I promote open architecture. Building your own is one way to achieve this. For my own use I have purchased two DELL computers, one IBM and a Compaq. All of them have had proprietary aspects that annoy me to some extent.
agree. but you can buy an open dell or gateway. Gave up on IBM and compaq over 5 years go. What type of dell. nothing proprietary with the dimension series. opti-plexes cases, PS, and mobo's are often custom.
The most difficult aspect to deal with has been the software loads and the documentation. Upgrading has been difficult as I can not reuse components when I upgrade. For example, if I want to upgrade a video card I would like to remove the old one and put it in a different machine. This has not been an option.
again what you say certainly applies to compaq and IBM.
Dell, Micron, and Gateway don't have exhorbitant custom software loads nor do they often have things like integrated sound or video. as I have said I have worked on hundreds of these boxes and not ever found this to be the case. I personally have carried components from all my old dells forward into newer systems.
Dealing with tech support has been difficult for me. Waits have varied from 10 minutes to two hours. Many times I have received bad advice.
I agree here but the manufacturers themselves are often no better. I don't see how building your own improves this. For me it only further complicates things. especially for novice and businness users. hobbiests are a different story and building machines for them is a hobby and a learning experience and should be treated as such. I thnk Dell, Gateway, and micron as whole offer comparable support to the manufacturers. If I can't get a an answer from them, I call the manufacturer. This just gives you one extra resource over building my own.
I am trying a different approach this time. So far it has worked for me. Building my first machine was a lot easier than I thought it would be. So far so good. If the machine doesn't work out I can only blame myself. I agree that this approach is for a minority of computer users. However designing your own and assembling it yourself or having someone else assemble it for you is the focus of the thread.
agreed. It is the focus of this thread.
Downtime in case of hardware failure is a key feature where build your own can leave you stranded.
The first time my Compaq harddrive failed (6 months) I was down for two weeks. I had to listen to a guy at Fry's explain to me that it was a software problem. He acted like I was bothering him. The second time my Compaq harddrive failed it was out of warranty. No way would I take it back to the same authorized service center.
DELL
I had a hardrive fail on a DELL computer. The machine was a month old. I was down for a week.
My own
If my harddrive fails I will be down for five minutes. Within 24 hrs I will replace the failed drive.
This is totally off base IMNSHO. You know what I think about compaq.
Your comparison is inaccurate. Dell has consistenlt replaced parts within 24 to 48 hours for me with minimal hassel. When you build your own you have to ship back to the manufacturer and might be lucky to get a local reseller to exchange it, but in my experience not often. Therefore you comparison saying you can fix one the same day applies equally to any machine. In the typical mail order parts case you will be waiting 2-8 weeks for a replacement drive from the manufacture. These estimates are from my experience in returning dozens of drives over the years.
Things you must consider (not necessarily important to hobbiest).
1. Cost: price a machine with the same components to build your self and price it against the big 3 direct vendors. In the past only once could I beat their price by a few$. Not even accounting for 4 hours to assemble the system. comprehensive 3 year warranty. When you factor that it in its usually cheaper. I have not performed this excercise in at least a year so feel free to prove me wrong. Its generally been my experience that what I say here is valid.
2. Warranty: buy from any one vendor and you can get preferably a blank three year warranty on parts and labor. 3 years is key for me.
imo, my failres seem to happen in the 2-3 year range. With build your own you have to deal with each manufacturers warranty differently.
3. Service: when under warranty most major oem's will fedex parts overnight (IF THERE IN STOCK, big caveat here). Most manufacturers reuire you to mail back the defective parts. Getting them to crossship is often possible with enought bitching. With a major OEM no escalation is required.
4. unformity: having consistent computers in larger envrionmetns has many mnay advantages. (another whole post on this one).
5. The commoness factor. A problem you can and WILL run into building your own is that subtle incompatiblities between particular hardware and software combos exist all over the placce. When you build your own you risk uncovering these and then having to debug them. they can be time consuming and frustrating to solve. With a major OEM youget two benefits here. You bought the POS from them make them fix or retuirn the unit within 30 days. They test their machines compatibility across a farily decent range of windows software to help eliminate defects prior to release to customers. The real advantage is that there are hundreds of thousands of others out there with the exact case, ps, mobo, cpu, memory, video combo. CD's and HD's often vary but are seldomly the cause of major system problems. This fact alone is huge benefit in my opionion. Because of the sheer #'s manufacturers and OEM's repsond quicker to making fixes avaialalble which leaves you with a common but well tested and stable peice of hardware...
6. if you help a friend or relative build a machine they will call and bother you with questions for years!!!!! I know some of you have been here. Now when they call, "Call your OEM"
Now there are advantages to building your own.
1. Its fun and a learning experience as a hobbiest.
2. You get to pick every last component!
3. performance, because of # you can build a system that will outperform most other systems.
Its all whats important to you. BTW: I seldomly recommend local builders as most of them use cheaper mobos, generic modems, generic video cards to get the price down. This means you are getting an inferior system. major oem's and build it yourselfers always use better components. This is based on the builders in the areas where I live. I have friends in other parts of the country who have local vendors who build machines with premiunm parts but they cost more than major oems (less buying power).....
Sean |
