Would you recommend buying a Dell?

Based on your experience, would you recommend a Dell computer for somebody else?

  • Definitely YES

    Votes: 142 20.3%

  • May be (YES)

    Votes: 80 11.4%

  • May or may not (depends on what is needed)

    Votes: 290 41.4%

  • May be NOT

    Votes: 34 4.9%

  • Definitely NOT

    Votes: 154 22.0%
  • Total voters
    700
CastleBravo said:
Note that there is constant complaining about this ON THE DELL OWNERS' FORUMS!!!
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Yeah that's right, you're actually so desperate about bashing Dell that you're posting misinformation on the Dell Community Forum... poor guy :rolleyes: btw it's a SUPPORT forum, you're supposed to post your problems there.

The conclusion remains that Dell systems come with standard connections and parts from renowned manufacturers, and basically everything can be upgraded.
 
I don't know if I ever would. I work in government IT and we bought a crapload of Dell's for lifecycle replacements (think numbers in the 1000's) and I did not experience them personally a great deal (I took leave to go back to school shortly after we deployed them), but from what I heard they were a disaster and we won't be using them again. Since we purchased our load of Dells, we have gone back to the original supplier whom we also used before Dell. I wish I had more info but I really don't. I'm curious as to what if any the big deal was with them. maybe I will talk to my boss and see what she has to say.
 
I like Dell desktops. Solid, quiet, stable. And i've owned many.
 
I recommend Dell(SB if the price it right) to all my friends who just want a computer they don't have to muck with(I restore the system as soon as they get it). I see a Dell 9400(whatever is the 9300 equivilient to a XPS3 with 7800 in it) in my future.
 
i voted May or may not (depends on what is needed)

if it's for a gaming rig, i'll build it
but if it's a laptop i tell people get a dell/hp and load up on the warranty
same thing with a cheapy internet pc - get a dell/hp and load up on the warranty

their good for the low end, because i can't beat the price . . . and i don't want the support hassels
 
Anybody who doesnt know enough about hardware to build there own, I suggest buying a dell.
 
I'd recommend a dell to anyone as long as they opt for the longer warranty. I have 150+ optiplex machines at work and they have had a 12 hour turn around on getting parts to me on all issues. Granted this is small business, but I've had friends with the same luck from Dell home.

I love the no questions askes from the small business warranty though, "I need a hard drive", 12 hours later DHL is there with my hard drive. Sweeeet. :p
 
screwmesa said:
I love the no questions askes from the small business warranty though, "I need a hard drive", 12 hours later DHL is there with my hard drive. Sweeeet. :p
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Yeah, business contracts are the meat and potatoes for Dell and they struggle to be competitive. They were just awarded a 12000-PCs contract with the norwegian postal service, much due to their responsive support system. Too bad it's not nearly as good for home users...
 
I voted may or may not

for notebooks yes
for desktops no, not for $300...

So far I've had a good experience with this dell dimension 2400 that I got from a friend. He said the drive went bad and I didnt get one with it. It is built with decent quality components runs good for what it is but isn't worth $300. I built my main rig for that much!
With the Intel integrated graphics it scores 2010 in 3dmark01 and was laggy running windows 2000 so I threw my gf2 mx400 in there and getting 3500 in 3dmark01. Now it's running smooth as butter with office and firefox making it a great workstation pc.

specs:
Internet box: Dell dimension 2400, 400fsb 128kb NW celeron 2.4ghz ,256mb ddr333, 8gb hdd, GF2 MX400 64mb
 
It depends on what you want.
due to economies of scale, at the low end they are very cheap.
however their dell xps systems are horrificllly overpriced.
they have the best dtr laptop however, as it is a pentium m so a sensible size.
For a mid range/low end system they are great, and for family members it is the best, as though it is expensive their next buisness day on site fixing is the best around, as they don't screw about and they actually know about pcs. (uk residents pc world?!!?!?!)
therefore they are pretty good I think, but for high end, build your own...
p/s on the pc world thing, they have now actually changed to a 3rd party fixer, and they are now pretty good. however they don't do on site, and it is now as expensive as dells....
Dell is solid and good, there may be cheaper but dell uses very good components in a neat and tidy fashion, and you will never get the 'its all gone blue' call again, as an unlucky dell guy will do it instead.
f
 
for low to mid end systems, yes. there are three in my house, two desktops and a laptop and over 4 years there has only been on problem which was with the laptop and they sent someone to fix it within 24 hours.
 
qb4ever said:
I voted may or may not

for notebooks yes
for desktops no, not for $300...

