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

[Bronwen Hodgkinson - cdeVision]

We used to build our own, but now use Dell and HP desktop systems and
laptops. We've had absolutely no problems, and have found then all,
especially the newer HPs, to be very easy to upgrade.

I personally use a 2 1/2-year-old Dell Dimension system (I've upgraded the
memory a couple times), with a 19" Dell flat panel monitor (awesome) & an HP
Pavilion widescreen laptop. Love 'em both. (My Mac Mini, on the other hand,
gives me no end of heartache).

We made the choice to buy Dells and HPs because as Robert mentions below,
parts are easy to swap in and out. We wanted to spend more time doing our
jobs as designers rather than tech support :) And compared to the cost of
building it yourself (or having someone else build it), we didn't really see
much difference.

We've had no hardware failures, but are also very vigilant about having very
good surge protection & UPS back-ups, and practicing good regular
maintenance (virus protection, defragging, etc).

My 2 cents - hope it helps.

Bronwen
www.cdevision.com

> 
> 
> Many thanx for the suggestions about local storage places!
> 
> Next question...
> 
> If you were going to buy an off the shelf computer with a 19" LCD 
> monitor, what manufacturer would you say gives the best product at 
> the lowest price?
> 
> I used to build my own computers and things have changed so much I'm 
> not sure who has good stuff, good tech support, etc. I've heard 
> eMachines are good. Have heard to stay away from Dell and HP. But 
> that's all old info.

Dell makes dirt cheap computers, but there is a penlty.  Dell's bigest
market are large businesses that buy hundreds of machines at a time
(enough to populate a whole cubical 'city').  Buying a few 'spares' is
no big deal.  These business have an on-site tech support crew.  The
desktop boxes are all 'interchangable' and all company data is stored on
servers, not on the local boxes.  If a machine has a hardware failure,
the text swap in a spare box (and the Delibert-oid goes on with his/her
work) and the tech takes the broken machine back to the shop and easter
eggs it (swapping in known good parts until the problem goes away) and
sends the broken parts back to Dell in exchange for overnighted
replacements.

This is all find in this sort of mass corporare world, but is realy bad
news when it comes to a home computer.

Also there is the expected lifetime: about 1 year: 50 40-hour work
weeks. At which point the boxes get tossed into a landfill and a fresh
batch of boxes are ordered from Dell...

Dell does have very good tech support, but home computer users don't
want their machines to keep breaking, even if the company they bought it
from is very good about fixing it.  (This is not a problem in the
Corporate World -- see above.)

I have no clue about HP's machines.

> 
> Thanx. Ain't Hidden-Tech grand?
> David
>