<p>But rarely as good, renix.</p>
<p>that would be true assuming you use faster parts. and better parts usually mean more $ not necessarily more reliable. ive spent more time than is healthy trying to price my own parts plus shipping and compare the cost to buying. im still standing by my statement. and i know where to get the stuff at bottom dollar. easier to buy one made and change out a few parts. and when i say buy one made, im not always talking walmart i mean like monarch and all those online places. however, at least walmart takes things back and you dont have to pay shipping or wait to receive it</p>
<p>point is, i would dispute that modestmelody. you can build one that's higher quality but it will cost you in time and money (since time=money) and might be more expensive!</p>
<p>Monarch is great, and I used them to get a pretested mobo, cpu, and RAM combo. I didn't pay a dime of shipping, though, so look around, and since it takes about 1-2 hrs to put together a computer with beter components than any major company, its not worht the extra 80 dollars or so to get Monarch or someone like that to build it, not to mention the money i lose by not buying the cheapest prices at several stores and being locked into one place.</p>
<p>ok...i'm pretty much set on a desktop now. I will probably be buying one from Dell since I have never assembled a comp before and I don't have any experience dealing with hardware problems. This is not set in stone however.</p>
<p>My question is that is it allright to receive the computer at my box number at Brown (i.e. will their be any chance of damage to the comp or loss of the comp) or is it better if I receive it at my place of stay and then get it to Brown (difficult to implement since I'll also be carrying so much luggage with me).</p>
<p>buy from dell rep on campus?</p>
<p>Does it cost the same as buying directly from the site? </p>
<p>Can I get any comp configuration or only fixed configurations are available?</p>
<p>How soon can I get the computer if I buy from the dell rep?</p>
<p>And what modes of payment does the rep accept?</p>
<p>Don't buy a dell. From anyone.</p>
<p>In any case, have the computer shipped to 75 Waterman ST #XXXX, where XXXX is your box number. Don't tell the website that it's a box number. It shouldn't get lost.</p>
<p>You mean, I shouldn't buy a dell from a person instead of the website or I shouldn't buy a dell at all?</p>
<p>I wouldn't buy a Dell at all, personally.</p>
<p>Well, I don't want to buy a Mac because they are too expensive. Dell is the cheapest and my Dell desktop has worked fine for over two years.</p>
<p>Do you have any other recommendations besides Dell?</p>
<p>Dell is the cheapest? looks on techdeals and slickdeals to get specials. also check newegg and tigerdirect</p>
<p>How's HP's customer service and quality?</p>
<p>I would not buy from Tigerdirect. Notorious for screwing people on rebates.</p>
<p>then dont get a rebate item</p>
<p>Why bother with a company that hsa massive issues in one aspect of customer service when so many companies out there like NewEgg have no such issues and better prices?</p>
<p>HP has decent customer service and quality. You'll be on the phone for 5 hours, but they will help you. I had an HP before my mac and it was good.</p>
<p>ive had issues with newegg and had to ***** at their customer service for about 30 minutes before they offered me anything to resolve the issue. just because YOU have had no issues doesnt mean they do not exist.</p>
<p>but ill still buy from both places, although very carefully</p>
<p>I'm pretty damn surprised. Newegg is pretty universally renowned for having great service while the reverse is true of TigerDirect. I'm sorry your experiences have been the reverse, but resellerratings.com will tell you all you need to know when buying online.</p>
<p>The truth is, OP, if you need a desktop and can take advantage of what that iwll offer even coming from as far as India, you should really just build yourself. It's literally like connecting the colored dots.</p>
<p>Thanks for all the advice.</p>
<p>I understand that a desktop is easy to assemble. Thing is, I have no experience dealing with hardware problems.</p>
<p>When was the last time you had a hardware problem other than, "This no longer works at all."? Also, realize that the individual components you get when building yourself are of far greater quality than what Dell is selling you-- your RAM is better, motherboard is better, power supply is better (big deal that people don't realize), etc etc.</p>