What is a good computer brand to trust?

homemade is still the best, regret i didn't do that, it could have saved me like 200€ and i would still have a much better system.

but you can always go for HP, good suport.

hp sucks, seriously, don't get one. They refuse to give you a windows install disc, so when you want to salvage the HDD for a new pc, you can't use the OS you paid for, because it's motherboard bound. They only give you a partition, and charge you for recovery discs. Also, I have a pavilion m7560.nl, I've tried upgrading the memory a lot of times, the brands I tried where corsair, Dane elec, kingston and nanya, and none of them worked. The only one that should work is if I order it from HP, which I wont do because it's 130 dollars for 1gb 533 mhz, excluding the shipping costs. Their cases are small, and you can only fit in two hdd's, including the one you get with it, because their stupid personal media drive bay takes up an enormous amount of space, and is incredibly expensive. I couldn't remove it, because the harddisk is screwed on to it, and that would mean that I have just one spot for the HDD. So I tried to move the entire thing to a bigger case, but the crappy 350W psu has way too short cables. If I still haven't convinced you, when the thing heats up a bit, it is actually louder than our vacuum cleaner. Please, do yourself a favor, and get a cheap dell pc, but make sure you have all the space you need to put in your own hardware. That should work, since you don't want to build it yourself, which is actually the best thing to do.

dell still uses non-standard powersupplies, which can mean big $$$ if it's not up to snuff.

NOT HP
like pasha says the fan is loud very very loud
and recently mine has now refused to install some games and run some of them (could be a problem with windows there not sure)

I know you said don't suggest homemade... but it's probably the best option to go... Note that you can get someone to make one for you to your exact stats, and computer builders don't charge too much, of those I know between $50-$100.

If you're looking for a reliable machine and don't want to make one, I strongly suggest getting a Mac. Either an iMac or if you have the money, a Mac Pro. Really fast machines, reliable, and if you've never used a mac before, they can run windows (better than most PCs).

Sams club id advise is the best place to buy a new computer, they offer good prices and even a full computer with huge monitor.

if building them, shop around.

If you're getting a laptop, I recommend stay away from the Dell M1530, unless you enjoy static headphones, and it gets pretty hot playing GW.

my HP got really, really loud as well, seemed like there was like 1 cm dust in the processor cooler. after i removed it i got a silent system.

Lol. The only pc that's more overpriced than any other prebuilt is a mac(or anything apple for that matter).

Boot camp will not run all windows based applications inside the windows emulation. fan boy.
macs are like forest gump they run good by themselves but in a pc world they are just . . . . . . like a lobotomy patient, worthless.

Get an Acer, they're the most reliable.

The top three I see in the shop are:

1. Dell
2. HP
3. Gateway

you don't trust computer brands because they're computer brands. you trust newegg for awesome shipping times and good prices. you trust AMD for good processor performance for gaming (dual core minimum btw). you trust ASUS for mobo reliability because ASUS is amazing and you couldnt ask for more slots. you trust corsair for high performance, low latency ram (2-2-2-5 is lowest i've seen, but not necessary to go that low). Trust nVidia or ATI for your graphics card, meh, both have pros and cons. if you get a decent card, get AT LEAST a 500w psu, up to as much as 800w+ for the 8800 nVidias (more for dual gpus).

basically, you see a lot of brand names above, each related to a different piece of hardware. it's not so much that you can't trust brands, but prebuilt computer brands. when you go that route, you get a shiny box (sometimes not even shiny) that says "dell" or "acer" or "hp" or whatever, and on the inside, more often than not depending on price point, you get a bunch of stuff labeled "generic POS"...

i've seen it recommended a couple times, and will add my agreement: if you are not going to build it yourself, have someone do it for you or find one of the sites that allows you to spefically pick what parts you want (make sure you research the compatibility; before blindly buying a mobo with no pci slots and a pci-e x16 gpu, for example).

Just buy it from a company that allows you to customize the brand and model of each part. That way, you get to choose good quality parts and don't need to worry about that.

It's basically the same thing as choosing stuff off Newegg and building it yourself, except you're not doing the building, and you have fewer choices to pick from. And of course it's probably a bit more expensive than Dell, HP, etc.

ive had good use out of gateway and emachines (which i think is owned by gateway...)

then again i always buy their models with high processor specs cuz i always end up moving most of the parts to a new case.

Alienware
Voodoo
Dell XPS (avoid normal Dells)

Best pre-built desktops. They all come with a hefty price tag though. The XPS series prob the cheapest.

Buy this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16883229030


go go go.

I'm not even gonna start with all the misguided and straight up wrong things said in this thread already. please IGNORE anyone telling you to buy your comp from ibuypower or any mainstream computer manufacturer (ie. sony, hp/compaq, gateway, dell) with these machines you get a locked box of non upgradeable parts and super low quality motherboards.

my suggestion, from looking at their machines firsthand, is to buy a velocity micro pc. They have good build quality and excellent part configurations.

if you are feeling adveturous shoot me a pm with your budget and ill configure you with a newegg cart of excellent parts to build a machine with.

EMACHINES!!!!

HP fail
Dell fail
Emachines fail

Go to resellerratings and look for reputable vendors.

Looks like we're going with Voodoo.