[Subscribe to Daily Digest] |
 | [Main General Bulletin Board | BBFAQ |
Post Followup ]
Member Login / Signup - Members see fewer ads. - Latest Member Gallery Photos
Proprietary! Posted by Justin VanAbrahams [Email]  (#32) [Profile/Gallery]
(more from Justin VanAbrahams) on Fri, 16 Aug 2002 02:38:25
In Reply to: It's no problem, dave n, Thu, 15 Aug 2002 22:23:10 Members do not see ads below this line. - Help Keep This Site Online - Signup |
Dells are the same way... some models are all custom, others aren't. You really need to open the box up and take a peek before you know. Often times, they *appear* to be open-standard, but will have one detail like a power switch or I/O port location that's out of spec, thus preventing you from easy future upgrades. It *used* to be many Dells were completely bone-stock stsndard except the keyboard port was two inches above the motherboard. A large drill bit invariably fixed the problem, but similar annoyances still abound.
Personally, I'd recommend heading back to Best Buy or jump online and pick up an AlienWare PC. Yeah, they have goofy names, but in terms of a "name brand" PC you really do get entirely off-the-shelf components, all of which are top-notch and high quality. Not sure you can get into one for under $1k, but it's worth a look.
Short of that, I'd recommend checking out PriceWatch for some good deals. Some of those vendors are shady, so definitely poke around. I've personally had satisfactory (though hardly exceptional) dealings with NewEgg.com. Great prices, great stuff. Their support sucks, however, so understand what you don't pay for at the cash register you pay for in potential headaches.
As far as warranties go, you have to be smart about it. Many things have long life cycles and are generally impossible to break. Others aren't. For example, I *always* opt for the warranty when buying a hard drive, as most of them have "instant replacement" clauses. It's a heck of a lot more convenient to walk into the store and swap out a drive instead of waiting a week or more for the mfg to send out a replacement. Some companies, like Fry's for example, guarantee that instant replacement. What's awesome about that is that if your HDD dies at the end of the 3 year term, the chances of them still stocking such a drive is unlikely. I've had all sorts of drives upgraded in this capacity. I bought a 4.5gig U2W drive there a long while back, and it recently died. Closest thing they had in stock was an 18g U2W. Score! I'm counting the days until the 8g Western Digital drive I have in my Linux box dies... Fry's current smallest drive is a 30g... hehe.
That was long and rambling, and I apologize.
-Justin
posted by 64.166.4...
, Thu, 15 Aug 2002 22:49:13, Fri, 16 Aug 2002 02:38:25 <-- Viewing This Message
No Site Registration is Required to Post - Site Membership is optional (Member Features List), but helps to keep the site online
for all Saabers. If the site helps you, please consider helping the site by becoming a member.
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
