Question about Dell computers

[Whydoe]

I know the Dell line of systems is a good, but I've heard that the parts they use are specific to Dell. For example, they may have a name brand MB from say ASUS, but it is slightly different. This leads me to believe that it is harder to upgrade Dell computers with off the shelf components. Anyone have any input on this issue? I just don't want to get a whole new system knowing that it's going to be a pita to change hardware items.

[chasing23]

I know the Dell line of systems is a good, but I've heard that the parts they use are specific to Dell.

I have worked at the same company for the last five years now and they have been big believers in Dell. I think it has something to do with discounts. But I have seen five or six generations of Dells come through the door. Really they all look to be the standard setup. Though they from time to time might change things by adding an adapter so that say the cards can sit at a different angle. Depending on what you want to do I think you should be good for upgrading in the future. Adding graphics cards, network cards, turner cards, upgrading the processor and upgrading ram.

Do you have anything that you can nail down that you are concerned about upgrading?

[Ducky]

I have worked at the same company for the last five years now and they have been big believers in Dell. I think it has something to do with discounts. But I have seen five or six generations of Dells come through the door. Really they all look to be the standard setup. Though they from time to time might change things by adding an adapter so that say the cards can sit at a different angle. Depending on what you want to do I think you should be good for upgrading in the future. Adding graphics cards, network cards, turner cards, upgrading the processor and upgrading ram.

Do you have anything that you can nail down that you are concerned about upgrading?


I knew this would be a favorite corner of the forum for you, sir.

I have to agree with my colleague here. Dells are pretty standard and easy to upgrade for the most part.

[chasing23]

I knew this would be a favorite corner of the forum for you, sir.

When found in a new land one seeks that which is familiar in an effort to keep afloat while trying to assimulate.

For instance I have a dell GLX110 or such at home. In it I have the onboard NIC and four other NICs. The card cage is at a different angle then the board but there is an adapter that makes it work.

[Wudang]

The problem is that if something goes wrong you may be stuck with ordering new parts from dell which can be expensive. I'm perfectly happy with my Dell GX280 at work though.

[El Greco]

I had a Dell in the past and I've recently struggled with a HP. I don't remember much about the Dell which I didn't tinker with anyway, but the rule of thumb is never to get brand PCs unless you need the technical support. If you are not familiar with building your own, then a store will happily do it for you with the parts you'll select and for a fraction of the money you'd pay for a brand name. I don't know how Dells are today (and I don't have the slightest urge to find out) but my HP is a perfect example of how to make everything so different that the customer will depend on HP for upgrades.

[chasing23]

The problem is that if something goes wrong you may be stuck with ordering new parts from dell which can be expensive. I'm perfectly happy with my Dell GX280 at work though.

Though the reason that you would buy from Dell is that in a way it is hardware that is supposed to be tested and supported well. It is a lot like Apple in the sense that you need to pay a premium for that service. Most of the parts that you would replace in a Dell or an Apple you can get for cheap. The big concern that you have or that would be more expensive would be if the motherboard went bad. Then with a package like that you are just screwed anyways. Pull the good hardware out and add it to something else. Say if the hard drive in Dell goes bad you find a cheaper one at the local store to replace it. Same goes with memory, drives, cards, etc. The key is that if you go with something like Dell take advantage of the service plans. If something does go bad it is going to be the motherboard and I am willing to bet that it will go bad in a year if it does at all.

[Zep]

In the past, Dell have been guilty of building to a spec and ignoring the components. So one P4 2GHz with 512MB RAM and a 20GB HDD had a different mobo, RAM maker, and HDD supplier to another in the same batch. Because Dell was constantly getting the best price in parts. It made it hell trying to get replacement parts when they failed (and they did fairly frequently).

