Best/worst computer brands.
- Thread starter CastletonSnob
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Pretty much. There's a pretty robust amount of laptop reviews to checkout on Youtube to find a model that suits your needs while not getting one that has issues (mainly heat issues usually). All desktops should be pretty robust, it's just figuring out what you actually need/want and buying the right type of model. If you just wanna surf the web, stream videos, use Office, and whatnot, just about anything will do just fine. A rule of thumb for me for most anything is buy one step up from bottom tier and you'll usually be more than fine (like get at least a Core i3 CPU from Intel or any kind of Ryzen from AMD vs their very budget-priced CPUs). Like there's no need to buy a $700+ phone, but probably don't buy a bottom tier $80-$100 phone, a $150-$250 phone will be more than enough for 99% of people. There's always the option of finding a local place that will build a desktop for you and you can actually talk with them and discuss what you want out of the system, the price difference I would think would be rather minimal doing that vs buying a Dell or HP or whatever.
Most of the data I've found about which computer brand makes the most reliable has been about laptops.
But laptops as a whole don't last as long as desktops.
But laptops as a whole don't last as long as desktops.
- Feb 7, 2011
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For the people in this thread who said Dell is a good brand, here is yet more reason that Dell fucking sucks:
Oooof, that’s a paddlin’ Dell. And it was me who said Dell was a good brand. I stand by that; but again I live in Australia so they have to run under our rules. Which are somewhat more stringent than the US. That dirty trick with the mobile number would lead to a government prosecution by the ACCC and likely a seperate civil suit from the user. Fuck I’m surprised GamersNexus didn’t sue Dell for that.
Anyway, all the products and support I’ve had from Dell has been bulletproof. That they pulled this obscene shit doesn’t change that.
- Feb 7, 2011
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There's now 3 videos from 3 different sources in this thread about Dell support scamming customers out of money.
Dell does not have good support.
Maybe you should check all of your billing statements to make sure you weren't charged for warranties you didn't buy.
I did and I wasn’t, but by the same token I didn’t buy direct - I bought through a reseller. And I have a feeling the corporate billing section is a lot less shady than these dopey fucks because big contracts pay well and overcharging/under delivering is a good way to get sued and lose the contract.
I feel like the pre-builts from major manufacturers probably have a lot of the same issues. Proprietary parts and low-watt power supplies is probably really common. If your pre-built doesn't come with a video card, then that power supply is shit and you'll need to buy a new one if you get a GPU in the future and hopefully it's not a proprietary part either. Then, most pre-builts come with Win 10 Home vs Pro. It's probably best to just find a local place and tell them what you want and have them build it even if it's a bit more money because you won't have some surprise waiting for you when you go to upgrade or replace something. Or buy one of those mini desktops that HP and Lenovo make that are made for business use and come with Win 10 Pro and I'm guessing a lot less bloat software (I'd assume at least since it's for businesses, we re-image them at work so I don't know what software comes preinstalled). They take up less space than a laptop and if you get one with a Ryzen in it, you got decent gaming capability. And they only cost like $500 and will do everything 99% of people need a computer for.
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Most of the ones like that we get were I work just get loaded with a corporate built SOE. If you let them build it’s no different than if you bought it from a manufacturer. So the bloat is probably the same. Although if you let it build you might be able to use the Win10 media creation tool to create a bootable Win10 USB and then do a clean install of the same OS without Dell’s crap. You’d lose the recovery partition but if you’re savvy enough to do the above - assuming this dodge will work - then you’ll probably be fine.
If you want to, you can image the "stock" PC before wiping it and reimaging with base Win10 (though even that is super bloated). Even at work, "our" Win10 image is still bloated way more than my personal PCs at home, I really gut Win10 basically as much as you can; I can run a browser with 50+ tabs, a game, photo editor, video editor, LibreOffice, and more with less used RAM than my work PC after a restart and me not opening a single program.
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- Feb 7, 2011
- 8,572
- 3,095
- 118
- Country
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- 3 children in a trench coat
Well, that video was certainly dramatic. What the fuck though, Dell?
Been a while but when DDR3 had been around for a while, buddy bought a new HP to make a Minecraft server out of and cracked it open only to find that the RAM in it was older than DDR3. The Bios was so locked down by HP we had difficulty getting into it so we could boot to a new OS. I don't recall if we ever were able. And I think these companies always skimp on the power supplies. First thing to blow up on you.
My next "build" will likely be from Microcenter. You pick the parts. They have a PC builder on their website that you can run through to ensure compatibility. Then if you're getting old like me, give 'em $150 to build it for you (I've been building my own since around 1994 but I think I'm done doing that). You're going to pay a lot but you'll have what you want in there, and put a fresh OS on there without bloatware. I think it worth the extra expense.
I recall an ad for Best Buy charging I think $299 to install your game console at home. That $150 ain't so bad honestly.
Holy... I am old enough to remember people asking for help to install a VHS. So, good not to feel that helpless!
- Feb 7, 2011
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The funny thing is that this is the first of two videos GN made about just how many ways this system is terrible. Here's the second, which just came out today:
Looks like the current price is $150. I remember seeing the ad and thinking if I did pay them money to do it, I'd make them do a static IP and whitelist the MAC address or maybe tell them to get me NAT1 so I get a higher chance of host advantage in multiplayer games, and watch how long it takes them to figure it all out.
This service does not include network setup or configuration
Though you could still have your network MAC filtering and no DHCP running and have them scratching heads trying to figure out why it won't connect, which is part of the service: We'll set up one gaming console and connect it to your existing wireless network. Though network config and connecting to your network are sorta interconnected to each other.