off topic ... anyone got thoughts on Packard bell compu

[Guest]

I am tempted by the new Packard Bell 9094 ixtreme. The spec reads well, but as a brand I am not sure.It has P4 3.06Ghz, 1GB DDR Ram , Radeon 9700 Graphics , 120 GB 7200 rpm hard drive, intel 845 ge chipset.it reads well ...but do you have any experience of Packard Bell machines...ThanksJohn

[ejoiner 21]

My first PC several years ago was a Packard Bell...what a disaster.Cheap price...but everything was proprietary and no ability to upgrade at all...lousy support as well. However, since that time they were acquired by NEC. Might be different now..but they sucked then. Probably do now.Dude...get a Dell...or a Gateway...or a custom rig from a local store with local support. Dont by crap. Save your pennies and buy something you can high grade later and something that can be supported.My .02Eric

[Guest]

EricI think you have answered my question. I thought it might be the case.Dell is my prefered option, but I wanted to ask people firstThanks

[Guest ba747heavy]

Or, how about this. Build it yourself. I built my computer this summer, and it was so easy. You learn alot, and you arent' held down by proprietary hardware. And besides, it is cheaper, and you get to choose everything your way.Fred

[Guest jase439]

Is PB still in business? Jeez. What rot. I remember back in the day when I was a PC service tech and a customer brought in some 486 P.O.S. from PB. They wanted to upgrade the onboard cache. This was not an uncommon upgrade. The chips were about $4 each and there were typically a bank of 8 that needed replacing (basically a $32 upgrade). Well, Packard Smell puts in this 9th cache chip which is, of course, proprietary and costs $100 to upgrade. It served no functional purpose whatsoever and did nothing more than redirect the cache pin leads. We ended up soldering wires for each trace from one side of the chip to the other.Packard Bell is a pariah manufacturer. Run like h*ll.J