Would you recommend buying a Dell?

[Rune75]

If this was a poll for Dell laptops, I woulda voted deffinately yes. But for general desktops, depends...

 

[MTXR]

after constructing 2 DIYsystems i decided to purchase a Dell. It ran great.

All these people who talk about how they have the biggest failures blah blah blah stuff., must take into account that of course they will have the most failures. They are the biggest distributer of PCs.

If they ship more than the competition, (lets say a 1% failure rate as an example) compared to 1% of HP or whoever the number in general will be bigger for dell.

But after the dell system, i built a DIY system and no longer use the dell.

I recommend Dell systems to almost everyone except for the enthusiast.

 

[moetop]

For those interested, here is some good info about all the manufactures.
PCworld Manufacture survey

 

[icehokplyr]

For a laptop, I would say yes but for a home system, I have three words: NO!
Seriously though, I would never buy a Dell home system. Build your own. It's well worth it.

 

[icehokplyr]

Hopefully this might limit all the fuss and bad language against Dell going on. Just cast your vote without using bad/foul language against Dell here. We can see what majority thinks about Dell without arguing about this and that.

I love Dell. They showed me that building your own machine is the smartest thing you can do. No bad language here. "Thanks Dell" LOL

 

[James54321]

I also voted "may or may not" and agree with the general consensus:

Laptops = Yes (most of the time)
Desktops = No (most of the time)

The reason I don't give it a complete no is because for business use, Dells are just awesome. Our IT department has gone through three generations of Dells (over 250 machines each generation) and they've been great. B2B, there's no question that Dell is a solid company.

Personal use however... That's a different story. They have the typical outsourced tech support that will connect you to someone in India and with the exception of their ingenious case/hardware setup (really neat how they pack some of that stuff in and yet keep it standard), most of Dell's home systems are still priced to move (meaning cheaper, more integrated and proprietary).

That said, out of all the "name brand B&M computer companies," I’d have to say that Dell is the least proprietary (unlike Compaq and their hexagonal screw system and special HD mounting solution, ugh). Additionally, the majority of home service calls I've done are due to user-error and not hardware error. So if anything, Dell does build solid systems.

Ultimately, the best solution is almost always to build your own system, especially if you want scalability.

- James

 

[DamienThorn]

Depends. If you want to lease, then hell no! They expect EVERYTHING back, including all their useless one page pieces of paper. We got screwed out of a couple hundred bucks by Dell because a support technician said that the papers weren't "that important."

If you're a home user, and know absolutely nothing about computers, then dell is ok. They're not great, but there are far worse computers that are out there. If you're willing to build your own computer, you can usually built it cheaper, with better components, but have to deal with multiple warranty's, rather than just one.

 

[neo86]

I wouldn't recommend a Dell laptop. I admit I haven't used one. I just don't think I could recommend something so overpriced. I've seen quite a few people get one that was over-priced and underperforming compared to this Acer laptop I have. One guy didn't even get built-in wireless with his and it costed him $300 more than my trusty Acer.

 

[ELMO]

AHHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA....:tear:...
hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahah

Recommend a Dell...your a funny guy, for a second there, I thought you were serious.
Kinda like going to the gynocologist and talking every chick there into having an abortion... because they would save money and wouldn't have to go threw the trouble of childbirth.

 

[FlatLine84]

AHHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA....:tear:...
hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahah

Recommend a Dell...your a funny guy, for a second there, I thought you were serious.
Kinda like going to the gynocologist and talking every chick there into having an abortion... because they would save money and wouldn't have to go threw the trouble of childbirth.

That's not a very good analogy......

 

[icehokplyr]

AHHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA....:tear:...
hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahah

Recommend a Dell...your a funny guy, for a second there, I thought you were serious.
Kinda like going to the gynocologist and talking every chick there into having an abortion... because they would save money and wouldn't have to go threw the trouble of childbirth.

I don't get it.....

 

[neo86]

AHHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA....:tear:...
hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahah

Recommend a Dell...your a funny guy, for a second there, I thought you were serious.
Kinda like going to the gynocologist and talking every chick there into having an abortion... because they would save money and wouldn't have to go threw the trouble of childbirth.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! *tear*
Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha...

