Time to buy a new computer! But where?

rabidfox · 2012-10-24 23:37:40

Long time, no see beloved #!ers...

Well, my darling Vaio tower from 2004 finally had its power supply blown out, and it took the motherboard with it. It's time for a new one.

Where online can I get a new tower that has:
* personality
* reliability
* solid state drives, high memory, and other specs for GIS and graphical modelling
* parts that won't go out of date as fast as other models

Much love,

Rabid

VastOne · 2012-10-25 01:22:48

Build your own... It is easy, and you get a lot more bang for your buck. I use Newegg for what I need.

merelyjim · 2012-10-25 02:14:56

On towers, it's a lot more fun to build your own. Always had good results with ASUS motherboards.

Laptops? I've had the best luck, compatibility-wise, with Acer and Toshiba. Hewlett-Packard's build quality has gone down since their last CEO went a bit nutty and declared that they didn't want to make computers anymore...

Question is do you want the machine to live in just one room in the house, or do you want to roam around a bit?

Oh, and I second Newegg.com but use Amazon.com as well; unlike a lot of retail shops, returns are falling down easy.

Last edited by merelyjim (2012-10-25 02:17:05)

sunfizz98 · 2012-10-25 02:35:57

I highly suggest building your own, granted that you know the necessary parts to build it and the skill (none is fine too) to complete it. I usually go to newegg.com and amazon.com for my parts. Newegg mostly for reviews and amazon to price matching against it.

lcafiero · 2012-10-25 03:00:24

If you live near a Fry's, you're set -- buy the parts, put it together (hmmm, sounds like a pretty good weekend project for me . . . .). Otherwise, you can probably find some pretty good hardware for fairly cheap. If you want to go with a Linux hardware vendor, you can try ZaReason (truth in advertising -- I've done work for them in the past), and they'll even install CrunchBang for you, if you want.

ZaReason desktops: http://zareason.com/shop/Desktops/

But my vote is for building your own -- it's a great experience.

servingwater · 2012-10-25 04:34:37

I also think that building your own, is the best route.

But I found a site which sells computers with a nice selction of pre-loaded machines (Linux and BSD;s).
I never ordered anything from there but the selection (Hardware and software) seems pretty good.

Could be interesting.....

http://www.swt.com/

ginjachris · 2012-10-25 13:53:29

If you're in the UK and don't have the time or inclination to build entirely from scratch, try these guys:

http://www.arbico.co.uk/

merelyjim · 2012-10-25 14:19:24

^
Problem about talking Foxes; all from Narnia.
And a url like www.amazon.co.nar just look silly. Not even sure they have internet there.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Chronicles_of_Narnia

pvsage · 2012-10-25 19:38:11

@merelyjim: Aside from rabidfox's avatar, I fail to see the relevance of the C. S. Lewis reference within this thread?

merelyjim · 2012-10-25 19:58:03

Sorry, just trying to be funny, but without some indication where the poster lives, it's hard to say which retailer to use.
Fry's is a good example - not found in all of the US, much less in Europe...

iamnutz · 2012-10-25 21:38:22

http://www.tigerdirect.com

they ship anywhere and you can build or buy kits or complete units, been bying from them over 10 yrs now. And as far as motherboards,power supplys, hard-drives.... it all boils down to the specs, name is not so important anymore

joek · 2012-10-26 00:15:51

Also, if any of your surviving parts (RAM? HDD? Graphics card?) would be compatible with a new motherboard, you will be able to save money on them.

R3nCi · 2012-10-26 05:14:15

rabidfox wrote:

Where online can I get a new tower that has:
* personality

Whether or not you build your own computer, personality is not something that comes out-of-the-box. Give it time... and lots of stickers. wink

I know someone who, upon ending up with an old laptop, installed Ubuntu and then proceeded to paint this bizarre circle pattern on the back of it. It actually looked quite interesting - I think I have a photograph of it somewhere.

But that's beside the point. Returning to the question at hand:

How To Customize Your PC Case & Achieve Professional Results : Introduction

Good luck smile

mynis01 · 2012-10-26 18:25:48

I always get stuff from newegg. I've typically had a lot better experience with them than with tigerdirect. I've been using MSI motherboards for my last few builds and so far so good. My current mobo has trouble with overclocking the CPU past 4.0 GHz, but if you're not overclocking I'd say you have nothing to worry about, and you'll probably save some money vs buying a ASUS motherboard. Gigabyte motherboards can run even cheaper and are still fairly reliable, but I've had friends have a couple failures when using their products under extreme stress, usually after 1-2 years of use.

