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Clone computers are just a bad idea
all the way around.
Now if you
have clones, don’t despair – we will be happy to work on them and help you
get the most from them. But we’ll never sell you one, and we have good reasons.
1. They are no bargain. Dell,
eMachines and others have driven the price of PCs down to the point where
you really cannot save any money buying clones. If your dealer gives you a
quote on a clone, take that quote and match it spec for spec with a
computer on Dell’s website. Chances are your clone will cost more than a comparable name brand
machine.
2. Clones don’t benefit from any
engineering or testing. When Dell assembles a new computer design from
industry standard components, they do extensive testing to make sure that
all the components are compatible. Clone makers never do this – they buy
industry standard components, put them together, and if the computer boots,
ship it. But with modern
processors executing over 2 billion
instructions per second, it doesn’t take much in the way of incompatibility
or timing problems to create some very strange and hard-to-diagnose
glitches. Wouldn’t you rather buy from a company who has at least
torture-tested the configuration to make sure it works?
3. Support is spotty and websites
nonexistent. Many clone builders stand behind their machines but they
are not equipped to provide phone support for them. Nor is the computer
support company you buy them from. So, you’ll have to hope you don’t need a
lot of in-depth support. But even more importantly, the big companies like
Dell maintain extensive websites
with technical tips, fixes, component drivers and even user forums where
you can communicate with others who have the exact same computer you have
and can help you find answers. These websites are the single most
compelling reason to buy a name-brand computer.
4. Upgrades are virtually hopeless. If
you later want to upgrade your clone to a new version of Windows, who knows
if drivers for all its components will be available? Even if they were,
where would you find them? We see clones all the time which cannot be
upgraded because updated drivers are nonexistent or nowhere to be found.
That’s what websites are for. But websites go with brands, not with generics.
Recently we attempted to upgrade a clone to Windows XP. Right in the
middle, the upgrade failed with some weird error we had never seen before.
The probable reason: the BIOS needed to be upgraded (the BIOS is a set of
basic instructions that the computer boots from.) We tore the computer
apart looking for any kind of identifying label to help us search for a new
BIOS. There was none. That otherwise perfectly good computer is probably
going to end up in the dumpster.
At SimpliTek, we don’t sell
computers. Period. We will be happy to help you purchase the right computer
for your needs, usually from Dell but also from Sony, IBM and others. When
you purchase the computer yourself, based on our advice and hand-holding,
you see exactly how much the computer is costing, and ownership gets
registered in your name. We just
provide the advice to make sure you get the right PC for your needs. We
don’t put together clones just to make a little extra money, like a lot of
dealers do.
Sad to say,
most clones get sold because it’s good for the seller and not because it’s good for you. All
computers are not created equal even
if they have similar components. You wouldn’t buy a car from a local shop
that buys engines, transmissions, steering wheels and windshields and puts
them all together. Why buy a PC that
way?
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