What do People think of "Dell" Computers?

Third_Echelon

I have a Dell Inspiron 5150 laptop. Bought it about a year ago and i've had no real big issues with it.

I have a problem with my network card failing.. I couldn't be arsed sending it back, so i just bought a pcmcia net card. I only need network connectivity now and again, so its not a big issue for me...

I have to say its a great laptop. Its fast and reliable. Good resolution screen.

I would recommend Dell if you want a PC for general usage. Anyone who buys a dell for gaming needs their head examined to be honest.

As with all companies and services, you only hear about the bad points and stories.

tigerwex

i dont like dell for 1 reason thier adds say go on line and get a pc for 499 euro they fail to mention that all you get for that price is basically the main borad and the case you then choose memory graphics card monitor keybord mouse modem and when you are finished your pc will acually cost at least 1200 euro then in a year or so you cant upgrade anything at all and their after sale is a complete joke you even have to pay for that joke they should be reported to the addvertising standards

RicardoSmith

tigerwex wrote:

i dont like dell for 1 reason thier adds say go on line and get a pc for 499 euro they fail to mention that all you get for that price is basically the main borad and the case you then choose memory graphics card monitor keybord mouse modem and when you are finished your pc will acually cost at least 1200 euro then in a year or so you cant upgrade anything at all and their after sale is a complete joke you even have to pay for that joke they should be reported to the addvertising standards

I never know dell to sell anything other than complete systems. How did you manage to buy one with a bare motherboard and case, without any components?

petes

tigerwex wrote:

i dont like dell for 1 reason thier adds say go on line and get a pc for 499 euro they fail to mention that all you get for that price is basically the main borad and the case you then choose memory graphics card monitor keybord mouse modem and when you are finished your pc will acually cost at least 1200 euro then in a year or so you cant upgrade anything at all and their after sale is a complete joke you even have to pay for that joke they should be reported to the addvertising standards

you do get a pc for 499..its bare minimum..usually with celeron processors,integrated graphics, and 256 ram..you do get a monitor..keyboard and mouse...did you even look at buying one of theses..also only 1 year collect and return service(upgrade to 3 year costs a couple of hundred) do a bit more research next time...these pcs are for the absolute beginner..

ressem

If the Dell machines work as you expect when you receive them then they're decent enough.

They charge too much for customised memory and hard drive selections. For memory you're often better selecting the minimum and upgrading from your favourite memory supplier, as they charge almost twice as much as crucial.

There's often faults in a particular model, like touchpad and IR on the Insp4x00 screwing up, video/monitor on Insp8000, and of the Latitude C840s we got, 4 of 12 required replacement motherboards within a month.
I'd like to be able to buy a cheap 6 month onsite repair warranty for this purpose but...

Then you have their laptop power supply recall which they kept pretty quiet, no front page adds there.

So for business, I'd try to avoid their brand new stuff and buy stuff that's been through a few revisions.

They do build some of their high end server stuff well though.

RicardoSmith

I'd be interested who would you consider a better manufacturer, and what sort of numbers of PC's/Laptops have you dealt with?

ressem

Apple

For decent build quality at similar prices, for low-end servers and laptops, I've had fairly good luck with Asus.

We've a few dozen rack mounted Asus servers, only a small number of laptops though, and they've only made a small number of dumb manufacturing mistakes, like cooling fans being a bit too cheap.

They don't do onsite warranty in Ireland though so that rules them out for some business purposes, (we've a few expendable dev/test machines and hotswappable RAID drives and don't require 5 9's).

RicardoSmith

If you're that serious about Apple why did you buy ASUS???

Besides Apple have a lots of recalls and problems aswell, so they are no different either, even if you could switch to Mac/Unix for your business requirements.

ASUS
Decent build quality, similar prices, (dumb manufacturing mistakes - same as everyone else) and no onsite warranty in Ireland

Thats better???

ressem

Yes.
I've ended up expecting flaws in Dell laptops and desktops and have not yet been pleasantly surprised.

Reasons, that may be feeble to you:

"and no on-site warranty in Ireland"
Most of the machines I deal with go on to the UK so not an issue for me.
Most people buying for home will opt out of Dells on-site warranty so they're comparable.

