Bobby Richter, technical director at national distributor Light Edge Technologies, looks at the differences between getting good value in a PC and getting ripped off.
We humans have two strong - and conflicting - bits of wisdom drummed into us from a young age. The first is that only fools pay too much for something, the other is that paying too little is a false economy. This is particularly true when buying PCs. Few of us are so skilled and so clued-up that we can tell the difference between when we`re getting quality, and when we`re only getting what looks like quality. Even fewer of us have the time, or the inclination, to become experts in buying PCs.
So most buyers of PCs are left with two options - look at the price tag, and assume that because the price of one model is a lot higher than another it must be better - or trust in a famous-name global brand that has convinced us of its commitment to quality.
The typical buyer has four options when looking at PCs: a well known global brand such as HP or Acer, a lesser known mostly Far Eastern brand such as Asus or DTK, a premium locally-assembled brand such as our own Emerald range, or a "white box" no-name unit assembled from bits and pieces (which vary from very high quality componentry to being stuffed with the cheapest available).
When choosing which option gives you the most bang for your buck, there are three major factors to look at: serviceability, quality and life span.
Serviceability is a mixture of physical features, such as "no tool" access, neatness of assembly and aesthetics. For a while "no tool" access was the Holy Grail of many international brands, but has since declined as a selling point. The reality is that making it really, really easy for someone to open the machine and nick the memory, processor and hard drive is definitely a problem. Having lockable cases helps, but there are often problems with repeatability in the keys, which makes "no tool" access more likely to be "no key, no access".
In some cases Light Edge actually makes it harder to get into the cases of our Emerald PCs by using special screws that require a specific tool - highly desirable in markets such as education where PCs are kept in publicly available areas.
The non-physical side of serviceability includes having a stable set of drivers and common components. Remote management is important in corporates, both for "hardware" issues like upgrading the BIOS and doing asset checking, or to download software and patches. While most global name brands make much of the advanced remote management systems they include, a considerable amount of this functionality is provided by standard technologies like LANDesk Manager and Microsoft Systems Management Server. These are generally supported by the higher quality local PC brands, especially those that are Intel partners building machines to Intel`s corporate specification.
A key area in serviceability is the commonality of chipsets, drivers and add-on components and whether these stay the same for the whole time that model is being manufactured. Ultra-cheap PCs use whatever components are available at the time of manufacture that meet a particular price break. Higher quality machines will have the same components for the life of the model, meaning that if you buy 20 units now, and 20 in six months time, they`ll all have the same stuff inside. This makes maintenance a lot simpler.
The quality of a PC has an impact on reliability, life span of the computer as well as the productivity of the user. Corporate machines should be designed to work eight hours a day, five days a week, 52 weeks a year. Saving R600 on a cheaper spec PC that leaves a R300/hr staff member twiddling their thumbs for hours on end is obviously a false economy. But even for lower level staff, trimming R100 off the mouse or keyboard for data entry clerks is silly - someone that has to enter thousands of information fields a day when entering accounting data is going to be a lot less productive if they have to click several times every time they want to activate the "OK" button.
When we spec and build PCs, we see them as a business tool, where a failure can mean a lot of money in terms of lost productivity. Our whole strategy is pay for high quality components up front, so that customers pay once for a machine that will definitely last them the planned lifetime, normally three to five years.
There are definite red flags in buying PCs for a corporate. "White box" machines are risky as they are essentially a box full of components. Each component has its own warranty meaning each is a separate thing to worry about. "Value PC" offerings from global brands often have the services and quality that you want, but often only manage to hit the "value" price point by using older technologies (Parallel ATA instead of SATA, for example.)
The choice between high quality corporate spec locally assembled machines and their global brand counterparts essentially comes down to brand loyalty and services packages, but very seldom technology and quality. The basic rule is to buy a corporate spec machine if it`s for the workplace because consumer spec machines are normally not up to scratch. Look at the components and confirm that they will stay the same for all the machines you intend to buy, both now and further down the line. Confirm that the machine supports industry standard remote management and asset tracking tools, and that you are not being sold old technology in a new case.
And lastly, look to the quality of what`s inside the machine, not the badge on the front.
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