Has anyone heard about Systemax PC/Laptops, are they any good?
112232
Sold thru Tigerdirect.com. Excellent value. Use quality components.\n\nhttp://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/category/category_slc.asp?CatId=1416&Nav=|c:1307|&Sort=0&Recs=10\n\nSelect the system that you want to start with then click "configure" and add what you want.
476615
Alienware is WAY overrated! I have two Area-51 laptops and they both have been pieces of crap. Countless hardware issues and slow technical service. I know several others who have had similar encounters with their Alienware computers. They look nice, other than that, they SUCK!\n\nDON'T BUY AN ALIENWARE COMPUTER!
118552
No.  Although if you're just looking for something cheap, wait till your school upgrades.  They'll have old enough systems they aren't good for much else and usually wind up throwing them away.\n\nFor components, www.newegg.com is hard to beat.  You can also watch www.dealnews.com and www.slickdeals.net and piece a system together.  Major problem with buying parts from multiple vendors is when you have a problem, very hard to figure out how and who to resolve it with.
751170
Averatec has received good reviews for their entry level laptops. A few years ago, Consumer Reports gave them high marks because of the value vs. cost factor. The cost of the laptop does not reflect on their quality. They are built well and are fairly reliable.\n\nOn a personal note, my Uncle and one of my friends each have an Averatec. While neither are power user by any means, their laptops very much suit their needs, and then some.\n\nHope this helps.
774687
Go to www.stupidcheapcomputers.net.  I buy all of my stuff from them, and everything is Vista ready.  Vista is going to make all of these "bargain" computers that you can buy at Wal-Mart, Circuit City, etc. JUNK when it is released in January.\n\nI bought a complete, new system from them with a warranty for LESS than it would cost me to build it myself or order a custom one from the manufacturer.  You can use my frequent buyer code: ATX926.  That will get an additional 10% discount at checkout.\n\nI have NEVER had any problems with anything that they have sold me and their customer service is outstanding.  Those guys blow my mind.\n\nThey had a system that was designed from the ground up to be a high end graphics/gaming system (their XW9300 series) for less than $800.  You can't beat that.\n\nGood luck!
1164768
Sweetheart, you can buy a great computer for that at TigerDirect.\nThere good ones are assembled by SysteMax (don't get the E-machines...lots of problems) and you can have them customized with more memory or a dual screen graphics card if you want. \nHere is a (long) list of Systemax computers for sale at TigerDirect...\nhttp://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/search.asp?cat=6&keywords=systemax&noredirect=1
901949
I think they're fairly good, actually. Interesting increase in volume the past week - a delayed reaction following earnings. \nThey have a good position in the marketplace, PCs are commodity-like consumer appliances and it is much easier on the consumer to purchase from a Best Buy than to configure a mail-order Dell - at $500, saving $50 is not worth the additional hassle of not having a physical store service to bring the thing into when something goes wrong.\n\nThe upcoming Vista will offer an increased value proposition to \nconsumers - Apple has shown there is a significant segment of the market will in to pay a big premium for a good operating system Windows will be able to recapture a portion of those buyers. \n\nWith the high-end LCD's that are HDTV capable - Gateway also has a decent cross-over multimedia product - a 24" widescreen monitor/ HDTV is viable product up against the things over in the TV section.
157773
The labtop u get kind of depends on what ur gonna use it for.  Dell are great computers.  The good thing about them are that u can get them custom made for what ever purpose u want them for.  So if u have the money, its good. \n\n I bought two Toshibas and I loved them.  They are a good company.  A lot better than HP or Compaq.  They come with some great features and stuff.  Also, u could go to the Toshiba website and get it some what customized, but not as much as the Dell.  \n\nSony I just think are over priced labtops.  They are great media labtops for like photos and stuff.  I was never into them.  They were more expensive than other labtops with similiar features.
