Personally, I would rather build my own systems. My current main pc is housed in a mountainmods.com 24x24" case with 8x120mm fans providing plenty of space and cooling for the 3k in parts that I put in it.
There is definitely something to be said for building your own pc. You know the parts and its easier to replace a generic sized mobo or cpu fan than it is to replace a dell proprietary mobo or cpu fan.
Just my 2 cents.
--Gnunixguy
-----Original Message-----
From: Alex Dean <
alex@crackpot.org>
Sent: Wednesday, June 30, 2010 1:04 PM
To: Main PLUG discussion list <
plug-discuss@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us>
Subject: Re: OT: In Faulty-Computer Suit, Window to Dell Decline
On Jun 30, 2010, at 2:42 PM, Matt Graham wrote:
> From: Alex Dean <alex@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
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