Dell Computers - who would?

buy a gateway, they're honestly better than dell, pricing, design, equal in speed, and they give credit lines too.

I buy Dell for one reason, next business day on site service for desktops/laptops and 4 hour servicing for servers. I could care less if there's a malfunction since I know they have replacements parts on standby.
WG

Dells are neither terrific nor overly horrible... their lcd monitors are usually top notch (though their new 24" LCD really disappointed me in terms of image quality vs. price), and their customer service isn't half-bad either considering the competence level of outsourced techies. Most of their computers are a pain in the ass to upgrade (though are a fucking peach compared to the gateways of old) though dells are fairly cheap so that may not be a much of an issue to upgrade.

I?ll always be a fan of whiteboxed computers (i.e. diy) but if you don?t want the hassle from having to build multiple computers, it may save you some headaches just by going with dell. Keep in mind though that whatever choice you go with, you can always get a better deal by diy. An almost top-of-the-line computer (w/o monitor) will cost you about $1500 [E6600 Core 2-Duo, 1x 7900GTX, 2GB DDR2, etc] if you diy, where-as you?ll have to pay a thousand more minimum by going with a dell.

If you do decide to go with a newer diy project, rather than a dell, I would recommend waiting for a true SLI mobo for the new Core 2-Duo, preferably the mobos w/intel nvidia nforce 590 sli chipset. My reasoning on that is you can save some money now and still have a kickass computer in the future. You buy 1x 7900GTX video card now, then down the line when your computer starts getting its ass kicked, by an additional 7900GTX for around $200 and put them in SLI mode, giving you a 30-40% performance increase with no additional hardware needed to buy.

It?s all up to you I guess? if you want something quick and easy, something that you can recover if something happens with just a recovery CD, I would probably go with a dell though I would probably wait just a bit until Vista comes out so you get a ?free? copy of vista with the dell. I personally wouldn?t, just because I enjoy assembling puters and stressing them to their limits. Most dells don?t have a whole lot of room for overclocking because of their case designs? which is very shitty for me.

I am pondering the 24" ultraview, what do you not like about it?

All the computers I have bought in the last 7 years have been dells and I have never had a serious problem.

The laptop I'm on now I had an issue with.. called support, sent it out, had it back in a week with a new motherboard and haven't had a problem since.

Basically it's price-to-image quality. Dell's monitors have always looked good w/o a premium price, but this time it's neither spectacular looking when you consider its image quality to price ratio. It costs around $700 to $800 dollars; if it was at least $100 cheaper I would probably recommend it, but as it currently stands I'd have to go with a Samsung 244T. It has better image quality and is only around $50.00 more than the Dell.

You had to send them your Dell laptop for servicing? Or was the laptop not Dell?
WG

It was a dell laptop that I bought, spilled water on it and fried the motherboard. They fixed it no questions asked

fuck dell, go custom!

All our new laptops are dells, they have an excellent leasing program and my CTO loves to deal with them.

DH

Yeah, but waiting the one week to replace/fix the laptop is what bothers me, their servicing is supposed to be onsite so I'm wondering why you had to ship it? Unless you didn't get onsite servicing in your warranty?
WG

I didn't opt for the onsite service with the laptop. With the desktops we bought, yes but not with the laptop becuase at the time my desktop was my main computer

I have 7. nuff said.

It is ONLY onsite, if you pay for that upgrade.
And its not cheap

Yeah, I usually get the completecare onsite, I didn't realize they had warranties that didn't have onsite, I thought they were all onsite. My bad. Thanks.
WG

I have several dells and haven't had any problems with them yet.

I build my own computers.. Wouldn't have it any other way.

custom built desktops, but my dell laptop is great.

Picked up a fully upgraded inspiron 9400 for $700 US inc. shipping, only 6 months old.

I would not hesitant to buy another dell.

Worked on many dells, all different configs. Did some heavy-duty work for extended period of time on a few dell laptops, never had any real problems. For good machines and services add up to a good amount. Also built a few out of whitebox which would give a saving advantage in comparing to the same dell configs. Also came across sony vaio and some toshiba once, recent hp laptops - all left good impression too.

Back on subject, dells are good if not great just customise it how you want it.

So are you saying that they are so shitty that just one won't do the job, you need seven of them?

BTW: Dell didn't make the batteries, Sony did. So this thread is pointless.

We run 6 computers, 4 HP's and 2 Dell's, we prefer the Dell's

Dell has amazing service. You can also find some good deals here:
http://outlet.us.dell.com/

cheers,
Luke

Dell is great for servers and enterprise but for office productivity and any aspect of web or internet development, you simply can't beat Apple.

I bought my first dell laptop this year.. other that i HATED dealing with thier sales support the laptop itself has been great.