average desktop advice

[axon]

hey guys, I'm thinking of getting a new desktop. I really don't need anything fancy, and therefore I'm setting my budget at ~$1100 USD. I don't play many games, so don't need a really great graphics card. I do want a P4 with 2.5ghz+ speed, and 512MB ram or more.

I was looking at bestbuy's site and am thinking of the two below:

1. http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage....&skuId=6780067
2. http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage....&skuId=6733458

any other suggestions? your thoughts about the two above? and please if you want to post something along the lines of "oh man, you should build it yourself!" - please don't. I want to have a good warranty on my pc, and therefore will buy it from "big retail".

[axon]

and I also found these two: I might stay away from the Compaq though, but the prices are really nice....

1. http://www.circuitcity.com/detail.js...&oid=95339&m=0
2. http://www.circuitcity.com/detail.js...&oid=96285&m=0

[EvBladeRunnervE]

I would personally go for the gateway out of those two.

on a side note:

I want to have a good warranty on my pc, and therefore will buy it from "big retail".

erm.... most warranties don't actually cover what is the main cause of most people's hardware difficulties... accidents. I have had many a system from "big retail" that due to something I did or didn't do had its warranty voided. They also tend to be less useful than just a regulare warranty. For example, you do not get the individual hardware warranty with retail systems. This means that if your cpu dies, you are up to the whims of the retail company which may give you a replacement computer of lower value; while if you had gotten a retail chip from Intel, you could get a full replacement of just your chip. Also, there are better warranties on individual pieces of hardware than there are on the entire system, without most of the problems I mentioned regarding "big retail" brands(for example, intel retail packages come with 3yr warranty and you have to be pretty careless to void it). Modern hardware components are pretty hardy and odds are slim you have to replace anything anymore(unless you are OCing it or something along those lines).

[axon]

actually...all my previous PCs had problems and ALL had been fully covered with their extended plans.

[RoD]

Dell = Full coverage + affordable.

[Vicious]

I say head to walmart and get an emachines. You probably of course wont get the waranty but with the money you have left over you wont need it

[prog-bman]

I don't know about you but I would go with circuit city just because of their freaking awesome customer service. Best Buy tend to get a little nit picky when it comes to those kind of things

[ober]

I don't recommend Compaq or HP for desktops. If anything, I'd get the Gateway, but you should really consider looking into Dell. And if you do, check out www.bensbargains.net because he tends to put a lot of dell coupons on there.

That Gateway computer does seem like a decent setup.

[RoD]

Stay away from walmart computers. Nothing but headaches.

[axon]

I'm not too fond of emachines and the like; and I also have something against Dell...not sure what it is - just don't like them. Actually I build a computer to the same specifications as the gateway and it cost way more from Dell...

Right now I'm deciding between the Gateway and the HP from circuit city - it's only $800!

Progbman, I few years ago (er 5) I worked at BestBuy...and believe it or not, I still now some people who work there and who might be able to hook me up with BestBuy's awsome discount

[EvBladeRunnervE]

I also have something against Dell...not sure what it is - just don't like them.

they are the Microsoft of PCs.

I don't know about you but I would go with circuit city just because of their freaking awesome customer service. Best Buy tend to get a little nit picky when it comes to those kind of things

But doesn't Circuit City tend to be quite a bit more expensive; I thought Axon was looking for something that would not bite too deep into his wallet.

[Thantos]

I don't know about you but I would go with circuit city just because of their freaking awesome customer service

My family has had nothing but a pain in the arse with Circuit City's customer serverice. I remember one time when the CS Manager came out and started feeding my mom a line of bs, we asked for her boss and she told us he wasn't there. While my mom kept talking to her I walked over to the employee at the counter asked him who the CS Manager's boss was, got his name and found out he was still in the store. Needless to say I had him paged and informed him of the situation and what the CS Manager had said and we quickly got our way

[Vicious]

Same here with circuit city, bought an hp there and oh boy, never again.

We wound up sending the HP to them and they said they couldnt fix it, so we called HP and they wouldnt take it under warranty because circuit city looked at it wich apparently voided the waranty. So we had to pay HP to replace the harddrive. (Which actually wasnt the problem, I found out myself later that it was simply a bad memory card)

But seriously I havent had a single problem with this emachines one. It was dirt cheap and it comes with everything you need (including a recovery disk, recovery disk is my friend since they stopped givving you the Windows cd)

Also, have you looked into building your own? If you shop smart you could come out with a very nice machine at a very low cost.

EDIT:

2.60 GHz Intel Pentium 4 processor
eView 17F3 17" flat-screen CRT monitor
512 MB memory
80 GB hard drive
Intel Extreme Graphics 3D
8-in-1 digital media manager
DVD +/-RW and CD-R/RW combo drive
Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition

thats like $698 at walmart.com but you can get a cheaper one without the DVD-RW for like $598.

And there are two things that bite my butt,

Walmarts HP/Compaqs.... and a midget about 3ft high.

[axon]

well, this particular machine I want to buy ready, and good to go....I don't have time to order parts, and then play around with them to build a pc - but maybe the biggest drawback to this is the warranty aspect which I mentioned in my OP...if something fscks up in a DIY pc, in most cases you have to fix it yourself....which pretty much means buying a new part. If I buy a PC from a store, and get an extended plan I should be pretty much covered all around.

[Waldo2k2]

Well if you're comfortable with a pc like that then go for it, but I find that extended warranties usually don't pay, it's a few years after the warranty that gets you. Especially when you buy a computer from big companies, they tend to make it as difficult as possible to get something replaced.