On 8-Jan-09, at 2:46 PM, erik burggraaf wrote:
Hi, I have to respectfully disagree here. Speaking as one of those
guys who built pc's in his garrage and provided superb support
during and after the sale, I'd like to draw a few points.
1, custome built pc's are more expensive than pre-fab pc's because
some one took the time to not only hand-pick the parts and build it
themselves by hand, but also to test the parts and make sure all
were working before the pc left the shop.
2, custome builds are also more expensive because they have top
quality parts. Manufacturers like dell, acer, and hp build
extremely cheep cases, with little or no attention to cooling. They
put abominably cheep 200 and 250 wat power supplies in with poor
grounding and bad wiring. They put no cooling on the bord, and
often they put no cooling in the case except for the power supply
fan. Some even use a windscreen to funnel the heatsinc air out the
back and use that for cooling.
3, Prefab pc's often have little room for expantion, so you may not
be able to add componants if something happens to the onbord stuff,
and if you do open the case, you may voide your warrantee. Dell is
the only brand I know of that lets you open the case.
4, unless you pay extra, sometimes a lot extra, the warrantee on a
prefab pc is only one year, and if anything needs doing, you either
have to bring the pc in to a big box store where they will probably
send it away for repair, or you have to send it away yourself, often
at least partially at your own expense. There were times when I
couldn't do that myself, but whenever I work on a computer it is
always in the customer's home, and the default warrantee period for
any system I build is 3 years upgradeable to 5 included in the
price. I can do this because all of the hardware even the cases and
power supplies I hand pick are coverd for three years, and so if
anything goes rong, it's only my time that gets lost. Of course,
that puts the bottom line up, but quality is quality. I also have
the advantage of being right here and reachable via msn messenger or
toll-free phone. I'm in Canada, and while it's a big country, and I
may not be able to get to your house in BC if you buy a computer
from me, you can always count on getting ahold of and being taken
care of by me. No offence to people living in other countries
intended, but you won't be handled by a different person each time
you call, who may or may not speak good english, and who may or may
not take good notes, and who may or may not be having a lousey day.
You get me... All the time... that's it.
5, hand picked and hand built pc's perform better out of the box
because they only come with the programs you need. They do not come
bundled with mounds of trialware and bloatware. You get the
antivirus program and firewall you want, and you get a regular
subscription, not a 60 or 90 day trial. You get a real microsoft
office, not a stripdown edition or a trialware that you have to buy
after a sertain time. If you want winamp installed, or firefox, or
anything like that, I can do it in the shop and save you the
bother. With a custome build, you always get a real windows
opperating system disc, not a recovery partician or a hacked up disc
that installs all kinds of junk whenever you reformat your PC.
So, it all depends what you want it for. If you just need a backup
system, or you don't mind buying a pc a year for the rest of your
life, then you can go ahead and buy an acer or an hp for under $500,
and it will serv pretty well for simple computing.
If you want to pay good money for a system and have it as your only
system for a good three years or more, and you're prepaired to spend
good money anyway, then you may as well put your money into
something built and supported locally with high quality parts and
attention to detail.
Best,
erik burggraaf
Certified Technician
Assistive Computing LTD Support and training
Sales department: 888-828-2445
Support and Training: 888-255-5194
Email: [email protected]
Website coming soon
On 8-Jan-09, at 7:21 AM, Chip Orange wrote:
I think on board video and sound are better supported (not by GW, I
don't think they care which you use, but by the pc manufacturers).
It
certainly saves you money, and if you run into any problem, you can
have
someone disable the onboard video or sound from within the bios,
and add
a sound or video card later.
Warning, opinion ahead!:
I would not have a person by parts and put together a pc for you; I
strongly urge you not to do that.
PC manufacturing companies have a lot of experience with
configurations
and knowing that all the drivers and hardware work together, and they
offer you good support as far as updated drivers and programs to help
you update them. When I get calls for help troubleshooting a pc
problem, and it's unresolvable, or not easily resolved, it's always
these "garage" guys who assemble pcs from parts and load the
drivers and
the OS themselves. They also end up recommending that you buy
super-high-end video cards, etc., which you don't need, so you end up
spending more money than you have to.
Chip
------------------------------
Chip Orange
Database Administrator
Florida Public Service Commission
[email protected]
(850) 413-6314
(Any opinions expressed are solely those of the author and do not
necessarily reflect those of the Florida Public Service Commission.)
-----Original Message-----
From: John Riehl [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Wednesday, January 07, 2009 10:35 PM
To: gwinfo
Subject: Questions for a new computer
I'm in the process of having a new computer put together for
me. I have a couple of questions.
1. In terms of windoweyes and othee accessibiliity products,
is it better to have a separate sound card or use "onboard"
sound -- i.e., sound that's part of the mother board?
2. Same for video: is a separate video card better for
windoweyes or is "shared video" okay?
I plan to use XP pro, not Vista.
Thanks.
John Riehl
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