[Hidden-tech] Thanx... next question...

[Ron Miller]

When you buy a computer from one of the big corporate names, you get a 
decent machine for a decent price, no doubt about that, but customer 
service and tech support have gotten worse over the years at all of 
these companies.

I have had good luck with Dells, but I've heard from people who had 
trouble, that tech support is awful and getting worse. They often 
suggest formatting the hard drive and reinstalling the OS when a simple 
driver upgrade will solve the problem. They are poorly trained and not 
prepared to deal with simple issues.

I have no experience with HP computers, but my guess is they are more of 
the same. I had an issue with an HP printer not too long ago, and while 
the tech support person did eventually help me solve my issue, he didn't 
do the obvious thing first and I was on the phone for an hour.

I just bought a Mac Book Pro, and after several weeks I'm thrilled with 
it. I'm running OSX and Windows XP (running Parallels) on the same 
machine, and so far it's worked out very well. I bought the (very 
expensive) Apple support policy, so I'm hoping if anything does go 
wrong, my investment will pay off (but I have no way of knowing if it will).

Building doesn't really make sense unless you really enjoy it, since 
these companies buy in such large quantities, you probably can't build a 
machine for less than you can buy it. If you are comfortable building, 
then you can probably repair the machine without the assistance of 
incompetent corporate technical support should something go wrong.

Basically you pays your money and you takes your chances, but unless the 
machine is a real dog (and you should do your research before buying), 
then you should be OK.

Ron
___
Ron Miller
Freelance Technology Writing Since 1988

email: ronsmiller at comcast.net
web: http://www.ronsmiller.com
blog: http://byronmiller.typepad.com