Wayne.B wrote:
On Thu, 01 Nov 2007 12:36:07 -0400, HK wrote:

What risk?

Have all of your self assembled PCs worked right out of the box? I've
built more than a few myself, the vast majority of which worked just
fine. When they don't though, you are on your own for troubleshooting
and problem isolation. If you buy pre-assembled and it doesn't work
all you have to do is call up and get a RMA number.


I've built at least two dozen PCs over the years. All but one worked
perfectly right out of the box. The one that did not had a bad power
supply. As soon as I swapped it out, it came to life.

I don't buy Brand X components, and I try to deal with reputable
vendors, both at point of sale and further back, at point of manufacture.

As an example, on my current desktop, I was not satisfied with the
performance of the HP DVD writer/Lightscribe printer. I called HP, got
an RMA *and* HP agreed to a hot swap. I've encountered "hot swaps" with
Seagate and other drive manufacturers.

I appreciate what you are saying, though. I don't "build" my laptops.
But I don't try to stay on the edge with those, since my use of them is
really limited to on the road use and what I am looking for there is
durability.