"dumb manufacturing mistakes"
3 years dealing with them and biggest issue is a few fans that gave up the ghost and were replaced with a better variety without hassle + boxful of spares just in case.
Compared to some of the messing from Dell, to get for example a second processor or PERC module over several weeks, getting wrong parts yada yada. + the subset of dell issues I've already mentioned.


Standard parts, so I don't have to choose between overpriced, out of date. out of stock dell replacement part or breaking out the soldering iron to connect the power button to replacement motherboard's connector etc.

I'm not serious about Apple (see smiley).

I do dev work with a lot of proprietary binary libraries that ain't moving from win/lin x86. Till OS-X Apple were not an option at all.
But I do like the design and engineering attention to detail on the ones I've dealt with, and in a personal capacity would be willing to pay a premium for a quiet AMD 64 with internal case design like G3.

Some of the apples feel like a quality Dell 2650 server.

We buy Dells currently because after a while we qualified for the leasing agreement + good prices after you batter them down for a few days + 3 yr gold on-site warranty. The accountants get the final word. Aesthetics, build quality and a greater chance of failure are secondary.

My last personal PC was a desktop from Mesh UK, but while it's better than the Dells (sturdier shell, quiet, std. pts ), it wasn't really worth the cost due to strong sterling at the time.

ME Too: And I gave away a good Gateway P200 that's still running well in a heavy duty tower case that I still have twinges of regret about not keeping. No such issues about the Dell 233 with the ill fitting front panel which had to be pushed down to allow the On button to work.

omnicorp

We gave away our old Gateway too.
It was anice computer but after many years of faifful service and new parts it just couldn't keep up with the demands placed on it.
It had to go.

All said about Dell though, theya ren't as bad as IBM

abccormac

I've had my Dell 8400 3 or 4 weeks now, no problems at all with it, €1000 odd euro for 3Ghz p4 1 GB ram 160GB SATA hd, raseon x800se 128mb pci express, runs half life 2, Doom 3 perfectly. Great value and apart from slight hassles with delivery dates as mentioned above by several other posters I had no problems at all. If you root around on the website and cut out all yhe extras and expensive addons (ie get a crt instead of an lcd) you'll be grand

halkar

Does anyone know how does their online ordering system work? For most items, it says 3-5 days for delivery but when you order you don't even get order confirmation for 3 days. Ordered a monitor for over 800 yoyos, all I got was Internet reference number which does not work tracking. How stupid that is, from most sites I order I get delivered in few days but with Dell, nothing, no mail, no calls, nothing. Feck their online ordering, I will cancel and shop somewhere else. If ordering is like this I dare to face their support :mad:
Dell=Cr@p :mad:

RicardoSmith

ressem, interesting feedback, but I don't understand some of it...

What flaws have you seen on desktops & laptops that you haven't seen on other manufacturers. I've installed about 3000 of them and had about 20 failures. I thought thats was pretty good. Nothing that I haven't seen with other manufacturers either.

I don't understand why you'd buy machines in Ireland, to send to the UK, and then not use the waranty? Can you buy a Dell for home use without a warranty? You can choose not to extend the warranty, but not have no warranty. How do you know that most people choose to have no warranty? I find that hard to believe. Why would people want no warranty. Especially home users. You could understand a business with their own IT dept not to need a warranty. But in my experience even IT depts take advantage of the warranty and get Dell in to fix their own machines.

Whats a PERC module? I've never need to buy a 2nd processor, as we'd buy all the processors at the same time. Does it save you much time and money being them one at a time? 3 years and the only thing thats failed is a fan or two. Either you don't have many machines or 0% failure is astonishing for any equipment or machinery. All Dell parts other than the case and motherboard are standard. Even the PSU's are standard, just wired differently. So you must have a lot of failures of motherboards and cases. Why do you have solder the connection? I haven't seen a hardwired motherboard since 386's. Which models have hardwired motherboards?

Pity about Apple. I don't know of anywhere, and have had no experience of anywhere that uses them across an enterprise. Other than Microsoft which was a few years back. Love macs myself, but always need a PC. My last mac sat for years doing nothing. Still have one in a box somewhere.

