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Reliability of Dell pre-built vs home-built
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bamacre
Lifer
I've built plenty of systems, I still just upgraded to a Dell, of course I added a video card and some more ram. But for the price, it couldn't NOT go with the Dell.
I paid 399.xx shipped for a 9100 with a Pentium 630, 1GB of ram, dual dvd, 80GB sata, win MCE. I added another GB of ram, and replaced the x300 se with a 256MB GTX. My total cost was 920 after selling off the x300. So, for less than a grand, I have a gaming system that is quiet, has 2GB of ram, and a 256MB GTX. No way in hell I could have built it for less.
I can agree with the OP to some point but to some point only. The rest, unfortunately, I have to disagree. I, for one, had worked in the same environment as markfw900. I dealt with 1000s of Dell computers and here is an example of questionable Dell quality: We once got a shipment of 100 new dell computers that we carefull disassembled from the box and stacked neatly before use. You must understand that for our purpose, we do not use the XP home that comes from the factory. We then hook these computer up to our 16-points rigging center. At this point, at least two PC does not bootup. Brand new Dell PC. By our own testing department, we were recommended to update the BIOS to the most recent ones because the ones that comes with from the factory was proven either unstable or came with significant error to it that would hinder our building process. We then cleanup the harddrive (if they will clean up, if not another one or two more pc fails) in due process of pulling the image off the network to be installed onto the pc. At the end of the image pulling, pcs reboot. If reboot completes, it goes thru another software pushing to be configured as standard build or as per departmental request, it went thru a more rigorous installation. If pc does not reboot or reboot to an error, I must either redo the image process all over again and if the pc stayed error, you guess it, another damaged pc. Imaging alone takes about an hour an hour and half at the time while the PCs I can hook up to the rig at any one time is 10 (out of 16 available).
All in all, in that 100pcs, I only got about 60 something ready to go Dell PCs out of it. Issues surfaced from building Dells pcs ranging from thermal errors, hard disk not found, cd rom not found or *gasp* PS/2 port not found. In my environment, 60% success rate is not acceptable. High quality machines do not have 40% failing rate. Dell isn't one either.
Dell does not have a good thermal design either. How could you explain an 80mm fan sucking air over an aluminum heatsink can provide a decent temperature for a prescott processor (Dimension 2X00, 3000, 4x00, 8x00)? If Intel didn't redesign it's socket and CPU requirement, I think Dell would have soildered on with that design. Devxx, you swore you haven't seen Dell that is literally a dust bunnies? Are you serious, man? I used to have a Dell 2350 that is sitting ON TOP OF A DESK that if I do not clean it up withint a day, the inner compartment is filled with dust. By the way, Dells do not have any air filters in them. They're too cheap for that.
OP-If you build one system today and failed to meet your expectation, build another one and see if your opinion changes. You can't give up over ONE machine. One machine does not proof anything to your support over Dell.
I agree with markfw900 over this one, this thread should be locked.
All in all, in that 100pcs, I only got about 60 something ready to go Dell PCs out of it. Issues surfaced from building Dells pcs ranging from thermal errors, hard disk not found, cd rom not found or *gasp* PS/2 port not found. In my environment, 60% success rate is not acceptable. High quality machines do not have 40% failing rate. Dell isn't one either.
Dell does not have a good thermal design either. How could you explain an 80mm fan sucking air over an aluminum heatsink can provide a decent temperature for a prescott processor (Dimension 2X00, 3000, 4x00, 8x00)? If Intel didn't redesign it's socket and CPU requirement, I think Dell would have soildered on with that design. Devxx, you swore you haven't seen Dell that is literally a dust bunnies? Are you serious, man? I used to have a Dell 2350 that is sitting ON TOP OF A DESK that if I do not clean it up withint a day, the inner compartment is filled with dust. By the way, Dells do not have any air filters in them. They're too cheap for that.
OP-If you build one system today and failed to meet your expectation, build another one and see if your opinion changes. You can't give up over ONE machine. One machine does not proof anything to your support over Dell.
