Well the debate is ON and still one can't finalize to go for a BRANDED or UNBRANDED systems, when buying a PC I want to share my story: MY STORY IS NAMED: FROM DELL TO HELL ---------------------------------------- I built a system ( a long time ago ) with these briefs: INTEL D845WN BOARD INTEL P-4 CPU KINGSTON 512MB RAM x2 SEAGATE 40GB harddrive ......... ...... -------> IT WORKED FOR YEARS AFTER YEARS , NO HARDWARE ISSUE. AND IT IS STILL WORKING ( neglecting software issues such as OS crashes, .. which can be recovered / reinstalled ) and ONE DAY I got into this HELL ( DELL ) I got a DELL MACHINE DELL - OPTIPLEX 745 intel Pentium-D 4MB cache RAM 1gb KINGSTON x2 SATA 250GB HDD DVD WRITER FDD. .... ... It workes happily for a very long reliable super duty period of "TWO AND A HALF MONTH" After that, it got stuck up during post test for NO REASON. sometimes. then slowly situation got worse it got stuck up time to time on boot up , no beeps, no Error codes , nothing POST sequence lights show random sequnce to which dell docs do'nt lead anywhere. AND FINALLY ----> DEAR DELL-745 STOPPED RESPONDING COMPLETELY, only AMBER LIGHT ON POWER UP. POwer supply was OK, CPU OK ..everything OK except THAT----> QUALITY BRANDED MOTHERBOARD NEEDS REPLACEMENT NOW TO SAIL THIS GIANT SHIP WITH DELL LOGO. I was absolutely NOT in a mood to order another board for this machine. so I tried my best to see little problems in motherboard, peeking in supplies on board... and other possible components. one techie friend spent more time on this board. and we confirmed now IT IS GONE FROM DELL TO HELL. problem did'nt solved but What I observed is that there are few components ( power drivers / regulators and others ) for RAM, CPU core voltage ... so minute that DUST easily is caught between their pins, BECUASE THEY ARE THE FIRST TO WHICH AIR STRIKES WHEN BLOWN FROM THE BIG GIANT ONE SINGLE COOLING FAN in dell-7xx series. When this DUST catches moist from environment it might disturb their functionality, and slowly... DELL to HELL construction is such that DUST will definitely enter in the case , from front to back, and one can't have the duty to clean it every weak from motherboard. Well that is just my observation. One techie friend has reported Manufacturing problems in some DELL models, so they gets more pron to such failures. well story does'nt end here, ---------------------------- My brother holds the great honor of experienceing similar experiences on MORE THAN SIX DELL machines. Because he loved dell and love requires patience, money, sacrifice ...... as I remember some DELL to HELL machines of my brother are Dell 520, dell 6xx series, dell 3xx series, inspirons they worked for roughly a year on average two had exactly same behaviour as my Dell 745. Now I am planning to buy an INTEL ORIGINAL board and use other things from the dell 745, If mobo does'nt fit in dell, I will use it unbranded case. but i will not replace it with its own dell board, cause: Who can guarantee new Dell board will not suffer these issues. Well on the other hand, I have seen all big organizations using, Dell / HP / ... always go for a branded machine SO Bottom line of my story is: ------------------------------- If I want to have system for MySELF, for MY PLEASEURES, for my FANTASIES always I will custom build a machine myself if for organizations, use Branded system. so What do you think now?
That's a simple one for me. I will never buy an OEM machine ever, ever again. They suck and generally lack upgradeabillity. I also found technical support to be a waste of time. Go custom built. That way you get exactly what you want and probably better off financially too.
Absolute truth, my sis brought a machine in ireland costing 650 euros, thats only worth 250 pounds in uk. What a rip off. If you want rip of oem machines, goto ireland, the prices are a joke for computers, that are rubbish quality. Never buy oem computers period, custom machines are easy to do yourself.
Speaking of Dell=Hell, I'm still fighting with Dell Support to get a failed hard drive replaced, the customer paid extra for "Next Business Day, Onsite Repair" and it's been a week so far back and forth with their "problem resolution specialists" upgrade bios rom, change this setting, move this cable, etc, etc, before they will acknowledge they need to fix the damn thing. I will never buy from that crap company again.
You guys are forgetting the best reason for building from parts (from a local, reliable source). You can usually just take a borked part back and get it exchanged that day. Dell cannot beat that with a stick. I have even made mistakes and damaged motherboards myself and still been able to exchange with local shops (tell them the truth, they will laugh with you and send in the board, they have seen it all). Oh, and for business purposes, buy a white box from that local store, same day fixes are worth more than a brand name on the box, every time.
good to know many folks agree my thoughts If I wish to build a system like branded (where everything follows some quality standard), I know the price of build would be approx same, ( or sometimes little higher ) than those branded competitors. But still I would go to build my own.
