This is a good topic, I have owned a NEC 3520A and my friend has the 3540A which is about the same. I would say NEC is good for burning and cheap. The only thing that I can complain is that they are noisy. It's not cool to watch a DVD movie with it in the drive. I almost always put it on my computer...

Dells work well and have a good value (i set my parents up with one with a long term warranty so they wouldnt have to worry while i was away at school). Personally i would never consider buying one for myself for a number of reasons (cost for the high end systems, i like to build my own, noise, etc...

My problem with Dell is that in the past, they've partially followed standards and partially not. Such as the old dimensions which used a PSU that had a physically standard ATX connector but used a different pin layout. I lucky noticed this before I fried any PSUs/Motherboards. I'm not sure if they...

I'm planning on buying a new computer in the near future and am currently interested in the new Dell Dimensions for their value and fast and quiet performance. I'm not sure if any of you SPCR members have one of these computers, it seems that most of you would have your own custom built computer or ...

A lot of people view BTX as a dead end because Intel is moving towards cooler running CPUs. An AMD Venice or San Diego core processer in an ATX box can be silent with air cooling. The AMD machine also would have great performance and lowered operating costs. In spite of the above it would be intere...

Hm, I didn't think about the hard drives. So now that I sold my computer and was planning on buying/building a new one, what do you guys think? I am not a gamer, but just like a fast, cool, and silent PC. I found some pictures of the Dimension 9100 and they don't look so great. Dell Dimension 9100: ...

So this all started when I helped a friend buy a Dell Dimension 5100. When I helped him do some hardware installation, I was so surprised. Everything was weird, the PCI cards were installed face up, opposed to faced down in ATX designs. Then I noticed the CPU was in the front, not in the back, and t...

Thanks for this. I actually sold my whole setup, a Dell Dimension 4700 with numerous upgrades. I did not like the chassis as it was very small and with each upgrade, there was less and less room and more and more chance for overheating. There was only 2 fans in the whole case. 1 for the power supply...