I cant stand people sometimes.

[Speciale]

My boss, the photo studio boss, is slowly migrating into digital. Infact i just learned today that once his contract is up with the local highschool for yearbook work (not student photos, rather sports and events...that sort of thing) the yearbook editor will not renew unless the are shooting digital.

I've built around 8-10 computers, i know the cost and performance benifits you get from this. I've also owned enough compaq...best buy-type PC's to know that within two years they are slower then a snail.


At any rate, he told my girlfriend, who works there, that he "wasnt sure that i could build a computer that is good enough for what they want to do". I dont know where he's getting this idea, i have a feeling it's from one of the ladies there who thinks she knows EVERYTHING includign computers. This being the same lady that installed windows XP on the machine because it was running slow, with all it's 256mb of ram...

I printed out a basic rig and showed them on dell.com a computer that was similer and about $800 more. Aparently that didnt win the 84 year old over.

I use to fight tooth and nail with people about how much better it is to just have one built or build your own. Cheaper, better performance, more custom...etc etc. But i have reached the point where i just dont care anymore because it doesnt effect me. But i know i'll be on the PC, and i know if i dont build it then the know it all know nothing will be screwing around with it.

End of rant...

 

[shellshock]

I know how you feel bro. Some people think I dont know much about computers cause im 15. They still think im a "kid" that they cant trust with there money or desision in choosing something. Normally I just give them some jibber-jabber about computers. Like, I set my memory timings to 8-8-5-9 and I got a 15.6mhz more overclock" or something like that to make me sound like i know alot. Then they usually look at me differnt. rofl

 

[.h4x0r//]

Meh. Sometimes, I'll rattle off a quick system for a customer. Y'know, nothing hugely top of the line, but more than enough for what they want to do (surf internet, email, digital pictures, light gaming). And they'll go 'but I can get this snazzy model from Dell for $xxx.xx.' I'll look at them and tell them 'You do that then.' I don't argue, I don't try to convince otherwise. I will however tell them that if they want service within the warranty period I won't be doing it. They'll have to talk to Dell. They'll phone me up and ask questions. 'Is your computer under warranty?' 'Yes.' 'Talk to Dell then.' 'But you can do it quickly, and it's running very slowly.' 'I know I can, and I know it is, but it's still under warranty. I'm not touching it until that runs out. Talk to Dell.'

I feel like a Nazi, but it has to be done.

 

[tenchi86]

I would let him. I know how you feel but either way PCs slow down and atleast with a dell you cant get blamed. I am sure building the rigs may seem good now but in time when they start to mess up youll get blamed.

 

[TalRW]

I would let him. I know how you feel but either way PCs slow down and atleast with a dell you cant get blamed. I am sure building the rigs may seem good now but in time when they start to mess up youll get blamed.

Yeah, and most likely when they do mess up it won't be your fault (even though they will blame you) because the old lady decided installing l337 software like bonzi buddy was a great idea.

 

[larva]

I built PCs for a living for hundreds of such concerns in my time in the PC biz. To be honest, the best thing your boss could do is buy Dells. They are top quality hardware at extremely competitive prices. Looking for a cheaper route will not provide truly equivalent hardware, and since being cheaper is the prime thing you are promoting, the consequences of this will surface sooner or later. If you don't understand why Dell does things the way they do, you probably will after turning a cadre of penny-pinching machines loose in a user environment like this.

What you should do is streamline this process for your boss. Sell him on your ability to select appropriate machines from Dell's inventory, configure them to meet his express needs, deal with Dell during the procurment process, and support users in the local sense that Dell cannot truly provide. Also mention you can manage what support interaction with Dell that may be required.

Businesses are different than most users of this board. Minumum machine cost does not necessarily translate into the lowest TCO, and this is the objective of the businessman. If you want to really help your employer and set yourself up to be actively involved in his digital future, forget the considerations you have in regard to your own machine and grasp exactly how excellent a value and complete a solution Dell provides. FPS/dollar just isn't an issue here.

 

[pik4chu]

I built PCs for a living for hundreds of such concerns in my time in the PC biz. To be honest, the best thing your boss could do is buy Dells. They are top quality hardware at extremely competitive prices. Looking for a cheaper route will not provide truly equivalent hardware, and since being cheaper is the prime thing you are promoting, the consequences of this will surface sooner or later. If you don't understand why Dell does things the way they do, you probably will after turning a cadre of penny-pinching machines loose in a user environment like this.

What you should do is streamline this process for your boss. Sell him on your ability to select appropriate machines from Dell's inventory, configure them to meet his express needs, deal with Dell during the procurment process, and support users in the local sense that Dell cannot truly provide. Also mention you can manage what support interaction with Dell that may be required.

