which is better vendor:micro express 3000+ or abs bravado 2300

[john erickson_1]

i need a new pc. i have never dealt with above and am extremely hesitant to buy over the net.
i would rather be able to take sys back to a store than mail it back to some hustler(?) and get worked over. pc world liked both of these co's but that doesn't mean anything.i need to know of a company i can trust to provide a fast computer for a good price and offer support if its needed.comments welcomed.right now i have the hp pavillion 545 xb (photo) computer which is very, very slow. despite all the comments from my good friends in these forums it remains slow. pc world says that micro express is very fast. hp is not even mentioned. thanks in advance.

[Roger Faucher]

John:

Every manufacturer makes both slow and fast computers. The slow ones are inexpensive and the fast ones are more expensive. Count your blessings though; time was when an IBM PS/2 386 computer which was a dog by today's performance standards, might cost upward of $10,000.

John, you're like most people. I suspect that you'd like to have the fast computer for the price of a slow computer. I don't know what your budget is but if you want a powerful computer that won't frustrate you and will have the ability to be upgraded in the future without having to be replaced the first time you want to kick the performance up a notch, then consider these suggestions/ideas.

Intel has made Pentium 4 processors (CPU) in 400, 533, & 800 Megahertz (Mhz) Front-Side Bus (FSB) flavors. If you purchase a system containing a motherboard (MoBo)which supports only 400 MHz Pentium 4 CPUs, you'll almost certainly have no upgrade path later on. To a somewhat lesser extent, that's also true of 533 MHz only MoBos. Therefore, I suggest that you make sure whatever you buy has a MoBo capable of supporting 800MHz Pentium 4s. If you need to keep costs as low as possible, get a MoBo which supports both 533 and 800 MHz CPUs and install the least expensive 533 MHz CPU, then later on when prices come down, you can upgrade to a faster 800 MHz CPU. Having said that, the difference between a P4 2.4 MHz/533 FSB and a 2.4 MHz/800 FSB today is less than $30.
The other advantage to buying an 800 MHZ FSB MoBo is you'll be able to use 400MHz memory (PC3200, i believe it's called). Of course, that memory will be more costly than the PC2100 memory you'd use with a 533 MHz FSB MoBo/CPU.
Another thing I suggest looking for in a MoBo is SATA (Serial ATA) which is a newer hard disk drive technology, which is potentiallyfaster than all existing IDE/ATAPI drives today. I suggest a MoBo which supports both SATA and Ultra DMA (UDMA)133.
You can keep today's cost down some by buying a MoBo which has onboard graphics such as Intel Extreme Graphics which will use up to 64MB of your system memory and perform like a PCI video card with ~32MB of Video memory. Just make absolutely CERTAIN that the motherboard has an AGP slot for video upgrading.

I'm sorry I have to cut this short (is that a joke). Make sure USB 2.0 and Firewire (if you think you'll need it). Don't scrimp on the power supply; get a 300 Watt supply or more and all the cooling fans the case will support. Make sure the PS is approved for Pentium 4. I can't think of anything else. You could save still more money by going with an AMD CPU, but that's another story and one I don't tell well.

Good luck.

One more thing. You should find a reputable computer dealer in your town who will build a system to your specs and support you when you have problems. Ask him/her if they'll let you watchthem build the system and tell why they use certain components versus others. People like this are rare but we do exist.

Roger