Looking to purchase a new desktop. Open to most brands out there.

- Will be on 24 hours a day
- Will act as my home jukebox
- Will be used to play PC games
- Will be used for regular e-mail and MS applications
- Will be used to capture video from cameras around the house
- Would like to play cable TV through it when necessary so no need extra TV monitor in the study

What do people recommend for this? I'm sure there are a lot of computers but given these requirements I'm looking for:

- Reliability
- Competitive Price

The latest copy of Which? has Apple way out in front, and an iMac could meet of all your needs, with the exception of PC games.

2nd in the report were Dells, XPS 600N for gamers and Precision 380 for creatives - both have 1Gb of RAM.

Both Dell and Apple top the Which reliability tables.

I hope this advice is not too basic, but given the purposes for which you want to use your computer, be sure to get one with a video card. Many of the Dell computers in the catalogs they frequently send out do not have separate graphics cards. From experience, I know that many games cannot run on system with integrated graphics.

For reliability, Consumer Reports and PC Magazine both concur with Which? that Apple is way ahead of whoever is in second place. There is no consensus on who is in second place.

Depending on which PC games you want to play, and if by PC you mean specifically "Windows PC," that may not be helpful.

I've always had Dells at home (desktop) and at work (laptop). IMHO they are reasonably priced, serviceable, but ultimately flimsy machines; they will give two to three years of OK service before suffering a massive and costly failure. All my four Dell laptops have worked fine for two years, then failed; my current one had a hard drive wipeout at the 11-month mark, but I think that's somewhat unusual.

The issue with Dell is laughable, nonexistent customer support. As soon as they ship the machine they turn their back on you. It is virtually impossible to get a coherent, knowledgeable Dell person on the phone. And I have had crazy advice from Dell reps; one told me never to download Microsoft critical updates because they corrupt the computer. Key parts/accessories are only available through Dell mail order; if they're out of stock, you're out of luck. (I lost my laptop's AC adapter a few months ago and, panicked, called Dell to have a replacement FedExed. They couldn't ship one for two weeks. "But what do people do in an emergency like this?" I pleaded. "They usually wait," sneered the Dell woman. Fortunately eBay came to the rescue.)

Apples are more stylish, more usable/ergonomic in some peoples' eyes, more expensive, less compatible, and you have access to much less software. The game selection in particular is thin.

I don't think customer support could be any worse than Dell's. I only kept an Apple desktop for one year, working at a place where the top man was more concerned about looking stylish than effective client communication, and as everyone we dealt with ran conventional PCs the file incompatibility/conversion problems were hellish.

If compatibility issues trouble you, don't get an Apple.

When you say competitive price, is cost an issue? No need to answer, but if it's not I'd recommend an Alienware machine which is a very reliable brand with excellent customer support. As far as PC games , it will smoke anything Dell, HP etc has to offer in a comparable price range and nothing is proprietary other than the case. It may cost a bit more, but you get what you pay for. You can choose from a wide array of components and also cut out the stuff you don't need.

I've decided to stick with a desktop Windows PC. I bought my wife a powerbook so but overall I am familiar with Windows a lot more and feel more comfortable with it.

I've had the same experience with Dell laptops. I've always had IBM desktops but feel they are over priced for what you get. Dell seems to be quite reasonably priced but I'm worried about reliability.

How about HP, NEC, Sony, and other brands out there?

At the risk (risc?) of being wordy I want to describe my setup to give you an idea of where I am coming from...

1 old dell linux router
2 home built intel based windows 2003 domain controllers
1 old gateway Asterisk VoIP server
2 Mac minis (1 kitchen, 1 master bed/bath)
1 Dell dimension 4300 running XP sp2 - my workstation
1 Dell latitude d600 - my work computer
1 Apple powerbook 12" g4
1 old old dell laptop collecting dust

Everything we have is on 24x7.

