Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!ames!amdahl!pyramid!ctnews!starfish!tims From: tims@starfish.Convergent.COM (Tim Simmons) Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc Subject: Re: Why do magazine's review mail-order PC brands Message-ID: <1592@starfish.Convergent.COM> Date: 8 Mar 90 18:27:06 GMT References: <1990Mar6.024915.1295@cs.dal.ca> Organization: Convergent Technologies, San Jose, CA Lines: 75 lane@cs.dal.ca (John Wright/Dr. Pat Lane) writes: >I wonder why computer mags and people here on the net spend so >much time comparing various clone computer brands, most of them from >from mail-order houses in the U.S. Surely all these brands are assembled >from the same generic components that you can buy from these places. >Why not review/discuss the components, in particular the motherboards >and then, when reviewing the "Brand X" PC, simply say "well, this machine >has a 'Kung-Foo 286' motherboard (ficticious names here, of course!) - >see issue XXX, p. nnn for a review of that" and list the various >component that the manufacturer/assembler has used. >I'm never going to see a review of "Joe-down-the-street's clone" in PC >Magazine and I'm not going to by from CompuAdd when I can get virtually >the same thing locally so most of those reviews are pretty useless to me. >I suppose the obvious answer is that PC Magazine is giving free publicity >to the same large U.S. mail order houses that advertise in the magazine. I agree with this observation 110%. Have have gone through this same line of logic with individuals in the market for IBM clones. They ask "Should I buy a Northgate or a Dell or from Tran Nguyen down the street?" It surprises me how many people (many of them in the computer industry) don't understand what a clone really is. In most cases the only difference is the name on the front of the case. People have this idea that the company who's name is on thefront of the box actually manufactures the stuff that is inside the box. And they also think that company X's box is somehow different and better/worse than comany Z's box. This is how it works: A guy starts a clone company, he has some stickers with his company name printed on them, some business cards and some letterhead. He gets a resale license goes to the local PC parts distributor, or the parts manufacturer (Teac, Segate, WD, NEC etc) and buys his parts. motherboards, floppies, hard drives, VGA cards, case, keyboard and so one. He slaps all the parts together and puts his sticker on the front of the box. Meantime the guy down the street does the exact same thing, same distrubutors/manufacturers. Then the customer gets all confused and asks which one should I buy? Of course you have the big name clones like Dell who mold their own plastics so that thier cases look different from MR. smalltime PC assembler on the corner. Then the customer thinks "Wow they are a big company and thier box looks really cool, so I guess thier system must be worth $500 more than Mr. small time PC assembler" The point to all this is, the name on the box doesn't make a rats ass worth of difference. What is important is the components that Mr. small time is using, what service is offered and the price. DON'T BUY A PC JUST BECAUSE THE NAME IS FAMILIAR. >-- >John Wright ////////////////// Phone: 902-424-3805 or 902-424-6527 >Post: c/o Dr Pat Lane, Biology Dept, Dalhousie U, Halifax N.S., CANADA B3H-4H8 >Cdn/Eannet:lane@cs.dal.cdn Uucp:lane@dalcs.uucp or {uunet watmath}!dalcs!lane >Arpa:lane%dalcs.uucp@uunet.uu.net Internet:lane@cs.dal.ca