Poll, Dell or Apple; Custom Build or Factory Made; Windows XP or Windows Vista or Macintosh

move thread, wrong forum.

i have all of the above.

I say build your own computer and go with Windows XP...if...if you have the inclination to learn about computer components and how to build a computer. I suggest starting off at the Anandtech.com discussion forums.

Thanks for the info CenturionJixra.

If you can get XP, that is. (legitimate copy)

Ebay or Torrent +????= win

2 computers both custom built.

1 older rig Windows xp pro

1 2 months old with dual boot: 1 drive XP Pro, the other Vista64 ultimate.

If you go Vista, you might as well get the 64 bit version so you can use all 4gb of memory - and with Vista you need over 2gb. (Just make sure to check any older hardware and software supports Vista 1st - drivers etc...Everything I had was supported. 2 games now I play that when you alt-tab out of, are using over 2gb of memory at 1920x1200 resolution... Definitely takes more machine to run Vista. SP1 helped a lot of the issues, and if building a fast new gaming rig, nothing really wrong with Vista. But for goodness sake, never consider installing Vista on a current rig with XP - It will be painfully slow compared to your current XP install.

Anyone wanting to stay with XP best be buying a copy quickly. You will soon only be able to get it from OEM's like Dell.

- Neither; maybe Dell...

-Custom Built (built it my self from scratch)

-Windows XP

I hate Macintoch and Vista. Go XP and Linux! (if only things ran on Linux...)



lol. I can't wait to see what Evil Tesla says on this!

Dell

Custom if you have the experience and money

Vista

I can crash a Mac by walking into the room. :p

I have discovered that all computer cases and motherboards are not created equal...  

If I get another one it will be bare bones (MB in case).

So I guess I vote custom.

I've had Dell and they are good if you don't want to tweak much (at least they used to be)..

I am using XP on my latest setup (Nvidia i680, CQ6600).

I have Vista and I've got a partition ready for it....

who needs dell and mac if you custom build. and xp macs i wont go there and vista is to demanding/buggy.

plus why do people think it is so hard build a computer they are so modular now you just say it needs good eg. graphics find good graphics card then what connection picX16. get a pcu and ram which fit the boared then how much memory do you want 250 gb put it all in a case easy to do and turn on.

there are many sites which will make it easy to know what works and if you source the parts its not expensive plus it will be better quality than if you buy it off the shelf.

im using a asus g1s gaming laptop running sin at full tilt  :CONGRAT:  :HOT:   

Custom, Windows XP Pro

That's what I have, and it's what I'll get next time too... unless Windows 7 really rocks XP's socks off.

I have 4 custom PCs all running XP Pro

1 Macbook Pro maxed out on everything
1 Mac Pro tower


If you are going PCs there is no reason to buy shrink wrapped unless you just don't want to take the trouble.

XP Pro is really the last OS Windows would have made. OS X is soooo much better even than XP in terms of stability, ease of use, etc. I now have XP Pro running on eith er MAC via VM Ware Fusion but havnt tried BootCamp yet. If Age of Conan and Sose run reasonably well on the Mac's, I might just take a trip to the dump with the PCs. I only use them now for games. I have vowed never to get Vista.

I say right now Dells and HPs are cheap enough thru Newegg or QVC that its really cheap to get a good one and pay for it if you're not willing or able to go the building route.

We just got a HP thats an AMD Phenom Quad-core with 6GB, Vista 64 bit, combo drive 500gb HD, Nvidia graphics card 9300 (its not really a gaming rig) all for around $750 and free shipping.
HP too. It was more expensive to build my dual-core gaming rig than this.

XP is going the way of no support in Feb and Vista is ok once you get your SP's on.

That's my 2 BC.

Neither Dell nor Apple.

Custom-built.

Windows XP.

I still think Vista is a huge joke when it comes to an OS. XP has worked for the past 7 years, and it's upgradeable. Vista can do maybe 4 things that XP can't, and that's things nobody will use for the next 3 years anyway. Ranting aside, custom-built is the way to go if you want a good price and good power.

Dell if you want Windows and want to play games, Apple if you want Mac OS X.



Custom Built if you feel adventuresome and know ALL of the PC's components, including how to connect the motherboard to the power supply and case. Factory Made if you have any doubts.



Mac OS X if you go with the Apple.

Otherwise, always Vista on a new system.

Vista's major troubles are on old systems, you will not have troubles on a new system.

I really hate that people are recommending XP on new systems. There's no reason for it.

anandtech is terrible! well, the forums are okay, they're just forums after all. but for better reviews and such, i recommend hardocp.com

as for the OP...

the biggest issue to answering your question is: what do you want to do with this comptuer?

Dell and Apple are both over priced for what you get; Dell isn't quite as bad, but they tend to use a few inferior parts (power supplies, slow RAM) to keep costs down. i personally dislike Mac OS, and i feel their hardware choices are, well, strange.

+1 for building your own rig. it really, really isn't that hard. for the most part, it's just a matter of plugging things in to match sockets (it can be a little more tricky than that at times, but there's always help to be had on this here interweb).

i've managed to teach myself quite a bit about it in less than 6 months, and i recently went into part-time business with a friend building custom computers locally (San Diego, CA).

Dell Apple
Neither.

Custom Built Factory Made
Custom Built, I like to have a PC that is to my expectations

Windows XP Windows Vista Macintosh
Windows Vista 64Bit, have been working with for about a month, no problem at all, very stable !!!

Some one mentiond that you could us the full 4 gid ram on vista 64 bit. well you are wrong, with 64 bit you can run up to a max of 8 gigs of ram. its32 bit that only handle 4 on vista, as for XP the max is 3.

actually you are wrong. for starters, XP does address up to 4GB of total memory, but your system won't usually be able to see more than 3.5 GB due to the various small memory caches hiding in various hardware components.

64 bit vista ultimate can address up to 128 GB of RAM; it's current hardware that limits it. considering that there are 4GB DDR2 modules and a few motherboards that support it, you can actually run up to 16GB.

and that's just on a standard desktop motherboard. if you use server hardware, you can (spend through your teeth) to get up to 64GB (and a full 128 should 8GB FBDIMM modules come out).

this will also change when socket 1366 hits, as it will support triple channel memory (having 3 or 6 DDR3 RAM sockets on a desktop motherboard).

so... do your research before telling other people they're wrong.

With 64 bits you can theoretically address up to 16 exabytes, actually. Eight gigaytes is simply a limitation of current motherboards.

Motherboards with the P43 or P45 chipsets can support up to 16 gigabytes, and I'm sure that will keep increasing with future motherboards.

EDIT: And, as dystopic points out, you can get a whole lot more if you use motherboards for servers.



They mean if you have four gigs installed, you can use all of it. On 32 bit versions of both XP and Vista, you actually can't use all four gigs due to some technical issues.