However more recently they have tended to "production line" the product - all the same model mobos, disks, cards, memory, etc, for a reasonably long "production run" of that model. And often models share many parts anyway. However the above issue still happens - Australian Dells, for example, are sourced directly from Singapore and are assembled on demand from order. So it's not unusual for newer, cheaper (usually bigger) HDDs, or bigger RAM SIMMs, to be installed standard that were not on the brochure model spec... So, with luck, your "standard" Dell will be way better spec than the "top-of-the-line" one your boss just snaffled for himself last week!

[alfaniner]

After a bad CD-ROM drive, two bad memory cards, and two different hard drive disc crashes in less than a year, I am seriously considering something other than DELL for my next one.

Although all the parts were replaced at no charge...

[jimlintott]

I've bought my last five or six computers from www.eskynet.com (http://www.eskynet.com) (I don't know what they are like in the U.S. but in Canada they are great.) Basically they are a la carte, you choose from a menu of components and they assemble and ship. I have ordered with and without OS. Either way they always burn in before shipping and send OEM discs with any OS ordered. They send all the boxes for every part along with all the discs , manuals and accessories. They never install crapware on the machine. The last machine I bought specs out slightly better than an XPS 600 from Dell and was cheaper.

I have often found that name brand computers fall short in some way or another you just don't really know what it is until you try something. I recently added a drive to friend's Gateway. I had to remove the floppy as there were no bays for an extra drive. Stuff like that bugs me.

[chulbert]

I don't know if they still do this but they have in the past. When I added additional RAM to my parents' years-old Dell a few months ago, I had to buy special memory.

[strathmeyer]

I know the Dell line of systems is a good

The Dell line of systems isn't good. They use the cheapest hardware they can find. Think of really old systems you've seen or old laptops. Were they Dells?

Also, their customer service is so bad that they recently discontinued their online forums because of how obvious it was they weren't answering people's questions.

If you're really concerned about upgrading, you should build your own computer. Figuring it out isn't too hard. The hardest part is matching up a CPU to motherboard, and you can even buy those together.

[chasing23]

The Dell line of systems isn't good. They use the cheapest hardware they can find. Think of really old systems you've seen or old laptops. Were they Dells?

I can say that I do have a couple of Dells that I would concider fairly old and they still work fine. I wish that they would die so that I could justify replacing them. Can they be really old? When did Dell start selling computers? Gateway does the same thing as Dell, of which you are correct, that for some of thier lines they find the cheapest hardware that they can find. That is one of the ways that they make a lot of sales. They cater to the people that don't want to pay as much for a computer that don't want to build their own. How they cut costs would be to buy in bulk for their parts and not always go with the best stuff. They provide reasonible hardware for what you get along with some support. If you want something for personal use and you want Quality then go take a look at Apple. Or HP, Toshiba, Fijitsu are good x86 brands. For just a package that will work that is inexpensive then feel free to use Dell especially if you take into concideration that you get what you pay for. As long as you think that through you should be fine.

[chasing23]

When I added additional RAM to my parents' years-old Dell a few months ago, I had to buy special memory.

Do you remember what kind of RAM it was? Were you able to pick it up at a local computer store or a site online?

[chasing23]

Don't get me wrong. I am not a Dell fanboy. Personally I end up building my own desktops and I carry a HP zd7000 CTO laptop. I think that once you have been working and exposed to computers enough there is a critical mass that you eventually hit where you start to understand the different uses for different computers. My wife's grandmother has a Dell. This is a really great example to go with. She was able to go on and pick her own package order it and have it shipped. I don't think that she paid too much for it but it is actually more hardware then what she needs. Now if she has questions she takes pride in resolving them herself. I know that she has called the technical support a couple of times and really seems to have found a computer independance through that. That is a niche that Dell has filled perfectly. Most new users fall into that same grouping and something like a Dell is perfectly fine.

Myself I rather have a Sunfire 6900.

[LordoftheLeftHand]

If you're really concerned about upgrading, you should build your own computer. Figuring it out isn't too hard. The hardest part is matching up a CPU to motherboard, and you can even buy those together.

