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Picking Your....Hardware

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Greetings fellow computer nuts!  

In my last article, I talked about drivers.  In this edition, I want to say a few words about picking your....hardware. (ha ha You know what they say: You can pick your nose, and you can pick your friends, but you can't pick your friend's nose!)  Sorry about that, I must have been taken over by an alien being there. 

When you build your own system, or have someone else do it for you, you need to pick good, quality parts.  Just because that piece of hardware is On Sale! 75% Off! Save Today!, it doesn't mean you should buy it.  Ask yourself why is it so cheap?  Probably because it's either junk or discontinued or the company went out of business.

Case in point: with my Gateway, it came with a Sound Blaster Live card.  Sound Blaster has been around for years.  When you bought a game, it required a "Sound Blaster compatible" sound card.  Now if you had a no-name, they would say they were compatible, but were they really?  Not always.  So if you had no sound, you either lived with it or went out and bought a Sound Blaster sound card.  

Peter heard lots of great things about his Diamond Monster MX300 and got it for his system.  He liked it and had no problems with it.  Later, Diamond got bought out and support (read that as updating drivers) turned to crap.  Then, the makers of the chip, Aureal filed for bankruptcy.  Now what is he supposed to do?  So far, he's making due.  But when he comes up to a problem, he'll just replace it with a Sound Blaster card, which is what he should have bought in the first place but instead he "bought into the hype" (his words). 

In all honesty, I guess Sound Blaster could go belly up in the future.  But it's been around for what seems like forever and a day.  They've set standards and make a quality product.  I'm not trying to advertise Sound Blaster here, I'm sure there are other good sound cards on the market, but if you want reliability and dependability, you get what you pay for.

The moral: buy quality, name brand parts and you shouldn't have any problems.  When it's time to upgrade those drivers, you want to go to a company that is still in business.  It's no fun trying to find out what kind of chip the item has and getting drivers that way.  No fun at all. 

Here's another reason to build or have someone else build your system for you.  When you buy from a major computer manufacturer, they may put in a Sound Blaster card, but it will be an OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) part.  An OEM part is a true piece of hardware, but it will usually be of less quality than what you would buy in the retail stores.  It is a way for companies to save money.  That is why pre-built systems are less expensive than custom built systems.

Also, when PuterGeek builds my system, he would NEVER think of buying a motherboard with on-board sound.  That means the sound card is part of the motherboard.   Why you ask?  Well, if all my PCI and ISA slots are full, and the sound card dies, I have no sound and my choice would be to 1. live with it, 2. take another card out of one of the full slots and replace it with a sound card, or 3. replace the motherboard or send it in for repair.  Now, if that same sound card was a stand-alone part and it died, guess what I'd do?  If it was within the warranty, I'd call the manufacturer, they'd ship out a new card and I'd send them back the bad one and replace it myself.  Or if I can't wait that long, I'd just go out a buy a new card and put it in!  Saves a lot of time and hassle.  This is an example of why we build our own systems.  Better quality parts and less hassle in the long run.

So when you decide to get that new video card, sound card, motherboard, hard drive, or whatever, buy quality parts.  If you don't know what to buy, ask someone whom you trust.  PuterGeek would be a good person!  Me?  Not really, I still like to go to the clearance rack of the dollar store.  That's why I'm married to a PuterGeek!

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Last Revised: 10/20/2000

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Thanks for the help Thomas!