Expert: Karl Zick - 8/31/2010

Question
Hello there.  It is time for me to get a new computer and the most demanding thing I will be doing on it is organizing and editing photos and also video now that I just got an HD camcorder.  I notice my 6 year old computer can't even play those video files without stuttering.  Anyways, I would like to spend around or under $1000 including a monitor.  I thought about building one and I do have an IT background, but it seems like I can buy one prebuilt for cheaper with similar specs.  I'm thinking some kind of quad core processor, 6-8 GB ram, 1 TB HD, and not really sure what kind of video card is needed.  If you have a chance to look at this Gateway from Costco, that looks like a decent machine and price for $800.  Is that video card sufficient?  I have bought Dell's in the past and have been pretty happy, but to get one with similar specs to this was coming out at a little over $1000, which is fine if it is worth it.  Components I priced with similar specs were coming out at around $1000 too. Which route do you think I should go?  Thank you.

Here is that link:
http://www.costco.com/Browse/Product.aspx?Prodid=11534364&whse=BC&Ne=4000000&eCa...

Answer
Hi Dan,

I looked up your Gateway page on the Costco site and read the reviews.  About half of them said their Gateway was either DOA out of the box or a piece of junk - or something equally as bad.  I used to like Gateway until they got in over their head having a store on every corner and had to close them and start cutting corners.  Then they purchased eMachine, the worst computers on the market, and you don't know now whether you are buying a Gateway or an eMachine with a Gateway label on it.

The guts of any computer is it's motherboard, CPU, RAM, and hard drive - in that order.  When you buy any computer with a label on it, they tell you what kind of a processor and how much RAM it has - but you seldom know the brand of the motherboard or hard drive.  I say this because you can bet the deals' have the cheapest components in them the manufacturer can find.

If I were purchasing a name brand PC it would either be a Sony or a Lenovo (IBM).  I have nothing against Dell - but they crank out an occasional lemon and their quality can't compare to my favorites.  If you check out the deals and coupons, you can find a good Sony or IBM for under $1,000.

I just built a very nice quad-core AMD machine on a Gigabyte motherboard that is hard to beat - and I got most of my components from Newegg.com.  I paid about $150 for the mbo and CPU and got an awesome case for $40.  A 1GB hdmi ASUS video card was $55, 1TB WD hard drive was $80, 4GB of DDR2 RAM was $65, and Sony DVD burner was $20.  Last, they had Windows 7 for $85.  On top of that, I found a 25" DVI/HDMI Samsung monitor at Amazon for $205.  I think all of that adds up to around $700 - and I had fun building it.  If you go this route, compare Newegg and Amazon prices back to back for the best deal.