I've got a DELL laptop. I've used it daily for a just over a year with no problems. However, in the future I think I'll build machines. For no other reason than I'd prefer to do it myself.
While I would never buy Dell (or any other brand computer) for myself, they are not bad for some cases. While every brand have their share of problems, the biggest issue is their support. They tend to have different levels of support and it's not uncommon to see they reserve better support to their corporate clients. That leaves individual private clients somewhat on their own. I help... wait. I'm practically tech support for few small businesses and a few of them uses nothing but Dell computers. Only one failed HDD in this millenium so far and replacement arrived at the next day, so it's been good so far. I still don't recommend buying brand computers...
A self build is the way to go nowadays.OEM systems are bloated, unreliable and 90% of the time come with bad customer support. Do a self build then you know your way around YOUR own pc in the process you will gain more knowledge about certain components and how to maintain it properly.Also it works out cheaper to do a self build if you know what components you are looking for you can most likely get a bargain by shopping around. Just my 2 cents .....
HP is ok as brand, but Sony? Heck, they even intentionally disabled features needed for XMP! Down with SonyCrap! It's the WORST possible brand! It even tries to harm general "PC population" by infectiong with it's rootkit (SecuROM)!
About SONY yeah, not proved really good SONY has a big name is electronics consumer market, but Yeah in computer industry, i also heared few bad cases. specially rootkits, collect and spread info from your side, wihtout innocent guys knowledge and permission.
Allways home made machines unless You don't know much about computers and just want some plug and play sollution. OEM's are more expensive and also harder/more expensive to upgrade later. Believe me, I am working with HP machines on a daily base for years now.
Hell Dell Hell Dell Will never buy another dell, Had nothing but problems with my xps m1710. Was fine for about a year. then problems, first my gtx card. (overheating), Bluetooth (fried), Hard drive (read errors). Been throught 3 p.s.u. (wire cores worn). Now having motherboard issues not passing post tests freezing and jack socket loose and also top lid hinge worn to the point i couldnt close the lid. Thank god for the warrenty.. DONT BUY THESE WITHOUT THEM or you will be sorry. I other words not great build quality with constant heat issues. on a positive note when it is working its great 7600g cpu clocked to 2.8.
DEll studio 1735 here....5 mobos 3 psu...2 hdd...2 charging circuits 8 months old...will i buy dell again...errr....NO WAY as mentioned before with warranty i hav a 3 year warranty i bought...look like i am gonna use it
I know I am bucking the trend here but... I used to build my own (as a business from home) but I had to get out since EVERYONE kept calling, "hey how do I make my screen go bigger" or "how do I connect to the internet". OMG I couldn't handle it and if you didn't, they would go elsewhere. The little change I got was not worth it. Anyway, I eventually left it and asked everyone to buy manufactured so they could call THEIR help/support. Yeah Dell help/support isn't all that great but to return a netbook I had for abysmal performance. I just called and told her I tried a slew of server management techniques and drowned her in techno talk, she was lost and just approved a return after I got tired of listening to page turning checklist crap. I have always had Dells, boxes and laptops. I only had one problem with a laptop. 2 weeks into ownership, the LCD went out. Called on a Wednesday afternoon, returned Friday morning. Better than BB Geeks squads. In retrospect I should have demanded a replacement machine vs a LCD swap. I swapped many cards, CPUs and memory for upgrades and never had problems. I ended up giving away three machines to neighbors so their kids could destroy them. 2 years later, they are still running strong. I have first run Core 2 machines now and and currently upgrading my 'network'. I decided to use a couple for test machines with W2K8 Server testing machines and Ubuntu Servers. No problems with them except sound ain't working on one W2K8 Server but prob just a driver and I ain't worried about it. My laptops have always been great (minus the one faulty panel) but it was made by Samsung, albeit supplied to Dell. I kinda hate Dell keyboards & mice but they are normally changed anyway to wireless or multimedia controlling KBs.
My opinion so far: -> if I want to squeeze every drop of performance, -> If I am a performance guy. -> If I need top notch effeciency. -> if I have at least basic knowledge of Hardware and Software( or can gain knowledge from resources ) -> If I am on a budget. | | V I will go for a custom built and DIM ( Do It Myself ) ->If I need a PC for serious business, Stability and reliability are more of concern, and frequent tweaks / changes not being considered in daily routine, -> If I need to use same applications on average everyday -> If only stress on my PC is more workload of same type of work | | V I will go for some branded machine, and for my family? If my family can understand / install / upgrade / tweak possibly, | | V Custom build, Otherwise a branded.
DELL or HELL what do you think tetsujin wrote:Then, finally, theres the Palm Pre. I dont know what the hell to make of this thing, honestly... As screwed up as it is to have palmtop applications run inside a VM I think having them run inside a web engine seems a dozen times worse. Why do people like the Pre? Whats so great about it?