Good pc sources

[Dan Mitchell]

I'm in the market for a new PC. Being unaware of any alternatives, I've been looking at Dell. But they don't offer any AMD processors, and I'm currently leaning towards the Athlon. Also I'm guessing there are cheaper alternatives to Dell. So:

What are some good (meaning best value) PC sources?

In general terms, is the Athlon superior to the Pentium III?

Or perhaps there's another option for best "less than all-out but not bottom-feeder" PC?

Thanks,

Dan

[bassvax]

Looks like you're interested in buying the package deal...Dell is an excellent source for this type of buying. If you are a power user and want customization and tweaking abilities though, you're better off building your own, or as you have stated going the AMD route (IMO).
To do a strictly stat by stat comparison of diff types of CPUs head over to www.cpuscorecard.com (http://www.cpuscorecard.com) I have a 1.0 GHz AMD T-Bird on an ASUS A7V133 mobo and I am very happy with it so far. Benchmarks (grain of salt) show the 1.0 GHz T-Bird outdoes the the PIII 1.0 GHz.
Local pc shops will do custom builds for you with the added benefit of being close in case you need to exercise your warranty. Have them quote you a price for an itemized configuration including warranty.
Sorry, I can't point you to other sources as I have no experience in buying full systems on line.

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Jerry

[Dan Mitchell]

Jerry-Thanks for the reply. Seems like from what I've read, Dell (or possibly Gateway) is as good and (especially) reliable a source as available, if not the cheapest. I have been checking the DEll site over the last ~6 months monitoring prices. I always "customize" the system to suit my needs a little more closely, and they seem fairly reasonable. Still, I would like to go the AMD route, plus Dell likes to add a lot of "deals" like supposedly free items such as shipping, digital cameras, printers, and similar items I don't need, especially given nothing's "free", you're paying for it somewhere.

I'd like to investigate assembling my own pc out of components. I have an engineering background, they're pretty simple to construct from an electronics standpoint, problem seems to be sifting through the tons of options for each needed item to decide what to use, and assuring optimal compatibility among the parts. I've seen books occassionally on this, but of course they're out of date 2 months before being printed. Any good and up-to-date sites on building a pc, ones which emphasize selecting the various bits and the relative merits of different motherboards, hard drives, cards, memory options etc, etc and combinations thereof?


Thanks,

Dan

[Paleo Pete]

Check my site posted below, several of the sites linked are good ones for that purpose, and most stay as current as possible. MaximumPC and Tom's Hardware should have good info, they're both there, among others. I think mjc is putting together a link site as well, look for one of his posts and check there too, I don't know how much he's added lately, but you might find some helpful info there too. Sorry but I don't have the link handy or I'd post it here.

On the other hand, by looking for it you might stumble on some useful info from the good folks here too. http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/biggrin.gif

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