Dell

[weirdlookinguy]

I've always wondered about this.... how come everyone hates Dell?

Personally I like them... but I wanna know why some people hate them.

[Topcat]

Re: Dell

I'm on a Dell Inspiron 5100 notebook right now, P4 2.66GHz, 1gb RAM, 60GB HDD, XP Pro... Love it, does everything I need it to do. Picked a Dimension 4550 out of the trash last year, P4 2.26GHz, 512mb RAM. HDD was bad. Replaced HDD, reloaded OS, 14yr old niece is loving it. I also have 2x GX270's, 3GHz, 1GB... All of which are rock solid.... I guess I can't complain about Dell... I'd take any dell over an Asus motherboard.... Ohh how I've grown to have asus!! I have to take away a few brownie points froom them for the bad caps. I see bad cap dells on a daily basis, but on that note, I see just as many other brands as well.

[linuxguru]

Re: Dell

Other PC manufacturers, especially IBM, would love to hate Dell because they pretty much destroyed the profit margins on PCs over two decades. In 1988, a branded new 386 box sold for $4-$5k - today you can get a branded new entry-level box with similar reliability for $200-$400; IBM no longer has a desktop PC division.

OTOH, consumers should love Dell for driving down prices and making the market more competitive. I've owned a few Dell laptops over the years, and they were good value for the money.

Some folks' antagonism to Dell is based on their refusal to sell AMD-based PCs for years, even after it became obvious that the Athlon-64 was superior to Intel's offerings at that time. I'm ambivalent about that decision - it may have actually helped consumers in two ways:

1) By staying Intel-only, Dell got discounts and advertising subsidies from Intel that lowered the cost of their systems, allowing them to cut prices aggressively.

2) Sufficient supply of AMD CPUs (especially Athlon and Athlon-64) were not always available - AMD was production-constrained at various times. If Dell had started buying up AMD capacity, prices of AMD chips for everybody else would have been higher. There's no way you could have got an Athlon-64/3000+ for $50 retail in that scenario - when Dell finally started using AMD a few years ago, most of the high-bin A64-X2s became impossible to find for everybody else.

[Paul S]

Re: Dell

Most people will purchase the cheapest shit that they can find, and Dell is happy to provide it to them. They cut corners in the hardware in order to lower the price. Their systems usually slow down considerably after the owner installs a few applications. Nothing a memory upgrade can't fix, but try to tell that to a person who says:"But it worked fine when I first bought it, it must have viruses." And they insist that you re-install windows.

I fought my brother over this same issue. He wouldn't believe me, so he took it to a repair person. The repairman installed more memory, and it was all better!

Of course the repair person was a "computer professional", and I am just his schmuck brother that spends too much time on the computer.

Oops, this turned into a rant.

[stevo1210]

Re: Dell

Personally I own 3 Dell computers. All of which are laptops. One of my laptops is a Dell Inspiron E1505 I purchased in the USA in 2006. It had its bouts of issues when I got back here in the AU. Dell were more than happy to help me out and to get the issues fixed (e.g. motherboard, touchpad, PSU and LCD replacement) in the end I complained so much that they gave me a replacement unit and a free memory upgrade.
My second laptop is an Inspiron 6400 Core Duo one that was purcahsed early in 2007. I've had no issues with it after 1.5 years of daily use and I am really happy with it.
Another one is a Dell Inspiron 3200 which has been user misused and abused many times (also why it cost me only $20).
I am using that one right now to type this reply. It it an awesome laptop and I use more than any other PC. In the end, I think Dell computers are pretty good quality though sometimes they dont offer all the stuff that the DIY PCs have. In fact I recommend first time computer user to buy a Dell instead of going to a small computer store because Dell components such as PSU are of higher quality (Delta and Hipro) than the crappy DEER ones that the stores around here use.

But I'd have to admit thier service and support is perfect in every aspect. Only thing that ticks me off is the telephone waiting time of 20-30 minutes. Apart from that thier customer service is good. The technicians speak fluent english compared to many other companies I have called which all have outsourced to India. Dell AU customer service is provided by Malaysia from what I know.

Thanks.

[Paul S]

Re: Dell

Don't get me wrong, Dell has better systems for sale, you usually need to specify the better stuff.

I use an Inspiron 1150 laptop that I got a few years ago. I went through their selection process and upgraded things so that I got a fairly good laptop. One thing that pissed me off was the fact that I only ordered 512MB RAM. I figured that I would just add another 512MB after I got it (cheaper that way). Well, they installed two 256MB modules, so I had to buy two 512MB modules. I have since upgraded to two 1GB modules.

Also, the Intel graphics on this is horrible. I never thought that I would want to use this as a MythTV frontend, and watch HDTV with it. Now I'm stuck with it this way.

There was a large "hidden" partition on the drive, for system restoration. I asked support about this, because I wanted to put Linux on it too. I think that they recommended against it, and said that it would void the warranty. I upgraded to a bigger hard drive, installed WinXP Pro instead of Home, and put Linux on it. (screw them!) I rarely even boot into the WinXP partition anymore.

[Topcat]

Re: Dell

^
Just use an OEM CD with the COA number, do a clean install. Works like a charm, and no Dell bloated software. All of mine have OEM installations, eliminates any need for that hidden partition.

[kc8adu]

Re: Dell

biggest problem with dell or any mfr of cheap systems is bad support(talk to someone in india with a mouthfull of shit)who just reads out of a book.
and trialware crap,spyware(emachines!),and other junk that offers no value to an enduser.all on a system that is running the bare minimum for its installed os already.
you get what you pay for and deserve what you get!
as for the dell 2xx systems.
they were partly a victim of nichicon hn/hm and partly the 10 gallons of shit in a 5 gallon bucket .
hot running boxes and bad parts.
i now have a surplus of the dell 2xx boards i have been putting in regular cases tray and all after a bit of dremel work.
you can make a nice system on the cheap with these.