RE: [IUG] Rationale for "expensive" computers

["Bill Hudson" <bhudson at lancasterlibraries dot org>]

Hi Roger,
Bargain basement computers will save you money up front, but they will cost
you more over the long run. If you look at the total cost of ownership (TCO)
calculations for a PC, only a small portion of the cost is the actual
acquisition cost of the PC. 

The Wal-mart machines and their kin are home machines. They are not designed
for heavy use like you will find in a corporate (or public library!)
environment. In addition, most come with XP Home version which is a terrible
fit for a networked public library (poor security and networking support
compared to XP Professional). Often they used "shared memory" for the video
which means it is a drag on the PC and will make the machine run slower.
Unlike machines designed for the corporate environment, these machines
aren't designed for easy maintenance and repair. The cases are usually cramp
and hard to move around in for repairs and upgrades. Corporate level cases
by contrast are designed for ease of access to all components.

Other items to consider; these types of machines rarely come with full disks
of the OS and installed programs (which are usually junk). So if you have to
do a reinstall, you have to use a recovery disk which you may or may not be
able to find. A generic copy of XP on CD or a drive share is a much better
choice. I am not a hardware geek but my gut feeling is the components in the
home machines are not going to be the same quality as those found in the
corporate machine. So breakdowns or worse, flaky, hard to find performance
issues will be more common.

Finally, tech support for repair issues of corporate class machines is
worlds away superior to what you will get with the average home machine. For
the home user, the first level techs' stock answer to non-hardware questions
is: reinstall windows. Hardware replacement issues will be a pain.

Save yourself a lot of pain and aggravation, don't buy machines designed for
home use. Pay the money for good quality machines.

Just my two cents worth...your mileage may vary.
Bill

 
****************************************************************************

Bill Hudson, Manager
Information Technology Services
Library System of Lancaster County
1866 Colonial Village Lane, Suite 107
Lancaster, PA 17601
V. 717.207.0500 x1269 F.717.207.0504


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