes pretty-obvious that different component manufacturers produce different qualities of goods.

My concern with the companies is that its not always obvious who the component manufacturers are. I tend to feel that they go for bottom-price, which can mean bottom-quality.

 

[Ankka]

I agree with ainwood on this, big companies may be cheaper, but the quality may be lower.

If you have the skills and knowledge, a one you build yourself may be a little cheaper even, and also better... I have a own-built one that is some 4 years old, and it is still good enough for C3C maps standard and lower...

 

[mazzz]

can you tell me what brands you guys think is the best/worst

like is my compaq presario crap?
i have 512mb total system memory
80 gb hard drive
1.47 ghz

its slow and my old 100 mhz seemed to work better!

 

[funxus]

I personally dislike Compaq/HP, and it's because ours came with Win ME, I've had problems with the NIC and keyboard (have sent it on repair several times) and because everybody else say it's made of crappy components.

So far, I haven't had much problems with our IBM and Fujitsu-Siemens computers, even though they are ready-made.

 

[marioh]

compaq's are pieces of garbage, for the most part. sub-standard, non-standard parts are used in their PC's.
and i'm starting to see that Dell is no better in this regards recently.

 

[Rheinmetall]

It's that "Compaq" part there that causes your problems

 

[Goober]

I had mine made for me, basically you choose the components, and they put it together for you. It has worked well for me, except for the Windows part, and I had Imesh/Kazaa for awhile, so I have one of my HD's plugged full of Spyware that I am slowly getting rid of.

My parents have a Compaq, AMD 2500+, 256 Ram, its a POS. it works terribly, if at all. i am never, ever going to trust Compaq again.

Definitely get it built, or build it yourself. You won't regret it, hopefully . . .

 

[Achinz]

When you BYO, I find generics are often OK for the parts. Savings without too much sacrifice of reliablility and performance.

 

[marioh]

Originally posted by Achinz
When you BYO, I find generics are often OK for the parts. Savings without too much sacrifice of reliablility and performance.

It really depends on what the PC is meant to do. If you plan on gaming with the newest games, going generic is going to cost you in the long run, depending on what components you go generic with.

 

[MarineCorps]

Originally posted by funxus
and because everybody else say it's made of crappy components.

They are. trust me. I own one also. Damn thing is a pos, I can't even shut down my computer properly. The zip drive no longer works. Not to mention the manual that came with it was useless. It crashes often.

EDIT: Oh yeah also owned a campaq. It was garbage. Came with about a million programs that were of no use. The OS that came with it was awful(was not windows so..). The thing was very very very bad. Thing no longer works because it can not detect the mouse.

 

[Jeratain]

All brands suck in general. That's not to say that one isn't better than the other, but if you want it done right you should build it yourself.

 

[Brainly]

Actually in most cases it's easier to settle for generic, as in generic NIC, mouse, keyboard, monitor, etc.
They won't cause you so much trouble when looking for the correct kernel modules. In most cases if you have a generic NIC, for example NE2000 or Realtek 8139, the modules are suppled in the distro by default.

I always build my computers from used cheap parts. Has never let me down

 

[mazzz]

if you dont want to build your own, what is the best brand?

so sony's viao good?

 

[Jeratain]

Originally posted by mazzz
if you dont want to build your own, what is the best brand?

so sony's viao good?

Good, yes, but expensive. The good thing about them is they usually throw in a software bundle.

Dell makes quality budget machines.

 

[Achinz]

@marioh
My experience ties in with that of Brainly - is there a particular non-generic component you would highlight as important for gaming computers? Of course for the highend graphics cards, there may be a lag time before the generics catch up specs wise.

 

[marioh]

Originally posted by Achinz
@marioh
My experience ties in with that of Brainly - is there a particular non-generic component you would highlight as important for gaming computers? Of course for the highend graphics cards, there may be a lag time before the generics catch up specs wise.

Obviously, the video card is a big one as you stated. RAM is another where I don't feel one should go cheap, if you're looking for high-end performance. And I usually recommend to people that they avoid any motherboards with audio or video built-in. Regarding the audio though, that only applies to people who are interested in making music, and either have the need to port the music out of the PC to an external device or the need to bring music from an external device (e.g. keyboard, guitar, etc.) into the PC. Many built-in audio cards will not support both methods or the quality of the in and out will be poor.

Nic, mouse, keyboard, monitor are components that one could go cheap, and not see any difference in performance, due to the fact that none of these components will have any bearing on your system performance.

 

[damunzy]

@marioh: I disagree on the monitor as I am very sensitive to the refresh rate - if it is below 85Hz I start to get headaches. That is why I bought my 19' NEC MultiSync FE991SB. As good as a Sony but cheaper. I get 1280x1024x32bit@85Hz for $260. If I would have gone for one of the $180 monitors I would have been lucky to get 72Hz at that resolution.

On sound card - I like having a plug in sound card as the built ins generally require the CPU to do all the processing thereby slowing down your computer - even if by 2-5%.

As for RAM: I am guilty of going for the cheap stuff often. Never been burned by that choice.

Case - been burned by a bad power supply in a cheap case.

Mobo - haven't had a problem with going cheap but I have also gone the expensive route. With the expensive board I feel I didn't get my monies worth.

Video - I have been reluctant to spend a lot on the video card....I generally suffer with lower frame rates or lower resolution when I play the rare FPS game.

 

[FireBall]

I like Dell... though many will disagree... IBM isn't bad either....

Alienware=Awesome.... If you've got the money.

And C-Built are likely best.

 

[hbdragon88]

Consumer Reports says so. Dell had the highest amount of problems that could be remedied over the phone and had the best customer satisfaction. Other brands weren't as good in their tech support and satisfaction.