I am sure you will get many recommendations, I have used Compaq, Sony, HP and my laptop is an Acer. I have been using HP for years now and will continue to do so. My HP W 7 desktop is 4 years old and never needed a repair. Email did not come with it. When I bought MS Office Home and Student 2010 it was in it. I buy PC's at Best Buy because it is the only place I can find one without ordering it and the only place that sells high end PCs. If they have not changed, they offer a good return policy if you don't like it. I've never had to return one. Just make sure you get one is a sealed box, never opened. Don't let them set it up for you. I would never buy a dell.

My laptop is an Acer with W 8, I bought it to watch movies and play games on when I travel and to see if it was as bad as I have heard, it is. I installed Classic Shell and it's fine and very fast but will still buy HP when I need another desktop.

As for buying now if I needed one I would buy W 8.1 or what ever is out and put Classic Shell on it. That makes it more like W 7. I don't have a problem with that. I have not heard of 10 coming out in January. I see conflicting reports about that. It will have a start menu, but it's not going to be what we are used to. That is why if I needed one, I would not wait.

Jan 21st is a major announcement from Microsoft. Which will probably be the consumer preview version is out for general public testing of windows 10 - so they want feedback from consumers in order to start working the consumer bugs out before the official final release.

The win10 Technical Preview focus was on enterprise features.. something like 1.5 million installs and something like 150,000 bugs fixed ... so far. And its still buggy !!

No-one expects the actual final release until later in the year. Some say mid year, microsofts standard practice has been release final versions before Halloween arrives.

It helps to know that Win 10 is not coming out soon. I hope they pay those who are using the beta.

No Dells huh? and HPs are good.

Anyone use Microsoft computers with 365 software.
I think this forum can turn any computer around with their skills.

I'm on my third Dell desktop since 2007. Perfect?, no...but no serious complaints.

I had to google Microsoft with 365 software to see what it was. You probably will have to order the computer to get that on there or buy it separately. I am assuming it is for businesses. My last two computers did not have any word processor on them, had buy it and install it on the pc. I bought Office Home and Student with word and Outlook.

Office 365 is Microsoft's subscription model for the Office suite, with cloud storage. It's time based - think of rent instead of buy. There's nothing otherwise different about it.

You might not need to purchase Office with Win8.1.

Included with win8.1 and win10 is free onedrive and it has online Word and other office programs. Not as elaborate as the paid version but they get the job done for free for most consumers use.

Thank you for the information....it is all good info and will save me money.
Believe it or not my computer asked me to reinstall an Adobe link and it went from critical condition to working normally. I rebooted and it still tells me the hard drive is bad and to get everything backed up. It went from unstable to very stable acting. I have no delusions. Again it did a chkdsk and continues to delete lots of bad records. I wish I had fond thoughts of it.......it did nothing wrong - just was in the middle of Best Buy criminal activities. If any one has a specific computer that is very groovy, I'd appreciate it.

Very groovy to me is intel i7 cpu on the intel 9 Series chipset with a SSD hard drive.

ChkDsk cleans up security descriptors, is quite normal.. those are just cache;s saved for a while to make processing some things quicker.

Girl I know just bought a laptop from BestBuy with the i7. She kept messaging and questioning me while in the store choosing one with her husband who apparently is a comfortable xp user.

Which cpu is best, I told her get an intel i5 unless she sees an affordable i7. What about hard drives.. etc etc etc, too many questions it seemed.

Later on that evening she asked me to remote desktop to her as she had some problems......

BestBuy sold them and installed an Anti-Virus program ffor a laptop that already had a 1yr Norton subscription installed on it. God knows what else.. $12xx.00 for base laptop plus extras ffor the bestbuy team.

But wow is it Fast !!! ...groovy :)

This post was edited by mikie on Sun, Dec 28, 14 at 9:22

Mikie when I buy a PC at BB I make sure the box is still sealed to prevent stuff like that.

BB sold me first a CPU with corrupt hard drive. I returned and they replaced it with a brand new one and what an administrator at Landzdown thinks could be refurbished. That I believe. Shysters. I have seen former Comcast repair guys working at BB preceded by their cousins. I have never found an honest BB in my area.

