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Reason Not To Buy Dells

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jonwessel

Member
Joined
Jun 21, 2003
Location
Cincy! Go BENGALS!!
I have a dell, but not for long, here's why:


-Lack of Cooling

-Lack of name brand materials

-Locked BIOS

-Non Universal PSU, so upgradiabilty is limited

-No AMD

-Small speaker selection

-Only DELL monitors, THAT IS SOOOO DUMB

-And did I mention LACK OF NAME BRAND MATERIALS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
Well...not that I would buy a dell, but they aren't built for users to tweak with. They are made to be stable and to be able to do the basic job.

So...

-Lack of Cooling --as long as its cool enough so that it doesn't crash when it ships..

-Lack of name brand materials --probably stuff that they made themselves which probably improves stability since there would be less hardware conflicts.

-Locked BIOS -- not made for us to tweak

-Non Universal PSU, so upgradiabilty is limited --not made for us to change the parts

-No AMD --They should do AMD though...maybe for the cheaper line of PC's

-Small speaker selection -- no comment here

-Only DELL monitors, THAT IS SOOOO DUMB -- would it make sense for them to sell other ppl's monitors. Dell has pretty good monitors though, they use the trinitron tubes.

Dell has to support and put warrantees out on their pc's so they are working to get less returns and more profit. Letting us tweak the pc's would cause their support department quite a riot.
 
Also, Dell is a PC "lego blocks" builder just like every other major PC company. That buy parts and rebagde them dell. Do you really think they have a manufacturing plant that builds speakers, printers, and monitors. It is cheaper for them to let someone else build them then stick they name on it.

Most PC companies have been doing this for years. That is why I laugh so hard when people say stuff like, DELL is better the GATEWAY.

If they only new that both companies buy the EXACT same parts from many of the EXACT same manufactures then put them in different cases.
 
Cooling -- Joe Sixpack and Joe Suit want quiet.

Parts -- Dell uses other parts, rebadges them. Usually MSI or Transcend mobos. I know HP and Compaq would use specially designed ASUS boards, as well as MSI. As for HDD's, last I checked Dell was big into Seagate and WD stuff. CD drives used to be LiteOns. Vid cards are usually ATi or Nvidia.

Monitors -- Dell sells matching "Dell" monitors. These two are rebadged. I'm currently using an HP monitor, but it's a 20" Trinitron that looks sweet and is BUILT. Dell was also using Trinitron tubes as well for their higher end monitors.

Anyway, if you don't want a Dell monitor, any monitor will work.

Dell might consider selling AMD if they weren't getting such good deals from Intel...Intel would hate to lose such a big client such as Dell, so they make staying worth their while.

Dell's do what they're designed to do. But thats about it. When it comes to personality and tweakability, I'd much MUCH rather build my own box. Plus, you don't have to wiat to get the system to find out what parts were used!!!!
 
Dell monitors are Sony monitors, and Sony monitors are top notch. Dell does have a printer line now. They use Western Digital Hard Drives if I remember correctly. Their cooling looked good from playing around in a couple of dells to install some junk and the cases were professionally put together, sleek, and easy to work on. Their tech support is good. As for AMD, they would **** off Intel going to an AMD system and they don't really want to do that.

Dell is probably the best or at least one of the best OEM PC builders. I have worked on a number of dells and found them all to be a good computer to work on. I have a Dell laptop and love it. Just because you don't like some of Dell's features, that doesn't mean Dell is a bad company. Your an overclocker, no OEM is going to appeal to you anyways.
 
I used to really like dell pc's and notebooks up until I found out that their ultimate goal, just like microsoft, is world domination ;) ... that being said, dell actually makes pretty good business computers... at my last job i got to know one of their bay area sales reps (almost got a then top-of-the-line laptop with all accesories for $1400 til the wife told me "hell no"...) and he let me play around with a lot of their new laptops.... i also got to mess with the dell axiom 2 months before it was released... Their optiplex workstations and latitude notebooks were some of the easiest machines that i've supported so far... however these machines are definitely not the best ones to get if you wanna oc, upgrade, or mod the hell out of em... like i stated before, really good business pc, probably okay for "normal" pc users, and "hardcore" enthusiasts should leave 'em well enuff alone... oh yeah... their CRT monitors are cool if you get the trinitron ones, but the only thing that their LCD's have goin for them is their pretty cheap compared to other LCD's the same size (the image quality is kinda suspect for fast moving images)
 
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The reasons you listed are reasons for people like us to not buy Dells.

There are many reasons for a person who doesn't know much about computers to buy a dell:

-Easy to set up and use

-Built for a specific purpose, and tailored to the needs and most common desires of basic users (NOTE: users being non-technical people)

-Great support if a problem arises

-Actually quiet reliably built for the most part. Yes, they could be cooled better, but they seem to last.
 
Dell's are for people like my mother. She got one about a year ago and it is still running perfectly. I have reformatted my comp at least twice in that time frame due to fried mobos. The differences in me and her are that I like messing with my comp, upgrading etc. I know how to back up things using Ghost, and fix things. She knows where the power button is and is an expert with Office.

