Thanks for the responses ,am trying to do as much research as I possibly can before deciding.Am not even going to ask about why so many are Mac biased as my knowledge of them is limited.Thanks.

 

I would never buy a mac because the programs i use aren't compatible.
The computer i posted will do any thing and everything you want.

 

Please tell me thats a joke.

 

I would be looking for a refurb from places like tiger direct, buy.com, or even woot.com.

They have great deals and you should be able to get a very nice set up for way less than your budget!

 

No joke, those are the only two I'll spend money on. Computers that last anyway.

HP ? Right lol.

 

I've been in the business for over 15 years and the only name brand CONSUMER GRADE computers I trust are Dells. Gateway is just garbage now that Acer bought them out, and the only decent HP computers are the bigass servers.

Alex, just because you had ONE Dell that ate a couple power supplies does not condemn the company - and just because you have one Gateway that works doesn't mean they are great.

To the OP - you can get quite a machine for that kind of money these days. You can get a Dell New XPS 8300 for $1000 out the door. That has the latest Intel Sandy Bridge quad core processor. I can't build one like that for that price.

 

Yea, I've been using this little Dell Inspiron 1525 since 08. I have a Gateway Monitor plugged into it. The Monitor blew all but two of it's capacitors a year and 1/2 after owning it. Of course Gateway wouldn't replace it, -I was able to fix it myself, luckily.

 

Haha, sorry Raptor but Hp and Gateway are proven to suck way more than Dell. Maybe bad experience with one, but if you take a lot of each I can pretty much guarentee Dell will be better.

If I was you I would try to find a custom build. With your budget like many said you can have a computer equal to around a $2500 Dell. If you don't want to mess with it just go with a Dell of some sort. Then you will have the customer service if something happens where as with a custom you wont.

 

For the money you are looking to spend, I would say it is time to build your own. While I have replaced parts here and there, until this computer, I had never built one from scratch. Since my main focus is digital photography, I needed something with a lot of storage that could handle large RAW type files. Lots of gaming computers out there, but nothing fit my needs. Bought the parts on line, mostly from Amazon {cheapest on many}, New Egg, CDW and Tiger Direct. Had about $2600.00 into the build, but I do have 3 harddrives { one solid state for the programs and two 2tb in a RAID for storage.] and 12gb of RAM. Plus I went way overboard on the case, but it made it easy to build.

The build was about 5 hours with help from my 8 year old...might have been faster without him, but it was fun. Had one glitch installing windows 7, found the answer on the net and away we went.

Here is what I ended up with:

ASUS P6X58D Premium Motherboard
Intel I7-950 CPU @ 3.06GHZ
12gb Corsair DDR3 1600MHz Ram
Corsair TX950 Power Supply
Corsair H50 Liquid CPU Cooler
Intel 160gb SSD Drive-OS & Programs
2 WD Caviar Black 2.0TB drives in a RAID 1 for data
3 120mm Dual Ball Bearing Fans
EVGA GTX 470 Graphics Card
Corsair Obsidian 800D Case w/ 3 140mm fans
LG Blue Ray burner Drive
NZXT Sentry Fan Controller
MS Windows 7 Pro 64bit







As I said, the case is overkill....the drives are all hot swappable and it is bigger than most servers I have seen, but it is a great case to work on and I have to say I am proud of it. It sounds a lot harder than it is.... I did this one just before Christmas and have now built two others for friends...maybe a new way to support my truck habit..??

Woof
Bowser

 

OP - I think you can get something that suits you needs for way less than your budget.

Spend $750+- on the computer, $250 on a monitor, and another $100 or so on keyboard and accessories...

I've been mostly Dell for a long time, but their support and customer service ranges from horrible to superior. One time, you'll get someone who knows nothing and barely speaks English, and the next time you'll get the best support or service possible. Never seen a company be so inconsistent. With my laptop, the bad times outweighed the good, though.

 

I don't care for the consumer line of HP but I wouldn't run anything else but HP in a business environment. We have over 150 clients running a combined 10,000+ HP business desktops and laptops.

I am not saying that Dell or any other brand is worse but I have seen no convincing evidence to make me switch. We have hospitals, schools, universities, city governments, financial institutions, etc. running HP with very few problems. Yes, there will be bad hardware eventually but that happens with any and every brand.

 

Business environment also uses Dells, well hospitals anyway. Dell everything around here, from what I've seen.

 

Thanks again for all the replies,looks like we have narrowed it down to the Dell XPS 8300 that glc had referenced.Looks like a pretty good machine and hopefully will order it tomorrow.Thanks.

 

I hope you haven't ordered it yet. A major flaw in the Sandy Bridge motherboards was revealed yesterday. It's not just a Dell problem, it's Intel. If you have ordered it, try to cancel the order. I would now recommend an Inspiron 580 instead. This uses the previous generation processor and motherboard system, which still performs very well. The one with the i5-760 processor would serve you very nicely.

If you do get the 8300, be prepared to have the motherboard replaced on warranty when the revised boards are released. If Dell is smart, they will put a hold on your order but I wouldn't count on it.

 

Hey glc thanks for the heads up,haven't actually ordered as my wife was waiting for her IT guy at work to come back from holiday before we pulled the plug.Am also still looking at a Mac,am I crazy in considering this over a dell?