Recommend a Dell? You're a funny guy! For a second there I thought you were serious.
It's kind of like going to the gynocologist and talking every chick there into having an abortion because they would save money and wouldn't have to go through the trouble of childbirth.

Slightly fixed for spelling errors to make sense. I only bothered because this made sense. Although... Were you trying to disprove my point? In which case your post is very retarded since it supports my point. Nonetheless, at the same time it is even more retarded because you're comparing a machine to a human life. I don't think such a comparison is morally correct, and I'm pretty sure most sane people would agree. The point of having children is not a selfish one, but rather an unselfish one.

Like most people I don't really see the point of your post. I'm trying to rationalize it myself, but I don't think I've quite succeeded. Please explain further or lay off the sauce.

 

[magoo]

Please get back on track???? Dell monitors....Good, cheap, nice deals every once in a while, built well.
Dell desktops....POS, IMO (our office bought three, 2 suck,1 is very noisy,full of cheap components, but nice monitors.)
Home service people dont seem to understand ENGLISH.
2 cents.

 

[icehokplyr]

Please get back on track???? Dell monitors....Good, cheap, nice deals every once in a while, built well.
Dell desktops....POS, IMO (our office bought three, 2 suck,1 is very noisy,full of cheap components, but nice monitors.)
Home service people dont seem to understand ENGLISH.
2 cents.

The man brings up some good points here.

 

[stonedwaldo420]

One thing to remember about the Dell tech support is that if you want English, you pay for either an OptiPlex desktop or a Latitude laptop. Both of them have US ONLY TECH SUPPORT! And a lot of us can get significant discounts either through our workplace, or university. Dell does a great job working with large businesses and the education sector.

But anyway, Dell laptops a good value plus offer a really diverse selection, and if you can build your own system, GREAT! I build mine, and would never waste money on an OEM machine. But remember, 90% of the American public simply CAN’T build their own system. They wouldn’t even know what basic components go into building a computer, let alone be able to match things like RAM, CPU, and Graphics cards to a MOBO. For all of those folks out there, I have no problem recommending a Dell. For all of you ripping on Dell, what OEM would you recommend for the tech illiterate ?

Plus their engineering team really does put some effort into their systems. The airflow in the new OptiPlex GX280 BTX formfactor systems is really quite nice.
Even the consumer level Dimension desktop systems utilize a pretty expensive looking heatsink solution that has dual copper heat pipes and is vented directly out the back of the system, so as not to put any of the heat into the computer case. And they have really nice modular drive bays and everything is pretty accessible and easy to service.

Bottom line: if you can build it, nothing compares. If you can’t, dude, get a Dell!

BTW, you can probably tell I work in the tech department of a major state university that is 95% Dell (darn 5% Mac folks!!!).

 

[stonedwaldo420]

There is one thing I completely forgot to add!!!
There are a good number of game enthusiasts out there who are not hardware enthusiasts. IF they are unwilling to learn how to build a gaming machine themselves, I would have to recommend Alienware or Falcon Northwest, or some of those special game system builders. They are mad pricy, but offer wonderful things like AMD FX-57 processors and SLI. For the hardware gamer, those specialty builders beat Dell hands down (on everything but cost).
However, I still stand by my statements for occasional basic gamers, business only folks, and the VAST majority of the public that will never play an advanced 3D game on their computer.

 

[Crosshairs]

I vote maybe not, b/c someone told me that they use the cheapest possible parts and sell it at the highest price they can. And that's the reason people are mad, they're mad that their computer is crap, but they don't know the quality of the parts.

You voted based on what someone told you ?
Thats pretty bad, and not what the poll was intended for......

And Im pretty sure most business plans include buying for less than you sell for

 

[vsrdan]

You voted based on what someone told you ?
Thats pretty bad, and not what the poll was intended for......

Quite right!

 

[ufster8]

My father owns a dell inspiron p4-m 1.7 GHz,1 GB DDR266, it has slight problems with display other than that it's fine. I guess their high-end laptop line just makes the cut and lasts longer than lower priced ones.