So far I've had a good experience with this dell dimension 2400 that I got from a friend. He said the drive went bad and I didnt get one with it. It is built with decent quality components runs good for what it is but isn't worth $300. I built my main rig for that much!
With the Intel integrated graphics it scores 2010 in 3dmark01 and was laggy running windows 2000 so I threw my gf2 mx400 in there and getting 3500 in 3dmark01. Now it's running smooth as butter with office and firefox making it a great workstation pc.

specs:
Internet box: Dell dimension 2400, 400fsb 128kb NW celeron 2.4ghz ,256mb ddr333, 8gb hdd, GF2 MX400 64mb
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You built a complete pc with windows xp for $300? How?
 
if its what you want then yes cus all my dads works pcs are dell and they are reliable and dont come with extras you may not need or want
 
I rebuilt the entire network at my dad's small business with Dell stuff, and so far I have been very impressed. Granted it isn't alot of machines.
I got 5 4700 desktop machines (p4 2.8+, 512mb ram, cd-rw, 17 inch LCD) and a 1600SC server (xeon 2.8, gig ram, 2 10k SCSI drives raid1, dual NIC) for 5000 bucks. Granted I had to wait and cherry pick deals, but 6 systems, including a solid server for 5000 bucks is a great deal.
These have been up for about a year now, and its running great. The chassis I have opens kind of like a book, making anything I need to do simple (only thing so far was to move a floppy drive). Now they sure won't upgrade well, but in this situation I have no need to. I will buy new ones starting in a year or two and start them on a reasonable replacement cycle.

We are also a Dell shop at work. The desktop support guys seem to like them. I have 2 desktops under my desk & 3 19 inch lcd monitors in front of me, and they have been trouble free.

Can't comment on the support aspect, as I have never needed them.
 
3-4 years ago no, for a person like my dad who uses his PC for work and the internet definitely, for a gamer possibly. If I were to buy a laptop for productivity I would be tempted to buy from them

So
Work and productivity for the average PC user - definitely
Gaming - possibly if the PC could be obtained for a reasonable price
Enthusiast - not a chance
Laptop for productivity - maybe


Love my Dell 2405FPW BTW.
 
yes if all they want to do is a little web surfing,email checking,instant messageing,and playing windows solitaire.
no if they like gameing. but then again dell xps systems are pretty nice
 
I just did recommend that someone buy a Dell, then I made the mistake of saying I would set it up for them... 3 BSODs later I have the system up and running properly using none of the original software on it other than the base Win XP installation.

Last time I recommend Dell...
 
I say Maybe Yes because it really is a gamble. I just ordered my Dell E510 and for about a couple weeks now, it is running like a charm and I HOPE it continues on for another couple years. Hense the 2 year warranty. Pop the X800GTO in tonight and it will be a gamer machine. But again, even in resellerratings and other sites, opinions are mixed with Dell systems. You just HOPE that your machine won't be the one that is messed up. :D
 
Here's why: My sister-in-law recently (a month ago) bought a new desktop from Dell. She purchased Norton anti-virus, 24 hour assistance plan, 21 inch LCD monitor, WinXP MCE, pretty much all of the bells and whistles (all from Dell). Her computer started giving her trouble almost immediately (personally, I think it was Norton but that's not why I would say not to get a Dell). She became locked out of her desktop. We tried to go through the BIOS page, but there was an administrator password. So, she called Dell. They wanted to charge her $35 for telephone assistance (apparently their 24 hour assistance is for online) and said that if she wanted help she should do it online. Of course, she couldn't get online. She asked for the admin password and they wouldn't give it to her for whatever reason. She asked for her OS disks (they didn't come with the comp) and they said that she didn't need them because all she needed was on her desktop--remember: she couldn't get to the desktop! After that, she asked me to call them, so I did (posing as her husband) and they did not want to help me. This computer wasn't a week old!! After I told them all I wanted was a return shipping label and a refund (I was very insistent), they were basically ready to do all we asked. When the disks (drivers and OS) came in, I reformatted the HD and installed only the drivers and OS (took all of Dell's custom setup out that I could. The computer works great now. It is really quite a machine. I just think Dell has gotten a little big for their breeches.
 
Server? Yes. Half the price of Sun, on average 20-30% less than other major manufacturers. Things fixed NOW when they need to be.
Workstation? Yes. Rant below.
Gaming Rig? No. Build it yourself and save money.
Cheapo-neato-web-browser? Yes. Like so many others have said, it's a disposable system.
Laptop? Maybe. I've seen good, and I've seen bad. For the price, they're decent machines.
Monitor? You can have my 2405FPW when you pull it from my cold, dead fingers. :)

I worked at a university supporting 3000 Dell and Gateway machines. (About 80% Dell). We always had three or four in the cube needing repairs, but it was mostly virus/spyware related. I can recall three specific instances where hardware failed - One hard drive failure (Maxtor 80GB SATA), one motherboard failure (busted capacitor), and catastropic PSU failure (took out mobo, proc, ram, and hdd). There may have been more, but that's what I dealt with. We purchased Optiplex's exclusively, and 1/1000 failure rate is perfectly acceptable in my book. Our contract had us talking to a US Dell rep inside 10 minutes, and new components overnighted, with a tech to install them, should we so choose.

