tradingcomputers.com. have i just been played for the fool?

T

tortoise

Anyone ever bought anything from these guys?

I bought a fancy rig that's been crashing since it arrived yesterday.

Question:

How come every cheap Dell and Compaq and HP I've ever brought home from BestBuy has run and run and run ...

while fancy-pants rig from tradingcomputers.com just crashes and crashes and crashes?

Am I, perhaps, on Candid Camera?
 
Funny you would say that - I had a custom built machine (locally) that was a few bucks - ran 6 monitors, max ram, chip, etc. etc. - and then one day it just completely died on me. Tried to change out the power supply, nothing. Google said the mobo could be shot...

Meanwhile my 'junk' Sony computer runs like a champ and I'm now using a Compaq to trade from that I've had for awhile now as well.

I wanted another desktop backup and found a nice and cheap IBM desktop @ TigerDirect coming off a business lease that is running like a champ as well.

So I too have a sour taste in my mouth about the custom built, 'high end' machines as that was the first one I've had that ended up just completely dying out on me one day.

Unless you are going to build it yourself, I'm thinking it's best to get a decent one off tigerdirect or wherever, and if/when it dies, just get another one. Quick, simple, easy and much cheaper than buying a machine that is 5x-10x the cost and very well may not be any better than the others.
 
fact is, if you buy from tradingcomputers and not from dell or build your own, you don't have a clue to begin with. consequently, when you do buy from dell you won't have a clue what your buying either. first get a clue then buy a box. sorry to be such an ass but you have to know whats in you tool box. you have 6 critical component in a computer, all designed to work together, all plug and play to the operating system.
 
I almost bought a computer from them after some favorable recommendations from a few ET posters. However, I was fortunate to receive advice from the illustrious Gnome (who retired from ET after his 10,000th post). He felt that their computers were over-priced and "over-clocked" in his terms. He provided me with the specs for a Dell that has worked well for over a year and runs three monitors.

If my memory is correct, they offer a 30 day money-back guarantee as well as a good service policy. I have only heard good things about their computers from people on-line who own them, so hopefully you will get things worked out.
 
Quote from imabadboy:

fact is, if you buy from tradingcomputers and not from dell or build your own, you don't have a clue to begin with. consequently, when you do buy from dell you won't have a clue what your buying either. first get a clue then buy a box. sorry to be such an ass but you have to know whats in you tool box. you have 6 critical component in a computer, all designed to work together, all plug and play to the operating system.
More...


this post is incoherent, but thanks for sharing!
 
I bought their low-end machine in 2006, just bumped up the memory. It still runs fine, I was running 4 monitors with esignal, trading platform, a linked excel spreadsheet, and often used internet explorer to check the news as well.

Sorry about your experience thus far. Contrary to the opinions of some here, I have better things to do than become an IT tech. I don't have one bit of interest in building my own computer.

BTW, I have a dell desktop (pretty old though) and a newer dell laptop, and neither of them will boot up as fast as my box from tradingcomputers.

Good luck.
 
My take on this is that Dell, etc. all do extensive stability testing with the combinations of components that they sell. I am a programmer and hardware designer and I think that the days of building your own computers are over if reliability is your top concern.

The reason I say this is that there are subtle electrical incompatibilities that crop up, especially with high speed busses. Time to market pressures for component manufacturers are insane and there's such a wide variety of other hardware that they need to be compatible with that their is simply no way for them to thoroughly test their products. That's not even considering driver issues.

So it's not really possible at this point to predict which components will work well in combination with each other. The only answer these days is trial and error combination and testing. Unfortunately, small companies just don't have the resources to do this properly. The luck of the draw means you'll sometimes get a white box that works flawlessly, but I wouldn't count on it.

Someone mentioned over-clocking. This is almost always a terrible idea. Smarter people than you or I set those speed limits for a reason.

This is all my humble, but hard-won, opinion, of course.
 
Quote from lynx:

My take on this is that Dell, etc. all do extensive stability testing with the combinations of components that they sell. I am a programmer and hardware designer and I think that the days of building your own computers are over if reliability is your top concern.

The reason I say this is that there are subtle electrical incompatibilities that crop up, especially with high speed busses. Time to market pressures for component manufacturers are insane and there's such a wide variety of other hardware that they need to be compatible with that their is simply no way for them to thoroughly test their products. That's not even considering driver issues.

So it's not really possible at this point to predict which components will work well in combination with each other. The only answer these days is trial and error combination and testing. The luck of the draw means you'll sometimes get a white box that works flawlessly, but I wouldn't count on it.

Someone mentioned over-clocking. This is almost always a terrible idea. Smarter people than you or I set those speed limits for a reason.

This is all my humble, but hard-won, opinion, of course.
More...


this makes sense. the machine does seem well-screwed together. in fact, it fairly reeks of quality. but that says nothing about what gremlins lurk at the nm-scale of things
 
These specialist computer packages are a load of garbage guys, I do recommend the custom built stuff but you should do it all yourself. It isn't insanely difficult though you should get some help from someone experienced to avoid costly mistakes.

Sometimes if they burn out like that instantly it may be due to something simple like static and the person building it didn't bother to get rid of the static electricity before they were touching the parts. This can end up completely frying the computer after awhile.

The reason custom built parts are better is because it's cheaper to buy all the parts yourself. You also don't have to deal with any low quality parts that are dumped in your pc.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top