Avian Gamers Network

So im going to college next year and need to pick out a new machine...

Any suggestions I have a dell currently 2.8/1gb ram/Radeon 9800pro/120gb hd/Dvd/Cd-rw

So looking for probably around the same stats with a possible upgrade at the graphic card slot...as far as those go the new names have me totally lost so any help in that department would be amazing

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Ryric Krael
Former Vice President AGN
Former Director, Section 6
Former Head of Department of the Treasury
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Ask not what your PA can do for you, but what you can do for your PA
"Gone Section Five"

Want to give me your old machine? Mine was good when I bought it 4 years ago.

I bought it right before I went off to college just like you're doing now. Nice coincedence.

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Romsuiag (Brad)
Former and Third President of Avian

I don't think he minds the machine above. I just don't think it will be making the trip to college with him

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Dalaran: Arindel - Frost Mage (Mining/Alchemy)
Dalaran: Roran - Paladin (Weaponsmith/Blacksmith)
Dalaran: Baine - Rogue

Del makes good machines and their support is unmatched, but another option you could check out is PC Club. They built my machine for me (3.2 ghz 1gig+ RAM 200gig harddrive Radeon 9800 Pro) and it blew away everyone elses prices. It even has a sweet see-thru cover and blue LED's. And if theyre is a store near where you live they will ship it to the store and you can pick it up there for no shipping costs. So that might be worth looking at for you. www.pcclub.com

Mira

Mirabel,
Nice setup. I've been thinking about getting a new PC... but decided just to upgrade the RAM for a while. I've always been a Dell fan, too. Thanks for the local pickup -- I didn't know they did that!

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--The Hermit

Everyone talks about how good Dell support is... until they're talking with the 10th CS guy in India who still can't seem to understand what it is that you're trying to tell him. Or when they lie to you about warranty dates and try and get you to pay for something that you should be covered for.

I had a nice Dell laptop. After a year I had problems with it. After trying in vain to get the problem corrected, I said "screw it" and paid to have a local guy fix it for me.

I will never buy another PC that wasn't made by either myself, or a local shop with people that I know and trust.

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I never use support line or that warranty stuff.
I don't think they'd be able to help me much anyway with some of the things I've done to computers.

I'm telling ya, disassembling the laptop and then having to order a new screen and cables as a result was a learning experience. I'll know not to put me knee through the screen the next time I do it.

Hehe I know what you mean, my bosses laptop died a terrible death and I had that thing torn down to nothing. It works again now but it now has a pice of tape holding part of it together on the inside

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Section 6

The best way to learn is to rip the PC apart and try it yourself. Only downside is it could be a little costly in the short-term!

As for Dell support, my family has made use of them several times and the service has been excellent. My own PC is still personally custom built though!

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X2-PB

Pathfinder Kingmaker Campaign:
Gednan Malithanar - Wizard (1)
Dukin Thunderstrike - Ranger (1)

Star Citizen: - https://www.robertsspaceindustries.com/
AntanKarmola on their forums

Star Wars: The Old Republic: - Not really playing
Antare Karmola - Jedi Guardian (32)
Antan Karmola - Jedi Shadow (21)
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I have a Dell (2-3 years old or so) and I have had very few problems with it. I had one instance where I had to contact CS and it was dealt with pretty quick.

I too am thinking of a new cpu but might just upgrade the processor and go to 2GB RAM from 1GB.

Of course the best of the best is Alienware but I recall those get a bit pricy. I see they have a nice Star Wars themed case one right now that is pretty spifftacular!

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"I built me a bomb and dropped it on every MFer who got in my way!"

The evil of Dell can be spelled out in one word...proprietary.

We'll give you a FREE this...and a FREE that...only once you get the half empty printer...and have to order the printer cartridges do you realize that you can't drive over to Best Buy and get them...you have to ORDER them from DELL. 50% margins on BS items like that will be enough to sway your opinion in the long run.

Screw that company...if i can learn enough about desktop / laptop computers so can you...order yours from a custom site. I'm not a Woodstock freak advocating Linux here....

Just so you know.................................man!


[/code]

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im also looking to buy a new computer before i head back to school and was wondering if yall knew anything about www.ibuypower.com

hands down they have the best prices ive seen. Im planning on getting a:
AMD® Athlon-64 3800+
ATI Radeon X850-XT 256MB
1gig RAM
150 HD
Dual-layer DVD burner/CD burner
DVD drive
and nice 2.1 speakers

all for 1600.

I think its a good deal but Ive never done business with ibuypower. Are they any good? Unless there is a major problem with them this is the system and place im getting my new pc. Hope this also helps comparing DF.

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Avian Football League 2007 Forum Thread

I've never heard bad things about ibuypower.

Though, when buying computers, I find it's almost always much cheaper to buy things without speakers/printers/extra RAM/etc. It is SOOO MUCH cheaper to just order 512Mb of RAM, and then order another Gig of it over the Web.

I use FROOGLE to search, and found some damn good deals that way -- usually half of the price of what's on Dell's site. Again, the trick is to never buy anything proprietary if you can help it.


Oh, and you probably want to aim for 1.5-2 Gigs of RAM. It'll be worth the extra $120.

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--The Hermit

I've started thinking about buying a new computer myself. I see that Dell is well reccomended which is what I have now, but what about Sony? What have you guys heard about their desktops?

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Romsuiag (Brad)
Former and Third President of Avian

I've had 2 Sony laptops and 1 desktop. I'd really recommend against them -- they're expensive, and have lots of cool bits.... but they are a serious problem when you want to upgrade.

They also have a ton of specialized programs installed that eat of RAM like you wouldn't believe... and I usually wind up just reinstalling Windows to get rid of them all... and then have Driver problems.

