nigel@nmtsun.nmt.edu (Nigel Sharples) (08/01/89)
Does anyone have any experience with clone manufacturers such as: Swan PC brand Dell SAI Excel I am interested in general quality, reliability and technical support. Thanks! Nigel -- "Many's the night I've dreamed of cheese, toasted mostly."
mm@cloud9.Stratus.COM (Mike Mahler) (08/18/89)
In article <3050@nmtsun.nmt.edu>, nigel@nmtsun.nmt.edu (Nigel Sharples) writes: > Does anyone have any experience with clone manufacturers such > as: > > Swan > PC brand > Dell > SAI > Excel I can reccomend Dell highly. We have several here and interestingly enough it was the ONLY pc clone (we tried Compaq and some others) that would run a PC/370 test board made by IBM that we use for channel testing. Good company and fast service as well.
wordproc@ucf-cs.UCF.EDU (wordproc) (08/19/89)
/* ---------- "Re: PC clones" ---------- */ In article <3050@nmtsun.nmt.edu>, nigel@nmtsun.nmt.edu (Nigel Sharples) writes: > Does anyone have any experience with clone manufacturers such > as: > > Swan > PC brand > Dell > SAI > Excel I can strongly recommend PC Brand. Their sales personnel are knowledgeable and efficient and their technical assistance is excellent, although there may be some wait since they get pretty busy. I purchased a 20-MHz 286 machine from PC Brand in mid-April, with 2MB RAM, 1.2MB and 1.44MB floppies, 110MB Toshiba 24ms hard drive, NEC-2A SuperVGA monitor with Delco electronics DVGA-16 superVGA board, MS-DOS 4.01, serial/parallel, etc., for $3150. *** This includes PC Brand's five-year warranty. *** My machine has been positively outstanding and has operated with no problem whatsoever. It has passed every benchmark program and every test I can come up with for it, and the DVGA-16 board tests out as totally compatible with the VGA and lower resolutions and reproduces them faithfully. I have about 65MB of data already on the 110MB hard drive, from Ventura to MS Flight Simulator and dozens of PD/Shareware packages, and they all run perfectly. As a side note, my machine does not suffer from the apparent problem many machines have with formatting, reading and writing a 360K diskette in the 1.2MB drive, or with transferring data from diskettes other machines have created to my machine or vice-versa. -- Marcus Clenney U. of Central Fla. wordproc@ucf-cs.ucf.edu
paul.griffith@f624.n250.z1.fidonet.org (paul griffith) (08/20/89)
Take Dell there are excellent, so is their customer service and their computers. --- QM v1.00 * Origin: [ The Nameless BBS ] (416)638-7737 * (1:250/624.0)
dross@umn-d-ub.D.UMN.EDU (david ross) (08/21/89)
In article <3050@nmtsun.nmt.edu>, nigel@nmtsun.nmt.edu (Nigel Sharples) writes: > Does anyone have any experience with clone manufacturers such > as: > > Swan > PC brand > Dell > SAI > Excel About a year ago I bought an Excel from Network-PC; I was attracted by the warrantee, the 48 hour burn-in, and the fact they were in Nebraska (I'm a loudmouthed Chicagoan, and am quite good at bullying rural midwesterners when necessary - as it turned out to be in this case, though generally such people bend over backwards to be honest and helpful.) The machine arrived totally disfunctional. Inside I found that the drive cable (I ordered a machine with a hard disk and only 1 floppy, a 3.5") was not only not connected, but not connectable. I called NPC; they told me to whittle the cable's connecter with a knife until it fit (!). I did, but of course the machine still didn't work. I switched myself into bully mode, and finally got the company's president on the line (I was demanding not only a full refund, but compensation for my time, which I had itemized). My biggest question was, how could a machine, which had obviously never worked, have passed a 48 hour burn in? And wouldn't Nebraska's Attorney General be interested in this? Well, I finally got a replacement machine from them, together with a few extra doodads (like a second, 5.25" disk drive) and a small rebate for my time and trouble. To be fair, they were actually reasonably nice about everything. They even had a fairly convincing (if not satisfying) explanation for the burn-in thing. The machine has worked absolutely flawlessly for almost a year under fairly strenuous use (once I stopped using DR DOS, which came with the machine, and which is total garbage). I would even buy from them again. However, I wouldn't recommend them to someone who had neither technical expertise nor a willingness to get fierce over the phone.
spiros@inmet (08/21/89)
/* Written 1:11 pm Aug 18, 1989 by wordproc@ucf-cs.UUCP in inmet:comp.sys.ibm.pc */ /* ---------- "PC Clones (response)" ---------- */ I purchased a 20-MHz 286 machine from PC Brand in mid-April, with 2MB RAM, 1.2MB and 1.44MB floppies, 110MB Toshiba 24ms hard drive, NEC-2A SuperVGA monitor with Delco electronics DVGA-16 superVGA board, MS-DOS 4.01, serial/parallel, etc., for $3150. -- Marcus Clenney U. of Central Fla. wordproc@ucf-cs.ucf.edu /* End of text from inmet:comp.sys.ibm.pc */ Are you sure Delco electronics makes superVGA boards? I thought we make things like engine controllers, radios, and other vehicle electronics... Or is there someone using Delco's name and we are unaware of it? Semi-seriously, (But I think the company's name is Deco not Delco) Spiros -- Spiros Triantafyllopoulos .-----. MS CT30A, Kokomo, IN 46902 | (317) 451-0639 A.E.S., Delco Electronics | G M | spiros%gmr.com@relay.cs.net | spiros@gmr.com General Motors Corporation `-----' or.. striantafyll%kosds1.gm@hac2arpa.hac.com [Temporarily at Intermetrics, Inc., Cambridge, MA. inmet!spiros@uunet.uu.net]
dale@oakhill.UUCP (Dale Stevens) (08/23/89)
In article <89082121400710@masnet.uucp> paul.griffith@f624.n250.z1.fidonet.org (paul griffith) writes: > >Take Dell there are excellent, so is their customer service and their >computers. if only you can affort to spend that much on a computer! >--- QM v1.00 > * Origin: [ The Nameless BBS ] (416)638-7737 * (1:250/624.0) -- ---- Dale Stevens. Motorola Inc. cs.utexas.edu!oakhill!apache!dale