Looking for best desktop or laptop for under 1000 including tax

[michial]

Iam looking for the best desktop or laptop I can get for undoer $1000 including tax. Iam no intel or amd fanboy. My last computer was an amd and I loved it. I want the best for my money. I want to buy not build. Preferrably from costco which offers a 90 return policy and 2 year warranty. Costco's website has many choices, here a a few.

I do not game, other than on consoles. I do:
download a lot of torrents all the time
stream onto tv via windows media center via xbox 360
wife always has facebook games running
lots of web surfing, streaming media

With all of these processes at same time what is the best I can get for under $100(including tax). It doesnt matter if it is a desktop or laptop. Perhaps you can suggest best for both.

Costco has for desktop
AMD Phenom™ II X4 Processor 945 (3.0GHz)
AMD 780V / SB700 chipset
8GB DDR2 SDRAM memory (4 x 2GB, shared)
Drives:

1TB (7,200RPM) SATA Hard Drive
22x max DVD±RW optical drive
Front panel 19-in-1 multimedia card reader
Graphics & Video:

Integrated ATI Radeon™ HD 3100 graphics with DVI

I have also seen AMD laptops like:
AMD Turion II Dual-Core Processor M520 (2.3GHz)
1MB L2 cache
4GB DDR2 SDRAM (2 DIMM)
Drives:

500GB (7,200RPM) SATA Hard Drive
SuperMulti 8x DVD±RW drive with Double Layer Support
Graphics & Video:

15.6" LED BrightView display; 1366 x 768 native resolution
512MB ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4530 Graphics


I also just bought an HD laptop core i3 350M 500GB HDD, 4GB DDR3 I do not like it and will take it back. It is slow for a new machine and the apps Iam running on it. Very disappointed in it. Would like more power. I paid $799.99 for the HP laptop. The Phenom II above is $599.00 plus I could get a monitor under $200 and have it for same price as the laptop and hopefully it will be money better spent and more computer? Maybe the AMD laptop I mentioned is better than the i3, I dont know?What do you think?THanks!!!

 

[o1die]

I'd save a little more and go for Dell's alienware aurora series gaming setup. It starts at $1199, and comes with the i7 920 and 3 gb of ddr3. Upgrade to 6 gb for only $50 more. In about 1 more week, you'll see end of the year specials for dell, as their year ends at the end of January, and they push out all the product they can for their bottom line. I've worked at dell 3 times assemblying pc's. Specials are listed at slickdeals and fatwallet.

 

[michial]

Costco has this Dell available for $999.99
Processor & Memory:

IntIntel® Core™ i7-720QM Processor at 1.6GHz
6MB L2 cache
1066MHz Front Side Bus
4GB DDR3 SDRAM - 1066MHz, 2 Dimm
Drives:

500GB 7200RPM SATA Hard Drive
8X DVD+/-RW Dual Layer Drive
Graphics & Video:

15.6" High Definition (720p) LED Display with TrueLife and Camera (1366x768)
512MB ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4570 Graphics

or this HP for $999.99

Intel® Core™ i7-720QM Processor at 1.6GHz (2.8GHz Turbo Mode)
6MB L2 cache
1333MHz front side bus
4GB DDR3 SDRAM (2 DIMM)
Drives:

320GB (7,200RPM) SATA Hard Drive
Lightscribe SuperMulti 8x DVD±RW drive with Double Layer Support
Graphics & Video:

15.6" High Definition LED BrightView display; 1366 x 768 native resolution
1GB NVIDIA GeForce GT 230M Graphics

As a side I bought a new i3 laptop 350M. It is slower than my friends t6600 core 2 duo running the same apps. Much slower. Mine is going back to costco right away.

Will the above quad show more improvement than the i3?

 

[o1die]

Not worth it. The 920 is a much better cpu. Be patient, and check those websites I mentioned in the next 10 days. I bet a good deal with the i7 920 will come up.

 

[michial]

Should I be shocked at how slow this i3 350M is compared with the t6600 core 2 duo?

 

[captaincharisma]

how do you figure it is? the i3 is a 2.6ghz dual core vs a previous generation core 2 that is clocked at 2.2 ghz. your laptop is either slow because of software on it or it has a low amount of ram.

oh and whatever you do stay the heck away from anything HP unless you like dealing with tech support