 

[icehokplyr]

I think the bottom line is this: We all have above average experience knowledge to build our own machines. If we were like the average person who didn't know any better, we would buy a Dell too. Cheap Dell prices and special deals make people think they are getting a good computer. Our computers are just far more advanced and better. Your fathers can keep their Dell computers. I want better performance as well as all of you. That's why we are all here.

We all know the answer to this question.

 

[Chris_Morley]

AHHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA....:tear:...
hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahah

Recommend a Dell...your a funny guy, for a second there, I thought you were serious.
Kinda like going to the gynocologist and talking every chick there into having an abortion... because they would save money and wouldn't have to go threw the trouble of childbirth.

You think your HDD is faster because of your HDD cables?

Interesting.

 

[will5757]

i'd reccomend a dell for a web broswer.maybe a little light gaming (hl1..those sort of games\mods)

if you want something well built..get it custom done..even if you have to pay someone else to do it..

i don't know anything about dell laptops..i hear there good..

also..the reason dell monitors are good is because they aren't made by dell..they are made by someone else and stamed with teh dell name..which is fine by me..as long as it looks good

 

[Chris_Morley]

i'd reccomend a dell for a web broswer.maybe a little light gaming (hl1..those sort of games\mods)

if you want something well built..get it custom done..even if you have to pay someone else to do it..

i don't know anything about dell laptops..i hear there good..

also..the reason dell monitors are good is because they aren't made by dell..they are made by someone else and stamed with teh dell name..which is fine by me..as long as it looks good

Out of curiousity, why would a Dell not be able to handle "heavy" gaming as opposed to "light" gaming if you purchase it with the right hardware in it?

 

[Crosshairs]

I voted YES... I have a Dell SC420 Server.....It runs 24/7 ..and has been since new ( 4 months)...Not one problem.....not one reboot....
I paid a lot less for this that I could have even bought the parts for, so for me its a no brainer

 

[will5757]

i'm not saying it could..i'm sure some dell's could handle heavy gameing..

but if your going to put that much money into a machine you should get it done by a shop..

i'm not a fan of any pre-built...but it's a good way to buy a comp for someone who isn't going to use it for much more than light gaming.

if your going to buy a gaming machine..i don't think dell is where you should be looking..not because they won't preform well enough..but because they aren't easily upgradeable..which every gaming machine should be..

i'll stick with saying that if your building a gameing machine that you should get it custom built..or build it ourself

 

[towert7]

I do not like Dell's business approach, especially with laying off many US workers in exchange for much cheaper work in other countries at the expense of the customer. And obviously there are other problems, like their low priced computers being very cheap in terms of build quality, especially compared to cheap IBM's. Oh, and this Intel/Dell thing might not turn out good.... i'm waiting to find out what they find.

I would try to recommend other companies before dell.

 

[madmat]

For someone I don't like, yes otherwise, no...I'd build 'em a PC first (this applies to desktops).

 

[threeclaws]

They are who I exclusively recc. now.

After building a few dozen systems over the last 10yrs for family/friends I grew tired of the phone calls and wasting my time only to be unappreciated and uncompensated.

Now when someone calls asking me to build them a computer I point the to Dell, for one I can't beat their prices and two when they have a problem they can call Dell and deal with them.

I have a few Dell lappies/desktops/servers (sc400/420's) strewn throughout my family now and nobody has had any major problems that weren't a direct result of something they did, so until something does happen I will continue to recc. Dell with a smile on my face

 

[madmat]

I worked in an independent PC shop for a while, we loved Dell customers simply because Dell's were our main source of repair business followed closely by HP, Compaq and with a distant 4th Gateway.

The brand we saw the least that wasn't one we sold was eMachines and they were and likely still are one of the main sellers in that area. Go figure. Out of all the machines we serviced the ones we sold came in the least to our shop. All ours were built with retail mobo's, CPU's and ODD's, the HDD's and ram were OEM. I have to say that I didn't like the fact we used the cheap bundled in PSU's that came with the cases but fortunately they work ok for a low demand system and are actually about as good as anything the major OEM's use in their PC's.

