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I've bought a few computers from IBuyPower now and have been very pleased with the results. While they specialize in customizable gaming computers, they do have some precofigured packages available for sale. You can navigate to the third set of customize options when checking out the computer package you want and select a pre-formatted, no OS hard drive. Again, this is more of a customize your own ePeen-computer type site, but they might warrant your attention.

http://www.ibuypower.com/ has some great laptops and still allow you to get Windows XP installed.

I recently purchased a pc from http://www.ibuypower.com/ for less money then I would have payed building it myself and far cheaper then anything from Alienware. I dont think anyone needs to pay that much for a fancy case. anyone who wants a fancy case that bad should be able to make one.

While I can agree that for standard uses they are good deals, I really don't think they are the best option for gamers or system tweakers by a long shot.
We run Dell's for all of our Windows computers at work, so I'm pretty familiar with them. Here's a few things I've noticed:

1. You may have problems replacing a power supply, fan or swapping the motherboard with a standard off the shelf PC part. They tend to have proprietary connectors.
2. Depending on the model you buy you may not have an AGP or PCI Express X16 slot, which means no video upgrade.
3. Most models (especially the cheaper ones) have limited RAM expansion. Typically this is 2 DIMM slots, both of which are usually filled when you buy it (unless you specify otherwise).
4. If you like AMD processors you are out of luck.

Lately I've found that rather than build my own, it's actually cheap to go with a system from a boutique shop such as ibuypower.com. You can pick the specific components you want and can generally choose from a number of highly rated motherboards and cases. I did a cost compare with between buying parts from New Egg versus buying a system from ibuypower.com and it was cheaper to for me buy it built - plus you can get a warranty.

I'm talking out sites like I buy power. There are a number of them out there, if you take a look in a recent computer gaming magazine there are always plenty of ads. These guys kind of took over the spot Alienware had before Alienware became the land of the overpriced.
I find mom and pop shops to be more expensive than building your own as they don't source components in enough quantity to get a better price than you would from some place like New Egg.

Try going to www.ibuypower.com and pricing a comparable system. I configured one and the cost came out to $819 + shipping. The dual layer drive upgrade is $35 as is the HD drive (from 80 and CDR normal).
They aren't barebones equipment. I built a quite nice computer for $1500 last year which included a very expensive ($430) 6800GT video card. The core components aren't made by "you never heard of em" brands either, all good equipment.

Actually, I didn't bother building my last PC because there are plenty of companies that will do it for you at barely more than you can purchase the parts for yourself. Plus they assemble, test and warranty the computer.
A system with comparable specs to the one outlined previously will run you about $820 + shipping from ibuypower.com.
As for the "it will be a tin can". That's the real argument, people buy Macs because they WANT a Mac. Not because they want a computer. There are a lot of real benefits. Of course there are benefits going the other way, it just depends on what you want to do with a computer. I use my home computer mostly for gaming and Internet access with a bit of "work from home". Since gaming is my primary usage, a PC makes sense for me. The choice of games is more important than the OS.
But on the otherhand if you needs are different, a Mac may be appealing. Personally I can't even look at an iMac as being an option because it's a completely inflexible design. You can't change the video card, you only have 2 slots for upgrading memory, you can't upgrade to a larger monitor later, you can't run 2 monitors unless you hack your firmware, you need to use external drives to expand your storage, if your monitor fails you can't fall back on your old CRT until it gets fixed, the whole computer has to go to the shop etc.
So then for my needs the PowerMac would be the system I would need to get, and now you are talking a substantial difference in cost from a PC. I spent $1500 on my last PC and that included $450 for the brand new (at the time) 6800GT video card. The cheapest comparable PowerMac was about $1000 more expensive at the time.

This isn't a spam, but I bought my last computer from them, and it was inexpensive. Cyberpowerpc also has cheap computers too...usually with more popular components and a little cheaper...

Sometimes both sites offer free shipping, which usually costs $200...so wait for that!

Sometimes, it doesn't make sense to build...

