Where's a good place to get a pre-built desktop?

[EmperorRob]

I used to buy desktops for my family from Dell but the last time I dealt with them I got a bad deal. I'm not looking for anything in the gaming high-end price range. Where do you guys go or where do you recommend for your family and friends?

 

[Blain]

ebay > Dell > used or refurbed

 

[pkme2]

I agree. eBay.

 

[raincityboy]

Monarch isn't to bad. They can take a long time though.

 

[acegazda]

I would say ebay would be more the place to get high end used rigs, not office pc's. People sell on ebay to try to get a profit, therefore you must get lucky on a good deal or no bidding competition. HP is OK and they often have some kind of rebates.

You could always ask someone here to build one for you and ship it to you, prolly cost less too.

 

[dBTelos]

Dell.. despite prior "issues".

 

[cdmccool]

^^

I agree.

 

[CurseTheSky]

Try talking to Dell about your last bad deal. They'll probably try to help you out with your next purchase, as long as you know how to (couteously) get your point across.

A friend of mine ordered a Dell laptop, which was due to be shipped in few weeks. Close to the ship date, they got an email from Dell that basically said their purchase was going to be delayed, etc. They called Dell Support, and told them that they wanted to cancel their order because their ship date was already "set in stone," and they did not appreciate the sudden change. Dell Support said asked them to reconsider cancelling, and offered to try to fix things by the next day.

The next day, my friend got an email saying their laptop was shipping on time.

 

[TG2]

Id still say go Dell....even with the prior experience.

Ive been pointing lots of folks that I used to build PC's for, to the Dell refurb section or to the Dell returned lease PC section.

 

[Blain]

There are high end PC's being sold on ebay, but you can get some really good deals on used & refurbed Dell's also.
A big plus is that you can snag units with XP or 2000 Pro. That saves a lot of money if you don't need a powerhouse PC.

 

[Seekermeister]

Time to learn to build your own.

 

[Lemon law]

I have seeen some pretty good deals at Fry's on refurbished computers. Pretty hard to beat cash and carry.

 

[dBTelos]

Originally posted by: Seekermeister
Time to learn to build your own.

Building your own is very uneconomical in this situation. The only time I recommend it is for gaming or CAD rigs.

 

[Boyo]

I would tell you to build your own, but if you don't want to go down that path, either give Dell another chance or go HP.

 

[jonnyGURU]

Remanufactured eMachines!

Seriously. I was ashamed to admit I bought the first one for my father in law, but it was so awesome, I bought a second for my mother in law and a third for my wife.

For $300 you get an Athlon 64, 512MB of DDR, a > 100GB hard drive and Windows XP and it's a standard ATX form factor so I can swap out PSU, motherboard, etc. w/o having to special order parts. No brainer!!! Other than my own rig, I may never build another PC from the ground up!

 

[iamskew]

I'd say stick with Dell, or possibly make the switch to Apple. Also, you'll probably be OK with HP, compaq, gateway ... but I'd still prefer dell.

 

[cmdrdredd]

I'd have to say Apple in this case. Although i'm a bigger PC fan than an Apple fan I'd say that Apple would have less "issues" for you to worry about. I've told people to buy Dell, but then they have an issue that is related to "how do I do this?" in regards to the OS and I find less of these types of "problems" in the Apple realm.

I would say build, which I always would. However, if you don't want to deal with any warranty or "I think something is wrong with my computer." calls then go Dell, Gateway, Apple, HP etc

 

[Zepper]

If you lived in central NY, I'd build one for you...

..bh.