35 replies to this topic

[Warren733]

I am asking this because I want to know which brand of computer is most popular. I personally LOVE Apple-Macintosh For their quality and style. Does anyone else like this brand or any other brands over the rest? Feel free to post your opinion on any brand.

[EagleAce]

I have a Dell Inspiron E1505 w/ Vista. Sometimes it's a little slow, as Vista's a memory hog, so one of these days I'll upgrade the memory.

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This post has been edited by EagleAce: 23 August 2007 - 03:12 PM

[floridaskier]

I have an HP dv1000 laptop from 2005. It's been great, decent battery life, never had any problems with it. No problems with customer service in the few times we've had to deal with them. I had a really bad experience with Dell

[Lift Kid]

Apple for me! I'm on an iBook. Soon to be a macbook. Otherwise, I like Compaq and I have actually had decent luck with Dell.

[lastchair_44]

I prefer homebuilt mysefl, both of my desktops were assembled by me. But I am currently using an HP zd8000 laptop from 2005 and it's been great as well. It has the computing power of a desktop and gaming on it is pretty good. I would recommend an IBM if you have the money. My experience with them has been good as well.

[skier2]

I have a MacBook--actually a BlackBook, a new iMac Core 2 Extreme, and am getting in the mail 3 iBook G3 clamshells.

[Snoqualmie guy]

I like the kind that is cheap, works and is easy to work with! I have a Dell that has been pretty good so far...

[Dr Frankenstein]

Apple managed to jump back into the pool, and it makes me pretty glad. According to my friends' comments (and most of them are expert and techs), their computers are extremely good. Just a bit expensive (but they are constantly improving on that side).

Besides that, for non-Mac computers, I'd say Dell is good, and they managed to provide very good and customized products only by listening to their customers much more than any other maker I've seen. I pretty much like the fact that you can now order your computer pre-loaded with Linux (which is the OS I use).

Hewlett-Packard is getting better and better.

Please guys, no Toshiba. I'm dead serious.

[hyak.net]

I used to build my own PC but they are just so dang cheap now I stopped doing that. The last 2 were purchased via ebay for Dell PC's (no keyboard or monitor) for $300. That is new w/warranty. My first couple of online buys were Gateway 2000 back in the early to mid 90's.

My very first personal PC was a 286-6mhz speed machine that ran Windows 2.0 and had the "Turbo Button" to kick it to 10mhz (and it would almost always lock up at that super-fast speed). Don't forget the speedy dot matrix printer.

This post has been edited by hyak.net: 14 September 2007 - 05:59 PM

[Kicking Horse]

I have Storage Unit that is full of Ibms. A Storage Unit full of dells to be shipped to Greece.

I personally have ibm and compaq's in my room with 2 power specs. I have 5 ibms and 2 compaqs.

My primary desktop is a ibm.

[Carl]

Older G4 Desktop and a MacBook Pro that's my travelling companion.

Carl

[skiersage]

Right now I am using an HP dv6000. I can not say I am very happy with it though. I bought it new last fall and in the middle the winter the wireless card and some other things crapped out on me. I had it fixed under warranty and it was working fine for a while. But then in the middle of June it just shut off while I was using it and would not turn back on. Long story short, that was the end of that computer and everything I had saved on it. It was a good thing that it was still under warranty. About two months later I got the computer I have now. It is essentially the same as the last one except it has Vista instead of XP. I am still not sure if Vista is that much better. Either way I wish I hadn't lost all of the stuff I had saved on my old laptop.
end rant

[Emax]

skiersage, on Sep 21 2007, 08:34 PM, said:

Right now I am using an HP dv6000. I can not say I am very happy with it though. I bought it new last fall and in the middle the winter the wireless card and some other things crapped out on me. I had it fixed under warranty and it was working fine for a while. But then in the middle of June it just shut off while I was using it and would not turn back on. Long story short, that was the end of that computer and everything I had saved on it. It was a good thing that it was still under warranty. About two months later I got the computer I have now. It is essentially the same as the last one except it has Vista instead of XP. I am still not sure if Vista is that much better. Either way I wish I hadn't lost all of the stuff I had saved on my old laptop.
end rant

I, for one, have issues with nearly all things HP. I find their extraneous software packages intrusive and annoying. From scanners to printers to monitors - the hardware is fair but the software is horrible. We have one white-elephant HP desktop at the resort maintenance department desk. It's never happy and is a problem to unravel when it gets confused.

On you list of "best computers", you've left out Alien. VERY nice equipment - no included crapware.

