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Recommend me three or four online retailers for buying a new system

Matt_Stevens

Matt_Stevens

Senior member
I'm thinking of buying something new and really do not want to buy a bloated system with tons of crap software that slows everything down. But it has been years since I knew anything about who's the best.

So who should I go to to buy a new PC? Who is trustworthy these days and who offers a warranty that isn't sh**?

I'm looking for a Desktop. 64 bit CPU of course, I don't want the unit to be huge. I have all the software I need, other than Windows 7, which I will have to get either through them or myself. I run XP Pro right now and can buy the upgrade to Win7, of course. I have Office 2007.

My main thing will be editing HD video such as HD from DSLR cameras. I'd likely use CS5 for that.

Thanks much. Oh yes, specs on my current system...

shuttleboard.jpg

shuttlespecs.jpg
 
Yeah, newegg is about the best and for video editing the more cores the better. AMD hex cores are the best bang for your buck, while Intel has the fastest.
 
Newegg is still king, eh? Amazing. But I don't see many options for choosing exactly what you want, short of DIY, which I want to avoid.

I'm in NYC.
 
HP will never, EVER get another penny from us. Long story, but those of you who know about their laptop video card fiasco knows how they are crooks.

Never heard of Lenovo so I'll check em out.
 
I normally buy the tower on Newegg, but end up buying peripherals like Keyboard/ Mouse, Headphones, Speakers and the like from Amazon. I also always double check amazon for the parts in the tower, BUT, shipping from Amazon usually takes twice as long, and the difference (if there is any) is normally a few dollars, so I just buy from Newegg.

Matt_Stevens said:
HP will never, EVER get another penny from us. Long story, but those of you who know about their laptop video card fiasco knows how they are crooks.
Click to expand...

The 8600s? That's actually NVidia's fault, and a lawsuit against NVidia has allowed some people to get their chips/ laptops replaced.

http://nvidiasettlement.com/
 
HP has flat out refused to cover dozens of models that they know to be defective. My wife's included. Both HP and nvidia won't deal with the situation, so they have lost our business forever. I'll never buy HP again and I'll do my darndest to buy a video card from nvivia's competitors next time.

How I wish I had bought my wife a Macbook Pro. It would still have a great deal of resale value instead of being a doorstop. 🙁
 
CDW
Tigerdirect
Dell
Amazon
Bestbuy

CDW probably has the best selection I have seen of an online retailer, but they cater towards business accounts and commercial grade stuff.
 
Matt_Stevens said:
How I wish I had bought my wife a Macbook Pro. It would still have a great deal of resale value instead of being a doorstop.
Click to expand...

lol, those were also effected by the bad NVidia GPUs man. If it is the NVidia GPUs that have the problem, then HP isn't going to front the money for 4 or 5 defective models. It is NVidia's problem, and now they need to fix their problem, covering for all defective GPUs in Dells, HPs, Compaqs, and MacBooks.

BTW, on another note, My Macbook Pro has had at least one thing go wrong with every part of it. The Logic Board (for the GPU), The disk drive, The HDD, and the RAM. I could put another $500 into fixing it if I wanted, but why should I? HP is not the only company that pulls that shit dude...
 
On the Macbook Pros, if you had Applecare, they were replaced. Apple did not leave their customers out to dry. I know four people who were affected and all had new laptops or repairs that lasted.

HP lied to me, personally, and at one point updated my Bios to make the fan go faster to delay the failure of the motherboard past the warranty date. HP did that. Not nvidia. Then they wanted to charge us $450 to fix it, by using the same type of defective motherboard. They continue to pull that crap today with people.

Fool me once, shame on them. Fool me twice, shame on me. i'm done with HP.

But please, let us not get this thread off topic. No HP for me. Okay? None. i will not consider buying from them.

Thank you.
 
Matt_Stevens said:
Newegg is still king, eh? Amazing. But I don't see many options for choosing exactly what you want, short of DIY, which I want to avoid.

I'm in NYC.
Click to expand...


It's a question of what you want.

Major manufacturers usually just give you one warranty and one phone number to deal with, but for high powered systems they often use inferior parts and overcharge. The cheapest way to go for high end systems is to build yourself or have a local shop do it for you.

An alternative to both is to use places like Ibuypower and Cyberpower which will allow you to pick out the components you want online and charge a reasonable price. Both can be found at Newegg which has excellent service and good prices, but if you don't like the options there you can go directly to their websites and see what else they have to offer. After those options come the really expensive custom building websites.
 
Matt_Stevens said:
I'm thinking of buying something new and really do not want to buy a bloated system with tons of crap software that slows everything down. But it has been years since I knew anything about who's the best.

So who should I go to to buy a new PC? Who is trustworthy these days and who offers a warranty that isn't sh**?

I'm looking for a Desktop. 64 bit CPU of course, I don't want the unit to be huge. I have all the software I need, other than Windows 7, which I will have to get either through them or myself. I run XP Pro right now and can buy the upgrade to Win7, of course. I have Office 2007.

My main thing will be editing HD video such as HD from DSLR cameras. I'd likely use CS5 for that.

Thanks much. Oh yes, specs on my current system...
Click to expand...

Sounds like you're looking for a tier 1 vendor, not a retailer per se. They're going to offer a warranty that the boutique vendors can't touch. Just shop the business and workstation segments and you'll find that next business day onsite is standard.

Also, workstation and business machines tend to come with much less bloatware. Dell even offers their "n" series of machines with no OS at all if you want to completely control the OS install process.
 
