Seeking Computer Recommendations

[Chongo]

Building a computer is not an option.

I will break it.

[Dorganath]

On the security thing, if you dont want a mac then you will be using mcafee or norton or you will be hacked/infected/spyware'd to death.

Personally, the only reason that I go anywhere near Norton/Symantec is to uninstall it, and I can't say that I think McAfee is much better, though it is far less "do it our way or else" than Norton, which is something I have always disliked about their products.  There are commercial and free alternatives that will work as well or better.  Norton and McAffee have name recognition due to how long they've been around doing this sort of thing, but it's been established that the big companies can actually respond more slowly to the ever-changing threats to computers than the smaller ones.  Norton and McAffee have definitely reached that level of mass.

Oh, and if one sets things up properly and is careful online, it is possible to run without any sort of active virus/spyware/malware protection and still maintain a clean system, despite what all the nay-sayers and Windows bashers will claim.

[Falonthas]

alienware rocks plain and simple
plus they will fix anything you break in the first three years


my new laptop and desktop are going to be from there

and yes if you keep a firewall and run a seeker every so often your system will stay fine without the ebol virus scanners

[ColtCommando]

I did this a while ago so I dont remember the specificis, but most malware you get on youre PC is through youre internet settings allowing whats known as "ActiveX Controls" to be initiated withought a prompt whenever you visit any site.
 
 As I understand it the ActiveX Control feature is what allows youre windows XP updates to install from the web, instead of having to be downloaded, and then installed.  Well that also meens that those nasty sites that accidentaly pop up, or send out popups, or whatever, are most likely installing somethinging bad onto youre computer, withought you ever getting a promt for it.  Now The article I was reading explained all the settings and where they needed to be set so that ActiveX Controls could only be activated if you selected ok in the prompt.  So I dont get any spyware anymore, and I havent run a spybot, or my personal fave, a hijackthis in many months.
 
 One side effect is that when you are trying to download from some random website (E.g. layo haks) when you click the icon that says download now, the download will get blocked, and either a prompt will pop up saying you know, yes or no, or you get this thin yellow band right underneath youre address bar that says something like this site has attempted to activeate avtivex controls blah blah blah, and when you click that you get the promt.
 
 In any event, in youre security venture I would advise researching ActiveX Controls, and how they need to be set so that random sites cant just activate it unawares.

[Trace Nightwind]

Featured Desktops

Try these ones out.  i like the 1799 one

[ycleption]

If you have enough suggestions about the specific components you want, you might want to look at X Technology, Inc. - Today's Special
They have more customizable computers than most places, reasonable prices, and you can even select one of their "gaming computers" and put it in a non-l337  case

[Falonthas]

only problem trace is those dells run vista
and vista will be terrible for another 9 months easy

[Dorganath]

only problem trace is those dells run vista
and vista will be terrible for another 9 months easy

Vista isn't terrible now (and yes, I'm running it at work right now)...but Chongo has already expressed a desire to stay with XP, so it's kind of a moot point.

[darkstorme]

As a confirmation of an above query (Jrizz, I think), you can't run the Aurora Toolkit in Mac OSX.  So your options are dual-booting to Windows (at which point, you may as well buy a PC), or running VirtualPC, at which point your performance will be abysmal.

The system you have for 1909 looks rather nice... though with that much expensive hardware, the warranty is a good idea.. which will pop your costs up that little bit further.

[Kirbiana]

We have not been able to run the Aurora toolset on our new Vista laptop, either, but we also haven't tried very hard. I have heard that Dell is going to support XP for at least another six months, I assume other OEM's will as well. I don't dislike Vista, but have to say it seems like a lot of glitz and glitter without much real improvement in performance at this point.

[jrizz]

Nice pick Chongo but go with the service plan as well. That system will rock by the way. And on the virus/hack/spyware protection issue sounds like DMOE has some good suggestions. Just dont run without protection.

[darkstorme]

Clamwin is a good idea.. it's effective, and fairly light-weight.

[Skywatcher]

only problem trace is those dells run vista
and vista will be terrible for another 9 months easy

Most of the Dell systems allow you to pick your OS between Vista and XP right now.  It's just one of the options you have to select.  They will default to Vista but you can customize the system by picking XP to be installed instead.

[Filatus]

For anti-virus I would suggest AVG or Avira Antivir combined with some free anti-spyware program, not quite sure what's the best anti-spyware.

Personally I prefer Avira Antivir. Runs very light.

[Nyralotep]

This is a very good AV package.  For spyware stuff I use spybot and adaware in concert with the spybot tea-timer.  If you're looking for something free Avast makes a good AV scanner.

[Chongo]

Ok, computer is bought.


Now...

Monitor Suggestions!

[Falonthas]

which one did you pick
and i like a 19' flat

[Chongo]

Alrighty, I'm pretty much done in the selection process.

Thanks for your help everyone.