Community poll forum: How much did you pay for your computer?

I build my own.It is the way I go.My first Compac with all of the proprietary bs convinced me to abandon the pre-builts.
I don't save any money doing it, as I get better components.I have built over seven of them over the years.
Also, I read horror stories about Dell,etc. and how bad PC service is and I know I will always build my own.

At last ! Someone with their feet on the ground!
Why go & pay those money hungry Corporate Bast-rds all kinds of our hard earned dollars for something that costs pennies to manufacture?
I agree with your slant on recycleing old PC parts,not so much for the environment but for the most important thing,(wait for it)----THE MONEY!
I 've been a Junk Picker most of my life,and it's paid off most of the time. (67 yrs old)
I also repair Electronics & a lot of the stuff I find I sell at the Flea Market where I have a booth set up for sales & repairs.(My Motto,"If you can Plug it in or put Battries in it,I probablly got it or if I don't I know some body that does!
I'm amazed that I can learn how to build an Atomic Bomb on the World Wide Waste(WWW),yet I am unable to find any useful(real hands on down to resistor,capacitor, transistor replacement type of repairs) Sites. They all come back as Repair Shops or some other usless Cr-p! All the PC Techs I know couldn't repair a component if their life depended on it! All they know how to do is Swap Boards($)& run software(more$).
Ask 'em "How do I Test,Fix or Repair MoBo,Pwr Supply,Cards?"
Standard answers,Duh,Doh!,Dunno.
Enough of all that,Keep on Keeping on & put that saved money back in your pocket!

MY WIFE AND I PAID A LITTLE UNDER $2,000 FOR
A HEWLETT PACKARD PAVILLION SYSTEM IN 2002.
I REGRET THE DAY THAT WE PURCHASED IT AT A
BEST BUY STORE IN ALLENTOWN, PA. (THAT'S NOT
A KNOCK ON BEST BUY BECAUSE I'M SURE THAT
THEY WERE UNAWARE OF THE PITFALLS OF BUYING A
HP). I SAY "REGRET" BECAUSE THAT COMPUTER HAS
BEEN A SOURCE OF AN ARRAY OF PROBLEMS (NONE
OF WHICH WERE RESOLVED BY HP'S INEPT TECHNICAL
SUPPORT PEOPLE.) I'VE TWICE HAD TO HAVE THE
HARD DRIVE CLEANED IN ORDER TO MAINTAIN MY
FAMILY'S SANITY. CURRENTLY, AROUND $200 LATER
IN REPAIR AND UTILITY PROGRAM COSTS, IT'S FINE
NOW BUT NONE OF THAT CAN BE CREDITED TO THE
MORONS AT HP. YOU'VE PROBABLY FIGURED OUT BY
NOW THAT I'M BLOWING OFF STEAM AND WILL NEVER
PURCHASE ANYTHING FROM HP AGAIN!
PLEASE TELL ME WHO HAS THE BEST DESKTOP SYSTEM
THAT HANDLES THE 2005 MICROSOFT ENTERTAINMENT
PACKAGE FOR WINDOWS XP? I NEED TO KNOW SINCE
IT APPEARS THAT EVERY AD IS ALWAYS SHOWING IT
WITH A HEWLETT-PACKARD MODEL. THAT'S PRETTY
SAD SINCE I WON'T EVEN TOUCH ANY OF THEIR NEWLY
ADVERTISED UNITS!

I recommend the Sony Vaio VGC-RA820G media center PC. It runs like a dream and has a unique cooling system that made me wonder if the computer was turned on when I first bought it. It is unbelievably quiet and efficient.

Ann.

It was free. I won it at our Computer Club picnic.
NOw 2 yrs old. It's an 800 Mhz PC266. Simple, but it works.

Vern

I bought my Compaq Pressario about 6 years ago. I knew that I wanted the then top of the line everything so I ended up paying top dollar for it. I got a cd drive and a cd rewriter, more ram, a larger hard drive (I think it was 20mb's then)and the larger 19" monitor. I have upgraded it about 3 years ago with more ram, an ethernet card, a new 60gb hard drive, a new cd-rewriter,and windows 2000. The floppy was a superdisk and I refused to pay the money to put a new one of those in even though it quit on me some time ago. I am ready now for a new cd-rewriter (my kids burn alot of stuff and it wears it out so fast), but it still works great! But I am ready for a new computer (just for me to use). Any suggestions? Dell actually has a special going on for a computer for $299.....hhhhmmmm.....

2 yr old EMachine Celeron, DVD/CD RW 80G, perfect for my needs.
Our 3rd EMachine. Wonder how much Gateway will change them though?

I had a really old computer in the garage that I was getting ready to dump to make room for the sort-of-old box that I was going to move out to the garage when I bought a new machine. Instead, I got a really great ASUS motherboard with built in video and a new processor, put them in the old box and loaded it up with free Open Office, avast free virus protection and the free sygate firewall. The sort-of-old box is now in the garage and the really old box has reclaimed its place in the house.

