What are decent brands of PCs these days?

[Red Squirrel]

My sister is looking at buying a new PC and is on a budget. The cheaper the better, she is hoping to stay below 500 bucks. It's cheaper to buy then for me to build one. What we see the most in store is HP, Gateway, Compaq and Acer. From my understanding those arn't exactly the best, but are they that bad? She only really needs it for basic stuff like going online and email, maybe basic children games for her kids.

 

[bruceb]

HP and Compaq are not bad. Gateway used to be very good (like 3-4 years ago) Not sure how their quality is now. And of course, Dell, is a good value. I would stay away from Acer and what ever you buy, be sure you can expand it, if needed. See about interior case area, expansion slots and power supply capacity. See if you can add a Video card, if you want to or add more hard drives or dvd drives. And be sure you get or order the system discs, as they usually do not come with new computers. You may need to pay a bit for them. Make a Ghost image of the system as soon as it is set up as you want it and it is stable.

 

[ecom]

If you are not in a hurry, check out Dell's Outlet http://www.dell.com/outlet (not their DFS outlet). Many of the computers there are refurbs and they have 10-15% coupons coming out every month for Dell Outlet. Shipping is almost always free too.

I don't personally care for the Inspirons, but the Studio 540 and 540s (slim case) has Intel G45 chipset while the Inspirons have G3x chipsets. I only cared about this because the G45 has a much better IGP. The Vostro 220 series also has G45 chipset.

Watch out on the Studio and Vostro slims because their PSU is not a typical ATX PSU and I think it's only 250W which severely limits what you might be able to add on later. On the other hand, the smaller form factor can be nice to have depending on space. Also the slim machines only have low-profile expansion slots.

The Optiplex 760s are nice too, but they have Q43 chipset which doesn't have h.264 decoding like the G45; but they do have vPro and Intel AMT instead which isn't much use for a home machine. Since the Optiplexes are enterprise machines, where users will probably have network storage, their HDDs tend to be smaller compared to what you'll find on Vostros and Studios. The Optiplex is also BTX which is a bit weird, but the minitower only has one 120mm fan to serve as the case and CPU fan, but those things are very quiet.

The machines from Dell Outlet carry the same warranty and support as new machines. One year (can purchase more if desired) for Vostro and anything from Home section. Optiplex have three years standard.

I recently bought a Studio 540s with the following specs for $400:
Intel C2D E7500 (no VT)
Intel G45 chipset with IGP
4 GB RAM DDR2 800
500GB HDD
16x DVD-RW
Flash card reader
Includes wired keyboard and laser mouse, Win 7 Home

 

[M0RPH]

Sounds like you're looking at local stores like Best Buy? The deals are ok there but you will probably find a better deal online. Like this one I just saw at Techbargains:

Acer AM3202-B3800A AMD Phenom X4 9650 2.3Ghz Quad-Core Desktop (4GB/640GB/ATI HD 4650) w/ 22in LCD Monitor $499.99

There's a big mail in rebate involved but if you don't mind that looks like a good deal. And as far as I'm concerned there's nothing wrong with Acer.

That PC should be eligible for a free Windows 7 upgrade as well
http://images10.newegg.com/uploadfilesfornewegg/rebate/SH/Acer17MIRJul8Dec3109USSL75.pdf

 

[Red Squirrel]

Yeah looking at local stores at this point. I could order parts to build a PC but even if I go super low end it still ends up costing about 600 bucks or so. Though that still beats most of the mini case PCs I've been seeing as far as performance/expandability.

I will check out dell outlet though, that might turn up something good and at least they use somewhat standard parts. I will keep checking tigerdirect and ncix to see if I can build cheaper. Her budget is about 500 bucks, and if I do order a premade online I need to consider shipping costs, and border fees if it comes from the states.

Edit: holy crap totally forgot about the barebone kit deals they have. I think I may have found one.

http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=5343969&Sku=B69-1136

I have to keep looking but that's the first one that caught my eye. Just need a hard drive (~100 bucks) and dvd-rom / burner (~40 bucks). The barebones route might be a winner.