Its interesting that your experience of Dell is that being inferior to other manufacturers especially in regard to quietness and build quality, since that generally where they score higher in most surveys you see. Its contary to my experience aswell. Its good to hear other people experiences though.

galwaydude18

halkar wrote:

Does anyone know how does their online ordering system work? For most items, it says 3-5 days for delivery but when you order you don't even get order confirmation for 3 days. Ordered a monitor for over 800 yoyos, all I got was Internet reference number which does not work tracking. How stupid that is, from most sites I order I get delivered in few days but with Dell, nothing, no mail, no calls, nothing. Feck their online ordering, I will cancel and shop somewhere else. If ordering is like this I dare to face their support :mad:
Dell=Cr@p :mad:

Ya i can vouch for that! theis customer support is absolute crap of the highest degree :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: !

RicardoSmith

I've never ordered off their website or used their telephone, email support, but all accounts its abysmal. Their Dell Talk forums are much better source of info.

While it may seem I'm a big fan of Dell, I actually only think they are ok for work, where you need what they offer. For myself I always build my own PC's, and would recommend that anyone who can, should. I was moaning about the Sony (I've a laptop) support somewhere else, but in actual fact I've found them ok since.

omnicorp

but you can't make a laptop by yourself very easily.

aidan_walsh

omnicorp wrote:

but you can't make a laptop by yourself very easily.

If you know what you're doing and where to get the right parts, yes you can.

secret_squirrel

RicardoSmith wrote:

How do you know that most people choose to have no warranty? .

I believe he was refering to onsite warranty

RicardoSmith wrote:

I've never need to buy a 2nd processor, as we'd buy all the processors at the same time. Does it save you much time and money being them one at a time?

Our company quite often buys boxes with a cpu or 2 less than its capacity - to give room for expansion and for other projects - happens more often on our unix kit though - the x86 market is a comodity one at this stage.

RicardoSmith wrote:

Even the PSU's are standard, just wired differently.

That would be nonstandard then.

RicardoSmith

secret_squirrel wrote:

I believe he was refering to onsite warranty
.

Yes but how does he know what the majority of people pick? Its an interesting statistic. Besides You'd have thought if you have a lot of people off site then you'd want onsite support no? As for home users, most won't really know what they need so who knows which way they jump.

secret_squirrel wrote:

Our company quite often buys boxes with a cpu or 2 less than its capacity - to give room for expansion and for other projects - happens more often on our unix kit though - the x86 market is a comodity one at this stage.
.

comodity one? You lost me on that.

How does not buying the extra CPU give you room for more projects. Its only another couple of hundred euros? Unless you are building nodes or a server farm of some sort.

secret_squirrel wrote:

That would be nonstandard then.

I meant in the sense of being forced into buying them from Dell. He already resolders connections to motherboards, you'd think changing the wires on the PSU connector would be an easier task.

secret_squirrel

RicardoSmith wrote:

comodity one?

Most analysts now refer to the x86 server market as a commodity market. ie if they break or need upgrading - its cheaper to buy a new one.

RicardoSmith wrote:

How does not buying the extra CPU give you room for more projects

Sheesh...the next project gets to buy the bits to expand the server. And no its generally a lot more than a few hundred euros - A few hundred euros is the commodity approach described above.

RicardoSmith

Ah analyst speak..makes perfect sense now. Leave upgrade path on server but don't upgrade it...

hairball

I personally have no probs at all with their machines...just their bloody delivery service...not good

omnicorp

I thought their delivery was quite good actualy.
Came right on time.

RicardoSmith

With all the stuff I've ordered over the years from places like OCUK, Komplett, Scan etc, I've had a lot of delivery problems. Seems to be par for the course.

hairball

yeh I reckon the courier guy just clocked off for the day

ZygOte

i think theyre ok as business/work computers , i would never ever ever (i cant stress this enough) buy one for home/personal use. there hardware is complete pants, they do abosolutly no R&D on theyre machines, the just get the cheapest componants possible together on one board. theyre servers are complete sh1te aswell

www.ihatedell.net

theres even a website for disgruntled employees!!!

p.s theyre printers are just rebadged Lexmarks and they will only accept "chipped" dell ink cartidges, what a pile................