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Looking for memory for an older system?   Need a new video card and not sure what you can use in your computer?  Do you want to add USB ports to an older computer?  Whether it is a simple upgrade or a complete system, Balanced Information Technologies has the resources to do the job. 

Did you know that most of the time when a customer takes in a used computer to "trade in" on a new one, that the used one is posted on a bulletin board?  We have access to that bulletin board.  And have access to used computers, laptops and hardware at prices you would not believe.  Interested in a used laptop or monitor? How about a computer system for the kids? Contact us an tell us what you need, we'll find it for you.

Why  build a custom system?

There are several advantages to a custom system as opposed to an "off the shelf" or vendor computer system.  One of the main ones is the fact that when you buy from a vendor you generally don't get any software disks. No drivers, no program disks, no operating system.  Instead they provide "System Restore Disks"  I have heard  many people complain about this over the past several years.  What this means is that if you have a problem and need to replace a driver or system file, you can't.  The restore disks are in a compressed format that can't be accessed.  Your only option with these disks is to completely wipe your hard disk and reinstall everything from scratch.  Not good if you have upgraded any component on your computer, say a new sound card or something.   What if something happens and your graphic display drivers get fowled up?   Don't say it can't happen, I just got through working on two systems that this very thing happened.  And in both cases all the customer had was "Restore" disks.  I had to go online and  search and find the correct video drivers for each system, several hours work as opposed to a few minutes if they'd had the driver disks that the computer manufacturer should have provided.

Another good reason to have a custom system.  Most vendor computer systems emphasize the processor speed (2.5ghz Pentium 4) they talk a lot of general facts but don't mention specifics. For instance; a lot of times you'll see 64meg AGP video on board.  What this means is that a video card is built into the mother board and that it shares in the system ram (doesn't have memory of it's own) system ram is considerable slower than the ramdac that is on separate AGP video cards. And the fact that this card shares 64 megs of the computer's memory means that your 512 meg system only has 448 megs available for programs to use.  These on board cards are slower and less powerful than a stand alone 3d AGP card.   Another for instance;  you'll see systems state that they include a 56k modem.  What kind of modem?  Generally these are very generic cheap modems made in the Philippines.  I can get these same modems for about $5 each in lots of 50 or more.  Is that the kind of modem that you want in your system?

A good friend of mine bought a vendor computer from one of the top national companies last year.  I tried to talk him out of it, but he said it was because of their service reputation.  He paid for a CD-RW drive to be added to his system.  a few months later the CD-RW drive went bad.   He called the vendor and they told him that the drive was an add on and that he would have talk to tech support for the company that made it.  He then called the company and was told that the vendor used CD and CD-RW drives that were made under licensee from them (the drive manufacture) to a company in the Philippines and that they (the drive manufacture) did not support or warrant the 3rd party hardware even though it bore their name.  My friend finally got the vendor to supply him with a new CD-RW drive and it worked.  If it hadn't, I'm not sure just who he would have been able to get tech support from.

While there are several good national brands, such as Dell, Gateway, Hewlett Packard and IBM, there are also lots of department stores that sell computer systems.  For some people purchasing a vendor system from a reputable national manufacturer is what they need, for others a custom system built to specs is the only way to go.  But would you really buy a computer from a store like Wal-Mart or  K-Mart?  (I'll probably get yelled at for that).