Need Assistance from IT Professionals about Dell Workstations/Laptops

[Piano Man]

Hello,

I'm looking for some information from IT professionals that work in a company that currently uses Dell as their workstation/laptop manufacturer, or have in the past.

I'm currently doing a Lenovo vs. Dell research project for the CIO of the company I work for. I have experience with IBM, but lack the experience with Dell products, especially in a business environment.

If you can, please state the size of the company you work for, what brand you use (Dell or IBM) and the pros and cons of using such equipment. I guess things to look at would be build quality, part standardizations, tech support/warranty repair, built in software packages for recovery and such, security features, and price if you can.

Thanks so much. Appreciate any insight you guys and gals can give.

 

[JackBurton]

Ok, first let me make this clear, I HATE Dell junk. Just cheap crap with AWFUL support.

My first choice is HP for their great hardware, especially their notebook line and their AWESOME support. If you want some outstanding support, get a high level support contract with them and you're golden. And if you want even more specifics on their notebook line, the 6910p is GREAT for your majority of laptop users. Awesome laptop with enough power to satisfy just about anyone. It also has great battery life with the extended battery. And for the execs, they'll love the 2510p. Really light, powerful, and most importantly, great battery life (HP quoted me I believe 14-16hrs battery life for that unit).

IBM would be my second choice for a corporate environment. Super durable laptops, but no style. An IBM from 1980 looks the same as an IBM from 2007. They're ugly, but they do the job well. I haven't dealt with their support, but they've GOT to be better than Dell.

Dell is waaaaaaaaay down on my list. I just really can't stand them.


Edit: Oh sorry, company size was 2000+.

 

[JDMnAR1]

~11,000 Employees
~350 Servers
~9000 Machine Accounts

We use Dell almost exclusively, and because of our volume get excellent pricing and support. In fact, due to our committment to Dell hardware, they actually ship the workstations to us preloaded with one of several of our standard images.

Dell servers ship with OpenManage and a utility partition which will let you quickly rebuild the server to factory original should it be needed. Since parts are consistent within a server model, they also play nicely with imaging software like Ghost.

From a support standpoint, we rarely need it, but when we do it is top notch. Several of our techs are Dell certified so we can order parts directly without having to jump through hoops like for consumer support, and in the rare instance where we have required Dell to dispatch someone we have been pleased.

We used to be an HP shop, but we found Dell to be more attractive, in terms of pricing, parts availability and support. We still have some HP/Compaq stuff, and have purchased a few IBM systems, but in general we stick with Dell.

 

[bigpow]

50K+ employees worldwide

We got some Dell PC for the labs last year and I can say for sure, we WON'T get anymore Dell.

They keep dying one by one, bad mobo, bad RAM, etc. You get the picture.
Worst part is, when Dell found out we were running Linux on them, they stopped all supports.

They're also a pain to integrate, since they no longer have PS/2 key/mouse connectors - we had to change our KVM switches
The built-in VGA didn't play nicely with Linux, we had to add a cheap NVIDIA VGA to get it working at specific resolution/refresh

I personally own Dell notebooks (I'm poor), but I wouldn't even dare to suggest Dell to my boss.

Dude, you ARE NOT getting a Dell!

 

[Blain]

Originally posted by: JackBurton
Ok, first let me make this clear, I HATE Dell junk. Just cheap crap with AWFUL support.

"<a target=_blank class=ftalternatingbarlinklarge href="http://www.dell.com/content/topics/global.aspx/corp/pressoffice/en/2006/2006_05_09_rr_002?c=us&cs=04&l=en&s=bsd">Dell completed its acquisition of Alienware Corporation...

Alienware will maintain its own product development, marketing, sales, technical support and other operations as well as brand. The current management and founders of Alienware will continue to operate the company as a wholly owned subsidiary of Dell...</a>"