Witzend Computing - San Diego Computer Repair, Tech Suggests

	Tech Suggests
	See what the Techs say about Where and What to Buy...

New Desktop or Laptop:

Tech Suggests:

Buy Dell. Heat is what generally takes down motherboards, CPUs and Hard Drives the fastest. In my opinion, Dell computers are stable and last longer because their engineers spend so much time studying airflow and heat control on all of their models. At Witzend Computing we don’t build computers for our clients because we know we can’t match the air flow technology that comes in a Dell model. They use only Intel CPUs, which are still considered to run cooler than AMD. In addition, I can tell they listen to the tech. The computers are designed for easy replacement and repair. It’s easy to open a Dell box and pop a hard drive or any other device in and out.

If you’re buying a Dell desktop or laptop for your office or home office, be sure to go with an Optiplex (desktop) or Latitude (laptop). Don’t buy a home computer for your office. The small business models don’t come with junk software that the home models come with. You may have to pay the tech the time to remove the unwanted software and clean up the computer right out of the box if you buy a home model. Also, according to my Dell reps, the Dimension and Inspiron models aren’t standardized like the Optiplex and Latitude, which means the parts will be easier acquire in the future and the business models will be around for longer.

I’ve also noticed the difference in service that I get when I buy a business model. It’s easier to get through to a tech and also easier to get to a tech that knows something.

Dell seems to change its deals constantly. The $500 or less price never includes, Microsoft Office, warranties longer than a year, a monitor or a Pentium 4 processor (usually Celeron).

In general, a business models will cost about $150 more than a home model. The extra cost is worth it.

It’s always a good idea to buy the 3-year warranty.

After you pull up a quote on-line, call dell and talk to a sales rep. You can usually get a better deal. But be careful, they may try to move you into a lower model.

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Steve Fink, MCSE, Witzend Computing

Systems Optimization ensures that your network is Reliable, Secure, and Fast!

Related Links:

(Better customer service on high-end models)
Quality news

Dell’s change in warranty offerings company wide

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Small Business Router:

Tech Suggests:

Buy Sonicwall (TZ-150 or TZ-170). Most retail routers, Linksys, Netgear, Belkin, D-link are weak on security, functionality and logging. They often have connectivity issues due to bottlenecks and problems communicating with various modems/routers. Sonicwall routers are top of the line in all of those areas. They’re ideal for setting up client to router VPNs or router to router VPNs. The clients are easy to install on Windows PCs and include 128 - 256 bit encryption, Private key authentication along with a client user and passwords authentication. I haven’t seen any difference in speed after upping the encryption from 128 to 256 bit. You can also configure port access only from certain IP addresses.

The price increases if you add 8x5 support which allows downloads to updates. This is worth getting. There’s also a cost for each Global VPN client that can access the router. Sonicwall also limits how many computers can connect to the routers at a time and there’s an additional cost to add more clients. In general, Sonicwall routers are priced a little higher than Firebox and Snapgear routers and lower than Cisco. But they're solid products and in this case you really get what you pay for.

- Suggested by Steve Fink -

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