On Sat, 14 Jul 2012 23:12:22 -0400, wrote:

On Sat, 14 Jul 2012 22:29:51 -0400, Ed Pawlowski wrote:

On Sat, 14 Jul 2012 17:38:49 -0700, Oren wrote:


We disagree. Bought my bride a "system" for some bucks under or
around $400. The system is full of OEM trash-ware, much of the
software is useless or not used. I don't need stuff, except the OS.


I've not built my own, but we have a guy we use for our computers for
work and he has built mine for a number of years now. Yes, the big
difference is all the crap that comes with the typical store bought
system. Only thing worse is the Gook Squad that fine tunes them to
the point they hardly run at all.

The main advantage of buying a name brand PC is you can usually get a
driver disk that has drivers that will work together.
Otherwise you are on a scavenger hunt looking for all the drivers you
need and about half the time there will be one that won't play nice
with another one.
I am always one generation off he bleeding edge and I buy off lease
commercial machines pretty cheap.

I always load them from a formatted disk.
I worked 5 years for a computer manufacturer - and the combinations
that did NOT work were much more numerous than those that did.

The research that goes into assembling a properly configured computer
can be quite extensive. I have just about finished instaling 50
off-lease Lenovo Think Stations to replace old terminals and PCs at a
small industrial concern where I spend 2 afternoons a week - excellent
fit for the job at extremely good pricing - and as noted, no searching
for "orphan" drivers.

With QC in the tank like it is with so many Chinese manufacturere,
assembling a system from parts can be a lot of "fun". When it doesn't
work, which part is causing the problem? Is it defective or just
incompatible? Without having at least 3 of everything on hand you
cannot troubleshoot by substitution with any confidence.