I've always found most hardware to be fiddly. I prefer to concentrate on which operating system to run (Linux in my case) than on the hardware. As has been said though, building a barebones system is probably the best if you can. I've put together a couple of barebones in my life and if you have basic mechanical/electrical skills it's not too difficult.

I'm using a Dell GX240 right now (Pentium 4) that we purchased from a place called Intechra for about $150.00. Came with keyboard, mouse and power cord. For that cheap you can replace it in a few years if need be but we have had really good luck with stuff from that place.

Here's a link:

http://www.intechraoutlet.com/rbwww/home/

No, I don't work for them and don't get a kickback As the BBC says: Other makes of off lease computers are available

I build my own but it's hard to beat Dell's or HP's prices nowdays.

I just have a hard time understanding the service reps when I have to call from work when their english is mainly Indian and the connection has an echo in it from being 15,000 miles away.

I also have a problem with hiring out to foreign companies to save a buck.

I believe in service and when I worked for a major software company I knew, as a customer too, that this person wanted help - and I gave it to them as fast and friendly as I could - America doesn't want to afford that these days.

Credit card company sold out to India, told the lady to close my account (TO get the interest rate lowered - and she DID......any American would have sent me to their manager to keep me as a customer.....

Culture clash I guess.......

Otherwise HP seems to be back to building darned good computers.

If you are so inclined, building your own can't be beat. Believe it or not, if you're not so picky about having the latest tech, there are a lot of otherwise nice machines with blown caps thrown out by local tech shops. Capacitors are very cheap and install easily if you are competent with a soldering iron. If there are enough wrecks to choose from, one can often cobble something largely complete together from mere rubbish. Two of my servers came to being in this fashion:D

Personally, I think Windows is no longer a viable OS, even in its latest incarnation. Mac, Linux, or (for the brave) BSD are the only operating systems I trust these days.

I have had great luck with both of my Gateways. I have one mounted on a pedestal arm in my truck. I've got the pedestal fairly well strapped down, but still the poor notebook takes a lot of bouncing around. Works great. It freezes sometimes when the temperatures get too low, but then I usually take it in when it hits about -20F. Not a bad deal for $299 new.

My other is a regular laptop that I haul all over to deal with some of my tax clients on site. No problems yet in two years. I use an HP for my office, and it too is great.

Well I have had Dells for years util I found that ALDI's were providing very well equipped higher end machines (Medion) for less money. So far with the Medion I have lost one power supply after 4 years of always on operation. The fan got noisy and it was easier to replace the whole supply than to mess about replacing the fan. Not sure what their service is like. Haven't had occasion to call on it.

My laptop is an old PIII Dell Inspiron 7500 that still does all I need to do with it, year in year out. In short I have no complaint about Dell but haven't bought anything new from them for 6 or 7 years

The initial failure might have been simply a failed or failing bushing on a cooling fan motor in my power pack. However, Dell PCs and laptops do apparently have a tendency to overheat. Looking at the cooling system in my PC, I find this hard to grasp. The systems looks substantial.

Blaise (imported) wrote: Wed Feb 13, 2008 1:56 pm I am still without a computer. Dell did send me a new motherboard. My brother tells me that I can easily install it. (He is an electrical engineer.) I wait for funds to have the thing repaired.

If you know what you are doing, you can replace the mother board. However, there was more to replacing it than I realized. A friend replaced it for me. At this time,

Blaise (imported) wrote: Wed Feb 13, 2008 1:56 pm I am still without a computer.

A guy at work had me look at his Dell mini tower, I think it might have been a D400 or something like that. It seemed like it was a loose cap or another component as it was effected by it going from hot to cold to hot, etc. Thermal expansion can play hell with electronics, and the problem can be hard to isolate. Usually its easier, faster and less expensive just to replace the major components, like the motherboard.

From my experiences Dell support was great, but that was quite a few years ago, so things sound like they have changed. Personally, I'm pretty hooked onto Lenovo, especially their laptops like the X and T series. That new X300 would make a nice addition especially with the solid state drive. Gives me a thinking about it...

In terms of replacing a motherboard I reckon that at todays' prices and rate of obsolence, you would be just as well off throwing the old one away and buying a new one if you are having problems with it. It will cost a bit more but will save you lots of grief.

Traditionally (at least as far as I'm concerned,) there are three parts to the computer that are very closely tied together. You replace one, you should replace them all. They are the motherboard, CPU, and RAM.

Of course, I'm one of those people who finds replacing a motherboard a fairly simple chore, more a nuisance than anything else.

One thing to note though, if you replace the motherboard, I'd recommend you reinstall whatever Windows system you're using. Please be sure to back up anything important before doing so, however. And as a final word of caution, when dealing with any OEM computer (such as Dell), Microsoft has ruled in the past that the license key of the operating system is tied to the old motherboard. So unless you are replacing it with an identical model, there is always the chance that MS will unilaterally declare that you need to purchase a new copy of Windows to go with it. It's complete bullshit, but what do you expect from MicroShaft?

(One way around this may be to go ahead, reinstall Windows, and just tell the Indian tech at the other end you're simply doing a reinstall and nothing has changed..)