OT: Dell funniness

TheHappyFriar wrote on 8/1/2003, 8:16 AM
Last night at work I was reading the latest Dell computer catalog. They were selling pe-built computer packages. One was called the Gamer computer. It was a p4-3ghz and 512mb RAM. The "Computer Movie Editor" was a p4 2.8ghz and 256mb RAM. I think someone at dell has never edited video's before and didn't relize that faster CPU = faster render time! :) Of course the gamer machine didn't have the newest video card, and the editor machine had a game card! Boy, what will those computer sailsman think of next!

Comments

DGrob wrote on 8/1/2003, 11:50 AM
Ya know, I bought a Dell Inspiron 8200 XP Home "Video" setup with a single 1394 PCI and Videowave 4 - all configured as recommended by my Dell salesperson. It's taken me two years to work my way out of that hole, with NO assistance from Dell at all, at any time. I'd rather buy my next system from Victoria's Secret than Dell. FWIW, DGrob
TheHappyFriar wrote on 8/1/2003, 2:19 PM
I forgit to mention that the "gaming" machine cost $2500 and the editing $2100. The place I work at on the weekends got an audio editing station from Dell last year and it was only a p3-800 with 128mb ram. Obiviously the dell sales person didn't understand that they are working with 30 minute wav files on MULTIPLE tracks! :)
vitalforce2 wrote on 8/1/2003, 2:40 PM
I got a Dell 8200 w/XP Home too, about 1 1/2 years ago, but I used the "customize" part of their website to select only certain components, not the package stuff which seems to be driven by teenagers with garage bands (not that there's anything wrong with that). The point, though, is that I have a 2.53 P4 processor and 512K of RDRAM, plus a basic nVidia card and multiple drives, and this thing is a hot rod compared to my old Sony VAIO P3. Nevertheless, the glory of DV is that the data stream for capturing w/o dropped frames is small enough that even a P3 866 can do a flawless job--though it takes longer.
wcoxe1 wrote on 8/1/2003, 6:30 PM
Both Dell and Gateway have fallen into marketing hype traps, and looking at their "Home" machines is often not the best option. Your choices are limited in several ways, and you are often stuck with packages of software that is either useless or inferior.

We have found, on several occasions, that if you just look on the web at their "Workstation" section, you can tailor your machine MUCH more to your liking because things are broken down more, with MANY more and better choices, and you don't have to buy the trash software.

For the price of the Home Video machine tailored the best we could get, with 3.0GHz processor, you can get a 3.0GHz workstation with better monitor, more RAM, and larger hard drive.

We only use the Home section to justify the lower prices on Workstations now-a-days. It is convenient to show the boss what a bargain we are getting by comparing the two quotes.