Dell Desktops

Terr Fangbite · Post by **Terr Fangbite** » 2004-12-01 08:10pm

Whatever you do don't buy a dell desktop. I work with them at work, impossible to do anything with them. I tried fixing a friend's dell (since dell support told him having to press F1 during boot up to boot, and a lack of an operating system was normal) and after several hours, I was able to install winblows xp on it but couldn't get rid of the F1 error. I can't offer any suggestions aside from that since I go to computer shows and buy parts to build my PCs.

Post by **Dalton** » 2004-12-01 09:51pm

Darth_Zod wrote:my advice: do. not. go. with. celerons. celeron processors are generally pieces of shit. it's worth spending a couple hundred more bucks to get a Pentium 4 or an Athlon. Personally, i've not used dell very much, but when i have i haven't had any trouble with their machines. What's he wanting to use the machine for btw? gaming? basic office stuff? general websurfing and mp3 listening? etc? if it's anything more than the basics, definitely don't go with dell. don't suppose you know what type of budget they're looking to spend on the machine?

He'll use it for nothing much more than surfing the internet and playing online poker or going to mlb.com. His fiancee wants to buy him a computer for Christmas and she doesn't have a lot of money to spend on it.

I told her to go with the Dell. From what I've been hearing here their support sucks but I haven't heard a lot of complaints about the machines themselves, and since they live downstairs I'm just a shout away.

darthdavid · Post by **darthdavid** » 2004-12-01 09:59pm

Dalton wrote:
Darth_Zod wrote:my advice: do. not. go. with. celerons. celeron processors are generally pieces of shit. it's worth spending a couple hundred more bucks to get a Pentium 4 or an Athlon. Personally, i've not used dell very much, but when i have i haven't had any trouble with their machines. What's he wanting to use the machine for btw? gaming? basic office stuff? general websurfing and mp3 listening? etc? if it's anything more than the basics, definitely don't go with dell. don't suppose you know what type of budget they're looking to spend on the machine?
He'll use it for nothing much more than surfing the internet and playing online poker or going to mlb.com. His fiancee wants to buy him a computer for Christmas and she doesn't have a lot of money to spend on it.

I told her to go with the Dell. From what I've been hearing here their support sucks but I haven't heard a lot of complaints about the machines themselves, and since they live downstairs I'm just a shout away.

Have her get the hp I linked to instead. It's 7 bux more expensive and has alot more features and it comes with a floppy drive and a cd burner.

White Haven · Post by **White Haven** » 2004-12-01 10:43pm

Dell: Shitty support, only mildly shitty cases, reasonaly decent hardware.
HP: Shitty, SHITTY cases, unknown support, hardware average.
Compaq: HP, only worse.
Gateway: No. Just no.

NONE of the big boys would recognize a decent case if it bit them in the ass.

Find a local tech shop with a good reputation who builds systems. Get them to custom-build it for you, that way you have their warranty, plus they'll get better responses from hardware manufacturers if something goes bad than an end user does. Trust me, I speak from experience, I /am/ the system builder at one of said local tech shops, we've been in business for about 10 years now Many, many satisfied customers, many, many unhappy customers with Dells, HPs, Compaqs, etcetera. Dell's support sucks, but in my experience, they don't break as often. Given that /nobody/ has what I'd call good support, the tech support differential doesn't bother me as much as it might. They all come to us to get fixed anyway.

Post by **Dalton** » 2004-12-01 10:56pm

Since apparently nobody seems to realize that custom-built is not an option at the moment and budget is limited, and seeing as how I have not seen any viable alternatives, I'm locking this. I've already told her to buy the Dell, so if it fucks up, oh well, no big loss.