[SOLVED] Best/worst computer brands.

[castletonsnob]

If you don't feel like building your own computer and would rather get a prebuilt, What are the best major computer brands? The worst?

 

[Dj0gany]

Depends on where you live, but NZXT BLD has a really good reputation.

 

[punkncat]

Super hard to answer simply due to the availability of mainstream and boutique builders out there.
My suggestion is that if you are dealing with a prebuilt and truly want quality, try to deal with the ones that either offer the specific model of device they are using, or allow you to pick it. Many of them will use very generic terms regarding this by way things like "such and such chipset" or "such and such GPU" (like saying B550 and RTX3060) without an actual model number. Things like 1TB SSD with no other information.

Some local shops will do builds, as will places like MicroCenter and such. The big issue you will have right now is finding one with a GPU at anything close to reasonable pricing.

 

[Eximo]

Are you including boutique and custom service offerings? Or just the major OEMs?

Dell tends to have crappy designs and poor service, but they are one of the few offering RTX 30 series cards on the regular.
Faults: potential 12VO power supply. Single channel memory
Alienware premium. You get funky chassis at great expense. Not much better then Dell XPS.

HP seems to be out of stock on everything, so can't say much there.

ASUS only sells through other resellers, so hard to judge them. But they tend to use their own off the shelf parts. Makes upgrades later quite easy.

Lenovo seems to always be the cheapest, but seem to be the cheapest made. Some of the Legion models may be okay.

 

[USAFRet]

Friends don't let friends buy CyberPower and iBuyPower.

 

[punkncat]

Friends don't let friends buy CyberPower and iBuyPower.

To be fair, I was going to mention them. Based on traditional reviews they are terrible.
A friend of mine just purchased from Cyber, and the site allows for picking of specific parts as a build option now. He got a well spec'ed and decent system. The GPU ended up being faulty and other than the time involved in getting it back, the process was quite seamless for him.
I still wouldn't go so far as to put them at the top of the stack, but it is nice to see they have been paying attention to the customers.

 

[Eximo]

In terms of pricing, yeah iBuyPower And CyberPower are a little much. But they have gotten better at shipping and customer service.

That said, they do have access to GPUs, and they aren't scalping too bad above their normal building/shipping fees.

As long as you pick out their higher end parts, or plan to swap them out once you have it, seems fine to me.

 

[USAFRet]

Unless their assembly QA has gotten a LOT better, and the warranty period is better...still a pass.

Their standard warranty is 1 year. No matter what the individual parts may carry.
"Company warrants to the original purchaser that the Product(s) shall be free of any defect in material or workmanship for a period of three years for labor and one year for parts "
https://support.cyberpowerpc.com/hc/en-us/articles/360015111033

If your HDD dies at 13 months, too bad, so sad.
Even though that same drive, bought off the shelf at BestBuy or NewEgg, would have a 3 year warranty.


Assembly? Well....some of the things we've seen here are just laughable.


There are too many other options to bother with those ones.

 

[sonofjesse]

Dell XPS back in the day used to actually mean something, I had an XPS 8300 (since it was dirt cheap, and cheaper than building). Well I went to upgrade the video card and it would reboot all the freaking time(power supply)

It was a uber pain to fix a CX corsair 650 into that case and the air flow was a nightmare having the 3.5 drive bays maxed out. Thing was like a furnace on the inside.

Dell even on the XPS has crap power supplies and cases are trash.

Dell customer service years ago was subbed out. I had a bad DVD drive on a new Dell 4700. They finally came out and replaced it, but it was an uber pain, and wouldn't just ship the part. (yet again I got the 4700 based on cost, instead of building)

I would try a local computer store?? Not a big thing on the internet, somebody you can see face to face and deal with. If you have a friend or a Microcenter close use one of them instead.

If your not going to game, and your just going to use chrome/edge, prebuilt Dells are fine. If you something better its really fun to pick out a good PS and the parts. Even if you don't go super high end, good chance you can reuse the case and PS for the next build and save money!!

 

[Eximo]

All pre-builts are kind of bad if you just accept the computer as in, plug it in and turn it on. After shipping I wouldn't trust anything in there.

Needing to properly configure settings in the BIOS is pretty common even with some of the OEM builds.

Replacing crappy stock heat sinks is another OEM must, usually way too small. Though AMDs stock heatsink is decent enough if you leave it alone, but that isn't what OEMs tend to ship to save 3 dollars a unit.

Right now, I wouldn't ignore being able to pay a premium and getting a few spare parts in exchange for a GPU. Could intentionally pick out parts to swap into your current build for sale.

 

[SamirD]

I would try a local computer store?? Not a big thing on the internet, somebody you can see face to face and deal with.

This is the best way to go. Keeps local people in business too.

 

[jtk2515]

I would say Dell alien ware is very poor. That being said I just bought one anyway, Because at the end is comes down to what price you can get it for and dell has alot of good deals and those can be combined with credit card promos and their 6% off. you can use multi credit cards to make a purchase. so if you have a promo for 5% off and also a promo for 100$ off 600$ on a credit card they become very cheap.

I just bought a R10 for 1550$ Shipped to me. 1400$ after amex offer and 6%back from dell. 5600x/6800xt/1000w/120mmRadiator/8gbmemory. Just make up your build then click chat with support and give them your shopping cart code and ask for a discount. They will give you 10-20% off.

The Alienware R10 MB has no resizable bar, memory max voltage 1.4v, core curve and manual bios CPU overclocking. Overclocking has to be done in alien ware command center or ryzen master. The air cooled option is very very bad. So get the liquid cooling options or plan to upgrade even then it is 120mm so stay below 100watts. If your getting anything over a 6 core I would not recomend buying a R10/R11 or R12. Air cooling option does not have vrm heatsinks. dell's uses memory that is cl 20 so install aftermarket memory. Also the R10 uses a case with very little airflow.

As far as the PSU's the 1000w and above PSU are very high quality. Alot of them are cross platform between alien ware and their workstation desktops.

I have bought 2 PC's from Ibuypower and they both have been Good Pc's, But right not I just cannt justify the cost increase, about 900$ more for a similar build.
At the end of the Day it all comes down to cost and what trade offs your willing to make.

Right now I am making around 6$ per day after eletrical cost using nice hash when I am not gameing. It is also around 0c here and it heats up my room nicely.

 

[castletonsnob]

I've heard complaints about all the major brands.

Is "best major computer brand" relative?

 

[Eximo]

Yes, most people are going to go by anecdotal evidence. Objectively, it depends what you are comparing.

Hardware
Upgradeability
Assembly
Shipping/Packaging
Warranty
Support
Price

All of them are good or bad in some respects.
Most OEMs and builders overcharge for simple upgrades.
OEMs tend toward cheap power supplies (Though that is sort of changing with 12VO, high quality, but difficult to deal with for the moment)
Single channel memory with OEMs
Cut down motherboards with features stripped off for no other reason than cost savings (not passed on to you)
Everyone is always handing out cheap keyboards and mice for no real reason.

Boutique builders use off the shelf parts, so that is a plus. But assembly quality varies and their build selection might not be what you are after.
Though you do get semi-custom chassis from some of them, overclocking assistance, etc if you want to pay for it.