I am looking (santa will be doing the shopping) for a new desktop. I will not buy another dell. I "work on" most of my friends' and family's PCs; 95% of which are Dells. I am systematically seeing failures in 3 to 4 year old Dells. I recently suggested a new high end dell to an aunt (based on specs) and when I saw it in person I was disappointed with the quality of the components. My work laptop is very new and on its 2nd mother board, 2nd keyboard and 2nd hard drive. Granted I travel enough that it goes through a lot of security check points... I just think Dell went the way of North Face in that the brand became so ubiquitous that quality could not keep up with production. I had 2 dell Power Edge servers that BOTH died ONE WEEK after warranty ran out. Replaced them with ones I built myself that have been running for 1.5 years with out a hiccup.

Sony and HP and Compaq (their consumer brand) consumer level PCs tend to have similar issues. Loaded with proprietary junk. They run sluggish out of the box as a result. Sony is known for supporting their own weird hardware like memory sticks, etc. So look out for that in terms of DVD-R, Blu-Ray, HD-DVD, etc.

Apple gets my vote hands down. The quality of their components (ok, maybe memory could have been a little better in the past) is amazing! Here is the biggest thing: the web is the new OS. From what you've asked for the only roadblock you may come up against is gaming. There just are not as many titles out there for OS X. Other than that, there is no compelling reason to use a windows based platform.

Linux simply isn't ready for the desktop- just try joining one to a windows domain or installing software (from an average enduser standpoint). Windows is a security nightmare. It takes less than 15 minutes for a windows box with out firewall protection to become compromised. OS X just works, and well!

When you look at costs, Apples appear considerably more expensive. But look at the detailed specs. One of the most crucial components is the front side bus- its like the spinal column that connects the limbs to the brain. I think you'll find that a comparably speced Dell is about the same as a G5 iMac.

For TV input you may want to look at the Elgato (spelling?).

If you cannot live with out windows apps you can get Virtual PC, but performance sucks a-hole. For about the same price you can get a $100 PC off e-bay and get a friend to "loan" you a copy of XP to install on it. After it's setup, turn on remote desktop and tuck it away somewhere on your network. Then use MS's remote desktop client to connect to it from the mac and run windows apps on it. Much faster!

If you are into the windows thing- which is OK, I'm an MCSE and used to be into windows by trade, then look at options from some high end producers.
Falcon Northwest and Alienware are known as making high end gaming platforms. But to do that they have to make high end systems in general. I find their construction to be top of the line. If I was going intel for my desktop, I'd go Falcon Nortwest. Throw in a radeon all-in-wonder for TV in/out and you are good to go.

Intel or Mac you'll want at least 1gb of RAM. Try for 2 HDs. It will give you better performance (files on one, OS and programs on the other) and some protection. This is a good idea especially if you want to use it as a music jukebox. Either platform will support Sonos or an Apple AirPort Express. Go with an 800mhz front side bus or better. Remember, components are expensive these days... you can get a 200gb HD for $120. Unless you are doing digital video editing then a slower HD is just fine and won't really adversely effect performance.

Good luck and let us know which way you go!

I don't think compatibility should be a major issue with a Mac. I worked for 5 years or so at a multi-platform company. Everyone could get whichever platform s/he wanted. We ran Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint; PageMaker for page layout; some fairly sophisticated FileMaker Pro database apps; Dreamweaver and Fireworks for Web development; Acrobat for creating PDFs and a few others. The only compatibility issues we ever had involved graphics embedded in Word documents, and those were few and far between. So, unless you have specific application needs that force you to Windows (the occasional Access database doesn't count; it runs fine under Virtual PC) that by itself is not a reason to go that route.

However, VPC is not practical for most interactive games. (The term "sucks" comes to mind.) Its overhead is too high. If you want to run an interactive game that requires Windows, get a system that runs Windows.

If you want a PC I would really stick with Dell. We have them in the office and I have one at home. Just make sure you configure them the way you need. You might also try an Optiplex instead of the less expensive Dell desktop line.