Oh yeah. If her Dell made 25% of the noise that mine makes she would have sent it back the day she got it.

Dell does serve a purpose for some (Mom) and custom comps serve a purpose for others (me and most of the other OC Members.

Finally, Dell makes some pretty good business machines as well. Where I work all of our desktops (100+), servers (4) and Laptops (?) are Dell. The only non Dell stuff in our Computer room is the RS6000 Boxes (2), the Oracle box, the Yugo sized UPS, The Cisco routers, switches, etc. and the backup battery bank. And this is only one of 20 buildings not counting our stores and HQ buildings.

Anyway, just my opinions.
 
A locked BIOS means that Dell saves money in not dealing with noobs that call up and say "I ****ed up my BIOS because I have no clue, and now there's smoke coming from my CPU. I want a new computer".

A Dell is a mass marketed consumer product meant specifically for the mass market. Overclocking is for people who like to tinker. Overclocking really isn't an absolute means to get more for less, since the time and money you end up spending on hardware ends up costing more than if you just went out and bought a better CPU or VCard.

All Dell parts are OEM from manufacturers like Seagate and Nvidia. What they do is have their engineers look at existing products and have them tweaked so that they're specifically made for the systems they're in, much like how Apple operates. If they were just name brand parts then you'd be an idiot to buy from them because you could just go out and buy the parts yourself and build it yourself. Dells run stable. That's the bottom line. The guy at the office that sits in front of a spread sheet 9 hours a day doesn't want to come home and have to fight with the water cooling system in his 30% overclocked electron migrating **** box. Only nerds like doing that.

Dell monitors = Sony but with Dell badges because matching periferals are in; eclectic periferals of all different shapes and colors are out.

Last time I saw the inside of a Dell they had custom venting inside their cases that drew cold air closer to the GPU and CPU.

I dunno...
 
Custome rig = almost limitless possibilities.
Dell = an economy car. Just barely enough to do the job (as long as it isn't too big or complicated).
 
manufactured computers aren't really known for using components that are able to be tweaked. They are for everyday users.

Most people who use computers are not hardcore tweakers. Dell, Gateway and the others make thier money by selling computers that people don't have to put together. People like my parents, who know nothing about computers, but wanna use it to surf the web, send emails and do basic computer tasks.

Tweaking enthusiasts usually buy thier own stuff so they know what it's capable of. It's like comparing apples and oranges. Dell doesn't advertise thier tweaking capabilities because they just build solid computers that run.

Besides, they are good computers. They run well or else they wouldn't be selling so many :)
 
Dell is far and away the best "normal" PC manufacturer. Everything they use is a name brand, you just aren't aware of what it is. Cases are typically Fung Kai, power supplies Delta, optical drive NEC or Lite-On, video card and motherboard MSI, sound cards Turtle Beach or Creative Labs, HDs WD or Seagate, monitors Sony, the list goes on and on.

Dells are NOT designed for the overclocker. If you want flexibility and tuning optiions you simply bought the wrong machine. No point in blaming Dell for the gaps in your understanding.
 
jonwessel said:
I have a dell, but not for long, here's why:


-Lack of Cooling

-Lack of name brand materials

-Locked BIOS

-Non Universal PSU, so upgradiabilty is limited

-No AMD

-Small speaker selection

-Only DELL monitors, THAT IS SOOOO DUMB

-And did I mention LACK OF NAME BRAND MATERIALS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

what is a good pc manufacture then?
 
Re: Re: Reason Not To Buy Dells

NoxioN said:


what is a good pc manufacture then?

IMHO the best quality is Voodoo PC. Falcon NW is also top notch. There is a staggering price gap between those 2 and the rest of the field though. If you think about the amount of time and care you put into building your own machines though its not suprising. The amount of hours I have spent on my own rig is crazy and to have to pay someone to do that well there is a big hunk of the price difference right there.
 
Splinter said:
Custome rig = almost limitless possibilities.
Dell = an economy car. Just barely enough to do the job (as long as it isn't too big or complicated).

Well, I wouldn't call a Dell dual Itanium SCSI system an economy car, just barely enough to do the job. I think Dell's one of the better manufacturers because they tend to be cheaper, offer excellent customer support and provide a lot of flexibility in putting together custom built PCs. They're basically for people with money and no time to mess around with wires.

IMHO Falcon NW, Alienware, Voodoo etc... are a big waste of money. From what I understand, for the most part these guys don't do any engineering of their own. They just buy parts and stick them together, which is no better than the guy around the corner who buys wholesale from a distributor and puts together "family" PCs.

Those outfits are for people who like point and click convenience and spending lots of money rather than spending the time to figure it out for themselves. Maybe it's worth it because you don't waste any time building and tweaking. Everything comes in a nice package ready to run.

Well, actually I think Alienware does engineer their own candy orange and lime green alienesk cases... whoopee...

I should add that Falcon NW is supposed to have really good 5 days a week, working hour, customer service. Apparently their tech support knows their systems backwards and forwards, and when you call you're not talking to someone who applied after seeing the "now hiring" in the Falcon NW window, after applying to the "now hiring sign" in the McDonald's window. All in all Falcon NW and Alienware are designer labels.
 
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