Making Reliable Systems

By: Carey Holzman

Visit the Archives

Lessons from a white-box veteran 

As a custom white-box builder for more than eight years, I've learned a few lessons the hard way 
about which parts to buy, from where, and why. I've found that there are eight essential qualities 
to look for when purchasing parts that will ultimately be a reflection of you and your company: 
1.	Reliability 
2.	Compatibility 
3.	Availability 
4.	Price 
5.	Performance 
6.	Warranty (length and terms) 
7.	Quality and timeliness of support from manufacturer 
8.	Quality and timeliness of support from distributor 
Here are some hard-earned tips about how to build systems that will keep both your customers 
and your accountant happy: 
Shopping on price alone will result in a higher initial profit margin, and purchasing 
motherboards with built-in components (particularly video) can save assembly time. 
Unfortunately, these systems are some of the most time-consuming to repair, typically have poor 
manufacturer support and typically benchmark slower than modular-based systems where 
components are added individually. When purchasing systems that have built-in video, ensure 
they have an available AGP slot for quick and inexpensive future upgrade and repair of the video 
sub-system.
Buy from a local distributor that will give you a no-hassle return/exchange policy. For example, 
my distributor (Technology Partners) guarantees everything they sell for one full year with no 
hassles. They will handle the paperwork, expense, tracking, and waiting period for the RMA 
(return merchandise authorization) back to the manufacturer. Meanwhile, I can get my customer 
back up and running the same day. Furthermore, they offer a lifetime warranty on all the memory 
modules they sell! 
Sourcing parts from a local electronics store is one of the biggest disservices you can do to 
your customers and yourself. With their limited return policies, packing and receipt disclaimers 
and apathetic employees, looking for support is quite often an effort in futility. Re-stocking fees 
and other fine print can be an unwelcome surprise if you order your parts online or through the 
mail. A local distributor may initially cost a few dollars more, but the lack of hassle will get you and 
your customer back to work quickly with the least amount of fuss, resulting in repeat business and 
less investment in warranty-related labor. 
Look for parts without fans. Fans are the most common warranty-related replacement part; to 
keep prices down and the customer coming back, you need to minimize warranty calls. I ensure 
that the video cards I purchase do not have a cooling fan; nor do the chipsets on the 
motherboards I select, unless my customer wants the fastest system available, in which case it's 
usually unavoidable. This also minimizes PC noise.
Get the 8-MB cache option. Most hard-drive manufacturers offer this option for just a few dollars 
more. It's worth it. The bigger cache not only boosts performance, but may also include a three-
year warranty, rather then the new standard one-year that all drive makers have recently 
adopted. Some manufacturers, including Western Digital, offer the extended 3-year warranty on 
all 8-MB cache drives; other manufacturers, including Maxtor and Seagate, offer it only with 
specific models of 8-MB cache drives. Also, for the best performance, look for the newer SATA II 
hard drives with Native Command Queuing (NCQ) (you must also have NCQ support on the 
motherboard or an add-on PCI controller) for an increase in data transfer of up to 32%!  
When choosing memory, look for memory that has a lifetime warranty. If that is not available 
locally, choose memory from a major manufacturer such as Mushkin, Crucial, Kingston or 
Corsair. Dealing with the memory manufacturers directly can save you money and make returns 
easy (although not fast, since all RMA's will be handled through traditional snail-mail.)
Stick with nVidia or ATI video cards for easy support and current, easy to find driver updates. 
Use Lite-On CD-RW/DVD-/+RW drives. They are inexpensive and consistently reliable. Plextor 
is also a great quality choice, but includes a higher price.
Don't purchase any monitor that offers less than three year's worth of warranty from the 
manufacturer. 
When purchasing networking components, I find SMC, DLink, Hawking and NetGear to be the 
easiest to set up and the most trouble-free for the money. 
Use AMD processors with DDR-RAM to save your customers money. The Intel chips always 
cost more and Intel has a history of recalls on their CPUs and motherboard chipsets. As of this 
writing, the AMD-FX 55 CPU is the fastest chip on the planet. Faster than Intel's best processor 
(as of this writing, the Pentium 4 3.46Ghz Extreme Edition) and beating it in every test across the 
board. The AMD chip further seals the deal by being priced several hundred dollars less. 
However, this is not to imply Intel offers an inferior product. In fact, many customers will gladly 
pay the extra money for Intel branded CPUs and motherboards as well as look for 'Centrino' 
labeled laptops for peace of mind. While the support of third-party motherboard manufacturers 
can vary greatly, buying an Intel board includes Intel's history of great support and customer 
service should a problem arise. Because the CPU and motherboard are made by the same 
company, many people feel there are fewer headaches regarding configuration and setup 
options. Also, others utilizing advanced software may desire Intel's Hyper-Threading technology 
for better performance in those applications.
Use less-costly brands. While companies like Intel, 3Com, Sony, and Asus offer great products, 
you're paying more for the name, and typically, you're not getting a longer warranty or better 
performance in return. For this reason, I don't recommend their products. 
Stay away from brands that have a history of poor quality. Personally, I have had nothing but 
problems with PCChips brand motherboards, and now I avoid them like the plague. Any PC 
component that does not have manufacturer or FCC identification displayed on it can be quite 
difficult to configure or to locate drivers (or updated drivers). 
Choose peripherals that use chipsets offering native Windows support, such as Nvidia-
based video cards, Intel-based chipset modems, and RealTek-based chipset network cards. This 
makes the initial build and future repairs easier since you won't need to research the component 
manufacturer and manually provide a specific driver after the operating system is installed. This 
also results in fewer support calls if and when you or the customer reinstalls their operating 
system and can no longer get the modem, network card, or video to work properly and has long 
since misplaced the original driver CDs that were included with the system. 
If you offer a standard one-year warranty to your customer, you can make money on repairing 
an out-of-warranty system. That's especially true when the replacement part is still under your 
vendors (or manufacturer's) original warranty. 
The key to your success rests not only on the parts you select but also the distributor you 
choose to purchase them from. Stick with one distributor, if possible. They will want to ensure 
your happiness to keep your dollars rolling in. 
CAREY HOLZMAN is president of Computer Performance Specialists in Glendale, Ariz., and the 
author of The Healthy PC: Preventative Care And Home Remedies For Your Computer 
(McGraw/Hill-Osborne, 2003).