Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!att!mtuxo!lzfme!jwi
From: jwi@lzfme.att.com (Jim Winer @ AT&T, Middletown, NJ)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: The PC Magazine study of 80386 systems & Can you roll your own?
Summary: You may be reading the wrong magazine
Keywords: motherboards OS/2 save money keyboards satisfaction tower case
Message-ID: <1488@lzfme.att.com>
Date: 13 Jul 89 18:52:51 GMT
References: <775@mitisft.Convergent.COM>
Organization: AT&T, Lincroft NJ
Lines: 52

| Philip Burton writes:
|
| I recently read the massive study PC Magazine did about two months ago on
| 80386 systems.  For all the work they did, I'm not convinced that they gave
| me all the information I was looking for.  Given that all the components of
| a 386-AT clone are available from multiple sources, it is possible to build
| and sell a system entirely from packaged parts.  It seems clear that many
| of these companies are just nothing but "screwdriver" operations.
| 
| ... (stuff omitted)
| 
| 3.  IF I chose to roll my own system, how much money could I save?  (I estimate
| about $400 for an entry-level system)?
|
| ... (stuff omitted)
| 
| If I focus on question 3 above, then it seems like PC Magazine did us a dis-
| service by not taking the mountain of data, and abstracting some information
| from that file. For example, which motherboards or motherboard/BIOS combinations
| will always run OS/2 available from IBM or Compaq?  Can a tower case provide
| sufficient shielding to provide Class B protection at 16/20/25/33 MHZ, even
| if the manufacturer hasn't gone to the expense of running the tests.
| 
| Aside from the potential money savings, this is of interest to me because
| I'm sure that the system I like doesn't have the keyboard I like, or the 
| tower case I like.  Since I live in Silicon Valley, local sources for all
| these components shouldn't be a problem.

PC Magazine seems to be oriented towards the corporate middle
manager who has to make decisions on which equipment and programs to
buy for business. It does not seem to be oriented towards the
amateur system integrator. Perhaps the problem is that you are
reading the wrong magazine.

Since I buy for my own business, and need a machine that works --
period -- I have learned to buy DELL. I learned this from PC
Magazine. It meets my needs perfectly -- I'm spending my own money
and I need the best possbile system for BUSINESS purposes.

(Incidently, the key words here are "Next day, on-site service." If
they don't got it, I don't buy it. That qualifies DELL, Northgate and
CompuAdd. That disqualifies almost everybody else.)

Jim Winer ..!lzfme!jwi (Usually unable to reply to email outside AT&T)

Those persons who advocate censorship offend my religion.

Upuaut:	a wolf-headed Egyptian deity | Voodoo: the art of sticking ideas
	assigned as Guidance System  |         into people and watching
	for the Barque of Ra.        |         them bleed.

The opinions expressed here are not necessarily