Businesses are different than most users of this board. Minumum machine cost does not necessarily translate into the lowest TCO, and this is the objective of the businessman. If you want to really help your employer and set yourself up to be actively involved in his digital future, forget the considerations you have in regard to your own machine and grasp exactly how excellent a value and complete a solution Dell provides. FPS/dollar just isn't an issue here.

I will wsecond this, though it may sound like a cop-out you are not an OEM. If you want to seel yourself as a good tech and all that you don't want to build a machine that, if it goes wrong, becomes an issue because it WILL be your fault. Dell is good quality, good warranty and good support. And if something breaks, while they may still blame you, its not your fault and its still easy to get fixed. And as larva said you offer your services as an asistance/interaction between them and Dell to make it easier on them.

Also if they are actually editing pictures and all that you will want some beefy systems. Did a setup for a photo studio locally. Its was sweet, until the equivilent of your "windows xp lady" fked it up completely and screwed them over. So we had to go in and fix it all. But its still quite nice. Only bad part they were Macs the server/raid was windows though so it kinda made up for it!

 

[larva]

Only bad part they were Macs

Omg, he said the 'M' word. Although it is not widely known, I am empowered to ban members for this sin

Seriously, though, it does go to show how the best overall solution for a particular concern's needs can revolve around machines that might be entirely unnacceptable by our personal standards and use.

 

[pik4chu]

Omg, he said the 'M' word. Although it is not widely known, I am empowered to ban members for this sin

Seriously, though, it does go to show how the best overall solution for a particular concern's needs can revolve around machines that might be entirely unnacceptable by our personal standards and use.

rofl

Well they were some sexy machines, but I'd never pay a cent for one, one of the beauty factors were the 23" cinema LCD displays other than that they were just cheesy looking computers

PCs would have worked jsut fine, but the people that worked there were dumb as bricks so using a PC would be beyond them. (though most of them were HOT )

 

[Elif Tymes]

Well, for digital picture sort of setup, going with a mac is by far the best idea I could see. Sure, its not T3h l337, and it may be more expensive, but #1) The users feel like they are 'cool' because they use them. and #2) They won't get bogged down by viruses and spyware as fast..

To be completely honest, when dealing with stupid computer people, telling them to get a mac, or to buy a generic dell will be twenty million times better. You can offer to support them, but not for free. If they want you to fix their machine, they will pay you. Otherwise, they can call Dell .

 

[Speciale]

Well, for digital picture sort of setup, going with a mac is by far the best idea I could see. Sure, its not T3h l337, and it may be more expensive, but #1) The users feel like they are 'cool' because they use them. and #2) They won't get bogged down by viruses and spyware as fast..

To be completely honest, when dealing with stupid computer people, telling them to get a mac, or to buy a generic dell will be twenty million times better. You can offer to support them, but not for free. If they want you to fix their machine, they will pay you. Otherwise, they can call Dell .

If this were strictly a photo editing machine then i'd agree, but they also have to do office work on it, no sense in teaching a whole new OS to keep the books.

Thanks for the input folks. I am typing this on a Dell as we speak so obviously i dont have too much against them, aside from the warranty i really wont agree to the fact that it would be cheaper to get a dell (especially considering most retail items have longer warrenties for the product then what you would get from Dell and it's free). But i will tell you that it may be easier.

Perhaps it's just a power struggle thing, i just know that if they get a Dell stuff will hit the fan a lot sooner then if i were to build it, i'd imagine that she'd be less likeliy to screw around with a computer that i setup then a Dell.

 

[Brundle Fly]

I've built around 8-10 computers, i know the cost and performance benifits you get from this. I've also owned enough compaq...best buy-type PC's to know that within two years they are slower then a snail.

End of rant...

This would be different from a custom built system costing $800 less, without 24/7 support, in what way? Can you say GF 5900/6800/6600GT/7800? Ati 850? Sorry man, no matter what you build today, especially for $800 less than a Dell, it will not be "top of the line", or even "super-fast" in two years.

Add in Dell's customer support(and no offence meant by any means, Dell is a corporation) as compared to yours, the Dell wins everytime. You have to realize what YOUR BOSS wants and needs, not what you want him/her to have. Dell knows the customers' needs(not what they think would be "cool") are first and foremost.

 

[SolidxSnake]

This would be different from a custom built system costing $800 less, without 24/7 support, in what way? Can you say GF 5900/6800/6600GT/7800? Ati 850? Sorry man, no matter what you build today, especially for $800 less than a Dell, it will not be "top of the line", or even "super-fast" in two years.

