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Article: Beware bargain hunt blunders: want a cheap PC or a good value one? Here's some advice on where you can safely save, including expert tips from PC World's editors.
- Article from:
- Australian PC World
- Article date:
- May 1, 2006
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2006 IDG Communications Pty. Ltd - Australia. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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PC manufacturers make a profit margin of between 5 and 8 per cent. Any lower and--if it wasn't for the cost of exiting the market--they might as well sell up and put their capital on deposit. So for a manufacturer to sell below market price, corners are cut.
One of these corners is components. For example, to save money on the cost of notebooks, some manufacturers will use cheaper desktop processors--the so-called flip-chip solution--instead of pricier mobile versions. We're not saying that this is universally a bad idea, but it has been known to lead to overheating problems.
Desktop makers can cut the cost of systems by keeping memory at 256MB, ...