 

[magoo]

This is an interesting thread. I agree with most everyone in some form or another (for what that's worth) The average person wants to have a computer that will allow them to go online and to order stuff from Lands End or Amazon... Their children need to google stuff for school and write papers, some want a big hard drive for video or picture albums. This stuff does not require an FX-57, a dual core, or an ATI 850 XTPE or 7800 GTX. Christ, Dell's new "game" site doesnt even offer a 6800 GT. Most people would get dizzy if they even considered spending over $750 on a computer (and they'd want a free printer and LCD monitor to boot!!) Dell has seen the promised land. It happens to be my mother and father who just want to send an email. It's YOUR mother and father who just want to send YOU an email. Most everyone DOESNT even know there are other choices!!!! Dell has positioned themselves to provide a product that most likely will appeal to everyone but people like us who are essentially the "gearheads" of the computer world. (no offense, only term I could think of) Henry Ford did the same thing,remember. Their goofy home support banks on the fact that the most complicated question they're gonna get is"I pushed the wrong button...." (I have no experience with their business product.) BUT, you know what. I have a small EMachine that runs like a champ and has since I plugged it in. I use it for all the stuff I talked about above. It is much better than the Dells I have at my office that my partner thought we should buy because they were cheaper. Well thats another story. Have a good day ....2cents.

 

[brionbastian]

I would never reccomend a Dell for home of business use, becuase I have seen an unbelievable number of their hard drive fail. They use mainly Maxtor drives, which are cheap but now reliable. One system at my workplace had two 80GB SATA HDDs fail within 2 weeks. It cost over $1600 to recover a $30 million proposal from the first bad drive, and would have cost that much again if they hadn't gotten a WD external HDD to back it up to when the second drive failed a week later. If you call that efficient for a business, then you live in a different world from me. I'd say for desktops, DIY or get someone who can. For laptops....... wow they have some killer deals sometimes, like now, but I wouldn't do it unless there was a really good reason. Overall, I vote definitely no.

 

[brom42]

One system at my workplace had two 80GB SATA HDDs fail within 2 weeks. It cost over $1600 to recover a $30 million proposal from the first bad drive, and would have cost that much again if they hadn't gotten a WD external HDD to back it up to when the second drive failed a week later

This isn't defending Dell, but you're telling me you were working on a $30 million proposal and you weren't backing it up?? Wow, thats simply amazing. So let me guess, you are now using the external hard drive and it is sitting in the same room. Guess what happens if there is a power surge or there is a fire? Kiss your original and backup goodbye. I would think that any company that is putting out multi-million dollar proposals would atleast have network storage for them and have off site backups. But I guess it is Dell's responsability to provide drives that never fail.

 

[brionbastian]

This isn't defending Dell, but you're telling me you were working on a $30 million proposal and you weren't backing it up?? Wow, thats simply amazing. So let me guess, you are now using the external hard drive and it is sitting in the same room. Guess what happens if there is a power surge or there is a fire? Kiss your original and backup goodbye. I would think that any company that is putting out multi-million dollar proposals would atleast have network storage for them and have off site backups. But I guess it is Dell's responsability to provide drives that never fail.

Nono, it wasn't MY system. I work in the IT support department there, and this was a professor's admin assistant's system. I would never be that dense, to not back up something like that. Now the backup drive is on a surge protector, on a separate circuit, as well as being backed up to DVD weekly. I don't control the university's IT department, and have no input on offsite backups or network storage, that's up to the main IT department.

 

[bob]

Well, it seems that everyone is firing off ramdom statistics, I will fire off one that is true.

about 37% of hardforum members recommend dells. (definatley yes + maybe yes).

I would recommend one, only in few cases. Dells very cheap $370 computers (monitor included) in which they advertise on tv, I would recommend those for someone who needs to play solitare, burn CDs, or internet.

Dell XPS... I laughed at those.