Add in Dell's customer support(and no offence meant by any means, Dell is a corporation) as compared to yours, the Dell wins everytime. You have to realize what YOUR BOSS wants and needs, not what you want him/her to have. Dell knows the customers' needs(not what they think would be "cool") are first and foremost.

QFT.

Dell is cheap, reliable, and decent. My neighbors Dell 4200 is DEAD quiet, came with an LCD, 80gb SATA drive, everything good but a mobo, ram and vid card. All for around $700-900. Not bad at ALL.

 

[Dreamstalker]

Seriously, though, it does go to show how the best overall solution for a particular concern's needs can revolve around machines that might be entirely unnacceptable by our personal standards and use.

*nod* A family friend has a very old PII system, and she first wanted me to replace the motherboard. Took one look at the thing, knew I'd have to start from scratch. Emailed back and forth discussing cost, parts, etc.

The agreement that we came to was that she would come down here to Boston and take me along to the local comp store as I know much more than she does, just buy a Compaq or Dell, flatscreen, external HDD, etc and I'd go up to her place and set it all up for her. I figure all I'd really have to do in terms of fiddling with it is to install a firewall/AV/Spybot and slap some more memory in it as well. She said she'd pay me a "consulting fee" plus whatever the RAM costs. I also mentioned that I would try to set up the remote assistance feature so I could help her from NM if the problem was something simple.

For some people, prebuilt is better, especially if the person in question is a total n00b

 

[Speciale]

This would be different from a custom built system costing $800 less, without 24/7 support, in what way? Can you say GF 5900/6800/6600GT/7800? Ati 850? Sorry man, no matter what you build today, especially for $800 less than a Dell, it will not be "top of the line", or even "super-fast" in two years.

Add in Dell's customer support(and no offence meant by any means, Dell is a corporation) as compared to yours, the Dell wins everytime. You have to realize what YOUR BOSS wants and needs, not what you want him/her to have. Dell knows the customers' needs(not what they think would be "cool") are first and foremost.

The major price differences occur when "upgrading". For instance, to put 300+ gigs of storage in a dell costs about twice as much as it should.

2 gigs of ram vs 1, again...much more then it should.

I think if your starting from scratch and dont wana deal/dont have the knowhow, Dell is a great place. But he's got a moniter, CD drives...all the basics. He just needs a motherboard-cpu-ram-HD-case-vid card (i'm not all that sure how powerful a video card one needs with photoshop...i dont think it's all that much of a factor)

 

[larva]

If the goal is to salvage existing, half-obsolete, and essentially worthless gear, you have but one option. You have to think longer term than that. If you have decent monitors, keep them. Dell will sell machines without one. Trying to incorporate most other things will just degrade the quality of the new machine.

And upgrade? Come on. You can install the same hard drives and memory in a Dell you would in anything you would build. Where is this extra expense supposed to come from?

Bear in mind I for a decade competed with Dell for the business of exactly the type of people you work for. I know exactly whereof I speak. Maybe the 7000+ support obligations and accompanying examination of what Dell can sell for the same money has given me a little better perspective on the true, total, long term fiscal effect. Try doing what you are setting out to do countless times for a decade and get back to me and tell me I'm wrong then.

 

[Elif Tymes]

I think he was talking about the "upgrade options" costs on dells selling page.

Which are ludicrous thats why you get the dell, upgrade your HDD/RAM yerself, and walaa nice new N00b Friendly PC!

 

[larva]

I think he was talking about the "upgrade options" costs on dells selling page.

Which are ludicrous thats why you get the dell, upgrade your HDD/RAM yerself, and walaa nice new N00b Friendly PC!

Ahh, I thought that so obvious I didn't understand what he was saying. Thanks for the translation.

 

[Speciale]

I think he was talking about the "upgrade options" costs on dells selling page.

Which are ludicrous thats why you get the dell, upgrade your HDD/RAM yerself, and walaa nice new N00b Friendly PC!

Yes but doesnt this void the warrenties that pretty much make Dell worthwhile in this situation?

 

[Elif Tymes]

Nope Dell, you can open up, add RAM, add HDD, add CD/DVD/whatever and no warranty voided I think you can even do PSU. You can't remove HS, IIRC, but thats about it.

Now, if you open it, stick a large slice of pizza in there, and that shorts everything out, I would say that voids the warranty .

http://www1.us.dell.com/content/topics/global.aspx/policy/en/policy?c=us&l=en&s=gen&~section=010

That basically says Dell doesn't cover you if you damage it with the items you put in. I.E. your RAM shorts the mobo, because you jammed it in backwards. It also says it doesn't cover "Servicing not authorized by Dell"

So, basically, it covers you unless you do something to it when you upgrade.

Make sense?