Originally posted by: DGath
Anyone who knows much about computers won't sit here and say they truly are bad computers. Their mid-range/high end systems use the exact same P4C/E's and AMD 64s that we use. They use DDR 3200 memory (though they probably use cheaper quality, it is not "bad"). The hard drives are probably 8 meg cache. As far as optical drives, something tells me they use HPs, which are overpriced, but not bad.
Component-wise, for the most part it is the exact same computers we all build ourselves. If you took all the components out of the admittedly crappy case, put them in say... an Antec, and magically turned the PSU and mobo into standard ATX parts, wipe the drive and reinstall XP from scratch, you have a pretty good computer. The appearance of crappiness lies in the software bundled and the proprietary parts, remove them and it's not that bad.
The budget systems are in fact crap, but that is because they are... budget systems with bad hard drives, slow ram, Celeron processors, and preloaded crap software. They're $300, of course it if going to be crappy, but that can't be compared to a $3000 high end computer which they also sell. I work at a computer specialty store and we do repair, commonly spyware/viruses, and 80% of the time it's a Dell/Gateway/HP. The users of those computers aren?t the most computer literate people in the world and will install anything and never renew antivirus subscriptions. It's those systems and users that really give those companies a bad image. In my store, I am shocked at how many people commonly mistake software problems for being a "bad computer."
Laptops on the other hand are a different story, now days those have to be intelligently engineered and using components meant for a laptop (meaning no AMD64/P4), proper cooling technologies, quality batteries, and god, just make the 4200 rpm drive obsolete.
