Well, I guess we should stay away fro Alienware computers now too. That’s to bad. Dell is about the worst PC manufacturer there is.

~jr

I used to agree that Dell was the worst. However, at the prices they offer i've been forced to use them for the last 20 or so PCs i've installed. We've had zero issues. Everything arrived as specified, often for a few dollars less than the price quote. Everything has worked exactly as expected.

I have no idea about the usual upgrade issues with Dell. But then, at the prices they are charging for new systems i can't see that we'll ever have a need to upgrade any of them. By the time we might be wanting more of something, it will be cheaper to buy a whole new box instead.

My only remaining gripe with Dell is that they way overcharge on some of the options. The basic system in the catalog may have a great price. But if you want to get a larger hard drive or XP Pro instead of XP home, they charge way above market prices. There have been some cases in which i wished i could order a system without hard drive or OS, and then supply those myself. On the whole though, they're still a pretty good deal even with those overcharges.

I always have to step in and say that Dell is NOT the worst PC company. I understand that Dell can be overpriced, under powered, and can be bad with support, but that isn't always the case and value is in the eye of the beholder. The day job has me being a network admin of 70+ dell machines and I can tell you that I thank the computer Gods for creating Dell. I understand that this is a rare view, but in 4 years I've only had a few parts here and there fail and Dell's business class service is great. A server drive fails at 4:45 PM on Tuesday. Wednesday morning a new 10,000rpm Raptor drive is sitting on my desk before I get to work along with two emails and a voicemail from dell tech. I've never spoken to a person in India, and the tech I talk to always calls me back 24 hours to check in on me and within a week I get a call from customer service asking me to do a survey. Dell has given me 2 laser printers to test and the account manager calls me often to see if I need more computers. Which I don't, because we bought the good stuff 4-5 years ago and most of the machines are working like they did when they were new.

If you buy the better Dell stuff, i.e. Precision workstations and Latitude laptops instead of the lower end stuff you see on TV you get better service and a better quality machine. It's a tiered system... that's life. My editing machine at home is 3yr old Dell Precision 350 workstation. It's a clamshell case that opens easily and has a simple/fast drive mounting system. It's extremely quiet (in fact the most quiet machine sold that year according to PC mag) and has a top notch cooling system. I could have purchased a cheaper/faster machine from any company including Dell or I could have built my own (like I might do next time) -- but the $300 "too much" I paid for that machine boils down to be pennies a month. And the fact is, I could have bought a faster AMD-based machine, but I'll trade speed for uptime any day. With that said, AMD is reliable now, and my next machine *might* be AMD.... but a good Intel box is a safe reliable way to go.

I hate when people make blanket statements about a company being the worst. It's not fair. For some, $3000 might be too much money to spend on a higher end Dell business workstation when for the same money I could build a screaming dual core AMD machine with RAID and 6 gigs of RAM, 512 video card, liquid cooled this, super charged that... but none of that makes all that much difference when it comes down to reliability & creative vs. speed & economy. Dell is the Toyota of computers in that they tend to build on the conservative side. (Obviously computers are not nearly as reliable as my 10 year old Toyota.. but hey...) Bleeding edge, with all of it's inherent risks, is old technology in 3 years anyway. So my advice, buy something that works and don't mess with it. I spent too many hours building editing workstations when I started. it's just not worth it unless you are doing it for fun, like I want to do for my next project computer. It a case of pence wise, pound foolish.

So, here is a voice for Dell's business class machines for video workstations. I would never buy a low end Dell for such tasks, and if I did I wouldn't be surprised if it was junk.


my .02
-Jeff

Since Comaq got absorbed by HP Dell IS the worst PC company out there. There's light years better then Compaq but they became the new low with GateWay a vrey close second. I've never been impressed by Dell/Gateway's PC but dell does have good tech suppt, but you spend a lot of $$ for that support (not worth it some times).

If their cheaper machines are basic crap & have no support & only if you pay big bucks for a good computer & support then that's their doing. I buy a $50 MB from Asus or a $150 one I get hte same support & warrenties, they don't think any of their products are crap. Dell does, that means they're the bottom feeders, lowest commen demonator. They have no problem with it (heck, they advertise it) so why should anyone else?

I agree. Before buying a $349 Dell computer... build your own, buy an open box HP at Best Buy, anything. Dell has to make cheap PCs because the market demands it. However, not everyone is comfortable building their own.

IBM sold their PC biz to China's Lenovo (sps?)
HP + Compaq have been tough going so far
Gateway + Emachines has allowed the former back into stores like Best Buy but I think they are still troubled...