I think that is the ideal solution. Unfortunately this is not an option for everyone :(

LLH

[moopet]

I fix a lot of Dells and don't see anything worse with them than with any other mainstream manufacturer. You can also buy from their "factory outlet" - which basically means "refurbished/unwanted presents" - and get a good deal.

[Hellbound]

Another thought, if you are in school or college (even correspondence or other non-traditional schooling), or are a government employee (civillian or military), you can get a discount from Dell through their EPP program. Many employers, particularly larger companies, may have agreements with Dell to offer discounts, as well.

Dell is not the top of the line, but they are a good computer for the price, especially consdiering the peripherals you get (printer, screen, etc).

And, contrary to what most others are saying, building your own is almost unilaterally going to cost more. I used to build my own, but it was far too expensive. Not even adding in the cost of my time to put it together, get everything installed, correct conflicts in drivers or software, etc. It used to be true that building your own was less expensive, but not anymore.

Also, when you add the price of an OS and your business software into your cost, building your own generally goes even higher in price. If you doubt this, check for yourself. Get specs on a Dell system, including everything it comes with. Then price what it would cost you to purchase the same componenets, similar case, power supply, software, peripherals, etc speperately, include shipping costs (or travel expense if you are going somewher to get it), and you're generally at least 10% higher than Dell's price. And you haven't even added in time. At my last job, we were able to get wholesale prices on parts, and even then I couldn't build my own system for less than Dell's price.

The Dells now use pretty much standard parts, off-the-shelf. The motherboards are made specifically for Dell, meaning you can't buy, say, a Dell GX280 board from anyone but Dell. However, they follow industry standards for spacing, form factor, connections, etc.

[Godmode]

I can't word this strongly enough. DO NOT BUY FROM DELL. It IS not worth the slightly cheaper price. It is false savings. Their technical support is a joke, their warrenty is an even bigger joke. Trying to get someone to actually come and fix anything is impossable. If you have good luck with Dell play the lottery that day!

I'm selling mine ASAP and getting an Alienware. It's less then 6 months old. I have bought the added "service" of in-home repairs. So far there has been a very loud unindentified noise that randomly comes from the computer... One of the dvd drives is so loud you can't use it to watch dvds on. It came with so much "shareware" installed I still haven't tracked it all down and gotten rid of it. No thanks. I will never deal with that company again. PS. In spite of the fact I bought the extra service pack, I have not had anything fixed on it yet. I don't expect to. Oh, also the printer I got from dell is useless. You have to individually feed in papers for it to print because it is so poorly designed it can't feed in the papers itself. NIce one!

[chasing23]

I'm selling mine ASAP and getting an Alienware. It's less then 6 months old. I have bought the added "service" of in-home repairs. So far there has been a very loud unindentified noise that randomly comes from the computer... One of the dvd drives is so loud you can't use it to watch dvds on. It came with so much "shareware" installed I still haven't tracked it all down and gotten rid of it. No thanks. I will never deal with that company again. PS. In spite of the fact I bought the extra service pack, I have not had anything fixed on it yet. I don't expect to. Oh, also the printer I got from dell is useless. You have to individually feed in papers for it to print because it is so poorly designed it can't feed in the papers itself. NIce one!

Maybe you just got a bag of lemons? I don't think that you can make such sweaping statements by just one package.

Why are you making the jump to Alienware? Are you a hard core gamer? From what I have seen it is a lot of power that you get with those.

[chasing23]

I fix a lot of Dells and don't see anything worse with them than with any other mainstream manufacturer.

What do you end up fixing on them most?

[chasing23]

Another thought, if you are in school or college (even correspondence or other non-traditional schooling), or are a government employee (civillian or military), you can get a discount from Dell through their EPP program. Many employers, particularly larger companies, may have agreements with Dell to offer discounts, as well.

Dell is not the top of the line, but they are a good computer for the price, especially consdiering the peripherals you get (printer, screen, etc).

