[AccessD] OT: Buying a PC for Developing Software

David McAfee DMcAfee at haascnc.com
Wed Mar 12 19:40:00 CST 2003


Amen William!

1. This must be my problem (pacbell.com) why many of my posts are bounced
(or waiting for Moderator approval)

2. no comment

3. Same here, I built an AMD 1400 2 years ago for about $1400. It included:
	19" View Sonic monitor (Trinitron flat tube), 1 GB PC-133 Mem, 60 GB
HDD (now 140), ATI All-In-Wonder Video Card (32MB), Sound Blaster Platinum,
iWill MB, 24x CDRW. A month or two later my company upgraded my work
computer to a Dell Dimension 8100, 17" monitor, 256MB (now up to 768) 400Mhz
Rambus memory, 40GB HDD, Nvidia Geforce 2 MX4X (32MB), Sound Blaster 64V
PCI, 8x CDRW (now upgraded to 24x). Its funny how the two differ. The Dell
was several hundred dollars more. At home, I can listen to music, burn CDs,
re-encode an mpg movie/TV show, have Outlook Open, Access 97 & 2000 open,
SQL EM & QA running (all at the same time). SQL Statements run quick, no bog
to the system at all. The Dell at work, well if I'm burning a CD, that's
about all I can do, because the system crawls. I've updated drivers,
upgraded the CDRW drive to a faster one (which helped a bit), wiped the
system clean and no difference. I've upgraded the memory by adding another
512, this also helped a bit. but I often wish I were home working on my home
system. The prices are so much cheaper now on the systems, that I can build
a box for about $400 to $600 that kicks over my current home system. I was a
big Intel supporter and didn't want to follow the advised of friends and
coworkers to make the switch over to AMD...I'm glad I did! I've even heard
complaints from co-workers who were on Celeron 600 boxes & PIII boxes who
switched over the Dell 1600 Mhz boxes that they are slower too!

4. A computer vendor who sold my P-166 told me to forget about contracts and
warranties on computers. If something DOES fail in a year, the replacement
part is always faster, cheaper & better the original (and usually less than
the price of the contract).

5. See #3 above :)

just my 2 cents.

David McAfee

-----Original Message-----
From:William Hindman

Myke

1) ...everyone with a Bellsouth account is being bounced ...Drew is working
on the problem which has existed since late Feb now :(

2) ...I like Dell for clients but they don't sell what you spec.

3) ...I still build my own development systems because its the only way I
can get exactly what I want ...try the Atlanta Computer Show that runs at
least monthly ...deal with a local vendor at the show and you can get
exactly what you want assembled and tested while you wait for around 10%
less than you can find it anywhere else.

4) ...service contracts are passé ...PCs are now commodity items ...the cost
of a service call can often run more than the PC cost ...build it yourself
and you won't need a service contract.

5) ...I use AMD cpus ...don't have anything against Intel's except the
premium you pay ...AMDs have proved to be extremely reliable and compatible
ime. HTH :)

William Hindman
"The tree of liberty only grows when watered by the blood of tyrants."
Bertrand Barère de Vieuzac--a Frenchman

----- Original Message -----
From: "Myke" <mmmtbig at hotmail.com>
> Note: I am using a hotmail email account to post to AccessD because
> attempted posts from my BellSouth.Net email account bounce back.
>
> Soon I will buy a new PC and drop the oldest one from the lineup in my
> office. I'd like some opinions on PCs.
>
> I'm an independent developer working from a home office with a DSL
> connection. I live about 20 miles north of Atlanta. I use a keyboard
> video mouse sharing device for all the PCs. I don't like fixing hardware
> so I'd like a good onsite service contract. I don't need an OS or
> software installed because I'm a MSDN subscriber. I'd like to have less
> white noise from power supply/fans. I'd like to use temperature
> monitoring software because most of the failures I've had were due to a
> fan malfunctioning and the heat killing a hard disk.
>
> Opinions on the following would be welcome:
>     Intel vs. AMD;
>     DVD RW for backup;
>     Same day onsite service;
>     Best value monitor configuration.
>
> The easy decision is to buy a Dell. Anyone have suggestions?
>
> TIA,
> Myke



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