dells

[zodder]

Sounds good to me, mech!

To those that say that all Dells suck, that's just ignorant. For who their target market is, they serve their purpose and they do it very well.

 

[MrChad]

I would not hesitate recommending a Dell. Back in 1998 I bought a Dell XPS R400 (Pentium II 400 MHz) and was able to upgrade (over the course of three years):

1. The video card
2. The sound card
3. The DVD drive
4. The RAM
5. The hard drive

I was also able to add

1. A Voodoo2 card
2. A CD-RW drive

There is something to be said for buying a pre-built Dell, and getting the service and support that comes with it. With some of the Hot Deals, it can also be more cost effective than building it yourself. Pre-built computers aren't for everyone, and for many of the power users that frequent these forums, Dells are not adequate. With a Dell you get an inexpensive computer with a number of quality parts and good service and support. You sacrifice full control over the parts that are included and some upgradeability options.

 

[blazerazor]

Ive had to dremel up a gateway case to fit a 350 watt ps, the one that came out was like 250watts if i recall. Been working for over a year.

The one gateway wanted to replace was like ~$70, and I put in a ~$20 dealsonic.com PS unit.

 

[globring]

The first PC I purchased was a Dell XPS R450. I don't use it much anymore, but it still works perfectly well when I fire it up. My current PC is a Dell 8100, and it has worked great since day 1. The hard drive started making some funny noises one day, and I called Support. They shipped a new HD to me right away no questions asked. I've upgraded the RAM and the video card with no trouble.

Everyone is going to have different experiences. Mine have been nothing but good.

 

[Markfw]

And one more wonderful thing that Dell and some others do. Have two memory slots, and they are both filled with 64 or 128 meg chips, so in that case the only way to upgrade is to start from scratch ! Laptops are also famous for this.

 

[bluemax]

No, no, no.... E-Machines suck! Dell is merely a decent computer.

Not spectacular, but certainly not "bad".

I owned one and changed just about everything inside except the processor and mobo. Overall I consider it a positive experience.

 

[gsellis]

I have two Dells that I bought and ran. They still run (7 yrs/5 yrs later). My mom has one, because they do tech support over the phone and send parts (I don't like doing either without hands on.) I bought two just recently because the hot SB deal with monitor was about $175 cheaper (each) than the Barton 2500+'s I was going to put together AND I got free throw-away 2MB digital cams (shoot, a free USB cable - nobody wants to send cables anymore.) The parts have always been good. Never saw a motherboard from them with a patch on it.

If you want to complain about proprietary, look somewhere else in Texas.