VastOne · 2012-10-26 19:07:56

^ I use Gigabyte mobo's in several machines...I do not do much over clocking but I am coming up on 2 years of use, I will have to keep an eye out for failures...

Thanks for the info...

mynis01 · 2012-10-26 19:56:53

VastOne wrote:

^ I use Gigabyte mobo's in several machines...I do not do much over clocking but I am coming up on 2 years of use, I will have to keep an eye out for failures...
Thanks for the info...

For the record, I've owned several gigabyte mobos before and used them without issue for at least a couple years. But then I sell the machines to someone and it breaks 6 months later. I had a friend give me a gigabyte mobo he had used for light gaming for about a year where the pcie slot was almost completely fried. I've heard of a lot of people having various issues with ASUS mobos recently too. Right now I think MSI is probably one of the best manufacturers as far as the reliability/price ratio. I have a few friends that have been using them for a couple years now with no issue. The socket 2011 one I have right now is only about 6 months old though, so time will tell.

stolid · 2012-10-27 21:55:25

Building your own is definitely the best. One thing newcomers tend to skimp on is a power supply. Get one with nothing less than a 3 year warranty. My new favorite is SeaSonic for their 5 year warranties, but Antec is a good option too. I've had a few power supplies fail over the years, and SeaSonic/Antec weren't any of them. (A bad PSU was one of my first mistakes when I started out. yikes )

I've mostly used Gigabyte mobos - never had any problems. My current one is ASRock. For a SSD, I'd grab a Crucial M4, Samsung 830/840, or Intel, etc. Intel/Crucial/Samsung/Plextor are the most reliable in the SSD space from what I've seen. Check out anandtech.com for hardware reviews. I also buy from newegg.

merelyjim · 2012-10-27 22:46:25

On the power supply, always a good idea to assume your power needs will increase next year.

mynis01 · 2012-10-28 19:10:34

The new OCZ drives using the Indilinx Everest controller are supposed to be a good balance of affordability and reliability, with somewhat substandard performance compared to the Sandforce controllers. This one here is under $100, gets 400 MB/s read 300 MB/s write, and offers 128 GB of storage. I haven't gotten my hands on one yet but most of the reviews I see are fairly positive.

shinji_rei · 2012-10-29 08:37:48

would recommend the Samsung 830 or for high speed the new 840pro (don't get the 840 basic).

rabidfox · 2012-11-22 18:49:29

Thank you, all! I decided to do it piece by piece!

CrunchBang Linux

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#1 2012-10-24 23:37:40

Time to buy a new computer! But where?

#2 2012-10-25 01:22:48

Re: Time to buy a new computer! But where?

#3 2012-10-25 02:14:56

Re: Time to buy a new computer! But where?

#4 2012-10-25 02:35:57

Re: Time to buy a new computer! But where?

#5 2012-10-25 03:00:24

Re: Time to buy a new computer! But where?

#6 2012-10-25 04:34:37

Re: Time to buy a new computer! But where?

#7 2012-10-25 13:53:29

Re: Time to buy a new computer! But where?

#8 2012-10-25 14:19:24

Re: Time to buy a new computer! But where?

#9 2012-10-25 19:38:11

Re: Time to buy a new computer! But where?

#10 2012-10-25 19:58:03

Re: Time to buy a new computer! But where?

#11 2012-10-25 21:38:22

Re: Time to buy a new computer! But where?

#12 2012-10-26 00:15:51

Re: Time to buy a new computer! But where?

#13 2012-10-26 05:14:15

Re: Time to buy a new computer! But where?

#14 2012-10-26 18:25:48

Re: Time to buy a new computer! But where?

#15 2012-10-26 19:07:56

Re: Time to buy a new computer! But where?

#16 2012-10-26 19:56:53

Re: Time to buy a new computer! But where?

#17 2012-10-27 21:55:25

Re: Time to buy a new computer! But where?

#18 2012-10-27 22:46:25

Re: Time to buy a new computer! But where?

#19 2012-10-28 19:10:34

Re: Time to buy a new computer! But where?

#20 2012-10-29 08:37:48

Re: Time to buy a new computer! But where?

#21 2012-11-22 18:49:29

Re: Time to buy a new computer! But where?

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