Neverside

If i'm actually buying one, I tend to stick to Systemax PCs, but, of course, that doesnt happen very often..

If you want a computer, build it yourself, no question at all..

However, STAY AWAY from Compaqs... All Buck No Bang..

Re: The best computer manufacturer

Quote:

Originally posted by Lady Firelyght
Which manufacterer would you all say makes the best computers?

As many people has said building your own is your best option... you don't have to assemble it yourself... just order the parts at a generic part... it will require more work definately, however the truth is you'll save significantly more money and therefore can by a better machine, plus you have a wider range of options since you're buying parts so you can tailor a machine to your exact preferances... if you buy from a company exclusively you end up paying for service (which is almost always horrid, you're better off just paying service if it breaks down) and you're paying an overhead for a "brand", but the parts have nothing to do with the brand so its a useless overhead... since you're building a professional workstation you should make sure you research very carefully what you want if you take the route however since you want to make sure you get the best machine possible... there are exceptions though... if you're looking for a really high end workstation you can benefit from going with a company that specializes with the professional in mind... i believe pinnacle makes good machines, however i've always built my own so don't quote me on that... if you do decide on a higher end workstation the way to go about it is to go to the company websites that build high-end professional video cards / software solutions... if they don't provide machines exclusively you'll get some good links to companies that do...

Regards,
Owen

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Grump... He's so hot right now!

macs are good for graphic apps but I know nothing about them except everone goes on and on about how fast they are in PS

but I would have to add that building your own system is way better and for the money involved alot cheaper considering what you get.

I like p4s
so I would say

thermaltake cases (xaser series) I like full towers for the room

at least a 400 to 500 watt psu (antec and raidmax are good)make sure they have the p4 plug

abit IC-7 series mobo ( there are different versions of this utilizing onboard audio/firewire/lan - another thing to have a lot of is USB 2.0 ports...for external drives wacom tablets etc etc

at least a 2.8 800 mhz fsb p4

gig of corsair xms mem prolly at least CMX512 -3200C2 (2X)

ide drive: maxtor or WD either one 200 gig

serial drive: wd raptors are supposed to be good also seagate

cdrom: asus CD S520

burner: plextor anything they make from the 48x to the dvd burner.

video: I am partial to asus geforce cards anything from the Ti4200 superfast V9280S on up into the 5800 series...get one with dual monitor hook ups so you can run dual monitors if you wish - this is excellent when you can drag all toolboxes to one monitor and then have one entire monitor to draw on.

sound: any soundblaster is fine..I use an Aureal Super Quad myself but they are no longer in business. I think unless you are a music buff then get a motherboard with onboard audio...they have made great strides with that recently..

do not scrimp on cpu ram or video if you draw alot....these are the difference between a 20 minute render in max at 800 res to a 2 hour render :confused: ::scared:: maybe even worse times ICK

if you need a lan card the linksys LNETX100 are fine but once again onboard lan is nothing to sneeze at

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Last edited by Samson, October 25th, 2003 08:41 PM (Edited 1 times)

just some quick advice. dont buy an alienware, tehy are waaay overpriced for what they are. check around your city. there are plenty of small business pc shops that will build a pc to your custom specs for much cheaper than alienware does.

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| shattered.realm-My portfolio site |

People saying good things about Macintoshes... it warms my heart.

I'm also building my own PC... seems the best route to go. Also, I don't have to lay out a big chunk of change at once... I can buy the parts staggered a bit, less likely to raise any warning signals with the parents that way. eBay is your friend for parts... I keep finding incredible prices!

That's one thing about my MacAddiction... I've been missing out on how CHEAP PC parts are... the system I'm putting together is probably going to have more raw power than my eMac AND be a couple hundred bucks cheaper...

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Quote:

Originally posted by Samson
at least a 400 to 500 watt psu (antec and raidmax are good)make sure they have the p4 plug

What you smoking their pal?

400W psu is overkill.

300W is more then enough even for the most demanding system (assuming it's a decent psu).

350W if your the cautious type.

Not to mention we'll be moving to a BTX form factor which will render our current psu's usless so future profing is not an excuse.

Also: I like macs for what they were designed to do Graphics.
You should have a pc on the side for gaming and stuff IMO.

o wait i forogot this:

Quote:

Originally posted by Samson

video: I am partial to asus geforce cards anything from the Ti4200 superfast V9280S on up into the 5800 series...get one with dual monitor hook ups so you can run dual monitors if you wish - this is excellent when you can drag all toolboxes to one monitor and then have one entire monitor to draw on.

5800? that was one of teh biggest failures in a gfx card I think Nvidia has ever made! If you havn't noticed they stopped making them.
Also the FX series is not Dx9 compatible and the card will overide certin quality settings.
Ati has right now the best cards.
6 months - 1 year ago it was teh Geforce 4 ti (which are still a good deal)

P.S. if you havn't noticed i like talking about GFX cards and various other hardware any opposing views and questions are very much welcomed.

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Back in the states.

Dell's new XPS system is pretty power packed looking. I got some detailed info about it and I think it beats Alienware... The things I think the Dell's XPS excells in most above Alienware is the power supply and cooling setup.

However, the XPS is just a single Dell system. Overall I think Alienware makes the best PC's.

Last edited by Heri, October 28th, 2003 08:59 PM (Edited 1 times)

Quote:

Originally posted by Heri
Dell's new XPS system is pretty power packed looking. I got some detailed info about it and I think it beats Alienware... The things I think the Dell's XPS excells in most above Alienware is the power supply and cooling setup.

However, the XPS is just a single Dell system. Overall I think Alienware makes the best PC's.

yeah but Dell has horrible horrible service... they farm out tech support to india... which in itself is fine since there are a very large amount of them that are engineers, however it causes two problems: 1) the phone system in india isn't very good so you end up having a very poor connection.. this is complicated by very very long waits for service... 2) the language barrier, although the service technicians speak english, they are foreign and have thick accents... although this can be gotten around normally, on poor quality phone lines you end up having both parties continually saying? sorry could you repeat that? this can be very aggravating... the machines are fine... but since you're paying for tech support it would be nice if you could actually feasibly use the tech support... especially if you don't have the time to be waiting on tech support during time critical projects and the like... i'd recommend against dell, a few of my friends have purchased them and although they were satisfied with the machines overall... the service overhead was wasted dollar...

Regards,
Owen

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Grump... He's so hot right now!

The PC I'm on now is a Dell and I know what you mean with tech support. Simply put, their tech support is crap. I know what you mean about it being hard to understand them...

Most of them are very skilled with tech support, but some aren't. I remember I called them once and a lady came on that didn't even know what Windows ME was, rofl.

But if you know what your doing around computers, Dell Tech Support is useless anyways. (I know a good deal about computers, but still have a lot to learn) If you really, really know what your doing around a computer, get the cheapest Dell tech support you can. Warrenty - well, that can come in handy, so don't go to low on it.

The PC I'm on now I got back in late 2001 and it's totally out of date now. So unless I win the lottery, I won't be buying a new 1 til 2005 when I actually have money coming lol.

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You aint died til you've seen me.