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RE: Home Build or Just Buy?

Beezer — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 15:28:56 GMT

Yeah, I'm hoping HP has a business account like Dell does. Well, I'm hoping that Dell has a business account option for Saudi Arabia as well.
We had it when I worked back in the states. Loved ordering everything online.

RE: Home Build or Just Buy?

gzer0 — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 15:02:05 GMT

I'd go with the brand route too.

In my business I'm now regularly supplying machines to home users/small businesses, at first I looked into building them but quickly realised there's no way I can compete with the likes of Dell. I've got a business account with Dell and the guy I deal with told me a while ago that on the low end machines Dell don't actually make any profit, they sell them at cost simply to increase the 'number of dells on desktops' market share. So I'd say save yourself the hassle, get the warrantee and your still going to get them cheaper than you could build them.

RE: Home Build or Just Buy?

wax — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 14:08:19 GMT

Brand route. Support / maintenance in a office environment beats 'lolol i just saved 40$ by manually squeezing out tubes of cooling paste' any day.

RE: Home Build or Just Buy?

inmate — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 12:12:46 GMT

I'd agree with that, it's just a lot easier to have a laptop when you go to a meeting somewhere, and if you have to work with both a laptop and a desktop chances are you won't have the latest updated file you just spend hours on for some important deal..

having a docking station is handy and having two monitors even better - other option, just get the laptops and be done with it. Maybe it's just me, but I find docking stations annoying

RE: Home Build or Just Buy?

Beezer — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 05:19:08 GMT

OK. Thanx. I'll most likely go the brand name route then.
No server yet, maybe once the business gets bigger and more employees. Then a server to keep files organized will be essential. And a better backup policy of course.

Now the brand will be the question.
And I came up with a new idea the other day. I wanted to have a desktop PC and well, most employees will need a laptop for home projects, and it'd be a nice perk.

What do you think of just buying laptops and then at the office have a monitor, keyboard, docking station. This way there's the best of both worlds.

RE: Home Build or Just Buy?

Climbatize — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 18:59:35 GMT

Buy the workstations, and keep them as standardized as possible. This will make any hardware failures much easier to deal with. Dell offer on site repair under warranty (at least they do here in Aus) and my dealings with them have been very good. If anything goes wrong they come to me and replace the part no questions asked.

If your machines are standardized and one fails at a critical moment you can cannibalize a less important machine for the parts to get you through the tight spot.

RE: Home Build or Just Buy?

bad_brain — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 15:55:17 GMT

well, depends on the network architecture you plan to set up. let's say you need 1 main server and 10 workstations/clients the best would be to look for a cheap business deal for the 10 clients and build the main box with selected parts.

building EVERY computer with selected parts will end up most likely more expensive, I have already calculated this 3 times for my "coming soon" new system...not only because the big companies like Dell, HP, etc., can make better prices because of the amount of hardware they buy from the manufacturers, when building your own system you also tend to pick parts that are "1 class better" even if you don't really need it.

I don't know how the tax system works in your country, in germany you can get the money back from taxes for stuff that is used for work only, but the max. amount/year is limited. if it's similar in your country you should include this in your calculation too....

Home Build or Just Buy?

Beezer — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 12:34:10 GMT

OK, basically the business is going well. So I will be opening an ACTUAL OFFICE!
With an ACTUAL WORKFORCE.

Now the question is, and I will give my opinion later.
Should I buy the computers from a store or should I homebuild every single one?

I personally think that just buying one and seeing if I can get any business deals for low-end prices.
The players I'm thinking of going with are HP / Dell / Toshiba.

I like the cost and performance of those.
These will be seriously heavy duty machines. That's why. Also...let's face it. The Tech Support will be handled internally.

My FINAL option of course is to just end up buying refurbished macs (cause of software unfortunately).
But since Steve Jobs is a jerk who doesn't care 1% about the Middle East. I've decided to stay away from this area.

What do you all think?