1026977
for the best value/performance ratio, i suggest you try checking out aldi or lidl... i know it sounds crazy, but they actually use good quality components from well-known manufacturers such as pioneer and samsung... you don't end up spending money on a brand name.\n\ni got my laptop from lidl about 18 months ago and it was as good a spec as anything out there - and it's still up there, no problems whatsoever.\n\nit also has a three year guarantee, which dell will charge several hundred quid for...\n\notherwise,  toshiba machines are generally regarded as being very reliable. \n\nof course, if you're not doing a lot of gaming, pretty much any laptop will do the trick nowadays. i would advise against a laptop with shared graphics memory however...\n\ntry and get one that has its own dedicated graphics card and video memory...
418777
The age doesn't matter, it's the planned usage you will want to know.  What do they plan to use the computer for?  Web surfing, music, word processing, etc does not require a powerful system.  Gaming, digital imaging, conquering the world - these are what require power machines.  \n\nI would get them a decent, but budget, prebuilt system.  Preferrably an HP, Compaq, or EMachine (all HP basically since Compaq builds Emachines and HP owns Compaq).  They will come with a recovery partition that will reset the computer to the "out-of-box" setting should anything go wrong.  Some even allow you to keep software and personal files.  Much easier than reformatting, and quicker.\n\nGateway's are crap.  They gave me faulty RAM modules, then when I asked about the type (since it wasn't included in the documentation) they said I HAD to buy it from them to insure compatibility and it would be $184 for a 128MB stick.  I said I have something you can 'stick' somewhere.  Anyway, I went to Circuit City and got some RAM that works fine.  Turns out it was 128MB 100/66MHz RAM in their system.  Not sure about the other specifics.\n\nThat is my parents' computer BTW...they are mid-40s.  They need a new one, too - so while you're at it if you could pick up a decent Celeron-based PC or something for them. - j/k.
864431
Dell or PC World... if you do go to PC World, the advent ones are cheap and cheerful... don't let them talk you into buying anything else for it though (unless its a bag and you want one)!!
364774
It's an awesome laptop. The best thing about it is the Dual Core CPU. The Video Editing performance is awesome what used to take me an hour to do, know only takes 30min.\nNow did you bundle your laptop with the Intel950 video card or did you upgrade for a X1400 or even x1600??\nIf you have the intel 950 you probably already noticed that it sux when playing games. But the x1400 and x1400 are really great video cards for laptops :)\nI like the screen of my laptop nice and bright :)\nOverall very very happy with my laptop.
252517
Try DELL brand! They're cool!
913145
Yes, it's quite reliable, unlike Windows 98/ME and the like. We have equal numbers of Xp and Linux servers at work running webservers, email servers, proxy servers and fileservers and I would say that although XP may not be quite as reliable (have to reboot once every couple of months), it's not bad at all.
317074
Alienware is WAY overrated! I have two Area-51 laptops and they both have been pieces of crap. Countless hardware issues and slow technical service. I know several others who have had similar encounters with their Alienware computers. They look nice, other than that, they SUCK!
548757
Very Good!! Asus socket 939 Mobo; AMD Dual core 4400+ processor; Zalman CPU Fan; 2GB Kingston ValueRAM; EVGA 256MB or 512MB AGP or PCI Card; Two-74GB Western Digital Raptor (10,000 RPM) SATA Hard Drives; a 600 Watt Power Source with fan controls; one 250GB Western Digital SATAII Hard Drive (with the 16MB Cashe) for backups; one 16x Plextor DVD-RW; one Lite-On DVD/CD Combo Drive; one Floppy Drive with Card Reader; Plenty of case fans to keep your cool. 19" monitor, keyboard, optical mouse, 5:1 amplifyed speakers. Joysticks and other interfaces. That'll probably shoot down that $2500 real fast! Try buying at Newegg.com or at Tiger Direct. That might save you some $$!
150575
Dell XPS is a great system. Alienware make better gaming machines...Gateway...they just plain suck.  gateway and e-machines merged a while back. Now its just a bigger company that sells crap computers.