Quote:
Originally Posted by Heidi Price  If you're talking hardware I would recommend a "white box", that is, a custom built computer over an off-the-shelf. You decide (with help from your friendly independant computer shop person) what you will need and they put it together.
You will get a much better system for your $$ than a standard computer at a major retailer. And the independent computer shop is likely to be another soloist/SME and might be interested in an affiliate deal  |
I have to add a comment to this.
There are a number of 'cons' against White-Box. Personally I wouldn't ever recommend a White-Box (AKA 'Yum Cha') to any business.
Why?
1. Post Sales warranty. A White Box will never come with next-day business warranty offered by companies like HP, Dell etc. If you're running a business with a White-Box, you need to ensure it's working 100% of the time. Chances are if your White-Box dies, you'll spend more money trying to get it fixed - wouldn't you rather know you can call a vendor and they'll come out to your office the next day with a replacement if necessary?
White-Box vendors typically rely on the manufacturers warranty of the individual components. e.g. if the Power Supply dies, they typically get 1 year warranty coverage, but the memory might have 3 or even 5 years. It's a matrix of what's covered and what's not and for how long. With something like a HP, it doesn't matter what component is faulty - they cover the unit as a whole so regardless of what component has failed, they'll replace it.
2. Documentation and Supportability. A White-Box never comes with a document (let alone a comprehensive website) detailing what components have been used and a single point of information. This makes supporting the system at a later date extremely difficult. If you ask an IT provider to come and take a look at your White-Box PC, they have to spend time starting from scratch becoming familiar with the system - learning what it's made up of and what has been used inside (time you'll pay for).
Difference being, if it's something like HP all they would have to do is visit the product page on the company website and they have all the information they need within 5 minutes. Not to mention people who can be called for further support and information.
3. Availability of Components. If in future you need to replace a faulty component, let alone download a software driver - you'll spend twice as much time trying to find out what the component is then tracking down the manufacturer (of which most of the time they're Taiwanese without English websites) and then hopefully you'll get what you're after.
It's not fun when you can't identify a hardware component during a system install.
4. Hardware Compatibility. Most White-Box PC builders don't conduct the neccessary checks to ensure all of the components they've used will play nicely together. The amount of White-Box PCs I've had to diagnose with unexplainable bugs and glitches which turn out to be the result of a slight incompatibility between two pieces of hardware... It only takes a small hardware conflict to create a buggy and poor performing system.
5. CNN (Cheap n' Nasty). Almost all the time cheap and nasty components are used in White-Box PCs - cheap motherboards, cheap power supplies, cheap network cards and cheap video cards. Half the time they're not even branded. This equates to poor quality systems and poor performance (much like bying an Acer) and typically cheap components don't last anywhere near as long. You have to remember, these PCs aren't built CHEAP without using CHEAP components.
The amount of cheap White-Box PC cases I've had to work on where something as simple as a screw thread will strip out when trying to put the things back together is so annoying and it usually happens because the case hasn't been pressed properly and so screw holes don't align correctly resulting in bad fitment of the components. I've even had to drill extra holes and cut out sections of cases just to fit a standard sized power supply.
6. Illegal Licenses. It's a common practice for Systems builders (big and small) to use illegal or counterfiet copies of Software such as Microsoft XP and Office. Even larger "trusted" companies that should know better have been caught and fined for distributing PCs with illegal copies of software.
As a Microsoft partner we are well informed about Microsoft's activities in pursuing system builders selling computers with illegal and pirated software. If you want some interesting reading material with companies named and shamed, download the following documents.
http://www.2way.net.au/downloads/Inf...ugust_2007.pdf http://www.2way.net.au/downloads/Inf...ember_2008.pdf http://www.2way.net.au/downloads/Inf...nuary_2007.pdf http://www.2way.net.au/downloads/Inf..._June_2008.pdf http://www.2way.net.au/downloads/Inf...March_2008.pdf http://www.2way.net.au/downloads/Inf...ember_2007.pdf http://www.2way.net.au/downloads/Inf...tober_2006.pdf
You'll be suprised at some of the Sydney companies that have been prosecuted.
Overall, you need to weigh-up the cost difference AND the benefits between a $500 White-Box PC and an $800 - $1000 branded product (e.g. HP).
I strongly beleive if you're using the computer for a business, chances are it's mission-critical. If the system becomes unavailable, how long can you hold off before it's restored?
So What IT do you need when going solo? 
