Buying a new computer?

Dave R · 27 Mar 2013, 16:02

Mine was packed in a very large cardboard box with foam inside. I looked over the box when it arrived and it was in excellent condition.

sonder · 27 Mar 2013, 17:31

@dave r said:

Mine was packed in a very large cardboard box with foam inside. I looked over the box when it arrived and it was in excellent condition.

That's what was also inside the wood box, and when I say foam inside, I mean literally inside the machine. The first instruction is to open the tower and remove the foam insert. This kept everything in its place.

fcborik · 28 Mar 2013, 14:57

Update on the JNCS saga: I sent a carefully worded e-mail to thier customer support, asking for help in running all of my problems to ground and getting me a machine that would be reliable and would perform as expceted. Within 20 minutes, I got an e-mail from one of the co-owners of the company, apologizing for the incident, and offering to start from scratch with a new build. I spoke with him today to follow up, and we both agreed that trying to go through a troubleshooting and fixing routine remotely would not be wise, and that the best thing to do would be to start anew. The biggest concern that the owner had was the fact that the hard drive came loose, and if it got banged around with enough force to bend the mounting frame, then the liklihood of premature failure was high, and neither of us wanted this machine to be a constant source of frustration going forward.

So, today, they will begin a new build and do the proper testing and quality assurance checks prior to shipment (the owner said this would the most scrutinized build that they've done in recent memory). They will send it to me second day shipping, and they will also pay for shipment of the original machine back to them. They also will give me an extended warranty of 3 years on the new machine.

So, you were right, they are a solid company and take customer satisfaction seriously, and I think they responded in the best way they possibly could have. While the overall experience for me was not great, what is past is past and it's time to turn the page and move on. I'm sure I'll like the machine very much once it gets to me and I can get it up and running.

Thanks for all of your comments and support.

Frank.

l_breault · 29 Mar 2013, 00:04

Put my order in today!

solo · 29 Mar 2013, 00:13

@l_breault said:

Put my order in today!

Great.

I'm feeling left out, I still have not reached my frigging $$ goal yet, accounts are coming in slow this month.

l_breault · 29 Mar 2013, 01:08

My wife had vetoed the idea, but I ended up getting a few large jobs today that were able to justify it.

Dave R · 29 Mar 2013, 02:11

I don't mean to brag but I was feeling the need to spend some money. I didn't have near enough expenses last year and my wife was giving me a hard time about that when we were working on the taxes.

It seems to be taking me a long time to switch over to using it. There's so much software to install, yet.

solo · 29 Mar 2013, 02:18

@dave r said:

I don't mean to brag but I was feeling the need to spend some money. I didn't have near enough expenses last year and my wife was giving me a hard time about that when we were working on the taxes.

It seems to be taking me a long time to switch over to using it. There's so much software to install, yet.

My wife does the taxes and this year I got screwed.

Dave R · 29 Mar 2013, 02:22

You can blame our government for that.

solo · 29 Mar 2013, 02:35

@dave r said:

You can blame our government for that.

I did too many American jobs, normally most of my work is international, last year I picked up a lot of local business.

My wife is one of those folks that believe the IRS is worse than the Russian mob, me I dunno, we can fudge things, her...NO WAY!

Dave R · 29 Mar 2013, 02:49

Maybe I need to find some international work. I don't know if I want more, though.

pibuz · 29 Mar 2013, 12:41

Hey Solo! Got the chance to read the catchup article only a couple minutes ago, and the hardware configuration sounds excellent. Is the deal still ongoing? Can the product be shipped to Europe? What would be the final price? Thanks a lot!

Dave R · 29 Mar 2013, 12:47

Pibuz, if you look at the article in CatchUp again, or read the first part of this thread you'll see it's a US only thing. Apparently no overseas shipping.

pibuz · 29 Mar 2013, 18:26

Oh I see, sorry: I must have read too fast!
What a pity! I have to get a new machine, so - just out of curiosity - I'll let you guys know what will be the price of your hardware configuration here in Europe
Thanks!

moghamdi · 29 Mar 2013, 21:39

I am very interested to get one.

I live in Saudi Arabia, but I have a forwarding Address in New York. I have sent them an email and waiting for their feedback.

hellnbak · 30 Mar 2013, 02:23

@dave r said:

Pibuz, if you look at the article in CatchUp again, or read the first part of this thread you'll see it's a US only thing. Apparently no overseas shipping.

I'm curious, Dave. Do you know why they won't ship overseas? If it's a cost thing, couldn't they offer overseas shipping for an increased shipping charge? I guess maybe the additional cost might wipe out the savings of buying the machine, but I can't imagine it could be that much.

As for me, I've had to put getting a new machine on hold due to a number of substantial expenses I've had recently. Don't know how long this offer will exist, maybe I can recover in time to snag one.

Dave R · 30 Mar 2013, 06:29

I don't know why. Solo said from the outset that the deal was only available in the US. The why of it wasn't communicated.

mk11 · 4 Apr 2013, 13:24

So I'm really interested in one of those machines, but I have a question about the video cards I hope someone can answer. Is there a considerable noticeable difference between the 660 and the 680 in plain sketchup, non-render use?

solo · 4 Apr 2013, 13:30

@mk11 said:

So I'm really interested in one of those machines, but I have a question about the video cards I hope someone can answer. Is there a considerable noticeable difference between the 660 and the 680 in plain sketchup, non-render use?

Nope. The difference is when you are using an app that is GPU reliant like rendering, the additional speed, clocks and especially additional ram makes the difference, in SU however you will not notice it, I have a 660ti 3gb and it rocks in SU, even a Titan card would not make any noticeable difference.

sketch3d.de · 4 Apr 2013, 13:48

@mk11 said:

Is there a considerable noticeable difference between the 660 and the 680 in plain sketchup, non-render use?

no, the CPU rules for SU not the GPU.

the GTX 680 has 5,620 and the GTX 670 has 5,334 PassMark points = ~5% difference = no remarkable difference at least in SU.

Even the GTX 660 has already 4,076 PM points (~200.- U$)... probably already sufficient and the saved bucks can be invested in the fastest core i7 'Ivy Bridge' avail... or a fast/big SSD (e.g. Samsung 840 Pro).

hth,
Norbert