What computer?

Question

My mom wants to buy a computer and doesnt know what make to buy. She would like Dell but I have heard they are no good. Can anyone please recommend one. Thank you.

Answer 1

HP or Acer.
HP's seem pretty tough for your money. I just bought mine from Best Buy. Its a HP Pavillion a1610n. It has AMD Dual Core Processor so right now I am downloading a movie (shh dont tell) converting 3 movies and I am messing around online with 2 IE windows open and I am still getting good speed. I got the entire package for $790 which if your ok with the 15 inch screen its only about $690 (I upgraded the scree to 17 inch).
Acer has always been good, but I can not afford them anymore. There was a time the only one who would carry them was Walmart but then the industry realized what good PC's they were.
Just from working on other people's pcs I would strongly reccommend not getting a Compaq, an E-machines or a Gateway. It seems that no matter what you do/get the pcs are crap right out of the box.
Dell seems to have split opinions. I have heard from more than a few people lately though that thier stuff in turning to crap and thier parts, service and customer service aspects are going down hill. I once had a Dell Inspirion laptop and while it was good I wouldnt call is durable or stable. I had alot of system crashes. It was however easy to work on as far as making hardware changes.
Before buying this I researched like crazy. I kinda had in mind the things I wanted to be able to do with my pc such as download/burn movies, convert files play games and media and work on documents sometimes at the same time. So I wanted something with a relaible CPU and a decent hard drive to store things on.
Also on the Apple I am not ruling it out. I just dont have any experince. Word of mouth tells me that when all other PC's crash a Mac is still going strong. I am just too chicken to make a switch at this time.

Answer 2

You have not mentioned what the purpose is. But ill assume general. A mom would use it to Browse the Net, Type a Document ok maybe use the whole MS office suite and then maybe watch a movie or edit a movie.
If it is this then i suggest you get a computer of this grade
PROCESSOR :- CORE DUO or CORE2DUO 1.8-2.0 MAX
RAM :- 512MB -1GB
VIDEO :- Hell she aint gonna play games so on board Vga will suffice but just in case im wrong and shes a gaming mum then get a video card of atleast 128MB but this depends on what the manufacturer gives.
OS- GET XP or VISTA HOME
Optical Drive :- DVD WRITER (always comes handy)
Screen :- Get a 15 in or more LCD Monitor.

So yeah Dell has problems, HP is good but the best for her is Apple. Just go check some manufactuer sites and configure your system online with the options above. You can get a quote and place the order, You can always check with CNET on ratings. In fact visit the site and get the editors choise.

Answer 3

I recomend going to your nearest PC World or similar. Why?

1. Although the prices arn't as good as online retailers such as Dell, they are still reasonable

2. If you mum isnt too concerned with high performance gaming and video editing, even the cheapest, lowest spec computer would porobalby be more than adequate (and if you want quality just choose a repuatable brand like Sony or HP - cause' the other ones are cheap because they use cheaper parts, simple as that).

3. If you mum is not a computer expert, its good to talk to some who *kinda* is at PC World.

4. Its nice to see what your getting in the flesh. An ugly computer is no fun to own and the noisy models are very annoying!

5. And finally, there is a human face to shout at if it goes wrong! Just take it back and make a scene if your not satisfied. In my experience PC Woirld are very good with returns, whereas you will have to pay rediculous shipping to send your computer back to an online retailer!

Good luck.

Answer 4

Dell sucks! You cant go out and buy regular replacement parts for them for one thing, you would need to buy original Dell parts which cost a fortune!Their support leaves much to be desired also! I build my own systems but As far as the general public goes, I would suggest an HP! Good support and very easy for the user to restore! You all might want to sit down and decide what you want the PC to do also! If you are avid gamers, make sure you get lots of ram and a gamer video card with big video memory!

Answer 5

Consider where she will by the computer from. If she buys it from a place like Best Buy, and purchases their extended warranty (which I highly recommend), Best Buy will take care of her, and then all she needs to do is find one that will meet her needs and be in her price range.
If she is buying it directly from the manufacturer, consider first and foremost the quality of the support. PC World and Smart Computing Magazine regularly review support from manufacturers, so you can research this issue here.
My recommendation, based on experience, would NOT be Dell (horrible!), but HP has taken care of me everytime, and I think their warrenty prices are pretty good.

Answer 6

No Dell! Try Sony Vaio. Comes lots of free software and has great speed. The computer itself looks great and has a really cool screen saver. Also has nice backgrounds. Laptops and PCs are available. Bit expensive.

Answer 7

I've had a Dell PC for over 4 years now and it's still working fine!

Answer 8

Dells are ok but unless you get a good deal they can be expensive. If you have a CompUSA in your area or a Fry's Electronics you could get pretty good deals. You can usually get a decent computer for about $600 to $800.

Answer 9

YES a DB Builds computer. THey make Custom built high end computers for The price of the hardware and shipping.!!! Its really the best deal you can get i SWEAR
www.DBbuilds.com I got mine and LOVE IT....!!!
The site is down because of PayPal issues something about people couldent add stuff to their cart. But you can E mail the Owner
[e-mail] just give him a price range and he will tell you what u can get for that price

Answer 10

I've been in the PC buisness for 11 years now and Dell are the best in the US and the UK.