OT: In Faulty-Computer Suit, Window to Dell Decline

[Alex Dean]

On Jun 30, 2010, at 2:42 PM, Matt Graham wrote:

> From: Alex Dean <alex at crackpot.org>
>> 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