Bought a Dell

[4W4K3]

Dells, HPs,Sonys they're all the same, except for compaq which is 10x worse and there is no reason to get one, if you have little money, unless you're stupid and/or extremely clumsy build your own, if you have lots, again build your own or go with custom made like alienware or falcon-nw, and forget the warranty **** most of newegg's parts have at least a 1 year warranty thru them or manufacturer. + you cannot do shit with HPs or Dells, i would know as im sitting on one now. No bios change, annoying HP spyware/software,shit OCing bad drivers SHITTY proprietary parts... thie list goes on, DONT BUY COMPAQ EVER, same with hp and dell and sony and emachine and.... you get the point

might think of:

1. not everyone wants to overclock.
2. more than half of people using computers dont even know what BIOS is
3. A $500 DELL is probably MORE than the average computer even needs to do what they do (e-amil, internet, watch DVD's...etc)


I have a compaq laptop and have no problems with it in the 2+yrs. of owning it. Doesn't overheat or anything surprisingly. Also have older Desktop AMD 475MHz computer...never had problems with it. What is wrong with your compaq's?

agreed on the getting job done, but which is worth more? the time to build a custom pc or the money to buy a dell and then twice the time it would take to make custom dealing with tech support like this: http://www.illwillpress.com/tech.html

why do you need tech support? i have probably 13 HP/Dell/IBM/Compaq/emachines computers in my house...never called tech support once in my life. If one has a problem i simply fix it myself. If you cannot fix it (dont know how i guess) then Google it. i honestly have found EVERY answer to my computer questions online or from word of mouth. googel is very n00b friendly

 

[Codeine]

I sure do.

 

[GageMW]

omg. dont get me started, it might be because the best buy guy sold me it with windows ME stating compaq's ran better on it, it might be because it had the crappiest WD hard drive to ever exist, it might be because when it crashed for absolutely no reason the tech support was on pot (not kidding) it might be because it was $1300 but slower then shit, it might be because i later find out it had refurbished parts, it might be because the memory was defective, it might be because it nearly fried me when i pushed power button to turn it on... must i continue?

 

[GageMW]

and to the google, i wasn't very techy at that time, nor did i have the time to fix it as i was working 2 jobs, college, and a GF

 

[4W4K3]

omg. dont get me started, it might be because the best buy guy sold me it with windows ME stating compaq's ran better on it, it might be because it had the crappiest WD hard drive to ever exist, it might be because when it crashed for absolutely no reason the tech support was on pot (not kidding) it might be because it was $1300 but slower then shit, it might be because i later find out it had refurbished parts, it might be because the memory was defective, it might be because it nearly fried me when i pushed power button to turn it on... must i continue?

i'm sorry you can't shop for computers? buying a crappy computer/overpriced/and on Windows ME is entirely your fault. i do not believe the high techsupport people or sales clerk brainwashed you. if at the time you didn't know alot about computers, i understand. but that doesn't mean it's entirely everyone elses fault. there job is to sell you a computer and make a profit...no matter your expense.

if you don't have time to mess with computers or tinker with them...how do you have time to play games or overclock them? that doesn't make sense to me.

 

[GageMW]

at THAT time, i now run 1 steady job, same girlfriend but less sporatic, far more techy now with far more time, and the computer itself had good parts for the time but it just ran way slower then everyone elses and i barely did anything, hardly ever played games on it

 

[4W4K3]

at THAT time, i now run 1 steady job, same girlfriend but less sporatic, far more techy now with far more time, and the computer itself had good parts for the time but it just ran way slower then everyone elses and i barely did anything, hardly ever played games on it

ah...that makes sense lol. i was a bit confused. i do more "playing around" in my BIOS then i do in games lol. and probably more time on forums than anything, "forum-a-holic".

 

[Cappy]

Ive worked on a lot of Dell systems and you get what you pay for. The last system i worked on had no DVD player only a CD drive and CDRW drive .One of those $499 specials i wouldnt buy a Computer that couldnt read a DVD hehe .There CPU`s are underclocked along with the memory and theres nothing you can do about it .A Sony system i worked on had underclocked memory
But it was advertised at a higher FSB than what it would actually do.False advertisement at its finest .Half the time Tech support personel barely no what the blinking light means on there phone answering console .
Ive had good luck and support for the Gateway Systems ive purchased 7-8 years ago.Not sure how well there support is now but they were very knowledable and fixed any problems i had.Plus replaced my hard drives/keyboards/mouse for free when i broke them. In fact the PII 233 and the PIII 750 systems from Gateway are still going strong

 

[mrdinkel]

I've had more luck with my one gateway laptop (900 MHZ p3 Mobile) than i'd had with my Compaq and HP. The reason that HP and Compaq sucked so horribly is because they were way underpowered. This P3 i have i can even dual-boot linux on. Even after i replaced the HDD on the HP i couldn't dual-boot.

 

[Joeisalsocool]

This is quite the interesting thread. As an EX Compaq user myself, I can safely say, that building your own computer is not only cheaper, but it also gives you a little education as to how they work.
In 2002 that thing cost $1000. It was a P4 1.5GHz, 512MB crap RAM, cheasy 16MB Verto, and a 40GB WD. After just a day of looking through it, I knew the graphics card needed to be upped, and I needed more RAM.
Not to mention that there was a 4GB partition with restore crap on it... Yeah, makes them completley sure of thier products.
I had already spent my life savings on this POS. On top of that the hard drive died a year and a half later. Needless to say, I sold what I could, and made my own.

When you buy these well known products, you are only paying for the name, not the quality. Boo to all of them.
-Joe