Calling All Computer Experts!

The company I work for exclusively buys Dell computers. They are not necessarily the cheapest or the best value, but what keeps us returning for more is the technical support packages that you get with Dell. Whenever something breaks, they usually want to try to help fix it over the phone, but if all attemps fail, they will ship out a new whatever with few questions asked.

On the other hand, I know enough about computers to build my own and I was able to save around 40% from what I would have bought a namebrand computer at. Of course my technical support connection is my brain and the internet.

 

Dell is awesome especially their tech support, back when I bought my Dell they included life-time phone support which I loved back when I used it. So you guys got a couple of top quality PCs but paid for them.

 

I too, work for a company that exclusively uses Dell's. Our company has about 20+ Dell's I deal with daily. In the 4 years I've been with the company the only thing I've ever had problems with was 1 video card and 1 cd-rom. Their tech support is really good and they also have an awesome message board system called DellTalk. Sign up as soon as you get your PC's up and running, you can get some quick responses to any questions you may have.

I own a Dell, it's an older OptiPlex and it kicks @ss!

My next new computer will most likely be a Dell.

The systems you purchased are great, I see both are running XP, be sure to get the latest security patches as soon as possible!

happy computin'
rH

 

Trying to brag, are we? j/k

Dells are pretty expensive, but the benefit is in technical support, and quality over other pre-fabs. And really, this is a pretty solid system.

Your biggest drawbacks are:

RDRAM -- Rambus RDRAM is pretty much on its way out, and it's more expensive than DDR Ram. Performance difference is debatable either way, but it looks like DDR has won this battle.

SB Live -- The "Live" rocks, but it's an older technology -- the new one is the Audigy -- although the Live is still awesome. Audigys are a fair amount more expensive.

Geforce 2 MX -- The Geforce 2 is the older Geforce (about a year old), and the MX is the low-end one. But the Geforce 2 MX is still a good video card, and unless you're running lots of very graphically intense games, you won't have any problems.

Windows XP Home Edition -- I just don't like Windows XP . . .

Intel -- AMD is better price and performance, but you can't get AMD from Dell.

Nice, solid computer. Oh, and your laptop kicks ass.

 

That is a very good point. That was probably the biggest reason I did not go back to dell for my recent computer purchase was because I wanted AMD. I went instead with a local brand which is like 10 minutes from my house and they offer life time labor on the computer so if anything goes wrong I can just drive it to them and they'll fix it for free, plus they'll upgrade it for just the price of the parts (no labor fees. )

 

RDRAM is better than DDR SDRAM. The reason that DDR is going to win is politics. Rambus screwed themselves and pissed everyone off when they decided to just make a bunch of very general patents on the technology.

 

RDRam vs. DDR Ram is a debatable thing -- personally, I hate Rambus (as does the rest of the computer industry), but while RDRam is an interesting alternative, it's VERY sensitive and "tweaky". And Rambus' shenanigans didn't help it at all in terms of acceptance. At this point it appears to be DOA, except for Dell systems, which will likely move over to the DDR platform soon, hopefully with the SiS chipset.

 

I've read that is debatable.

 

Elvis,

I am one of those exceptions to the rule, apparently. I bought a high-end dell almost 6 years ago, after great experience on an earlier purchase. The machine was pure cr*p, and kept rebooting. They could not fix it, failed to meet their 24 hour onsite guarantee, and refused a refund.

After several weeks, I determined that the video drivers were bad, the CD-ROM needed a BIOS patch, and the hard drive was failing. I had spent over $6,000, and have never felt the same about dell after my dell from hell.

 

How much did you pay for the laptop?