Which computer should I get?

As a general rule, brand means next to nothing, unless you’re considering purchasing a tech-support-type warranty.

What are you looking to do on the computer? What will you use it for?

I’m a freelance novelist. Basically i only need 2gigs of RAM. i need something i can watch movies on since i dont own a dvd player or TV. would like something with blueray. i just hear bad things about certain brands and i have a compaq. have had it for years and its kicking the bucket rather quickly. i dont game and i dont do anything that needs massive memry.

i have an external hard drive which i store all my work on too.

Get the blue one.

Since most of the answers here are going to be generic, I’m going to hook you up with some real products :) They are all around or near $600.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834146536

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834152107

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834115556

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834146534

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834115546

They all have decent battery life for the price. If you really want battery look at netbooks.

thanks @TylerM newegg is one of the sites i use often trying to find a comp. i turned to fluther to see if the collective could help

So, mainly Word Processing and light-weight media playback? Just about any modern rig on the market is able to handle such tasks – 600 dollar price point or not.

I’m currently on a Toshiba laptop with lesser specs than a common $600 PC doing much more than what you will be, and I’ve yet to run into any trouble at all.

Dell makes some fine products – just don’t expect much from tech support (that’s why you have Fluther, anyway!)

Gateway uses some shoddy motherboards that tend to short out during hardcore gaming sessions – but since you aren’t going to be doing that, that doesn’t matter!

HP is pretty fine all around, just like Dell.

At this point, the only things you should be considering are:

- Does it have a Blueray Disk player?

- If not, can I get one installed (as in, when your computer arrives on your doorstep)

- Does it come with a monitor/printer? Might I want to opt for a less powerful and cheaper PC so that I can have them included?

Also to note, PCs are incredibly cheap nowadays – you can spend way less than $600 dollars and get a great running computer. HOWEVER. Blueray optical drives ARE, and can turn a 300 dollar PC into a 600 dollar one. It’s kinda a double edged sword.

EDIT: I see you are using Newegg, which is – hands down – the best PC shopping place on the net. Check out Tiger Direct, as they often have great deals as well.

Anything but Vista

If you need help actually comparing multiple PCs, let us know. Feel free to point us in the direction of a few that you are looking at, and we’ll be happy to let you know which one of them is the best.

And as I said – unless you are concerned with warranties and tech support, brand names are useless. All PCs use third-party equipment and components, and two PCs can have the same exact setup. Only differences are the warranties, brand and price.

I’m mostly concerned with something that will last for at least a couple years. i’m nt wrried about battery life since i rarely take it off the charger ***the “O” on my laptop keeps sticking. amng other things that are falling apart on this hunk of junk. srry*** i will post on here which one’s i’m looking into…i appreciate your help

No problem. The collective is here for ya.

What about Vaio? Any feelings about them? i used to work for sony doing customer service on vaio’s but i never owned one

Dell seems to have a good standing in consumer reports. Any thoughts????

I’ve never heard any complaints whatsoever. In fact, I know a few people who own them and are quite happy with their purchase.

Dell is fantastic, also. I own a Dell PC, and it has never given me issues, ever. And I game and do other system-intensive activities. As I said, it isn’t so much the name itself – it’s the component makeup. There is a huge difference between:

- A $700 Dell PC who’s 8 gigs of RAM is made by a shoddy company

- A $700 Dell PC who’s 4 gigs of RAM is made by a reliable company

It’s all about the parts and less-so about it’s name. Think of it this way: there are two cars on the market that are the same exact price, but with different makers. They two cars are similar in every single way except one; One uses an antiquated braking system made up of recycled junk scraps, the other uses top of the line steel forged at the top of Mt. Olympus to create the best, safest braking system on the market. See what I’m saying? It doesn’t matter what the brand name of the car is, it is what is made of and how well it performs.

FYI, it’s sleepy time for me. I’m sure there are people around to help you right now but I’ll be on tomorrow morning.

thanks for your help @Grisaille

I bought a“plain wrap” zt desk-top from Costco with excellent components (Intel Core 2 Quad Processor Q9300 at 2.50 GHz, 6MB L2 cache, 4 GB DDR2 SDRAM, 500 GB HD, 20X DVD/RW drive Optiarc {Sony} etc) for just under $600 about eight months ago and I’m thrilled with it (it kicks ass…very fast, no problems). The latest models are 1T HD and they also make laptops. Costco has an excellent return policy if you run into trouble. The system has a two year warranty and lifetime 24/7 toll-free phone support is included. Just another option you may want to consider. Good luck. See ya….wtf (my initials)
PS: I have been through an e-machine, IBM, Dell and HP desktops and if I was shopping today, I would go with the zt again.

Can you wait until September? You will get a much better OS then if you do choose to go with Dell…