> the p-d seems to run slightly slower (2.8 vs. 3.6) but I don't game
> that much and when I do it runs fine on the old 1.9 ghx machine, so
> that really shouldn't be an issue. I do multi-task all the time, though.
>
> overall, if you were buying the machine, what would you get?
>
> don't see pentium 4 on the dell website, and the circuit city beat
> most of their prices. the dual-core machine is a gateway for $850, fwiw.
I'm hopelessly behind the bleeding edge these days, but I recall an article in
PC Magazine where one of their columnists said the dual-core machine seemed to
run faster than it should, over twice the speed of a comparable single core.
However, I'm allergic to Gateway after some bad experiences years ago. We
bought 17 fairly high end machines from them. By a year after the warranty
expired, all 17 had failed at least once, many of them multiple times. They
also managed to lose some of the parts we returned under warranty, and tried to
charge us list price for the replacement parts. My technicians hated calling
them too, hold time was almost always over an hour and sometimes 4. Lots of
disconnects too. When they did get connected, the idiot in the call center
would frequently insist on going through the whole failure flow-chart regardless
of the fact we had already found the problem, swapped the part, and had the
machine running. I told one of them point-blank once that I was going to lie to
him to get the answer I wanted, and he said that was fine, but he had to ask the
questions anyway. What a joke !
I'm sure they've improved since then, since they're still in business. But they
won't get any from me.
Randall
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