This post has been edited by Emax: 21 September 2007 - 06:46 PM

[SkiBachelor]

Alienware is now Dell, but I've heard mixed opinions about the company. Basically, you purchase a computer and it doesn't arrive on time, but 4 months late. However, this shipping problem might have been fixed by Dell.

[poloxskier]

SkiBachelor, on Sep 21 2007, 07:01 PM, said:

Alienware is now Dell, but I've heard mixed opinions about the company. Basically, you purchase a computer and it doesn't arrive on time, but 4 months late. However, this shipping problem might have been fixed by Dell.

Alienware was one of the top a few years back but started to slip a bit before dell aquired them.

[floridaskier]

True Dell and Gateway story: My dad had a Dell Inspiron 8000 laptop around 2001 or so, that one was his first non-Gateway computer. It came with Windows Me, which didn't work too well. When XP came out we upgraded that, which also didn't work too well. I can't remember the specifics, but after a while we tried to downgrade it to Windows 2000, which was supposedly more stable than XP. Eventually we got walked through installing 2000 on a computer that already had XP, which took hours. The real problem was when the screen went crazy. What happened was the screen went so that the picture only took up the middle half of the screen. It wasn't the screen, on startup the whole screen worked, but once we got into windows, it went back to the small size again. The whole picture was there, but there was a 2-inch dead area all around the desktop. Nobody at Dell could fix that problem, which we put up with because other than that, everything finally worked. I guess the cooling fan went out not too long after that, because the computer actually sent smoke out the back vents. My dad ran it outside with it smoking but it never worked again after that. It was way out of warranty and it had been such a pain in the rear end that we didn't try to get it fixed. We got the Gateway 400 to replace that.

I wouldn't wish a Gateway on my worst enemy. We had a new Gateway 400 laptop a couple years ago that worked perfectly until two weeks after the warranty was up. One day it stopped turning on, about 375 days after we bought it. We took it into a local computer shop, they said it needed a whole new motherboard, and Gateway wanted $800 to fix it, which was about what it cost in the first place. I know they were legally right, the warranty was up, but that's not something that should happen to a computer that new. They weren't helpful or sympathetic about it at all, and the attitude problem wasn't convincing anyone to ever buy another Gateway again. I really don't think anything we did was our fault, we always took good care of it.

[\rant]

So either way, Gateway and Dell both lost our business, maybe just because of bad luck, but we didn't do anything stupid with the computers. I know Dell has been good to most people, but it's not worth trying them again. The HP laptop has been perfect, and my dad got a really old used Micron desktop with Windows 2000 from his office's old set for $100 that's been great too. Now I don't think it's worth buying higher end computers unless you really need one, because odds are you'll end up having to replace it in a few years anyway, so now we learned to just go for the cheapest one

[Dr Frankenstein]

floridaskier, on Sep 22 2007, 09:16 AM, said:

The real problem was when the screen went crazy. What happened was the screen went so that the picture only took up the middle half of the screen. It wasn't the screen, on startup the whole screen worked, but once we got into windows, it went back to the small size again. The whole picture was there, but there was a 2-inch dead area all around the desktop. Nobody at Dell could fix that problem, which we put up with because other than that, everything finally worked.

They did not find that problem? Damn, I've already seen and fixed this on my own. Takes from 30 seconds to 30 minutes to fix, depending on the current state of things.

And getting walked through over a phone line is uselessly slow. They make you do extra steps that are so pointless.

[WBSKI]

HP for sure! Apple is overpriced and doesnt even care about our environment: http://www.greenpeace.org/apple/

Dell has terrible customer service, we used to have a Dell but were really unhappy with them in the end.

Compaq is a dying brand. Gateway is being bought out by Acer.

The only bad thing about HP is they make it difficult to overclock.

As for processors, Core 2 Duo/Core 2 Extreme/Core 2 Quad all the way! Intel rocks!

Graphics Cards, Nvidia Geforce all the way!

[SkiBachelor]

Apple's are expensive, but the software that comes with them is well worth the price if you use them. iMovie is probably worth $300.

P.S. About Green Peace, Apple sub contracts with manufacturers to produce its products. They aren't the ones who choose which chemicals are used and how they are produced. However, they can make standards to fix these problems when they become evident. Look at the problems Mattel is facing with its toys that contain lead paint and there is even a policy against the use of it.

[BigSkier]

I just put Sony because that's what I have. Macs are nice, but they're expensive, and the parts are hard to find. Plus, most programs are only Windows compatible.