Bought a Dell

[GeckoEcho421]

Dells are the most reliable pc's out. My parents have had 2 dells each for about 4 years and those things are no joke on 24 hours a day 7 days a week and they have only had 1 major problem and that was with the first one (failed psu).

 

[GeckoEcho421]

Oh yeah, the bios for a dell doesn't let you change anything at all.

 

[uchiha]

a majority of people dont have the time or opportunity to see the difference between a self build and a brand named pc. Its almost law for the brand names to cut down their costs as much as possible without lowering the performance noticeably. Many can live with that, but some see that building a rig themselves could be of a higher value. So the truth is, when paying for a dell computer, you are paying for the label, and their expenses, and whatever is left over goes into the computer. So if you think rationally, building your own rig will give you more total satisfaction for the price tag. You feel like you are in control, which is what most of us want. When something goes wrong, you know exactly what to do. You know exactly what it will cost. Sure you are protected by dell's warranty, but you will be getting in return what has already caused you the aggravation.

ex-dell user

 

[uchiha]

Oh yeah, the bios for a dell doesn't let you change anything at all.

I hear that. after working on my friends dell laptop, it took half an hour to figure out how to change the boot sequence. Apparantly dell doesnt want you to wipe out the traces of "dell" that are in the pc software, like reformatting. Thats why they force you to use their reinstallation dvd, and make the drivers hard to obtain on the resource cd.

 

[4W4K3]

Dell's are fine for the average computer user, as long as they don't expect too much lol. people here think they are "bad" becasue...

1. no overclocking
2. almost no compatibility with other brands
3. upgrades from DELL only, 80% of the time
4. look like crap
5. support/help is sketchy
6. simply not fast enough unless you spend upwards of $3K, buolding your own system would be hundreds chaeper and performance would be miles more after tweaking.

i JUST sold my DELL Inspiron 8100 laptop for $100 in cash a few hours ago figured the digital camera i;m getting with the money would be more useful...

 

[wkbl52]

It seems to me if I never want to OC or make any major upgrades, I made the right decision.

I also did a little playing around on newegg and couldn't beat the price. I don't even know if the parts I picked out would work together for sure. Just try to match mine. I'm not the greatest with computers and probably never will be.

I don't aggree with the people who call Dell's junk. They may not be as upgradable, and you may not have the freedom to do what you want with them, but that doesn't make them junk. I've had my 8200 for almost 3yrs and have not had one problem with it. My mom, brother, and my dad also have Dells. They have not had one problem with any of theirs either.

It also seems to me that when you start making major upgrades you usually spend well over half what a new computer would cost.
At least in the price range that mine was in. For someone in my shoes the best bet may be to just buy another computer rather than spend around $700 upgrading when you could buy new for a $1000. You also end up with two that way. Most likely when you get it, it will be fine, and you will be up and running in no time.

A lot of people on here do this as more of a hobby. I don't, and I think that is the case with most people that buy a Dell, Gateway, or whatever. I get the feeling that people think you screwed up just because you bought a name brand computer. When someone doesn't know much about computers I think that is probably the best route for them to take.

Just my opinion.

As long as mine gets the job done, I'm happy.

 

[philo67]

I just priced aan amd64 3400 cpu

Asus K8V-SE Deluxe Socket 754 Athlon 64 K8T800 Marvell GBLAN Motherboard [add $91.89]

Atlas Precision Brand - 512MB PC3200 DDR [add $94.50]

Maxtor 6Y160M0 160GB Serial ATA 7200rpm 8MB Hard Drive [add $114.08]

Microsoft Windows XP Home [add $109.00]

LITEON - 52X32 COMBO CDRW / DVD [add $51.59]

ATX 420w Mid-Tower w/Front USB (Beige) [add $25.25]

80mm Case Fan [add $9.50]

Upgraded CPU Fan/Heatsink (70mm) [add $19.20]

Integrated 6 Channel Audio

Kinyo PS230 Speakers [add $9.00]

Basic 101 Keyboard [add $8.75]

Microsoft Optical Mouse w/Scroll Wheel [add $9.00]

Generic 56k Modem [add $19.75]

Barebones Kit w/ AMD Athlon 64 3200

Price (w/ Selected Options): 826.51$

that leaves 150 for radeon 9800 pro 128mg 150$ on pricewatch

i think that might be a good comparison

 

[4W4K3]

As long as mine gets the job done, I'm happy.

great advice. i couldn't agree more. no use getting the best of the best, when you don't want/need it. if it's not a hobby/passion, and it's not really all that important to you....no use going through all the trouble of building, tweaking, troubleshooting yuor own setup.

only reason i do all that is because i have lots of free time, i enjoy it, and i learn alot about technology from it. i think computers are my future really, with all the stuff i've learned over the years.

 

[GageMW]

Dells, HPs,Sonys they're all the same, except for compaq which is 10x worse and there is no reason to get one, if you have little money, unless you're stupid and/or extremely clumsy build your own, if you have lots, again build your own or go with custom made like alienware or falcon-nw, and forget the warranty **** most of newegg's parts have at least a 1 year warranty thru them or manufacturer. + you cannot do shit with HPs or Dells, i would know as im sitting on one now. No bios change, annoying HP spyware/software,shit OCing bad drivers SHITTY proprietary parts... thie list goes on, DONT BUY COMPAQ EVER, same with hp and dell and sony and emachine and.... you get the point

 

[GageMW]

agreed on the getting job done, but which is worth more? the time to build a custom pc or the money to buy a dell and then twice the time it would take to make custom dealing with tech support like this: http://www.illwillpress.com/tech.html