toratek

Sounds like it's their fault for breaking the System Builder LA. I mean, the license is pretty clear on what you can with their OEM software.

PunterCam

Slagging alienware nowadays eh? They sell the best pc's out there in my opinion, yes they're expensive, but if I had the money (and for a huge amount of people, buying one would be pennys) I'd have one in a shot. I only know one person who has one, and apparently the after sales service is unreal, they can't do enough. That alone would sell me it, rather than the usual ¨my hard drive failed, I only bought it 2 weeks ago¨. ¨I'm sorry sir, that's just how it goes¨ or ¨you want blank DVD's?¨.

People talk about custom pc building like it's an art, and people should be impressed, but any monkey can do it, there is absolutely nothing technical about it. There is no market for custom built computers, you can get a dell sooo cheap if you just need an internet station (I'd struggle to build one for much under their selling price, may £10 here and there), and if you want a bit of style you get an imac.

I don't bother building computers anymore, too much hassle for too little gain. Yeah, maybe I'd've saved myself a couple of hundered when i bough my mac, but **** it, I've got a mac. It always works, I can run osx and windows, I don't wonder why it sometimes locks up for a moment, or why the cd drive sometimes dissapears from 'my computer', because someone else has been through these problems and fixed them long before I got my hands on it. Plus I've got an uber quite piece of aluminium art sitting in my room, not some plastic vibrating shithouse

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tlarkin

They won their case against MS and then counter-suited them because of the slander it brought their business. I have seen a lot in my time as far as software licensing goes, and a lot of people do not comply 100% with their licenses. I just got done deploying CS3 at work. We have a site license, which consists of actually this: 500 installs in company, and 50 take home installs. Now, with my new inventory system in place it logs every thing I install and I have only hit about 150 machines that needed it so far and maybe 3 or 4 take homes. If I get audited I have an inventory system that can generate a PDF, HTML, XML, or whatever sheet that I can send them proving my installs.

Back when MS sued this company it was like in 1997, and that kind of technology wasn't around, it was done by hand on real paper with a pen back then, or through some shoddy manual data inputted database. So, yeah MS attacked a lot of people back then because it was easier for them to justify it, which created a market for guess what? Inventory software for your software licenses.

tlarkin

My old job was supporting and administering 10,000 desktops/notebooks and about 65 servers with about a 3% Mac population. All servers running Novell (netware or suse) and windows 2k3. Almost all desktops and notebooks for HP business class, servers were all HP Proliant. My current job is managing 6,000 Macs and 20 Xserves on a complete OD mac back bone network.

I'd rather work with the Macs any and every day over a windows box or a windows server.

toratek

Take a look here: www.murderbox.com

Now, you where saying ... what ?

tlarkin

I'm not impressed. I have fixed and taken apart screw for screw, laptops, desktops, every mac product, high def tvs, cars, appliances (washer and dishwasher, and food disposals), a variety of guns, cell phones, console systems, etc.

Anyone can do it, it really is just assembling parts in a box for the most part with computers. Its not like murderbox does anything the consumer can't, and I doubt it could match the customer service of the larger companies or the support you get, because it can't afford the staff to do it.

I have had such bad luck even contacting smaller businesses because they have one guy answering the phone for the whole company.

There is nothing that murderbox can build that some teenager on this forum can't.

Interested

that is one hella sweet murderbox.

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toratek

That case has been cut, sand blasted and put back together... But anyway, what is your point? I could bring the same argument about cars, after all I could build my own... right?

Since you where praising Alienware, take a look here: http://www.resellerratings.com/store/Alienware

Then look at other companies like VooDoo PC, Falcon NW and Puget Systems. Puget is a small company by the way, but they have a great staff.

And since you're claiming that it's better to do business with the big dogs, here is something for you: Alienware started small to, and it took them a while to get where they're at. So why would you put down the smaller builders? Some will make it, and most will go away. Your arguments don't have much validity, because in theory anyone could do anything.

Care to talk C.B. radios with me? Oh, but wait, in your opinion CB shops shouldn't exist either, because after all, even a monkey could take apart/mod/fix a CB radio... Gimme a break...

tlarkin

*sigh*

Its a niche market, most people just want to buy a PC or a Mac, and don't want to have to hassle with anything custom built, unless they them self are a hobbyist of some sort. Then, they will most likely want to do it them self.

When did I ever praise alienware? I would never ever own any of their way over priced systems.

Here is the problem, and you are failing to see this. First off all computer companies started off small, but if I have a failed part on my $3000 custom built desktop I want to call support and have that god damn part over nighted to me the next day for warranty replacement. Do those companies meet those standards?

I never said they shouldn't exist, I said there is not a lot of money in it. My main point and overall point is, that if you want to make money you can't do it off of hardware sales. The CD radio guys don't make their money off selling the product, they make their money off of servicing it.

toratek

I am sorry, that was PunterCam that praised Alienware.
It seems to me that everyone is mixing up here the different markets. I am also selling custom computers systems, and no, and am not selling your garden variety "ultimate gaming system" bullshit. Most of my customers want custom powerful systems to get actual work done. Some of them want workstation to do CAM/CAD, rendering or video editing, but they don't want to pay companies like BOXX for something like that, and some want to have 100% control over their choices. But all of them want their systems personalized. No, Murderbox is not impressive for me at all, I have built machines many times more powerful than theirs. Not everyone wants to build their own system. The enthusiast that play with exotic hardware are doing it because that's their hobby. But some people can't make the distinction.

No one will overnight you anything for your $3000 system. Falcon NW for the 1 year period of warranty will have FedEx overnight it from you to them and back if something is wrong with the system, but no one else does that. I do cross shipping for all my customers if they need replacement parts and can install them themselves. I am very flexible when it comes to this stuff. But no one else does it in the consumer market. Now if we're talking commercial/enterprise support, well, that's a different ball game.

Look, I completely agree with you: Most of todays builders are full of shit. I've been looking at Falcon NW systems, and for the $10K I can't even get my damn video cards liquid cooled. And they charge all this for the privilege of owning a "custom system", with their only customization being the "exotic" paint job (you'll have to shell out $1400 or so). They are using sub standard Silverstone Strider power supplies. Silverstone is a good company, and some of their power supplies are awesome (the Zeus line is Tier 1, the Olymia line is Tier 2, but still great, and the Strider is made by Enhance and it sucks). They use the same crappy EVGA motherboards like everyone else, and cheap liquid cooling... Of course I don't agree either. Alienware? Same crap, cheap everything, low quality craftsmanship. I've seen how this systems are built.

Now I couldn't say anything bad about Puget Systems for instance because they handle their business very good, and offer some real cool customizations, that most others don't, including a custom Antec 182 case fused with a Coolance Liquid Cooling System. Go to their website www.pugetsystems.com and look. That's not something that every teenager does. Also, their website is Full of Facts, not Full of Shit. That's the type of business model I want to follow, be open and honest and helpful to my customer, and not full of crap.

In this niche market, most will take your money and run with it. I see your arguments, and by no means did I intend to offend you, and I am sorry if I did so, please accept my apologies.