Dell or HP or Other?

[jordan.]

I am looking to purchase a desktop and am wondering which manufacturer (and also which model from said manufacturer) you guys recommend these days. I need the desktop mostly for work and occasional gaming. It needs to be able to run multiple VM's for work and I also do some freelance web design.

I know the first thing you guys will say is to do a custom build. Unfortunately I live on a small island with some dumb tax laws where if I order all of the parts individually for a custom build, I will get charged with duty on each part which ends up being almost double the original cost. If I order a complete build, I can get it duty free. It's stupid I know, but that's how our government works.

My budget is $2000 but flexible.

Cheers for any help.

Jordan.

[TokiToki]

It needs to be able to run multiple VM's for work

You should look for a processor that has Virtualization Extensions and make sure the BIOS supports it.

I bought my Dad a Dell Inspiron 530 a year ago and he hasn't had any problems with it. My lab has all high end Dell Workstations. For the most part, we've had no problems with those either.

[Ayepecks]

I've had problems with laptops from both companies, but in terms of desktops they've both been fine. Just whatever you can get a better deal on.

[Haptic]

I've had a dell for about a year now with no problems. You should be shooting for the 1000's range considering you don't need it for anything high-end.

[jordan.]

Thanks for the fast responses guys. What do you think of the workstation lines vostro/optiplex/precision? How are these different from the home office lines inspiron/studio/xps?

Also, anyone have any exprience with Lenovo desktops? I have a Lenovo w500 notebook and love it.

You should look for a processor that has Virtualization Extensions and make sure the BIOS supports it.

Is this like Intel vPro?

[TokiToki]

Not vPro, Intel VT-x or AMD-V

I recommend you read this:

http://www.anandtech.com/it/showdoc.aspx?i=3263

Without hardware virtualization extensions, you cannot virtualize a 64-bit guest OS or take advantage of Microsoft's XP Mode.

[Spartan Erik]

Jordan., if you plan on getting a Dell computer, I highly recommend checking out www.dealcatcher.com

I purchased a Dell Vostro 220MT for $498 with these specs (+ free shipping):

3 GHz C2D, 6 MB L2

3 GB RAM

500 GB HDD

Integrated graphics

22" Widescreen LCD Monitor (native res 1080p)

Dedicated sound card

Optical mouse, keyboard

Now this was in 2008 dollars, so obviously components then were more expensive than they were now. Still a pretty good deal for a stock system.

Since then I've upgraded the stock 300W power supply to a 650W Corsair, dumped integrated graphics for a GTX 260 (barely enough clearance), and have added an SSD as my primary boot drive.

The majority of the computers in my house were purchased through Dell Small Business with deals featured on www.dealcatcher.com

Slickdeals and Dealnews are also good sites to look for manufacturer/retail discounts and sales

http://configure.us.dell.com/dellstore/con...249294-v220_529

Heh this deal was featured on dealcatcher today in fact..