Expert: Karl Zick - 11/20/2011

Question
I am thinking about buying a computer that will last me through most of college. I was thinking about buying a Dell as that is what I have the most personal experience with and I trust the company. I play a decent amount of mmos; things like League of Legends and Lord of the Rings Online. I want a computer that will be able to play these games and run any basic Microsoft office programs. What should I look for in any pcs I might buy? And is there a better place to buy the pc than Dell.com?

Answer
Hi Bryan,

I like Dell also, but order it yourself on-line and do not call one of their sales people or you will wind up with a bunch of stuff you don't need.  Also do not order their basic model with a Celeron or Sempron CPU in it {they are slow and unstable}.  I like this one for $339:http://configure.us.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?oc=ddcwbx1&c=us&l=en&s=dhs&cs.  If you need a monitor, the one they offer for $130 is decent or you might shop around at Amazon for a Samsung or something.  You might want to upgrade the memory but instead of paying Dell $60 for another 2GB of RAM you can buy it someplace else, like Amazon, for about $10.

Computers to avoid are eMachine, HP, and Compaq.  Others you may look at are Lenovo and ACER.  The cadillac is SONY but you willpay for it.