I live in a big metro area and there is no computer store that doesn't have problems. Micro Center is supposed to be better - meaning honest and a dream for DIY folks. Any good IT person who wants to make extra money could easily do it thru reputation. Right Mikie?

I am hoping the i7 comes as a PC.

Wow, Mikie...the intel i7 cpu on the intel 9 Series chipset with a SSD hard drive is way over my head but still groovy.

Best new computer source IMO is a local reputable (in business for years) build-their-systems-in-house dealer. Mine is 8-1/2 years with no trouble other than a hard drive going flaky, which I changed before disaster occurred.

I'm glad you've had such long service from your PC, dadoes, but I hope you understand that that speaks more to the reliability of the components than its assembly (which is hardly more difficult or complicated than snapping together a Lego set).

If the year were 1990, when PC margins were high, internet-use wasn't widespread, and price/feature comparisons were difficult, I might agree with you. Today, prices are cheap, margins are low, everyone sources component sub-assemblies and outsources end product assembly to the same few companies. The largest PC companies get the cheapest prices. If the roll-your-own approach were superior, you'd see stores like that all over. Other than a few places in my area that sell components to our oversupply of geeky engineers, you don't see a lot of stores like that around. Are you maybe in a small towns where the chains have no presence?

Best sources in my view are to buy direct from manufacturers (who have sales at most quarter ends) and sites like Newegg and Amazon. PCs are cheaper than ever, you'll get more bang from the buck buying from a bigger source who can pass on their product acquisition savings. Costco is ok, though they tend to offer reasonable prices on over-equipped models. I'd avoid Best Buy for anything more expensive than AAA batteries, they overcharge on everything.

Let us first agree, anything man made has its occasional concern.

Having shared that,

I've never purchased anything other than an HP system from Best Buy and always without concern. It has been peripherals that have had a problem here and there.

Other than the inconvenience of having to return them, I have never had a problem returning anything to BB.

I've had more problems with Sears appliances than computers or any other electronics.

DA

I don't think it matters so much where you buy something if you can return it. The retail stores do not build the things they sell. I think BB has worst sales people than any store have ever been in. They do not know what they are talking about and the important thing to them is to sell products and extended warranties. One guy was so rude to me and lied to me that I stewed about it for 2 days, then called the manager. I never saw that man in the store again. I also told the manager BB has a very bad reputation and it is because of people like that clerk and trying to sell PC's that have been opened and set up with their protection on it without permission....and charging $150. for it.

Snidely, yes I know what's involved in building a PC. I've done it more than once. One of them ran 24/7 for 15+ years. It's no longer used but I still have it, six feet from where I'm sitting, and imagine it'd boot right up.

Best Buy charges a 15% restocking fee to return a PC. I had a family member buy a PC there because of a time constraint. They took it home and found its performance inadequate, and went back to the store to learn that it would cost >$100 to return it. They went ahead and paid the charge, there was really no alternative.

That's highway robbery. To me, that practice is reason enough to avoid the store. It shows they think nothing of taking advantage of their customers.

I did not know that, I have never returned a PC. I don't like the store, but it's the only store that carries high end pc's here. I have no choice.

Not surprised to hear about problems with BB. They do oversell, when they can. But I'm pretty sure there is no restocking fee for computers. I check return policies very carefully before buying anything...especially as expensive as a computer and they guarantee refunds within time limits with receipt.

I've purchased 2 XP bundles there, plus my new PC. Just after I bought the 2nd one, the next weeks (back to school special) ad had a model so close, for less, that I complained to the salesman. He said it was not only less, it was a better processor. Told me to bring mine back, with all receipts and packaging, and they would change it. No problem.

Bought new W8 machine last March, online. Within the price match period, I noticed an ad that saved me another $40. Just by calling them with the confirmation # they credited it right back to my PP acct.

I've noticed here, Office Depot, Staples, BestBuy. All seem to rotate who has laptops on sale for the week. So catch the right one, during the right part of the month... and get lucky.

All of them have really good sales. Office Depot here one time didn't have stock - the manager took the time to call their other stores for me and finally had one shipped from from a HomeDepot store in Oregon.. to Florida FedEx .. to make the sale and pump his volume a little. Stores compete with each other for ego/bragging rights.

He told me they had bought 3 trailer loads of Lenovo's to get the prices for this sale & that was nowhere near enough as the sale was so good they all went fast. Truckloads usually are 40,000 pounds... that's a lot of Lenovo product. But I guess they have a lot of stores too.

