best pre-built PCs??

[bledd]

DELL or Alienware - simple as

was about to say the same

-Alienware being the money-no-object option

[HomerJaySimpson]

I would say MESH. I hate Dell for one simple reason, all the parts are refurbished junk! Ill never buy another prebuilt computer as long as i live, besides it's more funbuilding them

[MasterFlash]

Another vote for Mesh, great service and support

[kushtibari]

First computer I bought was Mesh. The bits you don't tend to consider were spot on and top quality. The case was solid and easy to work on which made it a doddle to work on when I started swapping bits in and out. Probably just as well I never had to make use of the warranty!

[chrisf6969]

Dells are what I get for my office... dont need uber powerful l337computers. Nicely configured, great price, perfectly stable and great tech support.

However, for a nice gaming rig with budget not as important.... ALienware. very nice

And for budget and power.... with overclocking options....
ocsystem.net I was actually on there configured a 2.8 OC'd to 3.5 with 9800 Pro, etc... for like $1400.00
http://www.ocsystem.net/proddetail.a...mber=6&sku=iGK

Voodoo PC has some nice MOD computers... but a little pricey... http://www.voodoopc.com/systems/advanced.aspx?t=1&p=260
Rather an Alienware for the price.

[Romanov]

dell = ripoff non atx standard custom cables and all sorts of nighmares and 250 watt psu which wont run the new gpu's Im having a nightmare upgrading mine and dell quoted £374 for 512mb of memory ok its rambus but still for a new person to home pc's they can be a nightmare.

Im ripping out the components now and building an atx compliant system so dodge dell at all costs (theyve also glued the heatsink to the case for my p4 so im having to melt it off!!!)

[chrisf6969]

Dell's arent rip offs. And all of the new mobo's / cases use standard PSU's from what I understand. I dont know how long they have been, but I've heard its like the past 2 years or so.

[Romanov]

http://www.upgradingandrepairingpcs....ade3_01_01.asp

If you do decide to upgrade the motherboard in your Dell system (purchased on or after 09/98)_then there is a simple solution, just make sure you replace both the motherboard AND power supply with industry standard ATX components at the same time. That way nothing gets fried, and you'll be back to having a true industry standard ATX system. If you want to replace just the Dell motherboard, you're out of luck unless you get your replacement board from Dell. On the other hand if you want to replace just the power supply, you do have one alternative. PC Power and Cooling now makes a version of their high performance 300W ATX power supply with the modified Dell wiring for about $110

my 8250 is less than a year old and its non atx its not a massive problem but as the article says big problem later on

[chrisf6969]

Like I said before I believe its only from about 1998-2001 that they did that.
And they realized it was a bad decision, as it costed them more for mobos & PSU's, also made their system not standardized like every other computer part. Whats next their own proprietary APG port!

I COULD be wrong and you COULD fry your mobo, but why dont you try it. For example, try hooking up a standard PSU to your old Dell mobo, since you're going to be gettng rid of it anyway and see if it works. I bet it will. Well, I dont bet any money.

[Defiant]

Dell PCs over here in the UK run non standard ATX motherboards and Power supplu units. They over charge for replacement components as well!

They wanted £340 for a replacement motherboard for a 1.8 P4.

I replaced the Case, PSU, Mobo and CPU and added a new DVDRW for under that Price!

Bunch of rip of merchants!!!!

Office generic boxes they may be, but I dont recommend one man and is dog to them.

Their tech support! pah!

I tried to help a friend out with his PC after it broke down, I got the help support in Bangladeshi, India!?!?!?!

1. I'm against out sourcing tels staff outside our country
2. The person spoke a very poor version of english (Im Scottish, we have poor version. But this was worse)
3. They where running some set script aswell, which was useless as the script wasn't relating to problems on the PC.
4. When I asked to talk to their supervisor they wouldn't put me onto him or her!

So in my book DELL sucks! BIG STYLE!

[iranu]

Theres a big difference in customer support between the UK and US as far as Dell is concerned. Great in the US, very poor in the UK.

For example a friend of mine bought Dell pc through a work scheme only to find his 9800 didn't work. Dell would swap it for an FX5200! They told him there was no difference!!

It was only when myself and a friend collected loads of benchmarks (tomshardware) that Dell finally agreed to give him what he had paid for. Around 300 people at this guys work were affected and more than half settled for the FX5200 as Dell conned them into believing that they wouldn't notice the difference.

Nuff said.

[chrisf6969]

Theres a big difference in customer support between the UK and US as far as Dell is concerned. Great in the US, very poor in the UK.

For example a friend of mine bought Dell pc through a work scheme only to find his 9800 didn't work. Dell would swap it for an FX5200! They told him there was no difference!!

It was only when myself and a friend collected loads of benchmarks (tomshardware) that Dell finally agreed to give him what he had paid for. Around 300 people at this guys work were affected and more than half settled for the FX5200 as Dell conned them into believing that they wouldn't notice the difference.

Nuff said.

hOLY SHiate, they did a royal rip off, if thats how it happened.

Thats like replacing your 8-cylinder engine with a 4-cyl. as a warrantee swap! EDIT: example, if you're driving miss daisy you'll never notice... but you still got robbed!

The funny thing is.. people are so completely computer illiterate they WOULDNT ever notice a difference. Even someone who played games would probably just think the stuttering framerate was caused by internet lag. (not knowing the difference)

[Ashen]

Dell is run by idiots, who couldn't build a good bargain computer with 1000 USD.

[steve threlfall]

Dell is run by idiots, who couldn't build a good bargain computer with 1000 USD.

Dell have made and continue to make a hell of a lot of money. Dell are definately not run by idiots...

[Defiant]

Dell have made and continue to make a hell of a lot of money. Dell are definately not run by idiots...

Agreed, only a company run by business men can make the amount of money they do on suck rubbishrubbishrubbishrubbish service.

[domwg]

Mesh has caused alot of problems for Twigman, wouldn't personally recomment them. There's a company called 'Carrera' I think that are meant to make absolute bargain gaming PCs...