>Joseph,
>We are in the same boat and I think you're wasting your time trying to explain a "no name" is sometimes better.

I was starting to get that feeling. ;~)

>I'm suffering here with a Digital having faulty CPU and not getting their precious help at all. I would replace the CPU on my own if I ever could find a CPU supported by their marvelous "alive horse" motherboard. Unfortunately it's no more than another candidate for junkyard as rest of the other brand names.
>Cetin

Hey, thanks for the example. There are so many examples of people having problems with brand name systems.

We've had about 5 major hardware problems here in the past 3.5 years. We have about 50/50 brand name systems to custom-built systems by computer shops. The only problem we have had with the custom-builts was with a power supply that was replaced within an hour. Of the brand name, 3 had faulty mainboards, one had a bad modem (Dead On Arrival). Two of the mainboards and the modem took about two days to get repaired (we payed a few hundred dollars on each machine for on-site warranty). Can't really complain too much about the response time, but we paid very well for it. The other mainboard was not on-site warranty so we sent it back (costing my time to get the board out of the machine and a little money to courier it out). After over a month, we got the replacement. By then I had installed a DTK mainboard into the system. It works fine. The mainboard that they sent back is still on the shelf. Lucky it was a standard AT case; many brand name systems have proprietory mainboards. We would have been out of luck for a while. If this was one of the other custom-built systems by our local guy, I could have dropped the machine off and had it back the next day. No pulling the mainboard, no waiting a month.

I should stress that when I talk about buying from a local shop, I am not talking about a cut-price store where price is the main selling point. I am talking about an established shop that has fair pricing and puts quality components into the machine. A company that is accountable for its work and equipment. That is something that you don't get from a brand name company because the salesperson is not the same person as the system builder who is not the same person as the tech support person, etc. Nobody has to be held personably responsible if a problem arises. That might be a reason for the low level of customer satisfaction.

Joe