Dell is the only really profitable of the lot. So, if not Dell, who?

How many companies in the world offer the lowest of lows, $349 desktop all the way to super highend $349,000 blade servers and still earn a profit? Um, no one. IBM was close, but they make more money consulting so they exited the PC biz.

>>Dell is about the worst PC manufacturer there is.

If they're still in business, Packard Bell is the worst. Hands down.

About the "build-your-own" statements in this thread, that is exactly why I DO like Dell, they use the least (if any) proprietary components out there. I build my own, BTW, but use a Dell at my office (it is GREAT, dual processor with Nvidia Quadra video), not a moment of problems with it.
Open it up, and I can ugrade/replace any component, just like my custom built systems.
Support, don't really need that if you can build your own, they're just not that complicated.
I guess my bottom line on "the worst" PC out there, just about any brand-name system, especially with proprietary parts.

Packard Bell is close to the worst, but i only rate them in 2nd place. My vote for all-time worst is Leading Edge.

Of course, my boss bought 3 of each, so i had plenty of experience with them. We sent one Leading Edge computer out for repair. It came back 14 months later with a repair bill for $2200. We had only paid $2100 to buy the thing! The next time it broke down my boss wanted to send it out again. That evening I took it to the machine shop, put it up on the band saw, and sawed it in half. Then i put the two pieces back on my boss' desk with a note saying "i don't think it's worth repairing it." That definitely got his attention when he got in the next morning.

Fortunately neither company is still in business. Packard Bell really only survived as long as they did due to their name. Many folks confused them with Hewlett/Packard and Bell Labs. They also sold through places like Sears which introduced the idea of a home PC to many folks who might never have considered one. They bought out Honeywell/Zenith's PC division maybe 10 years ago or so. That was a sad move as Zenith made some pretty good and reasonably priced boxes. By then though their reputation for complete junk was starting to catch up with them, and other companies were hitting the retail and department store market too. Once people were able to make an informed choice and hear other owners horror stories, they evaporated pretty quickly.

>>...Leading Edge...

I remember seeing them in Sam's Club yeeeears ago. I forgot about them.

>>...put it up on the band saw..

That's pretty funny!

>>...bought out Honeywell/Zenith's PC division ...

Zenith was very good quality back in the late 80's or early 90's. Very good laptops. A Zenith laptop with MS Dos, Norton System Commander, and Word Perfect 5.0 was all you needed. We used a lot of them in the Submarine Service. You just had to make sure you docked the hard drive heads before moving the laptop. :)

When I originally started my business, my intent was to provide Custom Computer Solutions. I started and have stayed with custom built systems and my appreciation grew for them as I heard stories about systems being so proprietary. (I think Gateway may had been the biggest one for this at one point.)

I still offer services on a per mouth basis to build custom systems, which leads to maybe 15 a year. My clients are usually ones who A.) Like the personal attention I provide them - oh and I speak English B.) They had previously owned a big name system and became frustrated with them.

If its about price - a custom system will never be able to compete. I don't provide the tech support - but neither does a heavily Indian accent that you can't understand.

There are pro's and con's from any angle, its fair to say we will see more mergers within the industry. I just have to encourage people to go custom built when possible... and not support the companies moving their services to foriegn countries... "Hey Dell... that could of been 5,000 American jobs... oh wait.. that means you would have to charge more for the computers you sell."

Anyway... happing shoppong whenever the time comes.

Chad

Speaking of proprietary:

HP (450 Mhz P2) "tatooed" thier CD/DVD ROM drive to ONLY work with the stock HP mother board. NO scavenging parts...

I hear word-on-the-street that Dell laptops require "approved" RAM.

I bought a full tower case right before I saw the same case with an alienware logo on it in a computer magazine the next month. The case I bought for $79 suddenly shot up to $139 with the same power supply in it... figured they must be onto something and I got lucky getting a cool case - something I still have housing my primary audio machine and will probably use for my next dual-dual-core upgrade. It's neither here nor there - except I remember distinctly when Alienware came onto the scene.

I wonder what marketshare that Dell thinks they are getting with this company purchase. I've not paid attention to the Dell catalog for years, so I don't know if they have anything of interest to gamers and tweakers. It *will* be interesting to see if this "backdoors" Dell into using AMD as a supplier.

"If they're still in business, Packard Bell is the worst. Hands down."

They are pretty big in Europe, but they have no presence in the US any longer.