Hello Missy:

I am going to support what Mike Pietruk wrote to the max...underline max! I 
would have said everything he said had I gotten to my keyboard before he got 
to his. In 2003, after my existing system had failed to be sufficiently 
rehabilitated after having been ravaged by a virus, I did exactly what 
you're now contemplating doing, i.e., wrote down all these great 
specifications for my dream computer, and then went to Comp USA to have them 
put the system together. I paid two thousand dollars for the system, and 
barely got a year of marginally satisfactory use out of it. For example, the 
sound card never worked right; I was never able to get on talk sites with 
it, such as "for the people". It crashed at least tent times a week, making 
my plans to run my own email server a joke. Since I had other things to do 
with my life than engage in a protracted fight with the vendor, for fully a 
year I very grudgingly accepted operating conditions far below those I had 
planned for. After a year, in total disgust, I decided to attempt putting 
the machine in service as a linux server. The same problems occurred, so I 
ultimately gave the thing away to be canabalized for whatever parts the 
recipient thought were worth having. I replaced that horror box with a Dell 
8300, which has given me fantastic service lo these past three years.

My strong, strong advice; go to a mainstream company like Dell, HP, Gateway, 
perhaps Compaq (though I haven't heard that name recently); give them your 
requirements and specifications; then, in consultation, have them put 
together your dream system. You can be relatively sure of two things with 
this approach, as Mike has pointed out: (1), all necessary drivers should 
work, and you can be quite confident that all the components will work 
together; i.e., they'll get along and play nicely together, and, (2), that 
if they don't, or if there's any other problem, you have one point of 
accountability, a company with a good reputation which they're invested in 
protecting.

HTH!

John

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Mike Pietruk" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Friday, March 09, 2007 8:33 PM
Subject: Re: [VICUG-L] New subscriber seeking advice


>I have hesitated responding as what I am about to say may not be viewed as
> positive.
> Five years ago your approach made some sense; but these days, almost any
> middle or top of the line system will give what you want and need for a
> third to a half of the money you've budgeted.
> Buying a pc is no longer rocket science; most adaptive equipment works
> perfectly well with most pcs out there.
> And, I believe, you are more likely to run into problems with a personally
> designed system rather than a commercially sold one.
> Just make certain that the system has the basic specs you want such amount
> of ram, video, size of drives,
> types of drives, number of usb ports, et al.
> What it doesn't have -- or you later decide it needs to have -- can be
> then added.
> and what happens when this custom system runs into a problem, you cannot
> find a driver upgrade, whatever.
> If you buy from hp, Dell, Gateway, et al, you have someone to go to and
> 3rd party techs know how to work with those systems.
>
> with the custom built system, you may have a harder time later finding
> drivers, replacement components, whatever.
> Thhe last desktop we bought was for around $700; and the latest notebook
> we bough was for $900.
> While you may decide you need to spend more, I don't think all that much
> more.
> And there are plenty of people who bought $500 pc packages for Christmas
> this year that have no complaints.
> In my opinion, you are making a mountain out of a molehill and overly
> complicating the process.
>
>
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