 

[zone_86]

Most of the models that Dell advertises on TV are not the $300.00 models - usually the 4700 dimension line which are much more respectable. They do more then just surf the net as was eluded to above by a poster. It's getting to the point that hardware forums just like this one has more mis-information then general tech forums with not nearly as many "gearheads'. After years in the business of higher end tech you start to come full circle and realize that noobs actually do hang out on places like [H] forums. Noobs can be people that have built 1-10 PC's and suddenly come to the conclusion that AMD or Intel, or ATI, or nVIDA sucks for some reason, or ...that a Dell XPS is only good for web surfing and gramps email-checking, and that they don't offer higher and video cards.

 

[Crosshairs]

They use mainly Maxtor drives, which are cheap .....One system at my workplace had two 80GB SATA HDDs fail within 2 weeks. It cost over $1600 to recover a $30 million proposal from the first bad drive, and would have cost that much again if they hadn't gotten a WD external HDD to back it up to when the second drive failed a week later.

I didnt know Dell made hard drives.......so you can hardly blame the failure on them..... I have MANY Maxtor drives that have been running for years, with no problem.....Maybe you have dirty power at your work place......

 

[brionbastian]

I didnt know Dell made hard drives.......so you can hardly blame the failure on them..... I have MANY Maxtor drives that have been running for years, with no problem.....Maybe you have dirty power at your work place......

Who said Dell made hard drives? I said that I had seen 2 of them die within the same week, which did not impress me with the quality of the drives. I didn't say they were garbage, I said they aren't the most reliable brand. In the time that I've seen about 5 Maxtors die, I've seen no Seagate or WD's die. I'm sure that's partly because there's more Maxtor's around than any other brand, but there's no way I'd ever put one in my system again while there's other brands available in the same price range.

 

[magoo]

Most of the models that Dell advertises on TV are not the $300.00 models - usually the 4700 dimension line which are much more respectable. They do more then just surf the net as was eluded to above by a poster. It's getting to the point that hardware forums just like this one has more mis-information then general tech forums with not nearly as many "gearheads'. After years in the business of higher end tech you start to come full circle and realize that noobs actually do hang out on places like [H] forums. Noobs can be people that have built 1-10 PC's and suddenly come to the conclusion that AMD or Intel, or ATI, or nVIDA sucks for some reason, or ...that a Dell XPS is only good for web surfing and gramps email-checking, and that they don't offer higher and video cards.

You flatter me. BUT.... I dont think you read the whole thing. I dont hate nVidia,ATI AMD or Intel (or anyone else for that matter) I wasnt speaking about the XPS set in specific,yet I was correct in saying there wasnt a high end card in the whole "gaming" section. You could imagine someone ordering their "gaming" computer from Dell only to find it wont run their favourite game on anything but medium and 800 x 600 res. That, for 1500$ would be a crime (that may be a bit harsh). I DO think Dell markets their BASIC computer to be just that....a web surfer and email device that can store and print pictures or duplicate CDs or DVDs. No, Im not "high-end tech" but I think I can sort out what Dell has to offer and what Velocity Micro or some other boutique gaming store has to offer. The problem is that most people dont know what else there is "out there" because they dont do the research. They watch advertising on TV and purchase what their friends have. The word SNOB comes to mind,sir. Im sorry I offended your high endedness. have a good day Do you work for Dell or something??? Having a bad day???

 

[threeclaws]

yet I was correct in saying there wasnt a high end card in the whole "gaming" section.:

256MB PCI Express™ x16 (DVI/VGA/TV-out) ATI Radeon™ X850 XT PE

Is this not a high end card? Because it is an available option on the XPS systems (probably some other systems as well.)

 

[magoo]

Woah, Im sorry??? I guess when I read the deal I was looking at the nVIDIA choices and not the ATI. I apologize to the Dell. That was not cool. Im not an ATI user so I definately overlooked it. Another knucklehead deal by magoo BUT in my own defense, I believe that the page first came up on Thursday this week??? The lead caption was "NO SISSIES ALLOWED"... which I see is gone. AND on that day,which was the last time I looked, the ATI 850 XT was not offered. The vanilla 6800 was the only choice at the time if I remember correctly. But Im still wrong now and I apologize.