As you may know, my forensic computer recently blew and I am looking for a replacement.
I know people have their favorite brand but I am looking for honest opinions/experiences.

I am narrowing my choices down to Dell or Gateway, but am open to others.

I had a Gateway years ago when they first came out and the tech support was awesome (then went down and I think they are up again). At my last job they had all Dells and I thought they were fine, but everyone bitched about them(nothing specific).

Dell seems to have some really good deals right now. I am in the process of printing off and comparing the specs.

Thanks for the help,

Brian

Never had a problem with my HP Kayak or HP Compaq

Depending on the amount of use CPD, watch the Dell's power supply. We are replacing way to many at work. I personally like my dell.

Alienware

My price range is $600-$700

I found these so far:
Dell Dimension E521 for $669
Gateway DX420S for $879

First computer was a Gateway, Rock solid lasted for years
Second, Dell laptop, Lasted for years till the fan went out
Third, E-Machine for the daughter, had to replace three power supplies bad fans
Forth, Dell laptop for the daughter for collage, still going strong
Fifth, Dell laptop for me, love it
Sixth, Dell for the parents still going strong
Seventh, Dell desktop for the house works great

So for me it's nothing but a Dell.

My two cents for what its worth. Dont ever buy a Compaq. What you see is what you get. You cannot upgrade any of the hardware. (Unless they have drastically changed their systems.

We have a Toshiba laptop that has been a very good computer to us. We have an older Gateway that has been upgraded with a new hard drive, it works great! That is what I use.Last but not least my 14 yr old daughter has a Gateway no probleMSa at all.

I have always heard that HP's were pretty good. Def go into one of the stores and ask questions. You need to take a list of all the things you NEED on it, all the things that are nice to have. See what computers you really like and then go into STORE ARMED WITH YOUR KNOWLEDGE, and start asking away!!!

In my opinion, Dell's are rock solid. Tech support, on the rare occasions that I've needed them, has been excellent, once you get beyond the bangladesh accent. I swear by the Dells I've had. And in my old job, we rarely had problems with Dells, which we used exclusively.

Compag was mentioned above, Compaq used to use proprietary hardware, but since they merged with HP, think that's not an issue anymore.

In fact, I think HP/Compaq has received some good reviews lately for their hardware and tech support.

But, bottom line, as it stands now, Dell would be my exclusive choice.

Get a Dell dude!

Well, this dude needs a job before dude gets a new PC and if this dude gets a good job then dude will be getting and Intel MAC!


Thanks for all your suggestions! Maybe I'll find the $$ somewhere (Hmmmm, I shouldda sold the dope I found at BDFCU).

Build your own and use as much of the parts from the other pc as you can. I always build my own that way I know what goes into it. I like asus boards, plenty fast and a lot better in performance than the ones used in name brand computers. And depending on how much of the other parts you can use from the other pc it may be cheaper.

My next computer will be a Macbook. I've about had it with PCs/Windoze and all of the BS that comes along with them. I'm going to drink the Mac Kool-Aid and see what all of the hype is about. I don't use any apps that can't be used on a Mac.

My MacBook Pro will be Intel based and for $50 I can buy Parallels and be able to run osX and XP at the same time.




That what my first thought but with a blown power supply AND CPU I am not sure what else is damaged or compromised. Plus most of the component are over 7 years old.

City Park Dad,

The other day in the shoutbox i was telling you my computer was running slow and the screen was blinking. My spouse and I took it out to Staples to get a Tuneup for $9.99. After leaving Staples we went over to Office Depot. We ended up buying a Compaq with a 17" Flat-Screen, ( i'll tell you this but i really dont understand this part ) Prosser: AMD Athlon 64 3800. Optical:LightScribe Double/Dual Layer 16x max, DVD+RW drive, Memorry: 1024 MB, Hard Drive: 200 GB, and Graphics. In the Store we payed $749.00? But after rebates we only paid $400.00 or a little. Oh and it also has a CD Burner, but we would have to add that at another time, we just didn't have the money to add it yet. ( i'm not into burning CDs ).


I hope this helps you out, our first computer was a Campaq as well. Staples has it up and running so we gave it to our Son, he loves to play games.

Sounds like a good deal. The Lightscribe is a burner. What do you mean you would have to add it at another time?