Dell computers

I've a friend looking to get a new pc.

I don't imagine he'll build his own, and I believe he's looking at Dell's.

However, there always seems to be mention of con's whenever the pro's of buying Dell's are mentioned.

They seem like good prices for what you get.

So, what's the con's? Is the proprietary parts issue still relevent?

Thanks for any comments.

 

Non standard parts, i.e power supplies.

They aren't as bad as the likes of Compaq.

At the end of the day by the time a part fails the PC will be way out of date, I'd go for it unless I was looking for a high end gaming PC.

 

If I was going to buy a ready made PC I wouldn't look much further than Dell. There are no cons in my experience. I've owned 3 Dell desktops and one laptop over the last 10 or so years and never had a single issue with any of them.

I've upgraded bits and pieces in them over the years and never had any 'proprietary parts' issues.

I suppose the only 'con' is that you can't look at them in the shop before you buy as they're online (or phone) order only.

Michael.

 

Some parts are still propietary, but not as bad as they used to be and as mentioned not as bad as Compaq and others!

Lack of upgradability on their low end systems too - my parents Dell Dimension 8200, for example, has no AGP slot, although the motherboard (a M-ATX affair) has space and contacts for such a slot silkscreened onto the board. Of no real concern to my parents, since they're not gamers of course, but still - check exactly what you're getting hardware wise if you think its likely your friend might want to upgrade rather than buy a whole new system - especially when it comes to motherboards and power supplies (check available expansion slots and the power supply rating respectively).

My sister has a Dell laptop and my parents have the aforementioned desktop system...both have had them over a year and a half and have had no issues at all. No viruses either garyi

 

I suggested to my ex that she get one (about 18 months ago) - but when she researched on the web it seems that there were copmplaints about their customer service - whi to me (or most experienced computer bods) isn't much of an issue...

 

Dell's quality control is one of the strictest Ive ever encountered - you can bet your bottom dollar that suppliers ship the creme de la creme of their production to keep Dell happy.

I would buy Dell every time.

 

In fairness I think a lack of virus attack is more down to a sensible user using their machine sensibly, and taking the apporopriate measures to safeguard their machine ( i.e. effective AV software and hiding behind a firewall ), rather than which particular brand of computer they are using.

 

Got a load of Dell laptops that some of my colleagues (all teachers) use at work which were bought under the Laptops for Teachers scheme. Only had one come back to me with a duff optical drive (probably due to overuse) apart from that, the others have been fine.

With their desktops, the things I'd watch out for are:

- Propriatary power supplies - where the pin-outs looked identical to ATX, but they were wired slightly differently.

- I recently read a report about one of their top-end gaming systems ordered by a crowd that run a hardware website aimed at gamers. The amount of pre-loaded crap and lack of the latest drivers (important for gamers) meant that benchmarks suffer. If I was buying a top-flight gaming rig, I'd expect it to be tuned/optimised appropriately!

Link here: http://hardocp.com/article.html?art=OTI0

 

But seriously, how many hard core 'gamerz' do you know who would just use a PC "out of the box"? They'll all want to do their own tuning and optimizing themselves anyway so there seems little point in Dell doing it.

Michael.

 

A good point Michael - or they'd go to a specialist outfit such as Alienware.

 

I've bought three Dell laptops in the last four years for myself and family members. All are in daily use and have never given a moment's trouble.

 

I think Dell offer good value for money and good quality - IME their desktops are better than their more recent notebooks. for a simple out of the box coast effective solution their desktops are hard to beat.

Also, whilst sticking to the Indian call-centre, which I didnt like using, they seem to really be working hard to improve customer service quality which suffered massively after the initial move.

tips...
1. when configuring watch out for certain upgrades as some are poor value for money and make the initial amazing price look avarage.

2. once you have saved your online basket - call their sales number. you can email a link to the basket to the person on the phone. if you place your order by phone it goes into the system there and then. I found if you place the order via the web its often a while before the order is actually placed.

But generally - thumbs up from me.

 

I bought a dell because I was ****ed off with building my own then finding multitudes of problems with it (but then again, as soon as I built an intel all my problems went away... lol) and couldn't quite afford it - and with dells I could get a substantial student discount.

I wuv my dell, it's nice and quiet and runs quite well. Fast, apart from the bloatware.

 

The latest GX520 and GX620 machines are actually rather nice.

 

I have a lovely we shuttle xp computer, a partly do it yourself machine. It has been much used, upgraded etc and still kept pace over the three years Ive had it. It has 2 hard drived installed, monitor audio 1010 sound, a decent graphics card and runs Win XP and Mandriva Linux. The computer has never let me down in any of its various incarnations and is a good intro to part do it yourself with computers. Highly recommended.

 

I've had no problems with Dell, but that's at the mid-to-upper end of their ranges (either work machines, servers or in my case their larger LCDs). Agree that they are typically built to a cost, and what appears to be a great deal can end up costing much more when you factor in their ridiculous 'configuration costs' and delivery, but by and large I have no beef with them.

Personally, my home (PC) machines are all home built, except for a Dell Poweredge 1750 (a 1U web server box, which until recently was located in a co-lo facility). It's not a desktop PC by any means (i.e. very low end graphics card but ultra high end everything else, e.g. RAID U320 15K SCSI drives, loads super-fast ram and dual 3Ghz Xeons) and sounds like a hoover (1U machines aren't typically designed with noise in mind!)

Personally speaking, Dell pretty much get it right, and if someone came to me looking for a PC recommendation (as opposed to a computer rec, for which I'd recommend an Apple iMac most times) then I'd certainly point them at Dell as I couldn't compete on price profitably to provide them with a comparable machine with guarantee.

My main PC is a Shuttle PC, though, a lovely little thing, no longer cutting edge (far from it) but quite capable as a headless dev box. My main machine is my big G5.

 

What model shuttle are you using? I ask because some of Shuttle's newer offerings seem to be causing problems for hardcore gamers or is it that the hardest of hardcore gamers are causing problem for such dinky little boxen?

 

Oh, it's an older one - takes an Athlon XP. I had had the same processor & graphics in a bigger machine but it had a dodgy m/b so bought the Shuttle. Not as quiet as they claim, but not loud - it is noticeably louder than my G5 2.7 dual, unless the dual is on 'highest' performance and doing something intensive.

I've just ordered a Raptor 74G 10K SATA drive for the G5 and a Samsung Spinpoint 80Gb SATA2 for the Shuttle - the former to allow me to seperate apps & data on the big box, and the latter as it's about the quietest drive out there, which is important as my c#.net work tends to be quite disk intensive and my ageing PATA HDD is noisy.

John

PS. I don't do games in the main - no time. Prefer music, drums, spending time with the wife & friends or reading. And of course the pub. Games just seem to be a rather vacuous activity for me these days (compared to the past (in the mid 80s) when I was a big game addict)...

 

I've used several IDE Spinpoints, all whisper quiet when compared with anything else. How come none of the others can match them on this feature?

 

Because "Raptor" is such a macho name although some claim it is no way as quiet as a spinpoint but it sure does spin fast and that all that matters now days in some part of the blogosphere.

PS

What type of applications will be run on the new kit?
Hardcore gaming & video editing, Living room media centre, Office work, emails and such because I reckon that Shuttle would have a little box just about right for your friend. Have a look and if something catches your eye I know of a few retailers who would be only too happy to build one to exactly match your friend's needs.