What is your policy when buying new computer hardware?

[CharlesV]

Ha, yeah.. sorry.. I have tried to not be down on dell (I will save you the poetry :-) ) ..

Having worked with computers for over 35 years I have seen "a few", and I know A LOT of people love them and *many* people have great luck with them as well. And I have had several over the years that were decent machines too. But, in general, I have found most people buy the cheap ones and sorry - nope most of them are very poor machines. Run the specs, look at the parts that are 'off spec' and the failure rates.. I shall pass :-)

[jeffreyC]

I don't buy the newest stuff on the market, usually it takes a while for the drivers to get in the Linux kernel and working right.

When it comes to desktops I buy parts and put them together instead of buying off the shelf.

For laptops I buy ThinkPads and usually buy used corporate ones sold off when the companies do a tech refresh (it's like buying a car when it come off lease vs buying a new car).

[davidy]

Read reviews on newegg especially when doing a new build. This makes the compatibilty problems reach zero. I avoid anything samsuck and nividia. As for laptops I went with sys76 for the coreboot no intel me bios. Now they have amd's in stock and I would look there first and then maybe framework, maybe. Other than that I will avoid the regular vendors as I do not want to enter their ecosystems at all. I don't care who they are. I just wish sys76 had amd's when I bought my intel. There's another company that has coreboot and switchable intel me but they are somewhat more expensive than sys76. I think it's tuxedo or something. There's some great hardware but unless you are especially tech savvy you're better off keeping it simple to avoid the headaches later. I find it funny when guys buy the latest and greatest and then find out it causes problems with their other stuff. I just go with what is reviewed to work oob. Saves a lot of time.

I bought a bunch of parts one time for a new desktop pc (I still own) and hired some guy off craigslist to put it together for me. He actually put it all together within about 5 minutes using just his fingers with no tools lol, and yet he had never heard of a Seasonic PS with a 7yr wrrty.

[m_pav]

I too avoid certain vendors and focus mainly on Lenovo for laptops and HP for off-lease Desktops, but I stay a million miles away from anything that is gaming or built with the home user in mind. I have a hard preference for business machines but my budget, or lack thereof doesn't give me the freedom to buy the models I prefer.

When building, I go for runout model motherboards that have proved their worth and a midrange processor with a min of 8GB RAM, preferrably more.

[skallal]

For me the nice thing about Linux is that I can install it on my left over machines. In fact I haven't bought very many new Windows machines either in the last decade. I have a friend who refurbishes used Dell PCs. My current Dell runs Windows 10 and is 10 year old technology that needs a replacement. It would make a great Linux machine when Windows 10 support expires in 2 years. I'm thinking of finding a newer Dell for both Windows 11 and Linux dual boot. My career keeps me tied to Windows. Yet I'd like to see how Linux performs on more recent hardware.

[Be OK]

Always build my own desktop machines. looking for the best supported parts.Never buy a ready made computer last one was a p60 :)
I always get mad that the brands that sale linux and windows machines never export them to europe ,same for printers.
Laptops i get from the dump! good working i5 pfff

[NightCoder]

Basically only from brands that I know well, the hardware has usually been on the market for at least two years. Additionally, the purpose of the machine is a crucial factor. I select the individual components with the greatest care in terms of compatibility and these are usually never purchased from a single source.