Dell=teh Suck? Or not (discussion)

Have to buy new PC

I am in the uk I would recommed staying way clear of Dell as an example Holtnetwork my computer support company in Liverpool would charge £17 for 512mb RAM Dell would charge £58.00 this is just one example of how they make their money so in a nutshell a basic system offer for £299 which does not have enough ram, hdd space my need a slight upgrade is going to cost you the earth to use dell components.

Have to buy new PC

I would have to agree about Dell... Dell is a fairly good pc,But if you want any kind of teck support then forget it. I work on allot of different PC'S and for the amount of money you can spend I would consider buying a refurbished pc..
they are real good and you can get almost a new one for half the cost.
Check out this site:computer parts, computer hardware, laptop computers, desktop computers - Geeks.com
also you might want to look on ebay,I have bought some real good computer for cheap from there..

Have to buy new PC

Ghostman 1 said:

I would have to agree about Dell... Dell is a fairly good pc,But if you want any kind of teck support then forget it. I work on allot of different PC'S and for the amount of money you can spend I would consider buying a refurbished pc..
they are real good and you can get almost a new one for half the cost.
Check out this site:computer parts, computer hardware, laptop computers, desktop computers - Geeks.com
also you might want to look on ebay,I have bought some real good computer for cheap from there..

Click to expand...

Just picked up on this thread and its references to Dell PCs. A friend from work is thinking of buying one, having seen the TV adds and general media exposure and been attracted by their prices. Could someone please outline the drawbacks of Dell from an upgrading perspective, and of course, any positive advantages other than the seemingly reasonable price tags?

Cheers,

Dave.

Have to buy new PC

I hear the tech support isn't all that great, and some of their systems have extra programs on them that the end-user may not necessarily want. My dad's work has used Dells, and there's never been an issue with them. One thing you would want to make sure of is that there's a PCIe x16 slot in there. In the past, AGP slots were frequently absent from bargin boxes. While I see that as less of an issue given the more universal nature of PCIe, that's one thing you really want to verify as being available.

We use Dells almost exlusively at work (HP is creeping in now). Tech support is fine if the PC fails one of the tests on the diagnostic disk, you phone up and an engineer or new part will arive the next day, but if there's a problem that you know and the PC passes all the tests then you've generally got a rough time on the phone.

It has not been unknown for a Dell tech to replace a mobo when the bios battery was low as it's easier to find the part No of the mobo.:rolleyes:

Dell PCs are fine if you're just after a PC, but don't look to do major upgrades with it later.

DavidNW said:

Just picked up on this thread and its references to Dell PCs. A friend from work is thinking of buying one, having seen the TV adds and general media exposure and been attracted by their prices. Could someone please outline the drawbacks of Dell from an upgrading perspective, and of course, any positive advantages other than the seemingly reasonable price tags?

Click to expand...

If your warranty is over and your PSU is blown up. The next and only thing you can do is call the Dell to send you a new PSU because a standard PSU doesnt fits on it. Which will cost you double the cost of a standard good PSU. I dont have that much money to spend so I've bought a second hand PSU(standard one) and its hanging outside of my CPU. It doesnt fits inside. Due to these reasons I would never like to go with Dell again.:swear:

name Dell are ok and good until you have a problem, if you need a new mobo its cheaper to buy a new case PSU and mobo and move everything to your new case, Dell are very good for a new system but if your mobo fails dell would probably charge you £150 for a new one, and for £150 you can buy a new case (£20 - £30) PSU (£30 - £50) and mobo (£40 - £100)

P.S. new cases usually come with PSU, replace it if its crap

I am no share holder but -
My experience with Dell was good.
I think they make good, reasonably priced computers made from OK components. In the five years I had my system and also looked after a freinds PC, I hade no HW failure of any kind so I did not need any assisstance.
However, I found them to be very unhelpful when it comes to upgrading, using third party components.
They will not disclose any information regarding the insides of the machine and at the time, with my limited knowledge, this was a let down.

Personally I will not buy Dell for one reason only – I like to know exactly what is in my box as in choosing the right components. And, I do not want to worry about voiding the warranty every time I want to add something. Other than that IMO if all you do is turn the PC on, work and then turn it off, Dell make solid systems, offering good value for money.
They have good after sale care packages again, aimed at people who are not particularly interested at opening the hood and tinckering.

Again, just based on my own five year experience with them.
Both the Dells I looked after are still serving happy users with the same set-up. I use Dells every day at work and they have never let me down before. This includes desktops and laptops. They are very easy to understand (HW wise) and maintain. Sorry... hardware wise I cannot fault them.

sabashuali said:

They have good after sale care packages again, aimed at people who are not particularly interested at opening the hood and tinckering.

Click to expand...

well that makes me not choose a Dell, cos i love messing and tinkering, my pc would probably better and be more reliable if i didnt keep messing with stuff,

but wheres the fun in that

I've ben seriously considering Dell laptops for when I go to university, I'll probably be able to get a Core Duo Laptop with like 80GB HDD, 1GB RAM etc etc for like £600 (I've looked on there currently and you can get them for near that)

Matt555, I have a Dell Inspiron 6000, which I got last fall for university and I must say I was very pleased (and still am, I'm typing this post on it right now! :D) with it.

Dell products are good for people who want an OEM machine. If you want to customize your PC or make a high-end rig, forget buying anything OEM, you'll just get frustrated with propriatary components (I couldn't install my copy of WinXP Pro on my laptop when I got it, because they didn't include the drivers / apps on a CD for me to use. Apparently you have to call in to have them send it to you. I never bothered, just copied the drivers that are backed up on a partition of the drive, done my Dell at the factory).

I would never buy a desktop from Dell for myself, because the only reason I'd own a desktop would be for gaming / media editing / serving and I much rather build a machine for those purposes. I highly recommend Dell machines to my clients (I run a small IT consulting business in PEI, Canada) because their customer service is great, in my experience, and their prices are very competitive. Hard to beat Dell when it comes to a simple, inexpensive PC for paperwork, browsing the net and general usage.

That's my opinion on the matter, at any rate.

That's cool, yeah the reason I've been considering them for laptops is I don't intend to customise them, plus I won't have much money and with any other manufacturer offering those specs you're looking at like £1000+ I won't have the kind of money, £700 would be like my maximum so Dell for money seem the best option, but hey I won't be gettting it for a couple of months so things may change, who knows!