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Does Dell make its own motherboards?



 
 
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  #21  
Old January 5th 05, 11:15 AM
Rob Nicholson
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I have the impression (correct me if I am wrong) that the component
qulaity and the build quality of a Dell is pretty decent. Sure it is


The build quality is probably unmatched. Laptops are a bit less reliable but
then again, they always are...

Rob.


  #22  
Old January 5th 05, 11:16 AM
Gama Chameleon
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On Wed, 05 Jan 2005 10:04:54 GMT, "Rob Nicholson"
wrote:

chosen to buy in some Dell PCs for the office. One reason might be that I
am, as you say, an idiot. The other reason might be that the Dells do the
job I need for the office, and they cost 20% less to buy in ready-built
than the price at which I can buy the parts.


20%? Yes, that probably sounds about right. We've only built one custom PC
at work (a dual Athlon XP system) and we've had no end of problems with it -
it's always got the top off :-) The Dell PCs & servers just sit there and
work 24/7.


This is the thing with Dell compareed to many self builds. Dell go for
reasonable quality components that are not pushing too hard but are
stable. They have checked for compatibility so you known there most
likley won't be odd conflicts (at least at the driver release you
get).

How many people self build a server with a hot swap SCSI array and hot
swap redundant power supplies? Thats the sort of area where Dell is
good..
--
Gamma gamma gamma chameleon
You come and glow, you come and glow.
Kick out the cats before you reply
  #23  
Old January 5th 05, 11:17 AM
Rob Nicholson
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.... does that translate into "no one ever got fired for buying an IBM"
)))))))))


Do they still make Thinkpads themselves? I know they've just sold the entire
PC arm to a company in China.

Rob.


  #24  
Old January 5th 05, 11:19 AM
Rob Nicholson
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I ask because your suggestion/experience of Dell has no reflection on
what it's like in the UK (Britain)


Eh? Software purchased with a Dell PC (i.e. Windows XP Professional & Office
2003) is always cheaper than purchased separately, unless you have a huge
license agreement.

Rob.


  #25  
Old January 5th 05, 11:20 AM
Rob Nicholson
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1, the CPU cooler consisted of a green plastic duct over the metalwork
led to a 120 mm fan on the rear, nice and quiet.


Those are nice aren't they - I'd never class Dell PCs as loud. Compared to
some of their rack mount servers which sound like a jumbo jet :-)

2, No AGP socket - the solder pads are there on the board, but no
socket. This one had onboard graphics. If you wanted to upgrade to
decent graphics you'd have to use a PCI card.


Out of interest, what's the performance of a PCI graphics card compared to
an AGP one?

Rob.


  #26  
Old January 5th 05, 01:17 PM
Gama Chameleon
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On Wed, 5 Jan 2005 12:00:20 -0000, Tx2
wrote:

snip

Whilst they may be able to secure better pricing on apps, their support,
IME, is not up to the standard you reflect it as being wherever you are
located.

They are a big organisation, and IME, it is rare for big organisations
to give as good as, and certainly not better, support than your local
independent self-builder.


Of course thats assuming that the self builder is never going to go on
say a 1 or 2 week holiday, say leaving the company the self built
machine for in the lurch until they get back.

Or say the builder is out fixing another machine whilst one fails and
is unable to get there the same day to fix that one as its a one man
business.

FTR, I am discussing Dell from a self-build angle, and not cutting edge
technology servers et al, of which i have no experience.


Servers can be self built, but unless you understand the technology
beind them I wouldn't recomend it. They don't tend to be cutting edge
technology anyway, better to be just behind the curve and have kit
that is tried and tested to be compatible, stable and robust.

I guess you are talking more from the perspective desk top PC in an
environment that can cope with it being out for a day or more, e.g. a
business non PC centric or a home user.


--
Gamma gamma gamma chameleon
You come and glow, you come and glow.
Kick out the cats before you reply
  #27  
Old January 5th 05, 01:28 PM
GB
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"Tx2" wrote in message
t...