Dell is probably best bet, as said stick to the top of the line units.
HP can't say much about how good their desktops are.
Lenovo, if I recall is an IBM subsidiary.
You can also consider Gateway .. they made some good stuff a
while back and may still be very good.
 
Matt, why not just build one yourself?

YOU get to pick the case that YOU like. YOU get to choose the quality of components that go into the build, YOU get to pick and choose what software gets installed, and YOU end up with a better quality computer for less money.

It's NOT really all that difficult nowadays. Sure, you have to pay attention to what goes where...but it's really pretty simple.

There are several well-experienced folks here who can walk you through every step of the build, and there are numerous videos and guides on the internet that we can point you to if you want to see it done.


"It's so simple a caveman could do it!"
 
I'd go with BoomerD and say build it yourself, but if you want that all-inclusive warranty, you either need a Tier-One workstation, or you need a boutique builder. The only boutique I have personal experience with is Cyberpower in Chicago. They won't charge you up the ass, and a guy will call you who knows his shit... they're great. Falcon NW and Puget Systems will charge you your arm, leg and first-born.

Keep in mind that if you have a single point of failure in a DIY system, that it's a lot easier to fix than shipping/RMA on your only desktop... this is OFTEN overlooked.

Daimon
 
dac7nco said:
I'd go with BoomerD and say build it yourself, but if you want that all-inclusive warranty, you either need a Tier-One workstation, or you need a boutique builder. The only boutique I have personal experience with is Cyberpower in Chicago. They won't charge you up the ass, and a guy will call you who knows his shit... they're great. Falcon NW and Puget Systems will charge you your arm, leg and first-born.

Keep in mind that if you have a single point of failure in a DIY system, that it's a lot easier to fix than shipping/RMA on your only desktop... this is OFTEN overlooked.

Daimon
_______
Click to expand...

Truth.
 
Microsoft Signature PC Experience

"With Microsoft Signature, you get rock-solid PC performance, great security, and first-class support. After installing Windows 7, we removed the trial software that can slow down your PC, installed applications you really use, and tuned them to work together seamlessly. Combine that with world-class security to help eliminate viruses and spyware, and 90 days of technical support, and you’ve got the best PC experience ever, right out of the box.

Plus, if you upgrade to Signature Premium, you’ll get an entire year of VIP priority technical support, as well as LoJack for Laptops™, a state-of-the-art theft recovery system that helps protect your sensitive personal information in case your PC is ever lost or stolen"

The desktops are pre-configured with no bloatware. You buy them directly from Microsft. Unfortunately not a lot of selection.

As everyone here suggest I agree that its much better that you build your own. Its not that hard.
 
Yes, build it. Course after helping my aunt with her new rig, even though she could've picked out all the parts (paying too much) and built it by herself, it's just kinda sad how little she knew and got fairly simple things messed up. Made me realize building really isn't suited for some people (eg. most older folks). They can't remember this and that. And if their problem solving and critical thinking skills are lacking too much that can be a real deal breaker.

She's so hung up on Falcon NW because her last two (rip-off) computers were from them and were great so she looked at their Falcon rig for guidance on what parts to get. The default parts were a 750w PSU, i4-2400, P8P67 Pro, and a single GTS 450. Yeah, great template for someone who's only demanding task is photoshop... I talked here down to a 2500K, 520w PSU ($85 modular Seasonic wasn't my choice 🙄), P8H67-M EVO, and on-die graphics. And whaddya know, it's stable and blazin fast.
 
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Gents... Years ago I built my own systems, but since I have had Shuttles (on my second, an XP Prima, which is about two years old) I have not built much. All of the CPU cooling is far more advanced and I am behind the times on what's what, technology, etc.

Were I to have a case that had the motherboard in place, the CPU seated and cooling system for said CPU already installed, I think I would be fine. Installing an operating system is no big whoop, same for placing a hard drive or optical drive.

That being said, Magic Micro and Cyberpower both seem to have exceptional hardware availability and pricing similar systems out via both yields about the same pricing, way way cheaper than doing it through a major guy like DELL, etc. The markup is 40% to 60%.

What are the reps for Cyberpower and Magic Micro? Googling them gives me mixed results, no surprise. Complaints are always on top. Cyberpower seems to be better with their rep.

I guess my main thing now is to buy components best suited for what I want, which is going to be HD Editing using CS5 (Adobe Premiere). For that I need to research video cards. The choices are endless and again, I have not been in on the latest technology, so I am a darned near newbie. I hate being ignorant.

No doubt I will want as much horsepower on the CPU as possible, so an i7. But which one is the question. Lots of memory is good for HD editing, but which type? Many questions. This will take some research, but I am starting to get the excitement flow in my mind about owning a new system.

Oh yes... The Microsoft Signature site has a few nice options, but they are thin on spces like the motherboard, etc. Pricing on one of the Dells they have is way cheaper than buying direct from Dell. Odd.
 
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Matt_Stevens said:
HD Editing using CS5
Click to expand...

NVidia cards (no biggie on choice/ price as long as it's 4xx or 5xx), you'll be paying extra over a GTS 450 for framerates in games, Phenom II X6, 8GB RAM, multiple HDDs for App, Scratch, RAW, Render (prolly get charged a lot extra for these, get some Samsung 1TBs off newegg). Then maybe an SSD? You may also consider getting this off newegg if they charge you a lot extra.
 
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