I miss...

[slgrieb]

As long as we're discussing changes, how about remote access software? Is there anything else that has made your job so much easier? Remember PC Anywhere? Remember how much it sucked?

[Ferrit]

Sucked was being way way way too generous

[Guts3d]

One thing I don't miss was mapping out bad sectors on brand new hard drives; or even going into the BIOS everytime you bought a new drive and tediously typing in the sectors, cylinders, etc.

[HipHoper]

One thing I don't miss was mapping out bad sectors on brand new hard drives; or even going into the BIOS everytime you bought a new drive and tediously typing in the sectors, cylinders, etc.

Hahahahah that is SO retro......hilarious.

Regarding remote software.....Up to like 3 years ago it was such a mess.....only Pc-anywhere could do a decent job....Now days....Logmein....Teamviewer....Vnc SC and such.....Which remind me the day we used winfax to send faxes for the computer and the conflicting com ports in the pre-usb era.....

[Guts3d]

Good news! I just got an order to build for an I7 with 12 gigs DDR3 ram, huge hard drive, smoking hot video card, Windows 7 Ultimate and a sweeeet new case. It is for a relative so I am not making a dime, but I look forward to looking for the best deals for the best hardware.

[BOB IROC]

While I never did that many computer builds in the first place and only really do them for family and close friends now I find that if you explain to the person that the OEM has those cheaper parts and only a 1 year warranty standard compared to the higher quality parts you chose and the fact that most parts come with a 3yr, 5yr, or in some cases lifetime warranty you can convince the person by comparing that same OEM PC with an upgraded 3 year warranty and spec for spec I can always beat that even when I factor in a 15% - 20% build fee of the total parts cost into the job.

Outside of a laptop I refuse to let my family and some of my closer friends purchase OEM. Of course I do not make much of a profit off them but I figure getting them a quality computer will help limit the tech support calls down the road too.

[NooNoo]

Hey Guts, sounds like you are going to have a lot of fun! I can't help you really, wrong country... but crucial/uk ram is the bestest!

[Ferrit]

While I never did that many computer builds in the first place and only really do them for family and close friends now I find that if you explain to the person that the OEM has those cheaper parts and only a 1 year warranty standard compared to the higher quality parts you chose and the fact that most parts come with a 3yr, 5yr, or in some cases lifetime warranty you can convince the person by comparing that same OEM PC with an upgraded 3 year warranty and spec for spec I can always beat that even when I factor in a 15% - 20% build fee of the total parts cost into the job.

Outside of a laptop I refuse to let my family and some of my closer friends purchase OEM. Of course I do not make much of a profit off them but I figure getting them a quality computer will help limit the tech support calls down the road too.

Actually that's how I have run my business for the last 15 years and done so successfully. As far as i can see quality always gets the nod and people don't mind paying fair dollar for it. That saves me a ton of service work later.
Just took back one I built 10 years ago almost to the day Aug 24th 2002
AMD Duron on a Epox motherboard with Kingston ram and a seagate harddrive. Its run non stop all these years,been through 2 kids and the rest of the family.

[Guts3d]

What is irking me is all the people bringing computers to me with "an activation issue". It seems update 1033 fried their copy of Win7. After I explain that this is what 1033 is supposed to do, as it seeks out bogus copies of Win7. I then get weird looks of embarrassment and "Well, uh, I..."

That's when I hand it back to them and tell them that they need to buy a legal copy and bring both to me.