Need advice on where to purchase a new desktop...

[Pally]

I've been looking to replace one my HP Desktops (i7 3.4Ghz, 16 GB ram, 1 TB hd, Win 8.0). I bought it a few years back at Costco. I hate Win 8, very happy with Win 7, but I'm not sure if I should upgrade to Win 10...

One of the major problems is that is seems like recently, the machines I've looked at (Costco, Sam's, Amazon, Best Buy, etc..) have really bad ratings.
I am trying to stay in the $800 range for the machine only.

I recently purchased a Win 7 HP laptop at Costco and had to return it. Junk!
I purchased another Win 7 HP laptop direct, incredibly slow, should have returned it!

Where do you tech guys/gals purchase reliable and affordable machines?
Is it even possible to get a reliable Win 7 machine anymore?

[Zorba]

Buy a commercial grade machine, not the consumer crap sold at Costco et al. HP Z-series workstations are very good, and can be purchased for $800-$1000 if you shop carefully.

Windows 10 is ugly, but it works. If you have 8.x on anything, I recommend you upgrade it to 10.

[Pally]

Buy a commercial grade machine, not the consumer crap sold at Costco et al. HP Z-series workstations are very good, and can be purchased for $800-$1000 if you shop carefully.

Windows 10 is ugly, but it works. If you have 8.x on anything, I recommend you upgrade it to 10.

Thanks for your response. Can you recommend a vendor?

[fishmonger]

What is wrong with what you have now?

[Mute]

Forget the HP, especially at that price point. You're going to get a mediocre system loaded with bloatware. If you're purchasing a system, try these guys:
CyberPower PC. They usually do a good job at a reasonable price. They also give you the option of installing Windows 7.

[jbolton]

Why not build one?

[Pally]

Why not build one?

I wish I had the time! I would attempt it.

[Pally]

What is wrong with what you have now?

I put a lot of heavy daily business use on my machines and the "store bought" units just don't have the stamina anymore. And, apparently neither do the new ones that are sold today.

I think I'll have to spend more $ and go the "commercial grade" route as Zorba suggested.

[Pally]

Forget the HP, especially at that price point. You're going to get a mediocre system loaded with bloatware. If you're purchasing a system, try these guys:
CyberPower PC. They usually do a good job at a reasonable price. They also give you the option of installing Windows 7.

Looks like a great gaming machine. I happened to briefly view these on the Costco website. Pricey.

[Zorba]

Thanks for your response. Can you recommend a vendor?

ProVantage usually has pretty good prices. As of this moment, you can still get win 7 on a commercial HP.

[therealnickb]

Thanks for your response. Can you recommend a vendor?

Have Dell build one exactly like you want.

[kpkube]

Buy a Mac !!!

[glockman19]

Have Dell build one exactly like you want.

^^^THIS^^^

I have always bought Dell and been very happy. I upgrade approx. every 4-5 years and last bought a desktop and laptop.

http://www.dell.com/us/p/xps-8900-desktop/pd?oc=ddcwgsk104hw10s&model_id=xps-8900-desktop

[rb765]

If you do go the big box route, I would choose Sam's club with their extended warranty. The reason is that they take the original warranty period, then double it for a straight exchange program. With anyone else, it is usually 30 days or send it in for repair. With Sam's, I took my machine in after 9 months and they gave me a new unit. Since that model was not available, they gave me the next model up.

[sonofeugene]

I recently needed a new computer at work and our IT consultants recommended Lenovo over Dell as Dell's quality seems to have gone down lately. I ended up with a M93P with an Intel Core i7-4790 @ 3.6 GHz. I had them put in 32GB of RAM and no way would I run Windows 8 or 10. I stuck with Windows 7 Pro. Also got a nice NVidia Quadro M4000 to go with it. You likely wouldn't need a video card upgrade unless you're running graphics intensive apps like games or CAD. So far I'm happy with it.