4 ms·

Does anyone make a "good PC" anymore? I know many will answer just build it yourself. That's a worthy answer for me, but not for the general public. If my mo

Does anyone make a "good PC" anymore? I know many will answer just build it yourself. That's a worthy answer for me, but not for the general public. If my mom wants to buy a PC tomorrow that isn't cluttered with crap (just an OEM install), offers great service, and looks great, what does she buy?

ams6110 17y ago
You could always boot straight into a Windows install CD and blow away the vendor's OS install entirely. The problem with doing that, is that often (particularly on laptops) you need a bunch of special purpose drivers to get everything working. Finding and downloading these can be a hassle.
- jrockway 17y ago
  I doubt this is true anymore. Centrino is well-standardized (and what other laptop platform is there?), and Windows 7 is not as outdated as XP with respect to hardware support. Maybe if you saved fifty cents by getting "Dell Wireless" instead of the Intel chipset, you'll have problems... but I don't know anyone who does that. (Even Dell's site tries to talk you out of it.) I have never used a machine with the default OS install on it, and I have never had any hardware support problems. (And this includes my XP machines at work. Definitely not the default HP Windows install, but the hardware works fine nonetheless.)
dasil003 17y ago
I think it's sort of like asking where's the "good TV" without ads. Margins have gotten so thin on PCs—possibly even negative—so that successful manufacturers are forced to cram them full of bloatware to subsidize the purchase price. Given too equal machines, most people will buy the cheaper one every time regardless of what extra crap it has on it. The only way to reverse this trend would be to actually make that a marketing point like No-Ad products, but I'm very skeptical as to whether enough people would care to make it a successful strategy.
- jasonlbaptiste 17y ago
  I think it's one part of a larger strategy. No crapware included is part of it. What about a great looking case? What about support that comes with it? What about the post purchase things that matter ie- what apps do I use?
chadgeidel 17y ago
I remember reading that the PCs (Dell, HP, Acer) sold in the retail Microsoft Stores don't have any extra software installed. They just have the OS, Live Suite, and Security Essentials. Of course, you have to find one of the Microsoft Stores... I've had good luck with the system disks (optional) from Acer and HP. You have to order them separately but they usually have 2 disks - the OS disk and the driver/software disk. Granted, this means someone has to have the foresight to order the disks, and reinstall the OS - not something I would recommend to an average PC buyer.

ams6110 17y ago

You could always boot straight into a Windows install CD and blow away the vendor's OS install entirely. The problem with doing that, is that often (particularly on laptops) you need a bunch of special purpose drivers to get everything working. Finding and downloading these can be a hassle.

jrockway 17y ago
I doubt this is true anymore. Centrino is well-standardized (and what other laptop platform is there?), and Windows 7 is not as outdated as XP with respect to hardware support. Maybe if you saved fifty cents by getting "Dell Wireless" instead of the Intel chipset, you'll have problems... but I don't know anyone who does that. (Even Dell's site tries to talk you out of it.) I have never used a machine with the default OS install on it, and I have never had any hardware support problems. (And this includes my XP machines at work. Definitely not the default HP Windows install, but the hardware works fine nonetheless.)

dasil003 17y ago

I think it's sort of like asking where's the "good TV" without ads. Margins have gotten so thin on PCs—possibly even negative—so that successful manufacturers are forced to cram them full of bloatware to subsidize the purchase price. Given too equal machines, most people will buy the cheaper one every time regardless of what extra crap it has on it. The only way to reverse this trend would be to actually make that a marketing point like No-Ad products, but I'm very skeptical as to whether enough people would care to make it a successful strategy.

jasonlbaptiste 17y ago
I think it's one part of a larger strategy. No crapware included is part of it. What about a great looking case? What about support that comes with it? What about the post purchase things that matter ie- what apps do I use?

chadgeidel 17y ago

I remember reading that the PCs (Dell, HP, Acer) sold in the retail Microsoft Stores don't have any extra software installed. They just have the OS, Live Suite, and Security Essentials. Of course, you have to find one of the Microsoft Stores... I've had good luck with the system disks (optional) from Acer and HP. You have to order them separately but they usually have 2 disks - the OS disk and the driver/software disk. Granted, this means someone has to have the foresight to order the disks, and reinstall the OS - not something I would recommend to an average PC buyer.