Buying a Gateway/HP OEM desktop vs. Cyberpower, Systemax, etc...

M

mutemedia

New Member
I am looking at purchasing a new PC and have historically bought OEM's from the corporate monolith's (ex. HP Pavilion P2 from Office Depot then Sony Vaio P4 1.5MHz from Comp USA) thus have no experience buying from a more specialized supplier/non-brick & mortar supplier/online supplier or whatever you call a company such as Cyberpower, Inc.
So my questions are:
1. Is there going to be a noticeable difference in customer support, servicing, and all around 'hassleability' between a retail giant and the specialized supplier? ie, If, in 29 days, I am unsatisfied with the OEM pc I can return it to Best Comp USA City for a clean refund... but cant do that as easily with online specialty supplier, etc.
2. I am looking at either:
- Gateway GT5032 http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0231622 or
- HP m7330n
http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0233717

Basically, identical setups (AMD Athlon X2 4200+, 1gb DDR, 250gb HDD, TV Card, MCE, etc) the only hardware difference I care about is the GPU on the Gateway is a nVidia GeForce 6100 Video Chipset and the HP has a ATI RADEON Xpress 200 Video Chipset.

Any standout reasons to go with either Gateway or HP? Or neither?

Both computers are selling for around $900 tax/s&h included.

I'm looking at a similarly equipped pc from Cyberpower, Inc. which probably has a little better PSU, Mobo, and GPU but no Tuner card for about $1075.

Is it going to be worth the extra $175 for the Cyberpower rig or at this point in the comparison will a performance and/or durability difference even be noticed and its merely a matter of $$??

Sorry for the length of the post, any help is appreciated.

P.S. I already have a VisionTek Radeon X1300 512MB PCI-e card thats going into whatever I get so I figure that equalizes the graphics question....
 
1. Straight from Cyberpowers site. Warenty statement.
2. Out of those 2... they are very similar. I would get the Gateway but it doesnt really matter.
Is it going to be worth the extra $175 for the Cyberpower rig or at this point in the comparison will a performance and/or durability difference even be noticed and its merely a matter of $$??
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Whats the system configuration?

What are you using the computer for? And have you considered building?
 
34erd, just curious why you would go with the Gateway over the HP?

The Cyberpower system setup I'm looking at goes a little something like this:

- X-Cruiser Mid-Tower 420W Case W/ WINDOW, MultiMeter Display & Control
- ATX 420W power supply
- CPU : (939-pin) AMD ATHLON64 X2 4200 CPU w/ HyperTransport Technology
- MOTHERBOARD : (Sckt939)Asus A8N-E nForce4 Chipset SATA133 RAID PCI-E w/GbLAN,USB2.0,&7.1Audio
- MEMORY : 512 MB PC3200 400MHz DDR MEMORY (Corsair Value Select)
- VIDEO CARD : NONE
- HARD DRIVE : (SATA150) Maxtor 300GB 7200RPM 16MB Cache Hard Drive
- Optical Drive: LG GWA-4161 16X DVD±R/±RW + CD-R/RW DRIVE DUAL LAYER
- SOUND : HIGH DEFINITION ON-BOARD 7.1 AUDIO
- Generic speaker set 2.1
- Generic keyboard and mouse
- Extra $19 for Professional wiring in the box (** Is this a ploy for 19 more bones or is it worth it? It cant be that difficult to run and organize some wires**)
- Dual TV tuner card w/ PVR and remote
- Windows MCE installed
+ Nero 6 Ultra FREE (yeah, thanks but I have bittorrent too...)
- STANDARD WARRANTY: 3-YEAR LIMITED WARRANTY PLUS LIFE-TIME TECHNICAL SUPPORT & 1 year onsite service!

shipped for $1096
(No GPU in this box... I will be supplying a VisionTek x1300 512mb pci-e and another 3 sticks of 512mb DDR)

So would I be able to pick up all these parts (or equivalents) online or wherever and bolt the thing together myself for much less? Or even get upgraded gear for the same price? I havent considered building my own box but after looking around this forum a bit, I'm thinking it kinda sounds like an alternative.

**I can get a Gateway gt5032 from Circuit Chitty ($75 MIR) for $869 out the door. It's gonna be pretty hard to beat that with a stick. And by "I", I mean anyone...
 
Oh yeah, I'll be using the PC for:
1. Some work at home activity (VPN, MS Office Suite, light-duty HTML/XML programming, etc)
2. Free Tivo
3. Medium to heavy video editing
4. Some graphics-intense gaming (HL2, MS FS, Battlefield, etc)
5. Drunken antics
 
34erd, just curious why you would go with the Gateway over the HP?
Click to expand...
Just because its cheaper :)

The Cyberpower computer would be better if only after you upgraded to 2 Gb of RAM. Its actualy a pretty tough choice, I think the gateway has more value.

So would I be able to pick up all these parts (or equivalents) online or wherever and bolt the thing together myself for much less? Or even get upgraded gear for the same price? I havent considered building my own box but after looking around this forum a bit, I'm thinking it kinda sounds like an alternative.
Click to expand...
It would be alot cheaper. Alot of people here have buuilt there own computers. If you dont think your up for then you can usualy find a small computer store around you that will build it for around $50.

Have you opened the X1300 yet? I would return it and get a 6600GT or the like. Just because it has 512 Mb of memory doesnt mean its very good.
 
4. Some graphics-intense gaming (HL2, MS FS, Battlefield, etc)
Click to expand...
neither of those machines (sporting a 6100 and X300 respectively) would be suited for any of this
 
Praetor said:
neither of those machines (sporting a 6100 and X300 respectively) would be suited for any of this
Click to expand...

mutemedia said:
I already have a VisionTek Radeon X1300 512MB PCI-e card thats going into whatever I get so I figure that equalizes the graphics question....
Click to expand...

He's got another graphics card. The X1300 still won't be enough though (not at high settings at least). I'd look for a 6600GT or 6800GS or similar.
 
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