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Are dell computers any good?

R

rover825lover

Member
My boss is thinking about buying a Dell i820 system with a pIII 1000 and 128 mb rambus memory.
Are Dells any good? (stability/performance)

Thanks,

Marco
 
Yes, they're good. You're probably not going to get a lot of response from this post. Most of the people here build their own.
 
If you have to pick a big glossy company, Dell is up there. Personally I would lean toward the micron, quantex, and microflex boxes, but mostly just because they are cheaper. If your boss has the cash to burn, and is more worried about support and a warranty, Dell is sure better than Compaq!

BTW if you want gloss, these guys take crap like a warranty and support into account when doing reviews...when looking at the speedmark scores just remember the performance differences between win2k, win 98 se, and winnt4.

http://www.pcworld.com/top400/article/chart/0,2078,18173+2+0,00.html
 
They're stable, and they generally work. They are a better choice than hp, compaq, gateway, or ibm for PCs anyway. They are very expensive, they are too loyal to intel, and you can't do much in the way of tweaking. As far as OEM PCs from multibillion dollar companies, they are the best, which is just because they usually don't have anything onboard.

As for getting your boss a 1Ghz machine with rdram, why? An i815 is faster even according to intel, and a business PC is fine with an i752 for video. Business hardly requires an $800 1Ghz P3, a $230 800Mhz P3 is more than enough. AMD is probably out of the question due to widespread ignorance in the commecial world.
 
Well, this particular machine is for high end cad modelling.
We have a program called "strucad" witch is a recource hog. The
program requires a pagefile of "at least" 600 mb. Projects can
measure up to 500 mb, most files smaller than 1-2 kb.
So the faster the better.
i think intel is dumping the i820 chipsets. the dell iam referring to costs $2200 .

 
Dell makes great machines, and has superb tech support, I work with a company that has over 60k Dells (Servers, desktops, and laptops).

Thorin
 
I don't know why everyone always throws in that Compaq sucks. Has anyone here even used the enterprise line of Compaq computers? Their servers are the best there is, period. When's the last time you called tech support at 3am in the morning for a bad redundant power supply (hence, not a real "emergency&quot😉 and got the part by 10am that morning? That is a turnaround time of less than 8 hours on a part replacement. The same goes for the Deskpro line of computers. Our computers (Compaq Deskpros) stay on for weeks straight with a few reboots in between and our failure rate is minimal.
 
Rogue is right..people put down Compaq because of their consumer line Presario's. I agree they are a POS, but for the ordinary home user (not any of us) they are ok, because they are easy to use. Compaq Servers cannot be beat or their Deskpro line's for corporate use.
 
They are good computers but their customer services SUCKS!!!!

I had a shouting match with one of their managers regarding a misconfigured computer they sent me in which they blamed the mistake on me (which was BS). When I tried to return it, they told me I would have to pay for shipping (even more BS). I just kept it and told them I would never buy from them again (it was a top of the line Pentium Pro for $3500 when it first came out). They said fine we don't want your business and hung up on me (bastards!)

My other friend who is a big Dell fan because he made over $1 million on their stock decided to buy his first PC from them 6 months ago because he did so well off their stock had a hell of a time from them too. He got the wrong computer with wrong software and everything. They wouldn't take it back and basically told him to get lost. Now he is suing them (good to be a Harvard lawyer I guess). Now he hates them.

My recommendation to you is if you are going to buy from one of the big PC companies you may want to buy one of their business models since their customer service departments are likely to treat you better in the event you have a problem.

I've bought from all the big PC companies, Gateway being the last since they were the first to offer a 1Ghz PC (Gateway also sucks by the way. Their customer service is a joke and their components are mostly proprietary). The best PC company in my view is Micron. Their tech support is excellent and their PCs are very good. I've quit buying from PC manufacturers. It's more fun to build your own and tech support is just a forum away.

BTW: Thorin, I'm sure Dell's tech support is excellent if you buy 60K PCs from them but for a little guy like me who might even buy their most expensive consumer PC, they still suck.

Thanks guys
 
"Rogue is right..people put down Compaq because of their consumer line Presario's. I agree they are a POS, but for the ordinary home user (not any of us) they are ok, because they are easy to use."

Yes you are right this is exactly why people slam them. Four of my friends work at the top Compaq support facility for North America and you should hear some of the crap about the Presario's, they aren't good for the average user even, their total POS. (ie: They recently found out that one model of WinModem used in them is seriously affected by interference from Halogen lights, 2.4GHz Cordless phones, and Microwaves, and now in total seriousness have to ask users if any of these things are located near their computers). Isn't that the first thing you always think of when your modem says it doesn't have a dial tone?

Thorin

 
Yeah, and that same modem is in use by many, many major computer manufacturers outside of just Compaq. I do support for them too and I know this first hand. I also know that the Athlon based Presarios use an OEM derivitive of the FIC SD-11 system board with integrated Firewire controller. Now, I don't know about you, but the FIC board isn't exactly the worst board they could put in the Presarios. The Presarios do have a ways to go though...
 
I have a Dell 4100 here at work. It works just fine, but don't look for any kind of amazing performance like that you could have with a custom system. I benchmarked my P3-733 system with a Geforce 256 in it and the benches are pathetic. My custom Athlon 700 at home with a G400 in easily toasts it in all categories.

amish
 
Intergraphs are nice machines for 3D stuff.. makesure you get teh Wildcat video card 4210 or the slightly slower 4110

Dells though make good machines.. we just got 3 dells in today.. I am yet to set them up.
 
I don't want this to become an Intel P3 vs. AMD Athlon threads (though I'm a frequent poster/zealot on 'em), but if you're about to do some CAD work, I'd steer clear of the 1ghz P3/128mb DRDRAM Dell rig for two reasons:

1. CAD programs require enormous amounts of FPU power, which any i820 system cannot deliver. A GHz-range Athlon or even more preferably a dual-CPU system would shine in comparison, and wouldn't cost much more.

2. You'll want a system with more RAM than 128MB for that kinda work. For the cost of 128mb DRDRAM you'll propably get 512MB or even more PC133 SDRAM, which is a much better choise, also performance-wise.
 
Dell and Micron are the best, IMO. The only thing I don't like about Dell is that they only use intel processors. I wouldn't really like a company if they only offered AMD processors, either. I think they should offer both. But yes, Dell's are very good.
 
One of my friends bought a Dell laptop about 3 months ago. The display died 3 days after it arrived. When he contacted their support they said the part was not available. After 4 weeks of nagging my friend just wanted to return it at that point and they wouldn't let him since it was past the return date at that point. About 3 weeks ago after comming back from vacation and still not having heard from them he said he would take it up with his company's legal department since it was purchased under the employee purchase program if they did not replace it immediately. They shipped out a new one that same day. A week and a half ago they finally called to say the part is in and offered to come out to fix it. The laptop was purchased with same day support.

The even scarrier thing is when he said the screen died they knew exactly what part was the problem.

After listening to him talk on the phone a lot with them and how unwilling they were to try and help, I would never purchase a Dell.
 
" Dell and Micron are the best, IMO "

I have not heard of anything about Micron for a long time. Are they still doing OK? I used to read about Micron's PC/laptop often.
 
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