The students also had a lot of Dells, the cheapo kind. ALWAYS being brought in with spyware. There was a few computers that just randomly died, mostly things-being-yoinked-out problems, or overheating from lack of cleaning, or soda stains telling the tale. The software normally died before the hardware did, though.

My vote? Depends on the circumstances.
 
See sig, I would recommend a Dell as long as you find one of the deals commonly posted at fatwallet.com/forums there is no one is this whole forum who could build a PC for the same price as mine that performs as well all around :)
 
Very doubtfull, when it comes to higher end machines (1300+) you will not get as good of a deal from deal compared to just buying the parts from newegg or one of the other cheap online stores. Dell charges 500 dollars for their name brand then give you 300 dollar rebates to make it look like they are giving u a good deal.
 
I am a network admin for a large company. We have several thoughsand users using dell's I will say for servers and workstations they cannot be beat for a home pc their warranty is well worth it . For a gaming rig hell no.
 
JFlo said:
Very doubtfull, when it comes to higher end machines (1300+) you will not get as good of a deal from deal compared to just buying the parts from newegg or one of the other cheap online stores. Dell charges 500 dollars for their name brand then give you 300 dollar rebates to make it look like they are giving u a good deal.
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Did you even look at my sig or are just spewing out a bunch of crap? Try to configure a system for even close to the price of mine that would outperform it in gaming, and the price I paid for it brand new is listed in my sig.
 
Uh...no.

I see people everywhere with Dell boxes, and most are unhappy with them within six months of purchase. And, yes, it's mainly due to spyware and or bloatware.

My corporate issue laptop is a Dell Inspiron. It's a bug-ridden POS, hardware wise. My only saving grace is our IT department, who are exceptionally good.

Dell monitors are pretty good, though. I'm typing on one now.

Low priced, but not necessarily worth it. No thanks. I'll configure and repair my own system and make my own mistakes.
 
For our small business, where we need cheap computers to just run several office programs, we really can't beat Dell's price anywhere else.

But if I'm going for anything better than that, say a low-end gaming machine (I want to get one for my siblings so they don't have to use my computer! :p) or anything more expensive than Dell's cheapest models, I'd prefer to build it myself/get it custom-built.
 
IMO unless you want to reinstall windows due to the excessive and seemingly unfixable to most bloatware, or you could spend A LOT of time trying to get rid of it

and they steal your money with crappy value, and it's not like customer service is good at all

General Crespin said:
For our small business, where we need cheap computers to just run several office programs, we really can't beat Dell's price anywhere else.

But if I'm going for anything better than that, say a low-end gaming machine (I want to get one for my siblings so they don't have to use my computer! :p) or anything more expensive than Dell's cheapest models, I'd prefer to build it myself/get it custom-built.
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yes i will be honest, for small/large businesses and such needs Dell does a good job - much better prices than competition and better service
 
I'm happy with the Dell's that I bought for the company I work at.

I do however build my images using a clean install of XP. I don't like the bloatware for performance and security reasons in the buisness place. Your going to get that with any name brand PC though so it doesnt matter which brand you go with.

For home / gaming I strictly endorse DIY. With the ammount of upgrades your going to need to consistently keep a PC playing new games for 2 - 4 years DIY is the best option.

Dell has had a big problem with bad capacitors in the GX-270 model though. If your running a GX-270 or GX-150 check your caps! I have had several of those models go down due to leaky caps.
 
I have had decent success with Dell. I set up a small office network using all Dell PCs with very little trouble. I frequently recommend Dell to my customers who are looking for decent priced systems. I don't have experience with their newer high-end computers.
Jeff
 
I bought a Dimension 4400 from them 4 years ago, and I still use it. Great machine, and if I didn't want to build a PC, I would definately buy from them.
 
ethos747474nikon8989 said:
.... I don't like the bloatware for performance and security reasons in the buisness place. Your going to get that with any name brand PC though so it doesnt matter which brand you go with.....
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no, you really dont get that much bloatware with other brands, sure you get added programs, but they can be easily removed and dont cause a ton of problems - they dont cause you to reinstall windows, not to mention dell doesn't include windows discs with the PCs so you need to go out and spend atleast 100 dollars bonus
 
Not worth the low cost. Extremely poor support, cheap quality proprietary components, and you better pray you never have to contact their customer service.
 
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