Does anyone have any negative comments to make about Dell computers? I've been using Tri-CAD computers custom built by Tri-Star. I'm looking for something dependable, without overspending. All serious recommendations are appreciated. Thanks.
Rocky
Does anyone have any negative comments to make about Dell computers? I've been using Tri-CAD computers custom built by Tri-Star. I'm looking for something dependable, without overspending. All serious recommendations are appreciated. Thanks.
Rocky
You might find a few comments on the newsgroup about Dell. The biggest drawback right now is simply that the fastest Dell's you can buy are quite a bit slower than state of the art and will quickly outlive their usefullness if and when 64 bit goes mainstream.
For example here is a recent posting by someone who acquired a fairly state of the art Dell for about $6,000 a piece and the response by an AMD64 equipped user at $4,500 a piece:
Dell Xeon Precision 670 single processor
3.6GHz Intel 4.0 gig RAM nVidia Quadro 4400 (256 meg RAM) PCI Express Western Digital SATA Raptor driveWindows XP pro SP2 SW2005 SP3 Ship in a bottle
33.19 sec with edges turned off34.22
34.75 35.75 sec with edges turned onand here is the response from another user:
You need an upgrade.
28 s18 s if I use fast setting in Image Properties.
We have equivalent hardware but for the CPU.
Dell's customer service sucks that's for sure. My last computer I bought was almost a Dell until the sales department put me on hold and went home. I'm not kidding. Then when I called a day later I had to wait and wait and wait so I sent them an email asking them to contact me because I wanted to give them my money.
I got a form letter email saying something like "Dell strives to provide the highest level of blah blah blah."
So I sent a second email to a different email address and guess what? I got the exact same form email response!
I bought a Eurocom ultimately
I also have a colleague who had nightmarish problems getting his Dell laptop fixed. It showed up with the CD drive non-functional. His first attempt at getting it fixed was an hour on the phone with some woman in India who had no idea how to help him, he finally gave up. It took a few days but after enough emails and phone calls someone from Dell fixed his computer. It shouldn't be that painful.
Many thanks for your insights. I also have a friend who recommended building my own computer, using 64-bit technology. It sounds like AMD will be a better choice for the processor.
Thanks again.
Do these guys above specialize in laptops only?
See an earlier thread called "Portable Workstations (laptops on steroids)" for a discussion about laptops. The Eurocom was by far the most expensive of the lot.
I think they only do laptops. I bought a D900T fully loaded with the Nvidia Quadro card they offer. As Matt said they are expensive but holy cow does that computer cook, it's really fast.
Like I said before, Eurocom's service was pretty good too. The computer is well built and the display is amazing.
I could have spent less buying from Dell but I also believe you typically get what you pay for. I'm still waiting for Dell to get back to me on my computer purchase!
Here is the reply from one of our IT guys after I forwarded this email to him.
Well, over all Dell does a good job. If you buy a Precision you can only get an nVidia 440 with 512 Mb memory (not 256). You could save $700 by choosing a 256 Mb nVidia 3400. If you are going to get 4 Gb RAM then get a 64 bit processor, that way you can actually access all the RAM.
I just priced a Dell with the specs listed below for $5000, I priced an identical system with Tri-star for over $6000? I guess you can save a bundle with an AMD.
Pros for Dell: Highly customizable High quality components Drivers for Windows XP 64 will work with Dell computers long before custom setups Cheap Descent support - 3 yr warranty included Dependable - 98% of our 40+ Precisions are still running great. 70% were bought over 4 yrs ago. Usually delivered in less than a week.
Cons for Dell: AMD not offered Tech support offshore
WT
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