What makes Dells better than Gateways or vice versa?

[HappyPuppy]

This isn't meant to be flame bait, I'm genuinely curious what makes one of them better than the other in your never to be humble opinions.

I have never owned either, but I have worked on a lot of both of them. The newer Dells and GWs are assembled with pretty much all off the shelf parts, the same ones we buy to build our own computers (ok, so most of us probably buy higher end parts, but they're still off the shelf parts). About the only thing I have seen that is sometimes proprietary are the power supplies and hoods or air channels they both use for cooling in order to keep fan noise to a minimum. Oh, and some of the cases may be proprietary, but I'm not counting them for this discussion.

They both buy massive quantities of components, they put them together on an assembly line with a HDD that has an image of whatever OS and they are shipped out.

So, what's the difference?

 

[Danman]

I had a Gateway for awhile before I had a vast knowledge of computers but don't try to upgrade it like add more hard drives, cd drives or cards. My powersupply on that thing was on the fritz, plus my AMD Athlon processor in that thing overheated because of unsufficient cooling. I would think Dell is better but I wouldn't ever get another one if you know how to build your own, you can save yourself so much time and you know what you put in it.

 

[vi edit]

Support and Corporate Stability.

I don't know if it's any better or not but 3 or 4 years ago, gateways support was TERRIBLE!!!! I would easily be on hold for 2 hours just to RMA a damn floppy drive. Dell had an average hold time of 15 minutes at the time. Things may have gotten better since then.

Second thing is how long the company will be around - people ask me every now and then if they should get a 3 year extended warranty on their Gateway computers - my reply: "I don't know if Gateway will be around in 3 years."

I've worked in two different corporate environments that had 1000+ machines in a single location. In both of those companies, they ditched their Gateway contracts for Dell. Dell offered better prices, easier to work on machines, and better support.

 

[RossMAN]

I like Dell's case design and how quiet they are.

Dell is more likely to be around in 5 years than Gateway.

 

[Ryan]

My main system is an Gateway Athlon machine, and I have never had any problems with it. I have added A LOT of stuff to it. Of course, I also formatted the HD when I first got it, and did a clean install. I have owned 6 Gateway computers since I was a kid, and have never had any major problems. My parents are looking at getting a new computer, and they're getting another gateway. From my experience, they make quality computers with good components. Lately, they have really dropped their prices too.

Last year, my parent's squadron on base need new computers, and my mother was put in charge of getting them. She ordered 100+ desktop systems, and 75 laptops. Since then, they have yet to have any major problems, and when there were problems, gateway sent one of their technitians form Gateway Country to their base to fix them.

AS to your question - I think they both Dell and Gateway are on par with one another when it comes to component quality, but Gateway clearly beats dell when it comes to lower prices. Dell has the upper hand on support, but gateway's support has been getting better lately.

 

[Electric Amish]

Gateway offers AMD systems. Dell doesn't.

amish

 

[Kadarin]

Depends on how you define "better". Performance-wise, you need to look closely at the internal components, and not be content with just reading the ad copy: "1.6Ghz Pentium 4 with 128MB SDRAM" This may sound good on paper to the average AOL user, but will yield a PC not much faster than my old 400Mhz PII. As you might guess from this post, I fully believe in building my own PCs (I would never RMA a floppy.. they're too damn cheap to bother).

 

[Ryan]

Originally posted by: Electric Amish
Gateway offers AMD systems. Dell doesn't. amish

Wrong, they dropped AMD last year so they could streamline manurfacturing and cut back on prices.

 

[HappyPuppy]

It has seemed to me that the lower end Dells and Gateways both offer poor upgradability while the higher end systems in mid tower cases have plenty of room for add on cards and plenty of drive bays.

I'm still not convinced that one is any better than the other. I have to call GW helpdesk on almost a daily basis and they are usually easy to get through to and helpful. Some of their so called techs don't know their arses from a hole in the ground, but I imagine the same could be said for Dell techs.

 

[Gibson486]

Apart from the proprietary power supply that Dell uses in it's low end computers, both Dell and Gateway pretty much use the same parts. Both have teh same tech support in my experience. If you were to ask a year ago, I would say Gateway just because Dell refused/refuses to sell AMD processers while gateway atleast gave it a chance. As for company status...Gateway was forced to cut back sales and ship soley in the US or the US and a few other countries, so they are no longer a worldwide distributor. As a result, Dell does have a much better chance of remaining in 5 years. And the case design....I think gateway's new cases are nice.

 

[Electric Amish]

Originally posted by: rbloedow

Originally posted by: Electric Amish
Gateway offers AMD systems. Dell doesn't. amish

Wrong, they dropped AMD last year so they could streamline manurfacturing and cut back on prices.

Well, suck my dick. So they did.

Hmmmpff.

Shows how much I know about Gateway.

amish

 

[murphy55d]

The only ones who use AMD is now are Micron and HP, I think. Not counting places like AlienWare and FalconNW.

 

[Ryan]

Originally posted by: Electric Amish

Originally posted by: rbloedow

Originally posted by: Electric Amish Gateway offers AMD systems. Dell doesn't. amish

Wrong, they dropped AMD last year so they could streamline manurfacturing and cut back on prices.

Well, suck my dick. So they did. Hmmmpff. Shows how much I know about Gateway. amish

LMAO!