I've been asking here for advice about new computer systems, and I finally
ordered a new PC from Gateway. My last computer was from them, and has
lasted 7 years, although I've upgraded the hard drive, RAM, and a host of
other things along the way. In general it's been a good machine though and
any dealings I had with them were good as well.

Wellll..... After waiting for 6 weeks for the new computer to arrive (they kept
putting me off and changing the shipping date), and were nearly impossible
to reach on the phone (endless automated menus that never led to a human),
I cancelled the order and called Dell. Payed more at Dell for basically the
same innards, but the sales associate, and the whole experience at Dell was
in a whole other league than G'way.
Dell has been great about updating me, furnishing me with DIRECT 800
numbers that go right to the sales associate I worked with (wow). And the
real cherry on top, so to speak, is that they shipped my computer 48 hours
after I ordered it!!!! It will arrive in a couple of days from now.

So here's my vote for Dell as the place to go for a new PC.

Susan

Susan,

Dell gets slammed a lot, but I've got a 3 GHZ dual-core machine that's pushing two years old. It has worked very well since day one. The only thing that's gone wrong is that the DVD burner died. I received excellent tech support over the phone to diagnose the problem. He even fixed a couple of driver issues that needed attention. Two days later a new drive was at my front door. I chose to install it myself (5 minute job) rather than wait for a technician to do it (which would have been free). I'd buy another one without hesitation. As for Gateway, I've never understood why a computer company would want a cow (LARGE AND SLOW) for a corporate logo...

Have fun with your new rig.

Hi Kerik,

I never thought about the Gateway Cow thing that way, but you're right.
Funny. I'm glad to hear Dell support was good.

The Dell is here and running like a dream. Had a little trouble loading CS3
Design Suite on it, but it finally worked... Adobe's bad from what I can tell
from reading all the forums about others having the same trouble. One thing
I missed when ordering it was that I needed 2 parallel inputs. One for my
Epson 1280, and the other for my NikonScanIII. I haven't really used the
NikonScan in a long time, but I want to be able to. I ordered a 2 input
parallel PCI card though and once I install that, I'll be ready to go.

Wow ..... Photoshop CS3 is so blazing fast on this machine. It's a real
shock to upgrade to a new computer from one that's 7 or 8 years old!

Susan