Another vote for HPs. I've had the hp pavilion HPE (Intel i5) for a couple of years with no problems. It's probably my fourth HP over many, many years. They've always been reliable for me.

Both HP and Dell desktops are very good computers in my opinion. Dells are easy to order online and give quick delivery. If you order online you can customize it to meet your needs.

Here is a link that might be useful: Dell

The comments here are very valuable to me. The one thing I don't have in common with most of you is most of you can do your own software installation. I looked at Dell and they don't have the same menu where you can customize. I need Win 7 or 8 and i use Outlook and I want that installed with Microsoft.

Do you all think it is easy to install what I need without using a big box store for help? I have nothing good to say about Best Buy. They did me wrong and I'm buying a PC desktop much sooner than I should have to since I've had for only 4 1/2 years. In the DC area IT people who can come and charge a grateful sum don't exist. Do you find that if your area?

Has anyone tried a place called Micro Center. They are in the Washington DC area and may have stores other places. It's just a longshot.

I am going to look at HP...now after your latest updates. I thank you much again for additional information.

Downton Abby returns this Sunday. Hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

I have always had HP and been happy but I am not hard on my computers and I make sure nothing gets in. Latest desktop is an HP that is about 4ys old with windows 7 and not one bit of trouble. I have never had issues with best buy but don't have to return much. Check what their return window is for electronics. I am thinking it's 7 days or some such? I don't remember what they told me when I got the laptop.

I got my husband a 55 inch TV there for Christmas and we opened it Christmas day set it up and turned it on only to find all kinds of colored lines on the screen and no picture. Back it went the next day and they exchanged it and new one was perfect out of the box. Things happen for who knows why. Mary

Mary where did you get you HP?

I also have windows 7 and it's 4 years old, no mechanical troubles at all. I have had software problems and windows update problems, but the computer worked through all of it. Best Buy made a mistake on my charges one time and I went back and they refunded my overcharge quickly and politely.

Another very important thing about HP is their service techs, very nice people. Not the Geek Squad, HP's company. They will sell you an extended warranty for less than $100. if yours has expired and fix or replace your computer.

I got my HP tower from Walmart online. At that time when I went into best buy they only had one tower that didn't have the specs I wanted and it wasn't an HP. The rest were the all in one computers. I had just bought a new flat screen monitor so just needed a tower and Walmart online had what I needed. Mary

I bought my last desktop directly from HP. I was able to select the components I wanted, so I went for the i7 Intel processor. It has a 1TB 7200rpm HDD, and 8GB of memory. I'll probably add more RAM at a later date. This is a Windows 7. I bought it with the idea of later upgrading to Windows 10 once that has been out a while and has most of the "bugs" worked out (if ever?). I have had it a year and it is a real workhorse. I think it could handle anything I throw at it. Having done it this way, I doubt I'll ever walk into a store to buy another PC.

The next one I may have my 24yr old son build. He had wanted to build a gaming computer for the longest time so when he graduated from RIT with high honors we gifted him with the money to do it so he would have it in grad school. He ordered all the parts from various places and watched you tube videos on how to assemble it all and has a very nice computer now he games with on a 50 inch TV. Now that he is getting paid a salary he saved to get the TV. He installed Windows 8 but dual boots with Linux I think. Mary

I would never have thought of checking Walmart on line for a computer. I don't custom order because I don't know what I want and would probably leave out something I needed. I buy movies from them and have them delivered to "my" Walmart. They email me when it comes in. On the site it says "other ways to pay" I am assuming I could have paid when I picked it up. The last time I checked they had 1900 $5. movies. Much better than digging through bins.

Walmart has all kinds of electronics on line to buy. I bought my son's tablet from them online that they didn't carry in the store. Another reason I used them was for the free site to Store shipping so I didn't have an expensive item sitting on my porch. Plus if you have to return it you can go into Walmart for the return. My son's tablet had a defect and they took it back at the store and refunded and we then ordered another one that was fine. Mary

I bought an HP all in one from Walmart. It was in sealed box. When I tried to set it up it had 2 names already on it asking for the password. I returned it, got my money back and called HP direct. Hopefully, when I get it, it will be a new one and not one someone already used.