Re: Good buy or not?
At 08:23 AM 1/6/97 -0600, Thomas Veldhouse wrote:
>I tend to disagree with the following argument. My Packard Bell is a
>Pentium 100 MHz. I bought it with 8Megs memory and a 1 Gig HD. I now
>have 32 Megs memory (PNY) and two hard drives (2 Gig and a 1 Gig), also an
>IDE CD-ROM. I have had no problem upgrading. You do really have to pull
>the computer apart to get to some of the parts, but nothing to tough. I
>have been very satisfied with it. It had all good parts inside, nothing
>second rate. Seagate hard drive. I would recommend it if you get a good
>deal on it. I have had mine for over a year and I have had no problems,
>and the thing is on more than it is off.
>
I disagree with your disagreement for the following reasons. I am
currently typing this message on a packard bell 486 and this machine
STINKS. I have now upgraded it to 20 meg of Ram and the machine is much
slower than our other 486 when it had 8 meg of ram in it. This particular
machine came with no cache, and I have seen other, more recent, models also
advertised without cache. The video card sucks, I am considering buying a
new one, but I don't want to waste my money on this junk bucket. The
modems that they use seem to be below standard quality and when you come
down to it, you are paying for software which you are never going to use.
Shaya
>
>On Mon, 6 Jan 1997, Dale Scheetz wrote:
>
>
>> On Sun, 5 Jan 1997 wb2oyc@cyberenet.net wrote:
>>
>> > I wonder if anyone on the list may have experience with Packard
>> > Bell machines, running Debian ? The reason for the question is, a local
>> > store is selling excess stock that didn't sell during the holiday season
>> > at a price that is very, very, tempting. Actually, the price is only a
>> > little more than the cost of a decent motherboard, and it is for a
>> > complete system, including monitor, 4X CD-ROM, etc. The processor is a
>> > 75Mhz Pentium. I don't know the whole story of the Pentium line, but
>> > would it be reasonable to assume that the cpu could be readily upgraded?
>> > Thats a detail that might depend entirely on the capability of the board
>> > in the machine, and I know little about PB, other than the adverse
stories
>> > of the recent past. Are they still using "refurbished" stuff and selling
>> > it as new? Do their machines use standard memory components, so they
>> > could be easily upgraded with parts from other vendors, etc? They don't
>> > mention the vendor, but the machine includes an video accelerator type of
>> > card, and the machine is billed as a "multimedia home PC". The
monitor is
>> > one of those goofy looking things with speakers glued to its sides.
It is
>> > a model 4240. Anyone have any comments on its insides, and whether it
>> > might be as good a buy as it appears to be?
>> >
>> > My current machine is an old 486 box, and I need space for an
>> > additional HD, etc. Running an AMD 486/133, so this machine would not
>> > really be much of an upgrade in itself in terms of performance, but if
>> > possible, I would quickly upgrade its cpu and memory. Would this be a
>> > decent platform to build on or not?
>> >
>> My experience with Packard-Bell machines is that these folks made a decent
>> car an an ok telephone, but their computer stinks worse than a landfill of
>> diapers. These machines are almost completely NONE upgradable. They are
>> typically incompatable with all other components (memory etc) and in order
>> to get their "low profile" design they mount expansion boards horizontaly
>> rather than virtically, typically giving only 2 or 3 expansion slots.
>> Literally everything is on the mother board, so if the least thing breaks,
>> you own a "not so functional" boat anchor.
>> If you never need to upgrade or fix them, they are just fine for "limited"
>> applications, but my advice would be, upgrade to a pentium mother board
>> (PCI) and you will get two ide channels to hang drives on. Spend the rest
>> of your money on memory and drives. You will be much happier with the
>> results. Remember: You get what you pay for!
>>
>> Luck,
>>
>> Dwarf
>>
>> ------------ --------------
>>
>> aka Dale Scheetz Phone: 1 (904) 656-9769
>> Flexible Software 11000 McCrackin Road
>> e-mail: dwarf@polaris.net Tallahassee, FL 32308
>>
>> ------------ If you don't see what you want, just ask --------------
>>
>>
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>
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