I agree with markfw900 over this one, this thread should be locked.
imported_Gimli
Member
I have so far built 6 computers so far and the only one not working right now is my first one because I was new and put in a bad power supply (Deer); however, even that computer worked for almost a year before the psu blew up taking everything with it. My latest one (knocking on wood) is working flawlessly with that said I say custome builds reliability is the same or better than pre-builds. I will not buy a pre-built unless it's a laptop or an Apple computer, for I take my time, do the research on the components, and take my time building, although I can now put a computer together in less than 45 minutes when I have all the components.
bamacre
Lifer
0roo0roo
No Lifer
yup as said, one can make a quiet computer. just look at quietpcreview.com as pointed out above.
but reliability depends on builders skill/component selection. a n00b is better off letting dell do the work. that being said if you want true thermal management example, look to apple not dell. their towers have distinct cooling zones that are all temperature managed. the fans in each zone are also thermally managed and can be controlled by the o/s. they spin up in anticipation of heat, not just after the fact. to do such things u have to engineer the entire thing in one package, not something one can easily do with a pc. you just can't fine tune thermal management like that on a pc easily, most temperature sensitive fans just change speed at arbitrary and wide ranges of termperatures. they essentially just run medium speed all the time heheh
but reliability depends on builders skill/component selection. a n00b is better off letting dell do the work. that being said if you want true thermal management example, look to apple not dell. their towers have distinct cooling zones that are all temperature managed. the fans in each zone are also thermally managed and can be controlled by the o/s. they spin up in anticipation of heat, not just after the fact. to do such things u have to engineer the entire thing in one package, not something one can easily do with a pc. you just can't fine tune thermal management like that on a pc easily, most temperature sensitive fans just change speed at arbitrary and wide ranges of termperatures. they essentially just run medium speed all the time heheh
yep...apple are good god jolly gracious thermal controlling freak tower. Dell will never be. Just look at the XPS400 (aka Dimension 9100/9150). It only have one fan and that is the BTX CPU fan. That's it. There is no fan in the back (other than the power supply fan) at all. Unless you're running A/C constantly, that fan is going to kick in everytime and you won't be smiling.
At my university, there was a mass failure of Dells and they're switching to all HPs this year.
Now then, because Dells are assembly line built, typically if one has a problem then hundreds or thousands do. If homebuilts were built with all the same components, they would pretty much either all fail or not fail.
Bozo Galora
Diamond Member
Zebo
Elite Member
That's true.. *stock* no way in hell can you BYO cheaper than some of dells hot deals found here at anandtech..especially those twilight specials you got that night. I have all of Dells LCD's cept 2405 for that very reason..hot! but it would take a lot to get intel in my computer with AMD making athlon 64's as a gamer 😀
http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,1854726,00.asp
Plus 9/10th of the fun is a taking $100 chip and making a $1000 Chip with Overclocking.. So who really saved more? Have you priced a 670 XPS box from dell? Over $2500. I can make those for about $1500 BYO and perform better since it will be a AMD 3200 to FX-57 levels. And the case will be elegant last forever being Lain Li and using a high quality SS PSU.
Careful to compare across spectrum.
http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,1854726,00.asp
Plus 9/10th of the fun is a taking $100 chip and making a $1000 Chip with Overclocking.. So who really saved more? Have you priced a 670 XPS box from dell? Over $2500. I can make those for about $1500 BYO and perform better since it will be a AMD 3200 to FX-57 levels. And the case will be elegant last forever being Lain Li and using a high quality SS PSU.
Careful to compare across spectrum.
Did you actually read the comments?
They said their hardware is pretty much top of the line. The build construction was well above average. They were also impressed with the custom cooling solution (which is a big compliment from the editors of HardOCP).
The reason it scored so low was because of the bundled software that caused so much of the problems and the support's inability to give them a recovery CD.
Stop spreading FUD.
Zebo
Elite Member
It's you who needs to read article dipsh1t and read thread title here I'll make it easy for you hope your dell or brain won't crash while opening this simple graphic
http://hardocp.com/images/articles/11346017183RqESbOdui_8_1.gif
And if you really wanna challange yourself look up the OP's term "Reliability" and see how it won't apply to dell featured here.
I agree for the most part, he's clueless, with the exception of the tiny workstations we use at work, that I'm typing on right now. They are very unreliable, and they run extremely hot, even though they throw heat out the PS like a hairdryer. Many of them have failed, or have heat related issues. The CPU HS is way too hot to touch, after even something so minor a strain as playing a small WMV video clip in a small window. The only time it's quiet is when you are just sitting on a webpage, if any of 100 background processes run, the fan comes on full blast and it's plenty noisy.
The CPU is a P5 2.4 with 1 gig of mem in a case about 12"x3"x14". I sure won't miss them when the lease on them runs out.
bamacre
Lifer
I don't agree nor disagree.. I have zero problems with my PC and it's not loaded up with crazy fans.. It just has a single front intake fan and a single rear exhaust fan. The loudest thing in my PC is my 7800GT, and it's not even that bad (at idle).. A Dell is quieter yes, but also has less tolerance for heat than most DIY systems. It depends on a lot of things unfortunately. I can't just agree on the whole.
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