isitreal - 9:32 pm on Oct 31, 2004 (gmt 0)

<<< However most people (including me) don't _need_ high performance workstations - they need a reliable workhorse PC for running standard office applications.

It's funny, that's what a friend of mine said recently, I wasn't around to build his new pc, he's not a power user, just standard office apps. So he got a $450 dell. The next thing I hear is, man, this thing is slow (2.5 gigaherz machine), windows xp runs like crap on it.

That's the cheap mobo, the cheap processor really showing that there's no such thing as a 'computer' per se, all of them are collections of parts, and the big assemblers like dell are expert in choosing just the right cheap combination for your system.

Anyway, those people who want quality stuff will make their own if money is a question, if not I'd recommend anyone else but the big guys, there's a lof of people who put boxes together, and many do it much better than the big guys, by a wide margin.

It's about 3 years down the road that you really start seeing the difference, I'd estimate a well put together group of components will give you between 1-2 years more useful life from the box, that's something that's hard to quantify, for me that's major, since recreating everything I have on my box would take weeks of time, I'd much rather just start with something really really good, then not think about it for about 4-5 years.

that's another place time comes in, spend 5-10 hours on the front end, save a few years, I like the math.