And, contrary to what most others are saying, building your own is almost unilaterally going to cost more. I used to build my own, but it was far too expensive. Not even adding in the cost of my time to put it together, get everything installed, correct conflicts in drivers or software, etc. It used to be true that building your own was less expensive, but not anymore.

Also, when you add the price of an OS and your business software into your cost, building your own generally goes even higher in price. If you doubt this, check for yourself. Get specs on a Dell system, including everything it comes with. Then price what it would cost you to purchase the same componenets, similar case, power supply, software, peripherals, etc speperately, include shipping costs (or travel expense if you are going somewher to get it), and you're generally at least 10% higher than Dell's price. And you haven't even added in time. At my last job, we were able to get wholesale prices on parts, and even then I couldn't build my own system for less than Dell's price.

The Dells now use pretty much standard parts, off-the-shelf. The motherboards are made specifically for Dell, meaning you can't buy, say, a Dell GX280 board from anyone but Dell. However, they follow industry standards for spacing, form factor, connections, etc.

I agree with you here.

[Whydoe]

Thanks for all the info. I'm alway leary about low priced computers. Especially when they never give much info on what is inside them. Just the basic, 512 MB ram, slow as a snail 250 GB hard drive. I thought about builing my own because I do so many different things with the system I have now (games/music/midi/graphics) about everything but programming. And it's only a PIII 600!! With a graphics card with a broken fan. Nice. So, if I can get a decent brand name computer at a good price and not have low end products in it, that would be the best. I don't really care about customer service, as long as they honor a warranty, I can usually fix all the mess-ups I make with a system.
Although, all things being perfect, I would just get one of those sweat top o' the line Alienware systems.

[bruto]

I'm really sorry to hear all that bad news about Dell. My last couple of computers have been Dells, but the last, a laptop, was in 2002. I spent a lot of time on the Delltalk forums too for a while, and thought that was one of Dell's best bits of customer service. There were some very smart people there, and a very helpful community.

[jimlintott]

I went to the Dell web site and spec'ed a machine similar to the one I just purchased and I would have had to spend $1100 more at Dell. To be fair it would have included a bunch of stuff I didn't want but I couldn't seem to not take it. So scratch the 17 inch CRT and the keyboard, mouse and speakers. Maybe $300 in value. Take off maybe another $200 because the Dell had an extra gig of ram with a free offer and it is still about $600 more. Assuming that Dell is cheaper is a mistake.

Having said that if all I wanted was cheap little boxes and software for business or basic use then Dell has some good deals. I guess it depends on what you want.

ETA: Dell doesn't use AMD inside. Actually a major reason why I wouldn't buy them.

[LordoftheLeftHand]

Also, when you add the price of an OS and your business software into your cost, building your own generally goes even higher in price. If you doubt this, check for yourself. Get specs on a Dell system, including everything it comes with.

Who actually buys all that software?... Oh uh pretend I didn't say that...

LLH

[Godmode]

The problem with Dell isn't the computer itself. It's the service, or rather the LACK of. If you get lucky and have a trouble free computer, no worries. But if you have ANY kind of issue you will quickly wish you had never gone to Dell.
I never wanted a dell, but allowed my husband to talk me into it. I had read about lots of problems from people before hand about the very issues I'm having now. Now he's convinced and we can go ahead and do business with the company we should have from the start.

[moopet]

What do you end up fixing on them most?

Replacing CD drives and hard drives mostly. The stuff that fails usually on any PC. On laptops it's usually hard drive or screen.

Incidentally, two points:
Don't buy a Dell printer. Ever. They're just rebadged Lexmarks (poor quality cheap printers subsidised by the cost of the consumables, very expensive in the long run)
And Alienware are good, but they don't make their own stuff either. All their laptops are just Clevos with a glowing alien head stuck on the back, for example, with a price tag about 20% higher.

I'd buy a Dell if I needed a new PC because I'm getting lazy in my old age - if I could be bothered or if I wanted to play the latest games, I'd build my own :)