need complete system

[deane1935]

A friend asked me to recommend a system. Needs before Jan 1st for tax purposes. That eliminates online stores. Only systems I can find locally are HP, Compaq ,Sony and emachines. Don't know about any of them. Any suggestions or opinions appreciated.

[Imperion1]

Have you tried a Mom and Pop shop?
Or, do you know anyone who can build computers?

[elroy]

This will be hard to believe but the e-machines are better machines than the low end HP machines. HP uses a very cheap 4500rpm Quantum hard drive that is prone to failure and e-machines uses 5400rpm Samsung drives. e-machines also uses Samsung ram and cd-roms. They both use Tri-gem motherboards. There have been problems with e-machines power supplies but the HP's use an almost identical power supply. [micro-atx] I too would recommend having one built.

[Rhino302]

Of the 4, I'd say an HP or an E-machine.

[Lycia]

Originally posted by Rhino302
Of the 4, I'd say an HP or an E-machine.


You're kidding right? HP and E-Machines are the worst PCs ever, uhm, built!

I'd say find a mom and pop shop, or if you can't, go with the Compcrap or Sony (Expensive).

[Rhino302]

Nope. I would say Compaq is the most proprietary out of those, and I would bet that Sony is too, although I've never used one.

[scottsaxman]

I've used a couple E-Machines, and a couple Compaqs. The E-Machine computers seem to be more stable, and slightly more upgradeable than Compaq. For just typing, surfing the net, either would probably do. I haven't had any experience with either company's customer service, so I can't factor that in.