RJM PC challenge

 
            An RJM custom built computer is a better option than any off-the-shelf system you’ll find from HP/Dell/etc for a number of reasons. The single most significant reason is support. A system built at RJM comes with a 2 year warranty, while Dell and HP commonly offer just a single year warranty. From our technicians experience, many Dell and HPs that fail do so soon after the warranty has expired, which leads perfectly into our second point; Parts and Serviceability. Imagine you have a Dell desktop and the power supply fails. Almost every Dell and HP on the market use non-standard power supplies. This means that if it fails it’s not as simple as picking up a new one from the store, instead you have to track down the supply specific to that model. Most PC shops don’t carry all these proprietary supplies and will have to ship one in. This means several days of downtime, and if the system is being used for business you’ll know that time is money! To make it even more frustrating they commonly change design with every model, which can result in inflated prices as that specific design becomes less available in the market over time. And lastly we come to the issue of Quality. The motherboards used in most HP and Dell desktops are increasingly less reliable, and even more so for the cheaper models. It’s not uncommon to see multiple parts fail at the same time, sometimes one failure caused by the other. For example, when a power supply fails it can easily kill other components, making repairs unlikely to be cost effective leaving many forced to buy a whole new machine. We build our systems with quality parts from well known manufactures who have strong reputations in the industry. We make hardware selections for our systems with 3 points in mind – Price, quality, and features. Many off-the-shelf systems are put together with whatever parts are in the warehouse at the time, meaning you can easily end up paying extra for features you will never need. In some cases they will pair high end parts with other low performance or low quality ones. This is most evident in hard drive selection. Nearly all prebuilt desktops (excluding gaming PCs) advertise an Intel i5 or i7 CPU, but are still using mechanical hard drives, which are slow and don’t perform anywhere close to their SSD counterparts. This means slower boot and program launch times. We use SSDs (Solid Sate Drives) in all systems we build by default, and we can always add additional drives for those who need the extra capacity. Another good example of poor quality components can be seen in prebuillt gaming PC’s from big box stores like Walmart or Best Buy. Both these companies cut costs by using low quality components that aren’t advertised on the front of the box. The ‘OP Gaming’ lineup from Walmart likes to boast that it uses the latest and greatest CPUs and graphics cards; what they conveniently don't mention is that they use cheap power supplies, low quality motherboards, and sometimes even coolers that are incapable of keeping the powerful chip inside them cool enough to perform at the advertised speeds, which means throttling.
 
            With all that said, I present you with a challenge. The next time you’re about to buy an off-the-shelf system from one of the big box stores, come see Tyler at RJM and he will design a BETTER system for a similar price. He’ll even explain why he chose each part and how it benefits your system.