The Computer Buzz

March 25th, 2010

Nome and Paul Van Middlesworth - owners - The Computer Factory
 

Configuring Your -Next PC

Three quarters of the PCs we build for our business and home users can be configured and priced directly from our system configuration sheet. It’s my job to create this single page document. We’ve done it every month for the past fifteen years and it isn’t getting any easier.

The problem is that there’s room for only four or five basic PC configurations on the single sheet and there are thousands of possible combinations of motherboards, CPUs hard drives and RAM. Our task is to come up with five basic configurations that will best meet the needs of the majority of our home and business users while optimizing the “bang for the buck” factor.

In designing our PCs, we do not compromise the component quality that differentiates ours from the major brand “package PCs.” We use ASUS motherboards, Western Digital hard drives, “Boxed” Intel and AMD CPUs and lifetime warranty RAM. All our major components have three to five year manufacturer’s warranties. The offshore factories that build PCs for Dell, Compaq HP, and Gateway etc. use cheap components with single year manufacturer’s warranties.

The configuration format can handle variables like the amount of RAM, hard drive size, operating systems and case/power supply specifications. Features like multiple optical drives, card readers, WiFi, Firewire and even floppies are easy add-ons.

About twenty five percent of the systems that we build are specials requiring “off the sheet” configurations. Gamers, audio/video editors, animators and designers are among users that require PC workstations with special features. For these users we design each system from scratch.

A “special” designed to meet a customer’s specific needs usually requires a couple of iterations before everyone is satisfied. From the time our customer gives final approval on the “special” configuration, it typically takes only two or three days to build and test the new PC.

The information below is based on our configuration sheet for March/April. Using it you can design and price your own PC. For variables like RAM, hard drives etc, give us a call and we’ll give you the numbers.