[K12OSN] Off Topic - Computer Kits

[Rob Owens]

I've had bad experiences w/ Tiger Direct.  Newegg.com, on the other 
hand, has always been excellent.

-Rob

Eric Brown wrote:
> Dan,
>
> I have personally bought parts from mwave.com, and had kids assemble
> the machines.  They also sell MS licenses.  The hardest part about
> going through that route is that you are a little more responsible for
> making sure what you get works together.  However, I've built some
> fantastic video editing machines for under $1200 (monitor, OS, the
> whole works) each.  They will also accept a school's PO.
>
> I'm reluctant to go through tiger direct as I have heard nightmare
> stories about people trying to return non-working items.  I've bought
> some stuff from Geeks.com, but I didn't study it very carefully and
> ended up getting something that was low quality.  I chose mwave
> because  my buddy who owns a consulting business has bought over
> $500,000 in parts from them over the last 8 years.  He doesn't even
> buy desktops from Dell unless the customer demands it.  If cost is an
> issue on a server, he'll build those from mwave as well.
>
> In all cases, it has been my experience it's best to get quality, name
> brand parts, and the better chipset (for example, Pentium 4 and not
> Celeron).  My first round of student built machines are out-preforming
> the Dells that were bought at the same time, and they cost about 1/3
> as much.
>
> I'm down in Keokuk, IA if you ever get the chance to swing by and see
> the student built machines.  The kids love the chance to work on new
> hardware, they take great pride in building them and watching others
> using them.  You then also get bragging rights (yeah, my kids built
> these).  AND the district gets some quality machines for a low low
> price, and there's actually education going on during all this.
>
> My final note, at least one kid (and probably more) will get at least
> one critical thing plugged in backwards, like the cpu fan, the power
> switch connector to the motherboard.  Even after I looked them over,
> we still had some corrections to make.  Expect it.
>
> Good Luck,
> Eric
>
> On 7/18/07, Ray Garza <ray at mission.lib.tx.us> wrote:
>> On Wednesday 18 July 2007 10:18:15 am Daniel Kuecker wrote:
>> > I was wondering if there were any reccomendations as to a good 
>> place to get
>> > computer kits for students? they will be taking a class called PC 
>> Repair
>> > and they will be assembling computers. I need to have a kit that 
>> they can
>> > build, but i needs to run vista and below. Any input would be greatly
>> > appreciated!
>> >
>> > Thanks
>> > Daniel
>> >
>> >
>> >
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>>
>> Well, you can buy barebones systems (newegg.com) or you can use any
>> NON-CRITICAL computers you have now and tear them down and rebuild 
>> them. You
>> can also use some older computers that use some of the older 
>> technology so
>> that they are familiar with them as well as the latest and greatest.
>>
>> Ray
>>
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