This is ibuypowers weekly special:

http://www.ibuypower.com/ibp/store/configurator.as px?mid=69

-Raidmax 268 ATX Mid-Tower Case w/350W Power Supply
-[939-pin] AMD® Athlon-64 3000+ CPU w/ Hyper Transport Technology
-Free Game --- Half Life 2 Download Coupon with purchase of any AMD-64 based systems
-Foxconn WinFast NF4UK8AA-8EKRS nVidia nForce4-Ultra Chipset Motherboard
-512MB DDR-400 PC3200 Memory Module Corsair-Value or Major Brand
-Nvidia 6200 Videocard
-80 GB 7200 RPM Ultra ATA-100 Hard Drive
-16X Dual Format/Double Layer DVD±R/±RW + CD-R/RW Drive
-600W PMPO 3 PCS Super Bass Subwoofer Speaker System
-PS/2 104 Key Windows 98 Keyboard
- Optical Internet Mouse
-MS Windows XP Home Edition w/Service Pack-2
-ViewSonic 17" E70F Perfect Flat CRT .21H DPI Color Monitor

This configuration isn't that great, but it is light years ahead of what tom's hardware recommends. Plus it has a free game, a monitor, and WinXP and 1 year of service support and a DVD writer!

Many other low end computers do have AGP slots. Contrary to popular belief Dell is not the only PC manufacturer.
How about $540 for this:

Athlon 64 3000+ CPU
512MB DDR 400 RAM
PCI Express Nvidia 6200 128MB video card
80GB Hard drive (7200 RPM)
52X CDRW/DVD combo drive
Includes mouse and keyboard

Oh I guess the typical response would be "it's ugly". Well change the case option then.

Quite a while, now

My 0.02.

Full Disclaimer: My only connection to IBP is that I purchased one of their E-Series laptops several monthes ago, and have been very impressed.

• 15" display
• 2.0GHz, 64-bit processor
• 1GB PC2700 RAM
• 128MB Radeon 96000
• 80GB hard drive
• DVD-ROM/CD-RW

I am a cheap college student, so I haven't bought books in over two years. However, when I did buy books, I found bestbookbuys.com to be an excellent place to get books since it searches other sites online and finds the best deals. I buy my $150 engineering books there for $50 in excellent condition. You can also buy non-school books there as well.

For my computer accessories, I use Tiger Direct, and subscribe so I get the email deals. I bought my Logitech wireless mouse for $5 there.

My family buys their desktop computers at ibuypower.com, although I prefer to buy my laptops on Tigerdirect. Ibuypower has some awesome desktop deals.

Occasionally, I like to check Dealtime, although I have never purchased anything there. It occasionally gives me an idea of the going market price for things.

What's amusing is that people are encouraged to bring laptops, and are then expected to play games that way...

On a related note, I've never seen anyone on /. mention iBuyPower. Their prices are $1000 less than Alienware, and probably a few hundred less than a Sager or Clevo. They really are in a (price) class of their own.

Check out one of their laptops compared to an equivalent Alienware.

What's amusing is that people are encouraged to bring laptops, and are then expected to play games that way...

On a related note, I've never seen anyone on /. mention iBuyPower. Their prices are $1000 less than Alienware, and probably a few hundred less than a Sager or Clevo. They really are in a (price) class of their own.

Check out one of their laptops compared to an equivalent Alienware.

Sager may be better than Alienware, but if price is what you care about, check out iBuyPower. Their prices $1000 less than Alienware, and probably a few hundred less than a Sager or Clevo. They really are in a (price) class of their own.

www.ibuypower.com

I can't think of a list off hand--but as another poster pointed out, a great place to start is pricewatch. I have purchased my OS-free computers from IBuyPower.com and I have to say that I am very impressed with the hardware. They do excellent work--and no, I don't get a discount or anything.

What do we do with this kind of storage?

How about recording audio files of your entire life!

The way to do it would be to carry around a small, lightweight device that would record each day's audio. The device would have 100BT ethernet and some custom software to connect it to a massive storage server. Some custom software would be written to transfer the files each night while the batteries are being recharged.

Aqcuiring Hardware

Pocket ePC-II System - $749
950g, 157mm (L) x 146mm (W) x 45mm (H)
PII 900Mhz, 128MB RAM, 10GB HD, 100BT Ethernet
4 Li-Ion Laptop batteries - $800
Mini Stereo Microphone - $65

Storage Required

128 kb per second for stereo mp3 at 128kbps
86400 seconds per day
1382.4 megabytes per day
504.576 Gigabytes per year

1TB would give you enough storage for 1 year, plus 1 complete redundant backup. Assume that every 18 months, the same amount of money will buy you a hard drive that is twice as big. Also assume that you throw away the old server every time you replace it with a new one, just so you don't end up with a huge pile of servers. I will start off with a 1.5TB server, which will last the same 18 months to make the math easier.

