Viewing Thread:
"SR's PC's i have a better idea for selling them."

i was scanning through the latest SR mag and was reading about the computers and there specs, i believe that the mag is to complicated, not for me, but for average joe and joanne, if you know nothing about computers then none of the mag will really make much sence (i.e MAXX 4D P4 1800, someone who hadnt a clue about pc hardware would think to themselves "what the hell does this specifiation all mean, what is a Pentium 4 1800 cpu, what is 40 gb hard drive, what is 1 gb come to think of it") and so on but i think if SR made the mag more simple by bringing in "new spec" computers that don't tell you all the technical gumf, for instance if they were to do a SMALL BUSINESS computer and call it that in the mag with spec underneath then they will get more people buying them, same with a FAMILY computer, GAMES computer and SERVER computer.

DOES ANYONE ELSE AGREE?????????????????

Here are a few specs i would do
MAXX SMALL BUSINESS COMPUTER
CHIP: Celeron 1100
RAM 256 MB PC133
MOTHERBOARD: unknown brand but a "lite" version with onboard sound, graphics and network card
VIDEO CARD: Onboard 8MB shared (as it will not be used wholey for games)
SOUND CARD: Onboard (also not being used wholey for games and multimedia)
NETWORK CARD: 10/100 onboard NIC (for networking)
HARD DRIVE: 60 GB (for storage purposes)
CD WRITER:for backing up.
KEYBOARD: basic
MOUSE: basic
MONITOR: chioce of 15" or 17"
SOFTWARE: Windows XP home/Pro, Office small business Edition

and other spec computer's would be a bit like this but with hsrdware for the various jobs it will be used for.
ANY COMMENTS ON MY ESSAY.

C.b.

i was scanning through the latest SR mag and was reading about the computers and there specs, i believe that the mag is to complicated, not for me, but for average joe and joanne, if you know nothing about computers then none of the mag will really make much sence (i.e MAXX 4D P4 1800, someone who hadnt a clue about pc hardware would think to themselves "what the hell does this specifiation all mean, what is a Pentium 4 1800 cpu, what is 40 gb hard drive, what is 1 gb come to think of it") and so on but i think if SR made the mag more simple by bringing in "new spec" computers that don't tell you all the technical gumf, for instance if they were to do a SMALL BUSINESS computer and call it that in the mag with spec underneath then they will get more people buying them, same with a FAMILY computer, GAMES computer and SERVER computer.

DOES ANYONE ELSE AGREE?????????????????

Here are a few specs i would do
MAXX SMALL BUSINESS COMPUTER
CHIP: Celeron 1100
RAM 256 MB PC133
MOTHERBOARD: unknown brand but a "lite" version with onboard sound, graphics and network card
VIDEO CARD: Onboard 8MB shared (as it will not be used wholey for games)
SOUND CARD: Onboard (also not being used wholey for games and multimedia)
NETWORK CARD: 10/100 onboard NIC (for networking)
HARD DRIVE: 60 GB (for storage purposes)
CD WRITER:for backing up.
KEYBOARD: basic
MOUSE: basic
MONITOR: chioce of 15" or 17"
SOFTWARE: Windows XP home/Pro, Office small business Edition

and other spec computer's would be a bit like this but with hsrdware for the various jobs it will be used for.
ANY COMMENTS ON MY ESSAY.

C.b.

Hum, colbakes, or whatever his name was? New account?

I hate places that sell things like that..then again, I don't like being patronised, and I shouldn't be reading them anyway. Big numbers look impressive, and help to sell, even to complete newbies. Technical terms and big words can help sell stuff to the inexperienced, in a "WOW, that sounds impressive" sort of way (Quantispeed architecture on the XP etc..).

Could be useful to have a glossary somewhere to explain some of the terms, but most PC adverts manage perfectly well by exploiting the megahertz myth (should that be gigahertz myth now?) and its varients to sell to those who can be easily fooled by such trickery..

