Mary, We are long past any 'clone' concept in computers. IBM from which all machines running now are seen to have been 'cloned' is in a backwater where PCs are concerned. The designs that sell are far better than IBM's offerings.
In the same way you will find that CPUs common points are that they run x86 code and they diverge from there with KNI, 3DNOW and even RISC instructions addaed.
Did Ford copy the four wheel idea?, are all four wheeled cars clones?
AMD and Cyrix CPUs are as reliable as Intels. SInce Intel starts on anew fork in the road all others are behind it at that point, and Intel tries new forks often, like the slot 1 dogitecture, which was a microchannel scheme. It also has died and is being phased out, but will linger a while.
So,people who are afraid to take a chance on reliability stick with Intel? Sounds like a dumb act to follow. The Compaqs, Dells and IBMs love them, they buy those proprietary dogs and come back for more. The standard Taiwan clone box is as good or better than the IBM, Compaq and Dell boxes out there, as they are all using robot assembled boards with standard chipsets and other parts. The only weakness in cheap clones are the fan bearings, mice and keyboards. Tell them you want a ball bearing fan in the power supply and the CPU coller and buy a microsoft mouse and a keytronics/maxiwsitch keyboard as options(this will cost in toto $35 extra) and you will have a good reliable box.
Buy the cheapest CPU for the speed, AMD/Intel...all the same
Bill |
