9. Questions You Should Always Ask Your Vendor9.1. Minimum Warranty ProvisionsThe weakest guarantee you should settle for in the mail-order
market should include: 72-hour burn-in to avoid that sudden infant death
syndrome. (Also, try to find out if they do a power-cycling test and
how many repeats they do; this stresses the hardware much more than
steady burn-in.) 30 day money-back guarantee. Watch out for fine print
that weakens this with a restocking fee or limits it with
exclusions. 1 year parts and labor guarantee (some vendors give 2
years). 1 year of 800 number tech support (many vendors give
lifetime support).
Additionally, many vendors offer a year of on-site service free.
You should find out who they contract the service to. Also be sure
the free service coverage area includes your site; some unscrupulous
vendors weasel their way out with "some locations pay extra", which
translates roughly to "through the nose if you're further away than
our parking lot". If you're buying store-front, find out what they'll guarantee beyond the
above. If the answer is "nothing", go somewhere else. 9.2. DocumentationAsk your potential suppliers what kind and volume of documentation
they supply with your hardware. You should get, at minimum,
operations manuals for the motherboard and each card or peripheral;
also an IRQ list. Skimpiness in this area is a valuable clue that
they may be using no-name parts from Upper Baluchistan, which is not
necessarily a red flag in itself but should prompt you to ask more
questions. 9.3. A System Quality ChecklistThere are various cost-cutting tactics a vendor can use which
bring down the system's overall quality. Here are some good questions
to ask: If you're buying a factory-configured system, does it
have FCC certification? While it's not necessarily the case that a
non-certified system is going to spew a lot of radio-frequency
interference, certification is legally required — and becoming
more important as clock frequencies climb. Lack of that sticker may
indicate a fly-by-night vendor, or at least one in danger of being
raided and shut down! (For further discussion, see the section on Radio Frequency Interference
above.) Are the internal cable connectors keyed, so they can't
be put in upside down? This doesn't matter if you'll never, ever
ever need to upgrade or service your system.
Otherwise, it's pretty important; and, vendors who fluff this detail
may be quietly cutting other corners.
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