EggXpert

Hi guys, I work inside of a big retail store (can't say which) and I'd just like to give some small advice to budget minded people looking to purchase new computers:

do NOT buy an emachines desktop. they almost al come with bestec power supplies, most of which burn out within 3-4 years. I can't count how many people have brought me emachines that just stopped working and it ended up being a bad psu. Also, they usually have horrible quality motherboards (usually with red pcb, which has always been bad in my book) that die along with the psu's.

current gateway laptops are horrible quality as well. most of them have a strange issue where they can't find drivers for basic usb devices like mice or flash drives. also, their internals die/stop working/fail at random. I know a few people that bought on of these new (t-/m-/p- series laptops) and they have LOTS of issues.

The new HP laptops seem to have lots of issues with their mobos. only one i haven't seen much of is the tx- series.

the sony laptops with the golf ball texture (nxxx series i believe, where xxx is a number) also have lotss of issues with mobos.

Everything else is mostly ok, but these above mentioned units have been flying onto my workbench faster than I can count. hope this helps! 

aha,that is cool,zshift.

 gateway  did  have some usb driver issues, but i m not sure each of them has this common issue.

maybe each brand has some glitches, but hopefully, the vendors will pay more attentions to these.

  what abt Asus, Acer, Dell? i am planning on a Dell laptop.

We had many many problems with Sony Vaio laptops. They are cute but the structure and ability to withstand even minor stress really sucks. Broken hinges, btoken ribon cables (to the display) broken DVD drives.

Cute thin and flimsey.

---

Asus Commando, QX6700@2.93, 4GB Corsair PC28500 Dom, Tt Armor case, BFG 1KW PSU, BFG 8800GTX OC, 2 Raptors in RAID 0 for OS and Apps & 2 Raptors in SATA for music and graphic files and a WD7500AAKS (.75Tb) for large files, video files and back up, X-Fi, 2 Samsung monitors 245t and 244t's @ 1920 X 1200, Plextor opticals, Aerocool, Zalman, Etc. Vista Ultimate SP-1

Thanks for your advice; I think I will buy a good notebook in the future with your advice.

I am going to buy ThinkPad T61  

---

Thanks for leting us know that info. how about the TOSHIBA Satellite X205-SLi6 NoteBook ? most like will be geting one in a week or two...

ThanKs........................................................

Good advice. I might also add that as far as "store-bought desktops" go one would be hard-pressed to find a decent one at any price range. There is just nothing better than building one yourself or having one built for you by someone in the know. It's all about quality control.

As for Laptops, there are a couple of brand names that are at least halfway decent. Those would be Asus, Toshiba and Lenovo. Lenovo would be slightly more rugged than the other two, but all ok machines. As for Gateway, Sony, HP and the rest, they are pure garbage. What's interesting is that outside of Sony and Lenovo all the rest of the laptops are made by the same manufacture. The reason they are coming back across your workbench is that they are indeed poor quality by choice. Those big brand names like HP, Gateway, Dell etc. have the same manufacture make the machines in slightly different configs with the cheapest quality parts possible to maximize profit. Then they slap their brand on it and mark them up 2000%.

good point Anewbus. i read an article hour earlier.

it said that LG Chem provides battery for HP Dell and Asus  

but most of the laptops are decent. it depends on how you use it.

there must be a balance of various considerations. 

good portability and hefty performance?   no way! :P

Baer:

I have two ThinkPads. THey are sturdy and reliable. So far Lenovo has not screwed up the ThinkPad line.

I agree  with you , thinkpad is still of high quality although IBM selled them to lenovo

---

zshift:

Hi guys, I work inside of a big retail store (can't say which) and I'd just like to give some small advice to budget minded people looking to purchase new computers:

do NOT buy an emachines desktop. they almost al come with bestec power supplies, most of which burn out within 3-4 years. I can't count how many people have brought me emachines that just stopped working and it ended up being a bad psu. Also, they usually have horrible quality motherboards (usually with red pcb, which has always been bad in my book) that die along with the psu's.

current gateway laptops are horrible quality as well. most of them have a strange issue where they can't find drivers for basic usb devices like mice or flash drives. also, their internals die/stop working/fail at random. I know a few people that bought on of these new (t-/m-/p- series laptops) and they have LOTS of issues.

The new HP laptops seem to have lots of issues with their mobos. only one i haven't seen much of is the tx- series.

the sony laptops with the golf ball texture (nxxx series i believe, where xxx is a number) also have lotss of issues with mobos.

 

Everything else is mostly ok, but these above mentioned units have been flying onto my workbench faster than I can count. hope this helps! 

no way.. emachine.. bad??

lol

---

I have had issues with Dell laptops also.  I would never buy a pre-built desktop, but my school gave huge discounts on dell so I figured I'd get one.  They ahave HORRIBLE customer support.  My friend has a Dell Inspiron 1720.  He didn't like vista, so I installed XP for him.  I had issues with the dell bluetooth drivers (downloaded directly from their website and it was the windows XP version, not vista).  It installed and worked, but I couldn't restart the system when this driver was installed.

I called dell asking about their driver.  Their first question is if i bought windows xp from them.  I responded no i purchased it in a store.  They said they can't help me because i didn't buy it from them.

I really would have thought buying a $1300 laptop would have been enough but no, I guess not.

Dell doesn't support their own customers.  Unless you get a good deal like I did, dell doesn't have wonderful products.  I would probably go for an ASUS. 

---

i'm just saying customer support is not wonderful...

I personally didn't have any problems with my laptop either 

---