Re: Buying a New 'Puter...
so upgrading mobo's isn't a cost effective upgrade?
No, not in my opinion. You have to buy a new MB, Memory and CPU. And, you are stuck with an old power supply, fans, etc. Not when you can buy a brand new box so cheap these days. Look at the box Bondo bought for less than $500 delivered. And no bootlegging the OS. No old box. No questionable parts. 7/24 support. Full 1 year warranty. No labor. Latest memory and processor.<br /><br />
from my understanding all the major manufacturers buy hardware based on price, not brand
Not the big guys it is brand = reliability and performance which is more important to them than the cost per unit. They buy so many the determine the price. You think Intel or Maxtor cares about anybody but Dell, Gateway, IBM and HP? <br /><br />Comapnies like Dell want to sell you a box and not hear from you again until you are ready for a new one. They don't want any support calls and they don't want any reapir calls. They way they prevent them is by building them to be reliable to begin with and that is done by using high quality components.<br /><br />
your saying Corsair is fake or poor quality memory?<br />
Read your own article about memory issues and then go read the ZDLabs reports. Small guys work on razor thin margins. Part remarking happens all the time. Clock speeds get upped, manufacturer gets changed etc., etc. It was such a big issue for Intel that they started to put internal serial numbers in the CPUs.<br /><br />
so a local 10, 15 yr old store is a bad place to get a comp?
It depends. At least they have a track record. But, I bet their money is made on the service/repair side than on building and selling boxes. If building boxes were economical, most large buyers would build their own and they don't.<br /><br />
well, if cost is the consideration, everyone would build their own box. because i guarantee that high end Dell you run could be built for at least a couple hundred less if not more thru Newegg and be fully upgradable.<br />
Nope, not unless I was willing to take some chances on the parts. And, anything worth upgrading on this box is easily upgradable. Upgrading these days is just not ecenomical for the most part. And, when you do, you assume all the risk. Wait till you're mucking around some day, forget to hook up your CPU fan and fry the CPU or have some other minor brain fart... happens all the time.<br /><br />
you hadn't read those reseller ratings
Sorry but who do you think are putting those comments up there huh? The only seller ratings I give any weight to what so ever are those in places like PCMAG. Independent surveys done by reputable organizations.<br /><br />Like I said, I've been in this industry since the early 80s. I've been there and done that more times than you can possibly imagine. If you like building your own box or buying from a local guy who does a good job for you then more power to you. However, for the vast majority of the world is is not the best solution. If it were, companies like Dell would not rank among the Fortune 500.<br /><br />Just a few months ago I had a friends sister go with a local builder. I warned her and warned her... she did not listen.... she begged me to come up and get the darn thing squared away after the builder cound't get everyhting working, which I did but this sort of crap happens all the time/<br /><br />I know there is a hardcore army of techies and hacks that hate to buy a box, heck I was one of them but those days IMHO are just about, if not toally, over. People used to be the same way about radios and then TVs. Sooner or later the laws of economics take over...
<br />With a 40 GB HD all of my info is not all that important.<br /><br />Don't turn into an ice statue waitin outside for that UPS truck to show up.
