🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <40pacr$5q5@bug.rahul.net>, Bill Moyer <ttk@rahul.net> wrote:

>   I also make it my habit of piecing together low-end systems
> from used parts, acquired at extremely low prices.  I have a
> few complete 386 systems sitting in the corner over there, 
> and none of them cost me more than $50 to put together,  One
> of them cost me less than $30.  I have a 486DX50 system that
> cost me about $400 to put together, and a 486DX33 that cost
> about the same.  I'm sure that a few years from now I'll be 
> piecing together P90 and PPC601 systems for a few hundred 
> dollars, too.

Fine. Have your toys. 99.9% of the people who buy computers are not
interested in your 386 machines built from used parts.

> 
>   If you just want to talk about new systems, there are three
> places where I shop for new parts right now.  Sometimes there
> are as few as two, or as many as five or six as the market 
> wobbles.  My current system has had parts added and replaced
> gradually over the years, all for dirt-cheap, until the only
> parts remaining from the original is one of the floppy drives
> and the case.  Even the power supply's been changed.  It's a
> 486DX2/80 with 1.3GB of SCSI-2 HD, 16MB RAM, 250W PS, 15" SVGA 
> NI, and VLB SVGA 1MB video.  If I wanted to get the same system 
> for free, all new parts from the case inward, (grabbing refs) 
> I'd pay about (summing it up) $1728 plus tax by getting parts
> from here and there and putting them together.  If I were to 
> buy the entire system pre-assembled from just one place, and I
> shopped around, I'd pay $1935 plus tax.  If I were to buy the
> entire system pre-assembled from one of the no-brainer "we do
> it all for you" joints like Fry's, I'd pay $2399 plus tax.

Big deal. You're not making much of a case. You can buy a Performa 5200
complete (including software) with a PowerPC chip for considerably less
than this. In fact, you can buy a PM 7200/90 with monitor for less than
the Fry's price for a 486 for Pete's sake.

> 
>   Mac users, on the other hand, don't have this option.  They
> can only buy from one "no-brainer, we do it all for you" joint:
> Apple.  And woe be to he who takes even a single screw from the
> Mac's case..  Their warrantee goes up in smoke!  Bad deal.

You really ought to try to enter the real world. First, users are able to
perform a number of upgrades on their Macs without voiding their warranty.
Second, there are several choices, including PowerComputing, Radius, and
Daystar. Finally, most people prefer one-stop shopping. Very few people
want to buy a computer in pieces. They want to place one purchase order
for a computer and have it work. The odds are better if one company
handles everything.

-- 
Regards, Joe Ragosta -- 100% Chemical and proud of it.
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