(740) 695-1520
 Industry Standard Computers
St. Clairsville, Ohio

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US vs THEM Price Comparison:

A local business wanted to purchase 3 new computers, so while we were in there doing service work we took the office manager & the person who was most knowlegdable on computers to Dell's web site for a quote for a simple "middle of the road" workstation.  (All ISC's normal computers are workstation grade.) We took the cheapest Workstation and then picked all the things on the "customize it" list to come as close to what ISC sells as our standard package "that includes everything but a printer."  In most cases we picked the cheapest parts or options primarily because this business will not be doing anything but accounting, word processing, email and a little surfing. Here are the results:

Dell: 
Precision 360

$2,400 $2,250 [You Save $150]

P4 2.6 GHz
Windows 2000
XP Office SBE and the unwanted Adobe Acrobat 5.0
Small mini tower
512 MB RAM (we want the system to run properly as opposed to 1 GB)
Entry level quietkey keyboard (cheapest)
Dell UltraSharp™ 1702FP 17 inch Flat Panel Monitor
cheapest graphics card: nVidia, Quadro NVS 280, 64MB
Standard speakers
Sound Blaster sound card
Symantec Corp Antivirus 1 user
40 GB hard drive
48x 24x 48x CDRW
1.44 floppy drive
mouse pad
standard 3 yr warranty next day
Gold Tech support
PC Installation
Cheapest UPS since they don't list a good 1500 joule surge protector
USB Printer cable
Shipping Price unknown (since the $150 discount probably not free this week.)

Things unknown about Workstation 360:  How many serial ports, parallel ports, USB ports? wattage and type of power supply? brand of hard drive? Is it a real Sound Blaster sound card or soldered onboard? soldered on video or card? standard easily replaced parts or "Dell" only parts?

NOT a network card!

3 computer total price $6750 plus shipping.

Only real difference Dell 3 year warranty.  Us, 1 year on computer. Some parts 3 year to lifetime from manufacturers. Monitor 3 years.

3 computer total price $4602 (multi discount minus $75)
4 computer total price $6136 (multi discount minus $100)

You can BUY a SPARE COMPUTER from ISC for the SAME PRICE!  PLUS put $614 in the bank in case one of the 4 computers break after the first year!  Or add another $200 and use the 4th computer and buy a spare computer box (no monitor, keyboard etc.)  I wish I could buy Insurance in this way!  Actually we will do one better we will cover the hardware for 3 years and keep the 1.75 spare computers for us!

We don't charge enough...  Or as many people have found out the hard way... buy the Dell and hope and pray you never blow your Windows! We always make more money working on Dells then selling new computers even at our $25 / $35 per hour.

 Quote comparison done July 19, 2003 at 11:38 AM.

Things unknown about 4100:  Does the integrated video card come on this one after we ordered a real video card? type of power supply? brand of hard drive?  standard easily replaced parts or "Gateway" only parts?

Quote comparison done July 19, 2003 at 11:40 PM.