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Most big-name peecees are inferior to what you can build yourself. HP, IBM,
etc all use these el-cheapo motherboards for their Intel PC's. They use high
quality motherboards for their Athlon boxes because el-cheepos are not being
made yet. But it won't be long, and the big-name boxes will probably use
them. Dell is Intel only and uses Intel motherboards, which are generally
very high quality and stable, if not exactly high-performance.
In a message dated 4/28/01 5:24:27 PM Pacific Daylight Time,
DavidJennings@xxxxxxxxxxxxx writes:
> FWIW, I run TS2Ki on a Dell Precision 420 dual processor M/c under NT4.
> Whilst, I get a number of oddities - as do the rest of the list, the system
> is inherently stable. I prefer the dual processor option, insofar as one
has
> a highly responsive machine, with substantial reserves of power.
>
> On a cautionary note, I purchased 1 CPU at the outset, with the thought of
> buying a second processor later on. I forget the exact prices, but broadly
> speaking Dell wanted an extra 200 GBP for the additional processor when I
> purchased the machine. When I came to buy a second processor from Dell,
they
> wanted 600GBP - in other words trying to encourage me to purchase a new
> machine.
>
> I got all sorts of tales of woe from Dell regarding what would happen if I
> were to buy an additional CPU from Intel. (The Intel one comes with a built
> in fan, whilst the Dell one has a huge and I mean huge heatsink). Anyway to
> cut a long story short, I purchased a fan cooled CPU from a local vendor
> plugged it in(connecting the fan direct to the power supply) and modified
> the hardware abstraction Layer. (I was told by Dell to use the COMPAQ HAL -
> you should definately not do this!(the machine won't boot with it loaded).
>
> I shall not be buying another Dell machine. Whilst I think that HP are
> probably the best engineered that I've looked at, my latest machine was
> built from separate bits e.g. dual processor motherboard, etc etc. It works
> a treat. It doesn't have a smart label, has a number of guarantees rather
> than 1. I rely on me for support. But it's cheaper than a new Dell or HP
and
> runs like lightning. It was a significant saving, for a few hours work.
>
>
> Incidentally, when I had a problem with the Dell, their response was that I
> should talk to the individual manufacturer.
>
>
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