[Ham-Computers] True or False?

[Charles Boyle]

With no experience on second edition, I'll just answer
what I know. 	

4. Comp USA has a build to order program that I have
found very useful. You can literally choose everything
they put in or don't put in. As far as leaving the OS
off, that may depend on who takes the order. I don't
know if it's a companywide thing or not. Our local rep
goes out of her way to help. I'm getting ready to
replace some five year old boxes at work and I will
just install 98 on the new boxes. Since I'm stripping
the old ones for parts, licensing is not a problem.
	
7. In my experience, hard drives fail less than other
parts. Out of an original purchase of fifteen of the
above mentioned work computers, in five years I've had
two hard drives fail versus five motherboards, three
or four monitors, virtually all floppy and CD drives,
at least two power supplies per computer, and a few
pieces of RAM. With six newer computers added during
the same time period, I've had a hard drive fail under
warranty and then its replacement failed within days.
My guess is they had a bad production series. I have
two older boxes from the same company operating with
no problems.

I think hardware is hardware. I'm not convinced of the
quality of one brand over another. I choose computers
on price and customer service. I'm paying a slightly
higher price buying at Comp USA to avoid poor customer
service from the company with the next lower bid.
Don't ask who because I have no intention of getting
into a flame war here.
	
Hope this was helpful.

Chuck kb5rvv