There are lots of HOWTOs around discussing the installation of a new mobo. It was much easier than I expected. I didn't put in a new power supply since I wasn't running a fancy video card. I did replace the hard drive just because it seemed like a good idea to start over. I kept my old windows 2000 pro to save a few bucks and because I use some programs that won't run under XP.

Unless something changes in the computer world--like that has ever happened?--this is the way I'll upgrade from now on.

Good luck!

I have about 1100 -1200 into the system that I built myself. I found good prices, a couple rebates and communicated with many-a-voice-of-experience to arrive at this little gem. Performance was first and foremost in mind throughout it's conception and development - this is what I arrived at:
Gigabyte - Ga-7N400 pro2
AMD 3400+ (400mhz FSB)
Corsair 1GB (2x512) *low latency
Radeon 9600 Pro (256 MB)
WD Raptor 74 GB 10K rpm - Mirrored
Themaltake server tower w/ many fans!
Liteon DVD burner
Liteon CD burner
Wireless kb&m
19" AOC CRT
ALL BEHIND an elegant little router with firewall

Doesn't let you edit posts...

I forgot my video card: GeForceFX 5700LE 128MB

i went to a local guy, who built it for a better price than the brand name companies at the time. Got it last August with AMD 64 3200+ @ 2.2ghz, 1gb pc2700 ram, 2x 80gb hdd in raid 0,nvidia fx5900xt, asus k8vse deluxe mobo, cd-rw (added dvd dl burner later) 2.1 speakers, keyboard, and mouse. no monitor.

~1100 Dell

$1700 Gateway Notebook

This year I splurged and bought a few laptops

$2500: HP ZD8600 - 17in screen, P4: Most expensive, prettiest display... I never use the thing. It runs too hot and its too big to take anywhere, even around the house.

$2200: IBM T43 - 15in SXGA screen, Centrino: Got a good deal on this one using someones employee discount. The price includes their upgraded 3 yr warranty which includes accidental breakage. Only had the thing a few months and they've already replaced a keyboard and the AC brick. No questions asked! I just called and they verified the serial number and sent the part out which arrived the next day. LOVE IT!

$500: Toshiba m35xs111 - 14 XGA screen, Celeron: Best Buy special with rebates. Worked well for a few months and is having power problems. With any movement, it reads as unplugged and stops charging. I opened it up and its just a small box soldered on to the main board. Nothing to fix. Pretty hard to get into the thing to look at it too. Next time, i'll just get another IBM, regardless of the extra cost.

Overall, I'm happiest with the IBM. Its my first IBM and I love it. Fingerprint reader has made me lazy though, I dont have to remember any passwords. Wont be buying any more Toshibas. This was my second one, both bought at Best Buy and although my first had no problems (besides the fact that I busted the screen) I'll avoid Toshibas and Best Buy for computers from now on. They dont fix broken screens under their worthless and expensive extra warranty. IF the problem is covered, they send the computer in and it takes weeks to get it back (experience from another computer from a few years ago).

My wife and I paid roughly $500 about 3 years ago for this 2.6ghz Celeron. It came equipped with monitor, mouse, keyboard, speakers, 80 gig HD, 512 mb RAM, DVD player/cd burner combo drive, 6USB ports one year free antivirus, MSOffice package installed, and a year's free tech support. Yes, it's not much now, but 3 years ago it was definately worth more than the $500. Now I bet you are wondering what make it is - is it a homebuilt with a startup company that went into bankrupcy? Is it a promotional price or floor model? Was it used? No, we didn't intend to use it ourselves. It was for my father-in-law to learn e-mail on, to be an alternative to the expensive long distance calls he'd make to his kids almost daily!
Basically I had no faith in it, it was for an old man to check his email on, and maybe watch a Gene Autry DVD sometimes. Elderly parents being a topic for another type of forum and coping and support group, I'll stick to the computer... I surprised when he moved in with us and said he didn't need it. He had just played around with the mouse and that was the extent of his use. So, there I was with a new computer in the house, so I decided to try it out. Allow me to keep you in suspense a little longer about the type of machine it is! There are many reasons people become addicted to online gaming, and having to take care of an elderly person is just as lame as any other one - but it sure felt good to escape into the online world with Everquest and later EQII, then City of Heros. The computer still handles things well enough, even with those memory intensive programs. And what machine is it, you beg? It's an E-Machines C2685. Now before you run out and buy the latest version, let me say this - it has proved to be a stable, fun and easy to use computer, but I also upgraded the RAM to one gig ($88), put a Sony DVD+/- burner into it (gift), upgraded from the onboard graphics card to a radeon 9200 PCI ($110), and added an Sewell IEEE 1394 card ($30). So for likely half again as much the original price, I have a machine I use for video editing, gaming and language study, as well as Internet and e-mail.