All prospective Micron customers must read.
Written: Jan 28 '01 (Updated Jan 28 '01)
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Pros: Fast, user friendly case, fast to deliver new tech
Cons: Lack of manuals, noisy(?) case, not alot of config options.
The Bottom Line: My case is rare, if things had gone though w/o a hitch, my experience would have been excellent.
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| drewday's Full Review: Micron Millenia MAX Series |
I’m writing this review of the Millennia Max series not primarily on the hard wear but the company in question, Micron. To start off though, I purchased the Millennia Max XP fully loaded a little more then a month ago. 1.2 T-Bird on an AMD 761 chipset (1600DDR), 256 megs of DDR, (Creative) Geforce Ultra, SBL value, CDRW, DVD, 10/100 NIC, 75gig IBM DTLA drive, etc. The machine itself it great, awesome power for now, no complains when it comes to overall power in office and 3d apps but unfortunately in my case there’s a few conditions that went along with my computer.
To start with, I was disappointed at the lack of customization options on their website. A normal user might not really want anymore then what they give you at the options page, but I did. To start with, they give you a limited number of monitor choices per size, ex, only one 19” monitor, which is decent, but not great. Second, on their MAX XP “dream machine” they advertise dual drives in a striping raid config, an option that theoretically doubles the data transfer rate. Unfortunately this configuration is not selectable on the machine I was configuring, nor, according to the sales persons on the telephone, possible at all. Now, this was my first real “configurable” computer purchase to date, but I would assume that other companies might give you more flexibility in regard to your desired configuration. (BTW, I was shocked to see they don’t offer the SBL! 5.1 Platinum, or any other high(er) end sound card, also they don’t give you the option of not taking the 56k modem with it (minor) )
Regardless of the config options, I put together what seemed would fit me fine, I paid them via a wire transfer as I don’t really use credit cards for major purchases, payment and delivery went smoothly (they ship UPS). Out of the box it looked promising, I loved the case design (even though your large internal bays are all taken), the semi-screw less case design is innovative, and overall very easy to work with. The front bezel is attractive and with two USB ports both front and back accessibility is exceptional. My first disappointment, however, was to come after first plugging the computer in. After everything was hooked up properly, very excitedly, I turned the computer on and to my great surprise, window hung on start up not to mention visual defects galore. I will spare you the details but it involved random streaks of odd color, ghosting, vertical color banding on occasions, off pixels, etc. Very surprised at this I restarted and tried again, and again, finally windows booted but the defects were still there. Very afraid that it was either the monitor or system I tried both with different monitors/computers and narrowed it down to the computer. By now I was totally in shock, this brand new computer out of the box didn’t work like it should. Immediately I got on the phone with Micron (thank god for their long tech support hours) and after what I would say an hour or two, we resolved that it was the video card causing the problem after going though all possible soft wear problems. I had a Asus 7700 (geforce 2 gts) on hand so just for giggles I took the Ultra card out and put the Asus card in. On startup, everything was normal. Now I knew it was the video card and when I got a hold of the tech support person again, we started to arrange a replacement.
Now if it was Micron’s fault, installing a defective card and not testing it before shipment, or it was the fault of UPS, banging up the package (package looked fine btw), you decide. After that I wouldn’t really draw any conclusions other then the fact that Micron had a good customer service/tech support department.
My problems didn’t stop there, however, so please keep on reading. I’ve had misc problems since the replacement of the Ultra card. Occasionally the computer will restart by it self (and I have it plugged into a reliable UPS). The computer will also sometime not shutdown when told to (1 out of 4 shutdowns result in a windows protection error), and now, since the past week, I have no working USB ports at all.
The first, the random shutting down I attribute to the anemic 250watt PSU they included and I was shocked to see upon first inspection of the case. I have yet to inquire into weather replacing it would void warrantee or not (the PSU doesn’t offer any free power connectors btw) but I would assume it will.
The Second problem with shutdowns I will mainly attribute to me running the computer for long hours (10-15 hours straight) but I have never really experienced this on any of my other machines so it could be a case of Micron choosing a set of drivers or soft wear that don’t exactly work together perfectly or it could just be me (I bet on the latter).
The third I am completely baffled at and am in the process of resolving with Micron. It was just one day I turned the computer on and all of a sudden, no USB. We have tried several way of resolving it though soft wear but as I’ve learned to do, I am assuming the worst and perhaps simply accepting the fact that the computer might have been damaged in shipping.
There were many other minor things that have been on my mind since the purchase of the computer. MS Office SB edition didn’t come fully installed on the computer which I’m sure is for security purposes but still a slight pain. Out of the manuals none of them gave any assistance in regard to any custom devices such as the sound card, the NIC, and the graphics card. It probably won’t be an issue to most people, but could be to some.
My personal experience with Micron, as said above is probably a rare case, bordering on unbelievable because of the succession of the problems in the given time frame. For the majority of the technicalities I can’t really point any fingers at anyone. If it was UPS it’s understandable that with the volume of packages they receive, especially during the holiday seasons, it’s sometimes hard to make sure every package gets though safely. On the other hand, the same can be said in regard to Micron. Overall I am very satisfied with the total computer, it has done everything I expected and then some. This is one of those experiences that causes me not to go and blindly purchase Micron products again, but again, but not prove cause to start crusading against the company. I would exhort prospective buyers to research prices more then I did however, but if Micron proves a good deal, jump on it. So, overall a rare case, but important for prospective buyers to read.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): ~3000.00
Operating System: Windows
Processor: Other
Processor speed: over 1000
RAM: 256
Internal Storage: CD-RW and DVD
Hard Drive (GB): Over 50
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Epinions.com ID:
drewday
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Member: Drew DiPietro
Location: NY
Reviews written: 15
Trusted by: 1 member
About Me:
A University Student in Manhattan
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