If you're looking for reliability and bang for your buck, I'd get the base Dell install, then add extra RAM and an extra Hard Drive from the web.

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--The Hermit

I concur with absolutely everything Yak said. Except my knowledge of sony is second hand rather than first hand. I have bought a stock Dell and as long as you do your own upgrades they usually offer a great deal.

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Dr. Golga Bolg
SWTOR - Golga
Rift - Gnarlwood: Golgar Golgantua Golgate - Retired
WoW - Dalaran: Bolg Golga Virrok All Retired
SWG - Golga Bolg - Doctor (Resident) Retired
Eve - Edge Finn - Limbo
Section 2 - (Former) Director
What am I playing now?: The waiting game

I still don't get it, how people want a machine prebuilt with a heavy price tag. It's still cheaper to buy the components and pay someone to build the PC rather than buying from Dell and affiliates, if you don't know a thing about computers.

For laptops of course this can't be done, so we're alll kinda screwed. I bought an Acer laptop for work and like it a lot. WoW is running fine on it when I'm out of Paris and working someplace else and have to rely on a poor RTC modem to play from the hotel.

For the best deal though, go for a base Dell machine and then upgrade it yourself. The cheapest Dell machines offer all the basics plus an OS and extra software for less than your likely to get anywhere else. They make their money on the optional extras that you put in.

_________________
X2-PB

Pathfinder Kingmaker Campaign:
Gednan Malithanar - Wizard (1)
Dukin Thunderstrike - Ranger (1)

Star Citizen: - https://www.robertsspaceindustries.com/
AntanKarmola on their forums

Star Wars: The Old Republic: - Not really playing
Antare Karmola - Jedi Guardian (32)
Antan Karmola - Jedi Shadow (21)
Arianae Karmola - Gunslinger (20)

Sluggy,
I've built 2 or 3 and bought 7 or 8 preconfigured. I still say go preconfigured, as it's worth the extra $150 or so for the piece of mind that everything will automatically work (and fit in the chasis, and not have any proken parts, etc). Also... once I've done it once or twice, I'd rather pay someone else and save 10 hours of my time to hang out with my wife and dog.

I know PC prices are a bit higher in Europe, so the price is probably much more of a difference there.

Plus, I own stock in Dell, so buy from them.

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--The Hermit

A bit?! It's changed a bit in the last few years but I remember a time when retailers applied a 150% markup on preconfigured machines!

_________________
X2-PB

Pathfinder Kingmaker Campaign:
Gednan Malithanar - Wizard (1)
Dukin Thunderstrike - Ranger (1)

Star Citizen: - https://www.robertsspaceindustries.com/
AntanKarmola on their forums

Star Wars: The Old Republic: - Not really playing
Antare Karmola - Jedi Guardian (32)
Antan Karmola - Jedi Shadow (21)
Arianae Karmola - Gunslinger (20)

Well, we have in France lots of small shops owned by Chinese or Taiwanese people, who import parts in bulk and resell. They do take some liberties with laws such as taxpaying and tariffs, the warrantees are horrible, but when buying Brand products it's a lot less expensive.

Plus, our superstores sell crappy low end machines, if you want a good one, you won't find it at what we have closest to Walmart around here.

The point is, you also...don't have to buy windows and all that software you already own, you just pay the hardware. I'm not going to buy a third licnce for W2K, thanks. (the day I have XP on my computer is the day I'm giving it to my mother in law).

So, it's probably right to say the market is different, but, however, I don't have to spend 10 hours to build a PC from scratch, either. Two, installation included,is more like it. Heck, I did that for a living for three years.

The good side of it is...I can find decent cheese 5 meters from home. ^^

Anybody have any experience with HP laptops?

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I used one old one a long time ago...had a mouse on the Framing of the screen part with buttons on the back...pretty cool actually. so i dunno how they are these days

_________________
Ryric Krael
Former Vice President AGN
Former Director, Section 6
Former Head of Department of the Treasury
-------
Ask not what your PA can do for you, but what you can do for your PA
"Gone Section Five"

I have had 2 friends get HP laptops this summer and they are both very happy with what they got. They got the ones with the 17in screens (I would post a link but the Hp site is down )

Finding a link... one sec...

This is what I think they have but I know they are happy with the HP notebook they just got, and the screen is fantastic.

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Avian Football League 2007 Forum Thread

My mom and sis both have a 17" HP Pavillion, and love them! Only downside is they're a bit heavy, but they do everything with them... never use desktops. The DVD-watching features are great.

MY sis is a pilot, so she holds 'impromptu' movie-watching sessions with hers. She also has it plugged into the cockpit sound system, and DJs for the plane when they're up.

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--The Hermit

I've been itching to pull the trigger on a laptop and have been solely looking at Dells. But, for whatever reason, I started to review HP's. So far I can't figure out why there's such a price difference between Dell's XPS 2 line and HP with similarly equipped models. I'm seeing price differences in what I think are comparable models of over $800.

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I support HP Laptops for my job... (not to the public, but i work for HP supporting a bank that uses HP equipment)

My experience, i have very few complaints with them really. I get constant calls with people bitching that their machine is too old, and they want new ones, so i guess that speaks to the fact that they last a long time. heh.

Hardware wise, the most common call i've probably gotten are the occasional hard drive failure, but thats to be expected when dealing with thousands of machines, half of which probably get tossed around on a regular basis (seriously wouldn't suprise me)

Overall, the HP Laptops seem to be fairly decent, but i don't have information on the prices, compared to other companies.

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~Ravage™
~I know that you believe you understand what you think I said, but I'm not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant.
~The problem with facts, is that sometimes they don't support your opinion.