Dell Finally Goes for AMD

[The Grim Squeaker]

"You read it correctly. It had to happen one day.
According to Forbes 'Dell Inc has informed its Taiwan contract makers of plans to develop devices based on Advanced Micro Devices Inc's microprocessors, and these suppliers are awaiting orders for global shipment, the Economic Daily News reported, citing industry sources.'"

[General Zod]

Seems like Dell's trying to drop its prices even further, but despite the fact that they're getting AMD, this isn't going to make their company suck any less.

[phongn]

Seems like Dell's trying to drop its prices even further, but despite the fact that they're getting AMD, this isn't going to make their company suck any less.

Not neccessarily. Intel probably gives Dell extraordinary pricing and AMD's fabs can't keep up with Intel's manufacturing might. Their Xeon server offerings must be looking awful weak compared to the competition's Opterons, though.

[Molyneux]

Seems like Dell's trying to drop its prices even further, but despite the fact that they're getting AMD, this isn't going to make their company suck any less.

What's so bad about Dell? I've had a computer of theirs for the past few years and I've been quite happy with it.

[Darth Wong]

Dell makes a lot of volume selling absurdly cheap low-end "everything integrated on the motherboard" machines with no graphics card expansion capability, so more often than not, when you see a Dell machine it's a worthless shitbox. But it's a cheap worthless shitbox; so cheap that your local system builder will have serious trouble competing with it.

But when you try to go up to a higher-end machine, you find that their prices skyrocket remarkably fast, to the point that your local system builder's top-end feature-heavy machine still looks incredibly cheap compared to a well-equipped Dell. Even their RAM prices are absurdly high compared to market rates.

[Molyneux]

Dell makes a lot of volume selling absurdly cheap low-end "everything integrated on the motherboard" machines with no graphics card expansion capability, so more often than not, when you see a Dell machine it's a worthless shitbox. But it's a cheap worthless shitbox; so cheap that your local system builder will have serious trouble competing with it.

But when you try to go up to a higher-end machine, you find that their prices skyrocket remarkably fast, to the point that your local system builder's top-end feature-heavy machine still looks incredibly cheap compared to a well-equipped Dell. Even their RAM prices are absurdly high compared to market rates.

I bought a Dell Dimension 4500 a few years ago, and I've upgraded it a few times since (new graphics card, secondary hard drive, more RAM); I've been pretty happy with it. The price wasn't bad, and it's held up well for a computer that's not brand-new.

The clamshell case and the friendly green plastic guide to installing extra hard drives was a nice touch. A friend of mine has had trouble since his Dell only had an integrated graphics card, though, so I can kinda understand that.

The next computer that I get, I'm planning on building; I just don't know enough about computers yet to dispense with the tech support.

[General Zod]

Seems like Dell's trying to drop its prices even further, but despite the fact that they're getting AMD, this isn't going to make their company suck any less.

What's so bad about Dell? I've had a computer of theirs for the past few years and I've been quite happy with it.

Well, their parts tend to be substandard for one. They'll use the lowest end pieces they can find to put into their machines in order to give people their discount. They also don't design their own systems, as they're little more than a warehouse that repackages existing boxes. I've also heard their tech support is extremely sub-par, but haing avoided Dell on general principle, I couldn't attest to this one first hand.

[Luke Starkiller]

Seems like Dell's trying to drop its prices even further, but despite the fact that they're getting AMD, this isn't going to make their company suck any less.

What's so bad about Dell? I've had a computer of theirs for the past few years and I've been quite happy with it.

Well, their parts tend to be substandard for one. They'll use the lowest end pieces they can find to put into their machines in order to give people their discount. They also don't design their own systems, as they're little more than a warehouse that repackages existing boxes. I've also heard their tech support is extremely sub-par, but haing avoided Dell on general principle, I couldn't attest to this one first hand.

I haven't had trouble with Dell's tech support, my CD drive went and they got me the new one the next day. Although I will never get a laptop from them again, my first one had the keyboard progressively fail and the fan go, and the NIC go. My current one had the CD drive go.

[Ypoknons]

Their cost cutting is rather incredible. My 8200 come with Geforce3 Ti500, 2.0 Northwood CPU (a very hot one for its time) and a 200W power supply, which is it could deliever that much power, would barely get the system running. It did for a several years, but then it literally burned out me, which did pissed me off.

The CPU fan in an upper Dimension, too is a bit distrubing - there was only one fan that called the entire system, including the CPU block.

Their laptops are excellently priced, but except for the high end M170 lack decent graphics ability. Build quality was terrible two years ago but seem to have improved since. The M170 is by far the easiest way to sneak a 7800GTX into a laptop, though, so that laptop is clearly, a good one for the right person.

[InnocentBystander]

I'm fairly sure that the Sager/Clevo 5720 is a superior platform for a much better price for the mobile 7800gtx. However some might argue that the "cool" factor is less on the sager. Of course is $1000 worth a really cool looking laptop? That's up to you
See www.pctorque.com or www.discountlaptops.com for info on the sager 5720

[Master of Ossus]

I'm fairly sure that the Sager/Clevo 5720 is a superior platform for a much better price for the mobile 7800gtx. However some might argue that the "cool" factor is less on the sager. Of course is $1000 worth a really cool looking laptop? That's up to you
See www.pctorque.com or www.discountlaptops.com for info on the sager 5720

They seem to be quite comparably priced for the features that you get. The base 5720 has a weaker processor and less RAM than the Dell, as well as a smaller hard drive, although the Sager has options like the Dead Pixel Policy that the Dell doesn't offer and features better customizability. I see it as a trade-off, with no clear winner, since you have to pay about the same price to upgrade the Sager to the base Dell level.

[Ypoknons]

To be honest I shouldn't be saying this, because I cannot prove it, but there's anyways been something more polished about a retailer's laptop, even Dell, as opposed to a more OEM brand like Sager. Sometimes it's hard to pinpoint this with specs. For starters, it's much easier to just go to Dell and order an XPS. Mind you, just from an apperence and customizability standpoint I actually prefer the Sager.

[InnocentBystander]

One of the things with a Company like dell is you are forced to pay for unnecessary things like, oh say, windows or lots of ram. Ya you're going to want a gig at least for a gaming rig, but why get gouged when you can pop it open, order something from newegg or ebay and save yourself 50 bucks here and there.

I agree that an inexperienced user might do well to go with Dell for a high end gaming laptop, but if price is an issue, the ability to scale back is the difference between being able to afford it and not.


We are really off topic aren't we?

So ya, Dell is using AMD now, that's nice