AirBaker said:
There is something to be said about buying name brand parts and keeping your computer simple. This goes back to the ole Soundblaster vs. 'Soundblaster compatible' days. Somethings work the way they're supposed to and others just don't. I've found my (self built) PCs as stable as anything else I've come accross. The rest of my family gets excited about having every application and gadget installed on their computers. And, they just crash... a lot!
From what I've seen: Brand names mean squat nowadays for the most part unless it's propriatory hardware/software which often causes more grief than anything. Open one up and take a look at the names inside sometime. You're probably not buying what you think you're buying. It may not always be the case but I've seen several from assorted brand names straight out of the box that that had assorted guts from the lowest price vendor of the day.
My compaq laptop (all orig parts) has a toshiba 3.5" FDD and WD hard drive, modem and memory card are aftermarket something or others. The only all brand name I have is my 1984 Apple IIe excluding the printer card and joystick/paddles.
All my PC class computers from day one have been home built mutts that are a LOT more reliable than brand names for roughly the same price give or take $200 or thereabouts. The current mutt has been fully operational since day one (2003) with zero failures running XP Pro. I know 3 other people that insist on well known brand names and they've gone through 8 machines since I bought mine just trying to keep ahead of the catastrophic crashes. I just keep cruising along.
My basic blunt straightforward advice that I give others because I hate seeing people get jerked around by uneducated sales slime:
Do your homework.
Hardware: Get what hardware you need and keep it simple. Ignore brand names, get what you need that works together. Most of the generic stuff out there will work with most of the other generic stuff out there within reason. If you buy an absolute bottom end hard drive to save $5, well, you get what you pay for.
OS: Install the OS yourself from master disks (NOT preinstalled with restore disks available because factory stamp-em-out employees following procedure know squat about what you are actually going to do). You need a blank unformatted HD and the master install disks. THEN load in the necessary patches.
Security: LOCK you computer down. WinXP defaults do not protect you. (GRC is a pretty good start and you'll be ELECTROCUTED, not shocked, when you find out how much windows max security leaves your system wide open). Antivirus and firewall is mandatory.
Operating: Security and not getting hosed (at least via software) is mostly about behavior. Don't install junk just because an internet supplied window pops up saying install this cause you need it. Think before clicking. Avoid sites that are likely to load stuff onto your system or acts suspicious. You also do not need 1689 text fonts, or 50 special instant-there buttons all over your screen when a bookmark window will get you there in two clicks vs one, or other such nonsense. That's just asking for trouble. Firefox has a nice setting to block popups and more importantly a teeny little check box to NOT allow sites to install software. If you have other people around, you MUST teach them to not do things. If you can't get others to cooperate, put in a $30 slide out rack with your own personal HD and take it with you when you shut down. Those things slide out in 5 seconds flat and if they're not in the machine, you can't get screwed by someone else's behavior.
First install (assuming XP Pro and the security stuff I've added) when you don't know what you're doing to be completely setup right takes probably 2-3 hours since you're in the learning curve. Second time is probably 45 minutes total though most of that is just waiting for the CD to finish loading.
My two marbles worth.
