On Jun 30, 2010, at 2:42 PM, Matt Graham wrote:
From: Alex Dean <[email protected]>
On Jun 30, 2010, at 1:11 PM, keith smith wrote:
Reliability is important to me. I just don't fee like I want to
research components, buy them and build them.
I built my first from-scratch system about a year ago. I doubt I
saved any money. The main reasons I did it were 1. I got exactly
what
I wanted, without bundled junk I didn't want etc. and 2. it was fun.
In general, Dell, HPCompaq, Gateway, et al tend to buy the cheapest
components
possible for their low-end machines. This often leads to sporadic
problems
due to cheap parts behaving marginally, and the user tends to blame
the
failures on Microsoft or viruses or hackers. BTDT with a marginal
micro-ATX
board from Gateway and another craptastic micro-ATX board from
Asus. The
motherboard is the most complex part in an x86, the most difficult to
remove/replace, and the hardest thing to diagnose problems with. As
such, I'd
rather spend money on a *good* motherboard than on any other
component. And
yes, most of the bundled things you get from major vendors are totally
worthless.
If it were anything but an in-home machine I would have stuck with a
commercial vendor.
The nice thing about buying parts is that you can often re-use the
old parts
you have that still work. That can lead to saving money in the long
run. The
ATX case I have is 8 years old, my speakers 11 years old, and my DEC
Tulip PCI
card is probably 13 years old. Of course, you have to do some
screwdriver-fu
to put an x86 together from parts. A well-designed case makes this
a hell of
a lot simpler than a badly-designed case.
Basically, if your time is important to you, you should spend some
extra money
on quality parts. That way, you can spend much more time fooling with
software problems instead of hardware problems.
All good points. After several years of retrofitting aftermarket
components into a teeny Dell case, it was pretty nice to work in a
case which was actually designed to have my big fat hands in it. (I
should mention I bought this dell mini-tower in about 2001, and have
had 0 problems. Still runs like a champ.)
One other benefit I didn't mention, but which might be relevant to
some... my nephew got to help me put the machine together. I think
there's a lot of value in showing kids how computers are put together,
and give them a sense that it's something you can really dig into and
understand. He got really interested in it, and it was a lot of fun
to have his help.
alex
---------------------------------------------------
PLUG-discuss mailing list - [email protected]
To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings:
http://lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss
