What is the best brand for a desktop computer?

[smartiq]

I want to buy 2 desktop computers for at home. Which brands are the best?

[Eli]

Microsoft- Better graphics, doesn't glitch out or lag all the time, Microsoft is cheaper even for a really good custom laptop and if you want a little more stuff you get buy a windows 8 but if not i would suggest a windows 7 ultimate but really it's your choice what kind you want.

[Duncan]

Apple...

http://bgr.com/2013/09/18/apple-customer-satisfaction/

[Jan]

There is no "best brand". All computers use similar components that are sourced from the same vendors (cpu, hd, graphics, etc). The major difference between brands is the casing (how the laptop looks and feels) and the after sales support.

Personally I think that none of the brands are worth it and you're better off sourcing the parts yourself. Of course you won't be able to get the warranty packs for it that the brands can give you, but in all truth, if those warranty packs wouldn't pay off to them, they wouldn't sell them! Unless you have a server running in a datacenter and you absolutely need a technician to be there within a few hours to solve the problem, you're better and cheaper off not taking any warranty.
Every part you buy has its own warranty (some 1 year, some go up to 5 years... ) but you'll have to send it in and wait for repair or replacement.

If you want a laptop, it's more difficult to build yourself, so go with a brand that looks and feels best to you.
Personally, I stay away from Dell and HP because I don't like their support practises... but that's just me. I'm an IT professional and I often know more about the stuff I'm dealing with than the support person I'm talking to, and I just don't like that they insist in treating me like an idiot. I also don't like that they often hand out refurbished parts instead of giving a decent (new) replacement part. It often has problems of its own.

I buy laptops and other parts from companies like http://novatech.co.uk, because I'm in the UK. They have excelent support and they're much cheaper than other big brands. If you're in another country, try to look for other brands... every country has its own specialty shops.

If you're in the US or the UK, and since you need desktops, I would have a look at http://pcpartpicker.com as well and see what it costs to build your own. You'll probably save yourself a lot of money and be happier with the end result.
The site has built-in tools to notify you of incompatible parts, if you're inexperienced...

If you're not a hardcore gamer, you would be more than fine buying 4th gen i5 cpu with a built-in graphics chip HD4600. It's comparable with an ATI Radeon 8600 series and it'll save you another $150 on a dedicated GPU.

[Robert]

Apple is the best buy if youre willing to spend and otherwise microsoft produce powerfull desktops

[Mike]

The best desktop computer is the one you build yourself. If building a computer is not something that you have an inclination to do, perhaps you have a geeky relative or friend to do it for you. Or if you don't want to do that, you probably have a mom and pop computer store in your area that custom builds computers. You will probably pay 2 or 3 times as much as what you would pay for a cheap computer at WalMart. But the computer that you end up with will be 5x as good. If you are going to build your own computer or have one built, I would suggest that you get it with Widows 7.

[starpc11]

Three to choose from dell , hp , gateway , found nothing wrong with all three can upgrade all three depends on the model you get , the only thing i don't like about pre assemble desktop they use low wattage psu , customer service well there are some good and bad points about all manufacture built pc's , running dells for years no real problems besides user issues , hp a few minor issues which is less than the e-machine i brought for the extra bedroom, gateway just the going into standby function i which i fixed, between the three dell pc

[voicelessplastic747]

Asus make pretty good computers.

[Brainio]

> If you want to base your choice on thousands of comsumer opinions, you should check http://www.clevly.com. This website tells you how people feel about anything, based on automatically analyzed opinions from social media messages. From all brands I checked, the winner is Asus.