Posted on 08/17/2013 4:00:44 PM PDT by sushiman
My 4 year old HP Touchsmart ( as well as the internet modem and router ) got knocked out during a lightning storm and apparently the PC requires major surgery . Our insurance company will pay for a new computer and I'm looking at a basic Dell Inspiron 660 desktop with the I3 Pentium , 4 GB and 500 GB . It's all I need . Never owned a Dell before but several of my Japanese friends seem to be pleased with theirs so I'm considering one . Before taking the plunge , I'd like to hear from fellow Freepers about their Dell experiences .
try to stay away from the centrino n-2230- wireless card. in many laptops and loses connection alot.
Hi . Getting a desktop .
Been running a Dell Inspirion D530 since June of 2008, with Vista.
In spite of the doom and gloom, Vista has basically been solid, and the only problem with the hardwar has been a power supply failure last year. (I run the machine 24/7, except during thunder storms when it gets turned off and unplugged from both power and the internet.)
I also work at a major Midwest university, and all of our computers in all of the computer labs are Dells.
YMMV.
Sushi, I don’t know where you can find raw, uncooked reviews of PC computer brands. It’s like with “reviews” of gasoline brands - all anecdotal, all dubious, all unreliable. Tech support sucks everywhere, that much we know. Are these computers all assembled from the same parts manufactured by the same factories in China? Certainly some of the components are, then what difference does it make, to quote you know who?
Dell is a hardware company.
Any news on just what kind of job Snowden had at Dell??
I hear ya ; it’s a crap shoot more or less . Bought my first PC in 1996 - a Fujitsu , which was a lemon . Like a fool I tried another Fujitsu and it too was a lemon . The HP that just died was a lemon from day one . My computer experience so far lol ...
Have had a Dell laptop very high end and ran very intense software on it. It ran MUCH too hot. Was impossible to keep cool. Quad core processor, I think it had 8G of RAM, 17” screen, cost about $4k. It was a laptop monster.
The more RAM, the more processing power, the power it draws, the more heat it generates.
Eventually I dribbled a little clear water on the keyboard by accident and it died. But I think it did not have long anyway.
I’ve since had a relatively low-end Dell Optiplex 380, dual core desktop with only 2G RAM. Nice open, airy cabinet with tons of room. It has 2 fans I think, but they’re very quiet, and of course it has a heat sink on the CPU. Runs EXTREMELY COOL. Never gets hot at all.
I’m running Linux, MySQL db, apache web server, 24x7 for probably about 2 years now, working on it also as a desktop all day six days a week.
So quiet it you really can’t hear if it’s on or not.
No performance problems, no problems at all. It’s on all the time and it just works.
One other note: efficiency in fans generally increases the volume of sound they make; inefficient fans can be made to run real quiet, FWIW.
IMHO, don’t go to the “bleeding edge” of technology unless you have a real need for it. Of course, if you run Linux, performance will not really be an issue, but if you run M$ it is very likely to be at some point.
IMHO, it pays to check into Intel’s website and search around a little and look at the different CPU models that are out there right now, then check out what you’re getting inside your Dell. Helps tremendously on price/performance, i.e., not getting way more CPU than you need yet not winding up up with the “runt” CPU and forever not quite having enough horsepower under the hood. Most CPUs today are very fast. Same checking around, IMHO, goes for monitor, graphics accelerator (in another post I wrote about the awful surprise of finding out that your OS/drivers won’t support your accelerator so ALL your graphics is rendered by your CPU), and hard drive.
I’ve got a Toshiba, low on the chart above, working great, and at work I had a Dell, whose motherboard failed after several years, got it replaced, and it worked like a charm for the next several years (unfortunately, because I needed a newer, faster model as a replacement.) I used to tell people and do it myself: build your own, but unless you’re a gamer, or want and must have the latest and the greatest (which will be obsolete in 6 months anyway!) it no longer pays to build.
My Dell Inspiron never faulters.
Tons of problems with dell, My sony viao never fails
I had hundreds of Dell desktop computers of all types for business and several for personal use. The only problem I ran into was Dell got a large batch of bad capacitors in the early 2000s that affected two workstations I had. Other than that they have been rock solid. I now buy 1 year old off-lease workstations from their outlet and do my own upgrades. The workstations are built to last for years. However, when it comes to laptops I prefer Sony.
I have an Apple MacBook pro and a Lenovo. Both excellent, as you can see by the above chart.
I use the high end Dell workstations and mobile work stations for my engineering work. Been using them for 10 years now. No complaints from me.
Don’t forget that the 32-bit OS limits you to only 4Gb of RAM, but the 64-bit OS lets you use as much RAM as the motherboard will support. If you don’t have software that requires 32-bit, I would opt for the 64-bit system.
did anyone try wiping the HDD and installing linux?
Do people really toss their laptops if the Windows get hit with a virus and kills the HDD?
Upgrade to a Lenova AMD A10 with 8G
that sounds nice..trust me, if you had to hear the annoying fan all day it would get on your nerves..also windows 8 I think works better on a 64 bit system, so the more ram you can get the better. I use Windows 8 in windows 7 mode, just used to it that way, old habits die hard..I downloaded this app called StartIsBack and it installs the start button on windows 8 so the look and feel is just like its on windows 7..warranty wise, thats up to you..I had a 1 year warranty but chose not to spend the extra 250 bucks for the additional 3 years..you call those tech guys and most of the time I end up solving the problem myself..they overcharge on the extra warranty so thats up to you..Dell is good just be sure you get lots of Ram and a good size hard drive, that thing fills up fast, you dont think you will need it but at the end of the day, more is better
My sister gave me a laptop because it was slow. Virus. I wiped it and installed Ubuntu on it. Works like a charm.
I had a few Dells while selling AutoCAD drawings. If you had a legit warranty issue you were dirt. They had the absolute worst customer service I have ever experienced before or since. That was a decade ago and I’ve never gone back.
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