Storage Hardware

1.5 TB server
~ $8500

1st purchase at birth = 1.5TB, enough for 18 months
2nd purchase at 18 months = 3TB, enough for 3 years worth
3rd purchase at 3 years = 6TB, enough for 6 years
6 years = 12TB
12 years = 24TB
24 years = 48TB
48 years = 96TB, enough to last until you are 96 years old

So over your lifetime, you would have to make 7 purchases, for a total of $59,500. Add in the capture hardware of $1614, and you have a total lifetime cost $61,114. As the price of storage goes down, this will be even more affordable.

Soon, it will be feasible to do the same thing with high-quality video!

Fixed link. Unfortunately, it looks like a bit pricey.

Fixed link. Unfortunately, it looks like a bit pricey.

One that seems to always be overlooked when it comes to laptops... Modularity.

I've possessed (through work) 2 laptops... in both cases some minor component broke (keyboard, power jack), and we had to send the laptop back to the OEM to have it fixed. This is unacceptable and why I currently do not have a laptop.

Why can't someone make a laptop that I can swap out keyboards easily, or screens, or whatever.

Personally I'm more hopeful that the mini-computers (like the Pocket ePC's) will eventually allow for portable usage. With a power supply, a screen, a keyboard with a nice rigid (to support the screen) carrying case. That's my dream laptop. :)

from this? If you really want that much functionality, you might as well just go all-out and get a portable PC. -Angron

I ordered one ePC-2 from ibuypower.com last week because they won a lot of awards from different magazines.

Yesterday I got my box and I can't believe it is so small and no any heating problem.

It is a rock, works perfect and smoothly with DVD player.

OK, this isn't news. This machine (Cappuchino), and it's little brother the Espresso, have been mentioned half a dozen times going back to last April.

They're made by Saintsong in Taiwan, and the easiest place to get them in the states is iBuyPower.

ObLinux: iBuyPower builds these to order, and you can get them without an OS, including a $75 credit for the Windows Tax.

Even though this is old news, they' are very cool. I have a dozen Celeron 533 Espressos that I use to run slideshow presentations at trade shows, and it's incredibly cool to be able to a) carry 12 machines in a briefcase, and b) literally duct tape them to the wall behind the monitor. (we usually use flat-panels)

-Zandr

Shinier, smaller, and faster. Rather than ripping out its brain, put in a shiny new Espresso PC and run a eVAX emulator on it. That way, not only can the machine serve cold drinks, it can go on serving its original function.

Have you looked at this option? I know it is an i810E chipset, but if you can live with 640x480, it is the ultimate in portability. iBuyPower.com has them for sale, and a search on Google can find reviews for you. Might just be what you are after. LAN, sound, and everything is already included in a SMALL for factor.

A bit more expensive than the Japanese price mentioned in the article... never heard of the vendor before...

They list the old model, too.

"Hard Disk 12 GB, 2.5" x 9.5mm HDD" I read this to say that the unit is 2.5 INCHES by 9.5 MILLIMETRES. In looking at the pictures at Ars, I noticed that the HD seemed to be an almost standard looking. Perhaps the 9.5 mm is supposed to mean the depth. When you take this three dimensionally, it appears that someone forgot to include the length. And besides, if you click here it shows that the 12 gig has mysteriously turned into a 6 gig. Anyone else find this odd?

Did nobody else notice that the specs on the ibuypower.com page indicate a 50-60MHz AC adapter? You can power it from your old 486's clock line :-)

Oh well, I guess the best Idea is to buy a Pocket EPC, take the guts out of it, crack open the Monorail, take the guts out of that and combine them in to a Frankestein computer....

o/~ It's a B movie, it's a B movie show o/~

Well, if I ever get money to start a project, that is... ;_;

Looks like a neat little device. However, the pictures of the device reveals that the expansion slot (e.g. for CD-rom) is located on the same side as the USB port. This implies that the USB port (e.g. ethernet connection) can not be used in conjunction with the expansion slot. What a shame.

ARS had a link on this device yesterday..a celeron box the size of a zip drive. It's supposed to be used with a desktop monitor. The biggest pro with this is that you can easily lug it around.. video is limited though

http://www.ibuypower.com/product -pc/pocket-epc.htm