06 May 2014

Buying A New Computer

Not me.  You.

There are only two situations where buying a brand name PC makes sense.

1.  If you don't know a damn thing about computers, refuse to learn more and have used up all of the patience of your friends who've been doing your tech support.

2.  If you are buying more than ten.

3.  If you can make a decision on rational self interest that the time and effort it takes to build your own exceeds the value and just say, "screw it," and buy a pre-made machine.  The people in this category tend not to use up all the patience of friends because when the proprietary parts blow they shrug and solve the problem themselves (#3 added because of commentary by Tam).

Otherwise bribe (dinner works most often) a friend who knows what they're doing to show you how to gather and assemble the required parts.  You may be stunned to see how easy it is and how much you saved.

The reason I say this is because I know several people who've bought a brand name machine and had the power supply fail.  They are now stuck with buying a new one from the original company for a hundred or so bucks where a generic would have been about $30-50.

Even worse is the guy who's done this pattern about five times now.  $128 for a proprietary power supply is STILL cheaper than a whole new HP.  But he's going to buy another HP...  And he's rapidly becoming the person described in situation 1.
Posted by Angus McThag at 18:07
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10 comments:

  1. Siege06 May, 2014 22:57

    I've had good luck with my dell gaming laptops, but I spent a bit extra to get a superwarranty. Got the whole thing replaced twice for no charge, and ultimately got upgraded to a shiny new open-box-new laptop on which I am currently typing valued at $1000, free of charge, because they couldn't repair the old one anymore after discontinuing it. Failing a scenario like that, much better to build it yourself (for varying definitions of "yourself")

    ReplyDelete
  2. Tam06 May, 2014 23:47

    3. You just don't feel like it and decide to buy a turn-key unit instead.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Angus McThag07 May, 2014 01:29

      Then you don't get to complain about how much it costs every time that HP dies. Which the person I am talking about is presently doing rather loudly.

      Delete
    2. Tam07 May, 2014 02:16

      Sorry, I saw the second-person pronoun and assumed that the "you" meant "you, the reader". :)

      Delete
    3. Angus McThag07 May, 2014 15:02

      I think I started meaning the reader then, without warning or noticing I'd done it, switched to mean a meatspace friend. He's been buying the cheap consumer model and it's been lasting about 18 months. And every time he asks Marv and I what we would do and he can't do that because all the broken bits are proprietary. So we tell him what we'd do is to build a machine from parts and see you in FIVE years instead of a year and a half... So he ignores us and buys the $300 cheapie...

      Delete
  3. freddyboomboom07 May, 2014 11:33

    Hint for your friend, or anyone else that buys a computer from a manufacturer: Next time get one that is their business line that defaults to a 3 year warranty, it'll last longer due to engineering that isn't "good enough".

    The consumer and lower end business systems are ALWAYS engineered to last just about the one year that is their warranty. This is from any manufacturer.

    Example from HP: EliteDesk 800 G1. 3 year parts, labor and onsite service. Starts at about $700 versus the $300 consumer level systems.

    This is advice from someone that used to do warranty repairs for several manufacturers (HP, Compaq [showing my age], IBM, Sony, Toshiba, etc.).

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tam07 May, 2014 12:15

      Yup. Once upon a time, back when there was a huge difference between Compaq's Deskpro and Presario lines, I used a stripped Deskpro that I got a screaming deal on and filled with my own video and audio; the mobo and PS were as good as anything I would have purchased myself.

      Ah, the happy hours spent playing Quake and US Navy Fighters... I think that may have been my first machine with 3D hardware.

      Delete
  4. Anglave07 May, 2014 15:54

    I just recently ordered the parts for and assembled a fully capable current generation gaming box for a friend. $800 desktop (he provided peripherals and operating system). I fully expect it not only to last at least 5 years, but to be a capable machine for most of that. I wouldn't be surprised if it will play 2020 era games at reasonable settings. It's all standard parts, so upgrading the video card or replacing the power supply would be "drop in". In 2020 one could probably replace the motherboard, processor, and ram, and just keep on truckin'.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anglave07 May, 2014 15:59

      Of course, no PC is actually "future proof". Eventually you're going to want USB 5 ports on the front. Changing the motherboard in five years to get PCI-Double-Express X64 card slots, a new format processor socket, and 640-pin DDR7 1,280,000 RAM or whatever, essentially counts as buying a new computer.

      Delete
  5. Weer'd Beard08 May, 2014 20:53

    Man, if you can't swap a power supply (and buy a replacement at big-box-store by reading the sticker on the side of the dead unit) boiling water might be difficult for you.

    Seriously, I'm a fucking BIOLOGIST! and I've swapped at least a dozen of these things. So easy!

    ReplyDelete

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