Quay Computers Wellington...

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deepred

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#903721 27-Sep-2013 13:35

Working for one of Quay's competitors, it's a double-edged sword. We'll probably be picking up some of their customer base, in fact I've fixed a number of their machines over the years. On the other hand, it speaks volumes about the state of the local market.

I'd also agree that Windows 8 is a partial factor in the worldwide desktop slump. However, I think also that Quay didn't have a serious Web presence like the others - it came across as a 'just discovered HTML' appearance right to the end.

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"Create a society that values material things above all else. Strip it of industry. Raise taxes for the poor and reduce them for the rich and for corporations. Prop up failed financial institutions with public money. Ask for more tax, while vastly reducing public services. Put adverts everywhere, regardless of people's ability to afford the things they advertise. Allow the cost of food and housing to eclipse people's ability to pay for them. Light blue touch paper." — Andrew Maxwell

JimmyH

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#904339 28-Sep-2013 22:01

So, with Quay now gone I have to look for a new vendor to build my new box. Either that or take the plunge to research & order the parts I need, and have a go at building it myself (which I'm seriously considering).

I have some fairly clear ideas about what I need (powerful processor, oodles of disk storage, but don't care so much about the graphics card etc). Also, my knowledge isn't really current on processors, motherboard models, socket types and all that palaver. Quay were very good at building to order and helping me pick what I needed.

What other Wellington vendors to be people use/rate for the type of system building that Quay used to do?

deepred

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#904360 28-Sep-2013 22:55

JimmyH: So, with Quay now gone I have to look for a new vendor to build my new box. Either that or take the plunge to research & order the parts I need, and have a go at building it myself (which I'm seriously considering).

I have some fairly clear ideas about what I need (powerful processor, oodles of disk storage, but don't care so much about the graphics card etc). Also, my knowledge isn't really current on processors, motherboard models, socket types and all that palaver. Quay were very good at building to order and helping me pick what I needed.

What other Wellington vendors to be people use/rate for the type of system building that Quay used to do?

There's always Atech to go to for parts and full builds.

As for system specs, it all depends on what sort of programs you're running. As an educated guess, are you handling Photoshop, video editing suites or any other heavy duty 2D graphics? In any case, if you're keeping the machine for several years, it's generally a good idea to build for long-term upgradability.

Lias

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#904458 29-Sep-2013 12:41

JimmyH: So, with Quay now gone I have to look for a new vendor to build my new box. Either that or take the plunge to research & order the parts I need, and have a go at building it myself (which I'm seriously considering).

I have some fairly clear ideas about what I need (powerful processor, oodles of disk storage, but don't care so much about the graphics card etc). Also, my knowledge isn't really current on processors, motherboard models, socket types and all that palaver. Quay were very good at building to order and helping me pick what I needed.

What other Wellington vendors to be people use/rate for the type of system building that Quay used to do?

If you want custom builds, buy from a reputable online store like Computer Lounge, they are regularly voted NZ's best computer store for a reason.

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JimmyH

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#904466 29-Sep-2013 13:07

deepred:
JimmyH: So, with Quay now gone I have to look for a new vendor to build my new box. Either that or take the plunge to research & order the parts I need, and have a go at building it myself (which I'm seriously considering).

I have some fairly clear ideas about what I need (powerful processor, oodles of disk storage, but don't care so much about the graphics card etc). Also, my knowledge isn't really current on processors, motherboard models, socket types and all that palaver. Quay were very good at building to order and helping me pick what I needed.

What other Wellington vendors to be people use/rate for the type of system building that Quay used to do?

There's always Atech to go to for parts and full builds.

As for system specs, it all depends on what sort of programs you're running. As an educated guess, are you handling Photoshop, video editing suites or any other heavy duty 2D graphics? In any case, if you're keeping the machine for several years, it's generally a good idea to build for long-term upgradability.

Yep. Not so much photoshop. Mostly video transcoding. Lots and lots of video transcoding and manipulation.

At the moment it's mostly SD, which my ageing dual core can sort of cope with, although I have a backlog of 1,000-1,500 hours worth of material to be processed. Also, now that I have acquired the relevant capture kit, I plan to move into serious HD video manipulation next year. Was thinking of something like the fastest i7 that isn't stupidly priced, an SSD for the system drive, a 1tb or 2tb caviar black for the processing drive, and a 3tb green to store work in progress. Graphics card and sound irrelevant - the onboard options should be sufficient.

