You have a choice when buying a computer, will you buy a named brand personal computer, or perhaps a replicated system (i.e built at home). Whether the machine is to be purely a work-horse, or a less complicated set-up at home, the debate is still there.
Let us have a look:
Named Brands – The Wonderful.
* You can get great package deals – as in, everything included at a fixed cost. Take it out of the box, hook it up – you’re off and running.
* Help is available, on call. A help crew will provide help and assistance if you cannot get it to perform. Who between us have not neglected to plug in that one, but vital, cable connection? Perhaps you’ve mistakenly wiped an essential windows file, or perhaps cannot find disk-cleanup. A Warranty is Included.
The Not So Wonderful.
* If you want to add more things to your system, as in memory, extra drives, faster video card, and so on, you must first discover if it’s compatible with your particular model, etc.
* The decision has been made for you, as to just what it is that makes up a good computer package. Numerous named brand computers, have packed as many features as possible in there. This leads to your system getting pre-installed applications in excess, just sitting there wasting disk space. This excess to requirement is known as bloatware, rather than software. If pure data is your forte – then the latest fantastical game playing graphics-card, is not a lot of use to you. Furthermore, if gaming is your passion, then the latest MS Office won’t exactly get over used.
* Usually, there is going to be a particular brand of anti-virus software, pre-installed. You may have your personal preferred AV software and sometimes the existing program, can at times seem completely impossible to remove, before being able to install your personal preference.
Clone Systems: The Wonderful.
* Having a clone system, you do not pay for anything other than exactly what it is that you want. If you want to change some element of your system, you just go get it. Should you wish to replace or upgrade particular elements, all you need to know is what type card (AGP, PCI-E), get hold of another card, insert it and you’re off and running.
* Excellent prices on spares can be discovered at various online outlets, or swap-meets. Auction websites are somewhat suspect, as you can wind up with spares ripped out of a machine by some twit, searching for a quick profit – who has retrieved the spare parts from a computer someone ran over with a large vehicle.
* You can build from scratch and personally select each and every component. You have complete liberty of choices in creating your ultimate system, it is all in your hands and it is all hands-on.
The Not so Wonderful.
* If you don’t possess a fairly comprehensive knowledge of what you are after, you can wind up with a very costly box of useless components.
* Apart from people that you know who are adept at “compu-speak”, there is no support. The only guarantee, or warranty, is that which the manufacturer supplies on the parts you purchase – provided you actually bought them from a retailer.
Things to think about:
* How much do you wish to spend?
* What are you expecting from the system? Will it stay as is, with few additions, or do you intend the system to be quite complex in time?
* What do you want the system for, is it purely for data, gaming, music, or hooking up with SETI?
* What is your know-how concerning the running of the system you have chosen? Are you personally capable of completing all additions, parts replacement, general hardware maintenance and running repairs?
It will pay you, in the long run, to take these pro’s and con’s into consideration when Choosing a Brand Computer or Clone Computer System.