new computer question

[Steve Rhoden]

“low-ball manufacturers”
That cracks me up Dave, lol…… True, Exactly my point.

Steve Rhoden
(Cow Leader)
Film Editor & Compositor.
Filmex Creative Media.
https://www.facebook.com/FilmexCreativeMedia
1-876-461-9019

[John Rofrano]

[Dave Osbun] “You are 100% correct, Steve! They also buy the components from the same low-ball manufacturers as well (cheap power supplies, for example).”

I don’t agree. There are plenty of Boutique builders who use exactly the same parts as you would if you built you own. Some of them like iBuyPower.com allow you to select your brand of case, motherboard, memory modules, etc. It is *exactly* the parts you want, built to order, just as if you had done it yourself.

I also wouldn’t put an HP Workstation or BOXX workstation in the same class as a Dell. Dell uses cheap parts and charges a premium. HP and BOXX use premium parts and charge a premium (but at least you get what you pay for). The HP Z Series of workstations has excellent build quality. Apple is another manufacturer that uses premium parts, their build quality is second to none, (if you don’t believe me, take apart a 2008 Mac Pro and see the attention to detail that goes into that computer) and they are cheaper than HP and BOXX on the high end.

[Dave Osbun] “It is ALWAYS best to build your own!”

There really is no need to build your own just to get the parts you want anymore. You build your own because you enjoy building computers and can save a few bucks. You can still get the same quality from boutique builders.

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com

[John Rofrano]

[Angelo Mike] “They probably make it hard to upgrade parts, forcing you to buy their proprietary upgrades.”

This was exactly the experience I had. Their motherboard and power supply had proprietary connectors and when my PSU died, I could only buy another one from Dell at twice the going price and there was no way to buy a more powerful one, just the low powered one that was already in the computer.

Dell also has manufacturers make “low spec” versions of their hardware and pass it off as the “real” thing. For example, they sold me a GeForce graphics card that had the same model number as the one you can buy in stores but it had lower specs (less memory and slower clock speed). They also sold me a Audigy sound card with MIDI and digital I/O disabled! (no such card exist in the product line. It was specifically crippled for Dell and sold as the full featured card). I finally junked the computer instead of overpaying for another low powered PSU and never bought another Dell.

I cannot, in good conscience, recommend a Dell to anyone.

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com

[Steve Rhoden]

if you don’t believe me, take apart a 2008 Mac Pro and see the attention to detail that goes into that computer

Strangely, ive never taken apart a Mac before!

Steve Rhoden
(Cow Leader)
Film Editor & Compositor.
Filmex Creative Media.
https://www.facebook.com/FilmexCreativeMedia
1-876-461-9019

[John Rofrano]

[Steve Rhoden] “Strangely, ive never taken apart a Mac before!”

I have! 😀

When I got my Mac Pro from eBay and turned it on, my dog started howling. I noticed there was a sent in the air too. I asks the seller if he had any pets… he replied, “two dogs and four cats, why?”. I guess my dog through they were trapped inside this metal box! lol

I stripped the Mac Pro down to the motherboard removing all of the fans and cleaned and vacuumed every inch to get the pet dander out. As I was removing the screws, I noticed that each and every screw (even the ones holding the DVD drive in place) had a blue locking paste added. This keeps them from loosening. I wanted to put a second DVD drive in from one of my old PC’s and when I opened the drive housing, much to my surprise, the screws that I needed were already in place waiting to be used. There wasn’t a lose wire in the entire case. All of the cables were velcro’ed to the walls of the case out of the way so that there was no restricted airflow. All of the wires were also in a flat harness with couplings in strategic places so that major parts like the PSU can easily be removed. Most of the disassembly required no tools and the case design has three separate thermal areas. One on top for the PSU, one in the center for the GPU/PCI cards, and one at the bottom for CPU and memory. Each has their own large quiet fans to move air from the front of the case to the back. There is a riser card that the memory attaches to. No need to get your fingers into a cramped area to add memory. Just pull out the easily accessible riser card, add the memory to the card, and slip it back into the motherboard. Everything was well thought out and easily accessible. It was just a joy to work on. Needless to say, I was very impressed with the build quality.

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com