Tannin
Storage? I am Storage!
In another thread, I started to ponder what sort of systems people buy, and what things they don't buy. That thread was about CPUs, but the question has more general relevance, I think. So here is a list of the systems we offer (which are probably not all that different to the systems that most other places offer), together with some comments about them.
First, two integrated things:
1: An integrated-everything Celeron 900, 15 inch monitor, 20GB hard drive, 128MB. No-one buys it. (Which is just fine by me.)
2: An integrated-most things Duron 900. 17 inch monitor, 20GB drive, 128MB SDRAM, on-board sound and video, but full-size case and quality power supply. Add for modem or whatever else.
Neither of these sell well here. We sell the odd example of the integrated Duron, they are not bad for use as network workstations or for little old ladies who want to type letters andf won't ever upgrade and don't have much cash.
But the bottom of the range Celerons really only exist because of a rather complicated chain of circumstances. People wander in just wanting us to offer a lower price than the vomit-box movers down the road for a really cruddy system - a Compaq or a Hewlett-Packard or a no-name clone with the cheapest bits available. Now you and I know perfectly well that those are dreadful little things: underpowered, flimsy, gimmick-ridden vomit boxes with a very short lifespan and no redeeming features. But Joe Average doesn't know that, he just knows that it's got 900 Megathingies and it costs AU$1350. Nine hundred Megathingies and 15 Gigawhatis for $1350 has to be a good deal, right?
Well, we could explain that you can't upgrade them, you can't repair them, that the warranty is far too short and it has to be sent interstate if you ever need HP or Comcrap to fix it, that the monitor is too small, the tiny power supply can't handle anything bigger than what's in it right now (and costs a fortune to replace if it goes wrong), that the software setup looks great in the shop but with 28 things on the task list before you even start an app it will crawl like a 486SX before you even get it out of the box, that there is no room for a CD burner or a motherboard swap, that the sound is nothing special, that the modem is a cheap one, and worst of all, that it doesn't have an AGP slot so you won't ever be able to play 3D games on it.
And you know what happens if we do that? Joe Average takes it all in and, two times out of three, he decides that we must be just saying all that stuff because our systems are $300 dearer and we don't want to loose a sale. The fact that our systems really do have AGP slots and decent power supplies, that it's perfectly reasonable to expect a longer working life and much better long-term value out of a proper seperate component machine than a supermarket vomit box is quite often lost on Mr Average - hey, he's an expert on outboard motors or wheatgrowing or schoolteaching or something, it's not fair to blame him for not knowing how to tell a computer from a crapbox. He goes back to asking "so how many megahurts did you say it had on the hard rom?" and winds up back at the chain store, smiling happily while he exchanges the contents of his wallet for a Presario or a Pavillion.
So what we do is we have a really cheap and crappy thing too, and we offer it for around the same price as the vomit box merchants. And we tell Joe Average all about it: we tell him just how bad it is, how the monitor is too small and the warranty is only one year, and how it will be difficult to upgrade and cost more in the long run. "It's better than a Hewlett-Crapard, of course. What isn't?" we say, "But if you plan to get long-term value and performance out of your investment, then a full-size seperate component machine is the way to go. Sure it costs a little more - but in the long run, quality costs less.
Now Joe Average hears us.
Because that cruddy Celeron is something that we sell, when we tell him how much better a real computer is, he listens. Nine times out of ten he buys from us. And the silly thing is that it only exists on paper! We've never had an order for an integrated crap-box yet, and don't even have the parts to make a demo unit.
This, I guess, is what people mean when they talk about "the virtual PC".
First, two integrated things:
1: An integrated-everything Celeron 900, 15 inch monitor, 20GB hard drive, 128MB. No-one buys it. (Which is just fine by me.)
2: An integrated-most things Duron 900. 17 inch monitor, 20GB drive, 128MB SDRAM, on-board sound and video, but full-size case and quality power supply. Add for modem or whatever else.
Neither of these sell well here. We sell the odd example of the integrated Duron, they are not bad for use as network workstations or for little old ladies who want to type letters andf won't ever upgrade and don't have much cash.
But the bottom of the range Celerons really only exist because of a rather complicated chain of circumstances. People wander in just wanting us to offer a lower price than the vomit-box movers down the road for a really cruddy system - a Compaq or a Hewlett-Packard or a no-name clone with the cheapest bits available. Now you and I know perfectly well that those are dreadful little things: underpowered, flimsy, gimmick-ridden vomit boxes with a very short lifespan and no redeeming features. But Joe Average doesn't know that, he just knows that it's got 900 Megathingies and it costs AU$1350. Nine hundred Megathingies and 15 Gigawhatis for $1350 has to be a good deal, right?
Well, we could explain that you can't upgrade them, you can't repair them, that the warranty is far too short and it has to be sent interstate if you ever need HP or Comcrap to fix it, that the monitor is too small, the tiny power supply can't handle anything bigger than what's in it right now (and costs a fortune to replace if it goes wrong), that the software setup looks great in the shop but with 28 things on the task list before you even start an app it will crawl like a 486SX before you even get it out of the box, that there is no room for a CD burner or a motherboard swap, that the sound is nothing special, that the modem is a cheap one, and worst of all, that it doesn't have an AGP slot so you won't ever be able to play 3D games on it.
And you know what happens if we do that? Joe Average takes it all in and, two times out of three, he decides that we must be just saying all that stuff because our systems are $300 dearer and we don't want to loose a sale. The fact that our systems really do have AGP slots and decent power supplies, that it's perfectly reasonable to expect a longer working life and much better long-term value out of a proper seperate component machine than a supermarket vomit box is quite often lost on Mr Average - hey, he's an expert on outboard motors or wheatgrowing or schoolteaching or something, it's not fair to blame him for not knowing how to tell a computer from a crapbox. He goes back to asking "so how many megahurts did you say it had on the hard rom?" and winds up back at the chain store, smiling happily while he exchanges the contents of his wallet for a Presario or a Pavillion.
So what we do is we have a really cheap and crappy thing too, and we offer it for around the same price as the vomit box merchants. And we tell Joe Average all about it: we tell him just how bad it is, how the monitor is too small and the warranty is only one year, and how it will be difficult to upgrade and cost more in the long run. "It's better than a Hewlett-Crapard, of course. What isn't?" we say, "But if you plan to get long-term value and performance out of your investment, then a full-size seperate component machine is the way to go. Sure it costs a little more - but in the long run, quality costs less.
Now Joe Average hears us.
Because that cruddy Celeron is something that we sell, when we tell him how much better a real computer is, he listens. Nine times out of ten he buys from us. And the silly thing is that it only exists on paper! We've never had an order for an integrated crap-box yet, and don't even have the parts to make a demo unit.
This, I guess, is what people mean when they talk about "the virtual PC".