Backend storage for completed work will be a new RAID5 NAS. I have my eye on some nice 4-bay and 7-bay models once the new 4TB Western Digital Red drives become readily available at a sensible price.

deepred

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#904830 29-Sep-2013 23:32

JimmyH:
deepred:
JimmyH: So, with Quay now gone I have to look for a new vendor to build my new box. Either that or take the plunge to research & order the parts I need, and have a go at building it myself (which I'm seriously considering).

I have some fairly clear ideas about what I need (powerful processor, oodles of disk storage, but don't care so much about the graphics card etc). Also, my knowledge isn't really current on processors, motherboard models, socket types and all that palaver. Quay were very good at building to order and helping me pick what I needed.

What other Wellington vendors to be people use/rate for the type of system building that Quay used to do?

There's always Atech to go to for parts and full builds.

As for system specs, it all depends on what sort of programs you're running. As an educated guess, are you handling Photoshop, video editing suites or any other heavy duty 2D graphics? In any case, if you're keeping the machine for several years, it's generally a good idea to build for long-term upgradability.

Yep. Not so much photoshop. Mostly video transcoding. Lots and lots of video transcoding and manipulation.

At the moment it's mostly SD, which my ageing dual core can sort of cope with, although I have a backlog of 1,000-1,500 hours worth of material to be processed. Also, now that I have acquired the relevant capture kit, I plan to move into serious HD video manipulation next year. Was thinking of something like the fastest i7 that isn't stupidly priced, an SSD for the system drive, a 1tb or 2tb caviar black for the processing drive, and a 3tb green to store work in progress. Graphics card and sound irrelevant - the onboard options should be sufficient.

Backend storage for completed work will be a new RAID5 NAS. I have my eye on some nice 4-bay and 7-bay models once the new 4TB Western Digital Red drives become readily available at a sensible price.

An i7-4770 should be able to do the trick for not too bad a price, even for full-on HD. An Intel B85-based motherboard to go with the i7, plus 4 RAM slots is ideal for non-gaming 2D graphics including video processing.

120GB is usually big enough for an SSD that's containing just the OS and core apps, with traditional HDDs carrying the video data.

Cheap & cheerful 4x NAS: the Qnap TS-412 for $550 incl GST
4TB WD Red: $319 each, or...
3TB WD Red: $227 each

stevenz

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#904864 30-Sep-2013 08:30

Seeing as how they've been essentially a parallel-import store for years, I say good riddance. I know a few good techs who have worked there over the years, but they were always treated poorly. Using the tech room as a creche probably didn't help.

That does reduce the number of "computer" stores in the city dramatically. Online stores seem to be a lot more reputable.

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Kingy

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#905229 30-Sep-2013 16:40

deepred:

However, I think also that Quay didn't have a serious Web presence like the others - it came across as a 'just discovered HTML' appearance right to the end.

deepred:

There's always Atech to go to for parts and full builds.

You say Quay computers comes across as 'just discovered HTML' and then you point to Atech which still uses font tags, marquee scrollers, and tables for the layout. When in actual fact Quay uses Wordpress (actually pretty popular right now) albeit yes with a pretty average theme.

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JimmyH

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#910174 8-Oct-2013 22:45

deepred:

Cheap & cheerful 4x NAS: the Qnap TS-412 for $550 incl GST
4TB WD Red: $319 each, or...
3TB WD Red: $227 each

I looked at the TS-412 and it seems like a nice unit. However, the one I am currently looking at is the TS-869L. While I don't need the extra space at the moment (couldn't even fill the 412) content seems to expand to fill the available storage, esp if I start doing much with HD video. So I currently plan to get that unit, populate 3 or 4 of the bays, and have the other bays empty as headroom to expand the RAID array as needed.

Unfortunatley, for some reason the NZ pricing on the larger QNAP boxes seems ludicrously out of line with the prices for the same box in the US or Aussie. Circa $NZ 1,900 inc GST here, compared to circa $A990 inc their GST, the gap vs the US is even larger). So I will probably pick one up next time I have to go over to Oz or, if that won't be for a while, find a vendor who will ship here. It seems the case across all the local vendors, so I suspect the issue is with the distributor?

The 4TB reds look nice. I understand the 5TB units will be out by Christmas.

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