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I second Dell.com. Over the past 15 years I must have bought and re-configured 30 or more Dell systems for the family and work. I did not have a single disappointment. 
I will admit that Dell systems come with a lot of garbage ware, that you have to get rid of. But which manufacturer is not guilty in this regard?
How do we preserve the wisdom men will need,
when their violent passions are spent?
- The Lost Horizon
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Cornelius Henning wrote: systems come with a lot of garbage ware, that you have to get rid of. But which manufacturer is not guilty in this regard?
Precisely the reason to...
- buy the parts
- pay the (none dare call it outrageous) fee for the operating system of your choice
- spend a weekend assembling it at home
- install the OS yourself
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I go into my local Fry's Electronics and buy the components I want. Once my wife approves the budget of course.
I economize by reusing the case and power supply and other components that don't need to be replaced -- 56K MODEM, floppy drives, etc.
And I always start with a fresh hard drive.
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Ooohhh... you need to put a dollar in the "I got moderated" jar.
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If I can take two dollars from "I got marked as a spam for no reason" jar first. No problem. 
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But, that's the same jar. 
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 Beat me to it !
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I have always built my own systems, shopping around for deals on the exact parts I wanted, but if I needed a new computer right now, I think I would consider getting one of those Intel NUC, Gigabyte Brix or something similar.
That PC Parts Picker site linked to above looks interesting.
I have never had a bad experience with Newegg. Their time to delivery is insanely fast (I guess it doesn't hurt that I only live about 140 miles away from their main warehouse  ).
Soren Madsen
"When you don't know what you're doing it's best to do it quickly" - Jase #DuckDynasty
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The last PC I bought was in 1994, all since have been built from parts. Newegg is probably the best source I've found, especially since I'm rather fond of SuperMicro MBs. They're one of a very few places that carry the brand, though you do have to search to find their stock.
Will Rogers never met me.
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I was so sad when MachSpeed left the motherboard business.
Lifetime guarantee; oh was that nice.
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Newegg is AWESOME. They are one of the best sites for computer parts.
What do you get when you cross a joke with a rhetorical question?
The metaphorical solid rear-end expulsions have impacted the metaphorical motorized bladed rotating air movement mechanism.
Do questions with multiple question marks annoy you???
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RyanDev wrote: What do you guys use when looking for a new PC?
pcberza.rs
Won't help you, but you asked 
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Today I would start with an affordable system from a local store, sometimes there are pretty good „special offers“. Then add or change parts. It takes time and I’m not so sure wether I save any money. But You get a very customized PC.
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Sure, buy an off-the-shelf PC and put a Bob sticker on it. Done. 
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I'll chime in and say if it's a non-laptop, then it's off to newegg I go. Great customer service, but more importantly, they are DEATH ON GRAY MARKET parts. Amazon.com is great for picking up things like mice, keyboards and the lot, but I've had a run of bad luck with their "fulfilled by amazon" items. It's not worth the risk.
Now, if I had oodles and oodles of time and not a sweet little day sailor sitting in my garage, I'd love to build up a new gaming machine. But the outside calls.
Charlie Gilley
<italic>Stuck in a dysfunctional matrix from which I must escape...
"Where liberty dwells, there is my country." B. Franklin, 1783
“They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” BF, 1759
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I am currently using a Brix Pro with i7 CPU 16GB RAM, 500GB SSD mSATA primary drive, 1 TB SSB secondary drive attached to the back of the monitor using the VESA mount. I must say, I am highly pleased with this configuration. Unobtrusive (can't be seen behind the monitor) and very quiet. Only drawback is taht there are nothing but HDMI and 4 version 3.0 USB ports on the box (4 X 4 X 3 inch). Initial install of WIndows 7 was tricky (standard USB stick is USB 2, and you need to 'trick' the box in the BIOS that it's ports are V2.0 for just a few minutes)
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EDIT: Looks like others beat me by a day. I'll still leave my comments about PC Part Picker here.
Regarding the site: PC Part Picker[^]
They named their site well. You pick each exact part for your PC.
I have not built my next great machine yet, but I have registered an account there, and I like the way that they set up their screens and their database.
At this time, no good or bad words will come from me as to their value, as I have not yet taken their advice with my own money.
I will say that the guy(s) who put that site together have some brains in his(their) head(s); as it almost looks like they took a decent structured thinking approach to the task of making a PC exactly like you want it.
Apparently (totally guessing here) they make their money from advising and steering their site visitors to the suppliers who sell the specific parts. This results in a Two-Edged sword...
- Yes, you are sending your money where they tell you, so you might not get the last penny minimum price
- They are aware of technical fits and misses on specific parts; way better than the rest of us
modified 8-Aug-15 14:51pm.
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In Windows Explorer, you can customize the quick access toolbar. So far, I haven't been able to get DELETE and RENAME to work using the icons. I have full admin rights. Also, the column dropdown filters are very cool.
Edit: The Quick Access view is neither modifiable nor sortable. Works anywhere else.
modified 7-Aug-15 22:53pm.
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Had to look up some special codes on an ASCII chart -- haven't done that in a while.
Why? Because this Verifone PinPad device I'm interfacing with uses ACK, STX/ETX and SI/SO characters in its serial communication protocol. Gads, I feel like I'm back in the 80's.
Marc
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Quote: uses ACK, STX/ETX and SI/SO characters in its serial communication protocol
Don't they all?
I takes me back too. I have written too many "talk to the serial port" implementations!
- I would love to change the world, but they won’t give me the source code.
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I not only have to look up ASCII codes frequently, but I had to look up some ESCape sequences recently. 
Marc Clifton wrote: I feel like I'm back in the 80's.
We all float down here.
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The 80's weren't so bad, but the best thing about them was that I was younger.
Jack of all trades, master of none, though often times better than master of one.
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