BAR wrote:
HK wrote:
Wayne.B wrote:
On Mon, 29 Oct 2007 20:46:22 -0800, "Calif Bill"
wrote:

And I can buy more computer already built and tested for less money
than a DIY project.

Yes, and less risk also.


To buy a ready-made PC with the high end specs of the last one I built
would have cost nearly twice as much from one of the only one or two
vendors that actually builds such machines. Most of the "high end" PCs
from the big name vendors incorporate some really annoying hardware
shortcuts, or have padded out prices because of silly features, such
as tricked out cases with lighting effects.

One of those silly features is factoring the cost of support,

The problem is NONE of the large computer companies really provide good
support. The best is mediocre. It is quicker to solve the problem
yourself than to use customer none-service. I had a blue screen of
death problems with my brand new Dell (less than a week old). The
screen said my hard drive was corrupted and to contact the mfg'ers. The
service tech had me disconnecting every single item in the box (DVD,
Hard Drive, CPU etc.) After we did all of this, and the problem
continued, I asked him about my 3 year in home service program. His
reply was "Yes you have a 3 year in home service agreement, but right
now we are diagnosing the problem, once we have figured out what the
problem is, then we will send out a technician. When I told him the
Blue Screen told me it was a computed hard drive, he said we still
needed to continue with the diagnostics. After 4 hrs of pulling each
hardware item out, reinstalling the item, plugging all wires into the
system, and repeating the same procedure over again, it still would not
boot up.

I finally said, "look you really need to send someone out to replace the
hard drive or I will have to return this computer", he asked me if I
would like to have an RTV number. Dell finds it cheaper to return the
product and lose the sale, than to actually send out a tech to repair
the product. Don't plan on having GOOD customer support from any of the
big guys. If you buy from one of the smaller guys, you will pay for the
Good support.