Hello everyone!
I'm new here! I'm Tidus, i'm Senior Executive of KJC, and i'm here to offer huddsguy a bit of professional advice.
First, the computer manufacturers i reccommend are:
Tiny (although defunct now, they were a great company, i was sad to see them go, they were one of the best 100% standard computer companies going)
Time
Gateway
Evesham
Aria
Mesh
Alienware (although i would now avoid them, they've recently been taken over by Dell)
Some of these manufacturers use proprietary parts, which are not as bad as Dell.
Dell have Intel custom make motherboards for them, they have done since September 1998. The PSU ATX 20 pin sockets are the same, but the wiring ISN'T, The voltages are different to the pins on a standard PSU.
As Neil said earlier, the Dimension 3100 has f*** all by way of ports, talk about skimpy! All other manufacturers have the full set of I/O ports on their machines!
Advent are pretty good, although their laptops are a bit crashy, they have frequent BSOD (Blue Screen Of Death) moments, and they have hardly any I/O ports on the back of them.
I too would go the custom build route, i have done for ages, i built my current P4 desktop, my wife's Dual Core AMD system, and our home DNS network Server, it often ends up cheaper, you know what parts you have, and you don't need to go crying to shitty companies like Dell for proprietary parts, who then charge you through the nose for shipping them to you.
Some manufacturers use proprietary connectors for the front panel wiring, which are easily standardised, we do it as a service to customers.
As Neil said, "Oh yeah, don't buy a computer from PC World either." DON'T! They don't give a crap about customers, they charge loads for Servicecalls, and the systems are bog standard shite at high prices, i used to work for them as a system technician!
Dell's customer support helpdesk is run by a load of schookids too, they don't have a clue, and pass you from rep to rep!
Anyway guys, i hope i've helped with my little contribution!
Visit our site at
http://kjcomputers.serveftp.net. Our site is always up during the day, but not at night, it's a company server!