I agree with Phil. SR sells PCs to people who want a decent PC. Even if you know nothing about computers, you'd have to be a dunce not to realise the bigger the numbers the better it is. If you want it all spelled out for you with big letters and a guy in a red shirt with a name tag, go get ripped off by PC World and Packard Bell.

So turbo you think the bigger the number the better it is, if this is true then a 486 is better than a Pentium 4, what i am saying is if you know nothing about computers you would not know the differance between these pc specs and "using your theory" they would choose the 486 as it is a higher number and thus better, and even if they do know a bit about the cpu speeds then would they go for a 2000 ghz system that has a all cheapo bog standard parts or an 1800 that has top spec parts?????, try to imagine you know nothing about computers at all and you want a computer for use in your house to do spreadsheets and presentations then you would not need to but the maxx 4d p4 2000 (although a great pc) as you will not need all this power the ce 1000 system will sufice.

who is colbakes ?

c.b.
my name is corban barkley

But they'll always try to sell the most expensive systemt hey can, heh. Given your example of a 486, to compare that fairly it'd be up against whatever generation we're at now..beyond 7..the normal thing people compare is CPU speed, so yeah, anyone would choose a 66mhz 486 over a 2200mhz P4, sure..

Not always true that big numbers are better though, but new buyers will believe it, hence Intel selling by having bigger numbers and AMD compensating using their PR system..

That's not the point. You can put big numbers on a PC and your average buyer will realise that it's quite if the numbers are bigger than all the other. If you really wanted an accurate representation of quality then you would have to list all the technical specs (bogomips, gigaflops etc...) and then they buyer would be totally snowed under! It's completely against the point of the post!

you guys are not getting the point of the post, imagine if you know nothing at all about computers then MHZ means nothing to you all you would wanna know will the system do what you want it to do.

c.b.

AMD_MAN wrote:
> you guys are not getting the point of the post, imagine if you know nothing at
> all about computers then MHZ means nothing to you all you would wanna know will
> the system do what you want it to do.

Renaming the computer to Maxx Small Business hardly solves that problem does it? I believe even the most computer illerate will seek some kind of information before purchasing a computer (even if its just a sales person in PC world) anyway. Simply there aren't many people who can afford to spend up to a thousand pound so blindly.

But anyway, as I post this at the top of the window theres a advert for SR's PC range. To quote it, "HUGE MAXX PCs", notice the words, big powerful words. MAXX Small Business somehow is just contradictory to the strategy they have for marketing and selling their PCs I think. Also you have to consider who their target audience are, little point in offering MAXX Business, MAXX Server etc. etc. if they don't advertise to people who will want these machines. I don't know who SR consider as their target market but it doesn't appear to be first time buyers does it? Another point is, it can be quite difficult (and dangerous) to pigeon hole your computers like that. I mean what is a games machine spec wise? I've got a p3-650 and an original GeForce card, it plays most games adequately at lower resolutions.

Something else I just noticed, most of their range have quite similar specs, perhaps they aren't interested in the added cost/hassle of building PCs for specific tasks.

-G

As I've said, SR sell good PCs to people who know what they want. If you're a newbie, you can go get ripped off by PC World, who will sell you a P4 2ghz with the lowest quality parts that performs like a P4 1.3. No joke.

o.k. how about this idea:

They should do a pick and mix for us teckys, for instance

Athlon Motherboards

Abit kt7a-raid £???
Asus a7v133 £???
Asus a7v133-raid £???

Pentium Motherboards

Chaintech 6aja4 £???
Etc etc

Video card
Geforce 2 mx 400 64mb AGP £??
Geforce 3 £???

Hard drive
Ibm deskstar 75 gxp 60GB £???
Ibm deskstar 120gxp 80GB £???


SO on and so forth
Get the picture?
i think this would also be a great idea, then you could have the spec you want and can afford, You guys gotta agree with me on this one.
the only probelm is that the pc as a whole will be more expensive but you will know what all the parts are and how good they are.

AGREE??????
C.b.