[clue-tech] Need new hardware (was two monitors)

[erik at ezolan.com]

> While getting production-quality machines is expensive for the
> low-cash-flow individual, you DO pay a price for putting it together
> yourself.   Yes, if your board dies, you can go get another one.  But
> you have to gut the machine, call up their warranty people, wrangle with
> THEM, and then wait a month while they repair it (I had an intel board
> go bad - it came back with a soldered on wire.)  You can replace the
> board yourself before that, but now you've sunk an extra $150 bucks on a
> board.  What do you do with it now?

Sell it.

You will be waiting for Dell to either come and fix the machine, or you
have to ship your entire box back to Dell. You cannot fix the machine even
if you wanted to.

It's really better to be self reliant at this point. If there is an issue
with the machine, sitting around waiting for someone else to rescue me
would drive me up the wall.

Can you imagine calling Dell about a problem on your PC, that you have
Linux running on? I'm positive that they'll tell you to install windows
and get back to them. Even if you see flames shooting out the back.

In the end, if something breaks, you'll be spending money. Either on
shipping, opportunity costs, or a fancy Dell warranty.

Hey Jack, are your Hard Drives SATA 1.5 or 3.0?

Erik Z