Serious Renderfarm from Boxx

[DaForce]

Any machine built by any half competant person should run for a very long time. I have P3 500's 1000's, Athlon XP's and a few other random machines all running to this day. My old P200 would still run had I not gutted it a few years back.
Buying a machine from a company like boxx or any other place is ok, but I dont see why they should get praise for making the PC last for a few years.. it should be expected.

Boxx units do seem very expensive in general. But you pay for the convenience mostly. A part breaks you get a new one shipped out ASAP. Kind of like an extended warranty.. you will most likely never use it but its there if you need it.

[Blitterswitch]

I agree with DaForce, I built a top spec pc 4 and a half years ago for £2000 (P4 3.06ghz, 1gb ddr, ati radeon 9700pro) and it is still running like a dream for my dad who bought it off me about 12 months ago.

I reckon the Escom Pentium 60 we had in 1994/95 would still be running if when hadn't part exchanged it about 11 year ago! haha

Worst offender for longevity are definitly laptops, poor investment generally I feel but very practical. I havn't had a laptop last more than 2 years without going flakey, and I have had compaqs, sonys, dells - Perhaps thats why!

[arobbert]

I don't think Boxx is that much more expensive when compared to other prebuilt machines with similar warranties. When I bought workstations this year Boxx had a significantly better price than Dell.

Building them yourself is obviously less expensive. I guess it depends on how much your time is worth and whether you have free time you want to use building machines.

What you are paying for is the service and warranty. If I have a problem with my Boxx within the 3 year warranty period I make one phone call and have a replacement part within 24 hrs. at no charge. I had a machine that was over 2.5 years old and the power supply failed. They had a new power supply to me the next day at no charge. If you by a part from a supplier and it fails a year or two later you usually will have to deal directly with the manufacturer which can be very time consuming (endless time on hold). Let alone how long it can take to get reimbursed for the cost of the part. When you call Boxx support you usually get a hold of a tech right away who knows the machine very well. There is no comparison between Boxx and Dell when it comes to service.

[Jason Jacobs]

Any idea where one can purchase parts to build this type of computer? Specifically, the case and the motherboards. I'm guessing that the case is custom, but you never know.

[Neilg]

The case is custom, and with it being a completley new idea nobody has had a chance to copy it yet. Someone probably will, but I cant see them coming out with it very soon.