I have given examples of my experience with Dell in the UK via another
posting, and I believe there have been other posts made reflecting such
from other users in this thread.


I can well believe the difficulties you mention with Dell.

However, on the plus side, they do at least test-run the systems before
shipping them, so that cuts down some of the problems. All the components in
the system are tested first by the manufacturers and then by Dell when they
test-run the system.

If you buy your components from an online supplier, you are of course having
to deal with *their* often ****ty customer services if you have a problem. I
have had more duff components than duff fully-built PCs because the PCs go
through the second stage of testing. I am sure that you do the same when you
build a system for a customer, so I am not suggesting that Dell are doing
anything particularly clever here.

Geoff


  #28  
Old January 5th 05, 02:04 PM
BigH2K
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"Leythos" wrote in message
...
In article ,
says...
You suggested the "big place they get the self-builder is the apps and
support/warranty"

Whilst they may be able to secure better pricing on apps, their support,
IME, is not up to the standard you reflect it as being wherever you are
located.


The price difference on their apps can make a huge difference in pricing
to the customers. Since you appear to have not purchased GOLD level
support from Dell you might want to reconsider - a gold plan can be
purchased for as little as $49/US here and makes a big difference in
support. As for home/store the support difference is large. A home
builder has NO support for hardware or APPs - the Dell buyer has both.

They are a big organisation, and IME, it is rare for big organisations
to give as good as, and certainly not better, support than your local
independent self-builder.


And most every small shop is almost always on a brake-even sales slide
and support, for free, is something they can't afford to provide. Most
small shops are stocked with kids that know less than your average
support script reader from Dell's off-shore unit.

FTR, I am discussing Dell from a self-build angle, and not cutting edge
technology servers et al, of which i have no experience.


So am I. I bought about 1.3 million in Dell servers and workstations
last year, got great prices and support for every one of them for the
clients that needed support. They would not have saved ANY money going
in the home/self build route. You appear to be missing the reason why
people buy Dell's and others.

--
--

(Remove 999 to reply to me)


I personally wouldn't buy Dell or any other brand name for a home PC.

OTOH, I would buy Dell or a brand name for corporate use and that's what
most companies do because they get the economies of scale and they do get
good support but Dell and others just don't give that sort of backing to the
home user. Remember that if one of your machines goes down and you're a
company with 5 or 10+ machines you're gonna lose a relatively low percentage
of your productivity for a relatively short space of time. If your home PC
goes tits up you'll lose 100% for at least a few days, sometimes weeks.

If Dell sold home machines with standard components for a realistic price
then I might be interested but what Dell have tried to do, and fortunately
failed IMO to achieve is total market domination by cutting their margins to
the bone in order to price competitors out.

Also bear in mind that here in the UK we often get a much poorer deal than
US customers in terms of service and price for reasons that are far too sad
to debate in this thread so please don't assume you can purchase uprated
support services at bargain prices because we often don't have access to
those options or those prices.


  #29  
Old January 5th 05, 02:25 PM
Mercury
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Default

Me.
I have read of many cases where the Dell SCSI RAID config is bolted down in
the SCSI firmware. IE RAID 5 and thats that. Only one disc volume, no
options.

Building a server is easy. Bigger margins, better quality everywhere, less
driver hassles so long as you pick the right h/w (WHQL).You can save many
thousands on a modest server. Not for the inexperienced tho I suppose.

"Gama Chameleon" wrote
in message news
On Wed, 05 Jan 2005 10:04:54 GMT, "Rob Nicholson"
wrote:

chosen to buy in some Dell PCs for the office. One reason might be that
I
am, as you say, an idiot. The other reason might be that the Dells do
the
job I need for the office, and they cost 20% less to buy in ready-built
than the price at which I can buy the parts.


20%? Yes, that probably sounds about right. We've only built one custom PC
at work (a dual Athlon XP system) and we've had no end of problems with
it -
it's always got the top off :-) The Dell PCs & servers just sit there and
work 24/7.


This is the thing with Dell compareed to many self builds. Dell go for
reasonable quality components that are not pushing too hard but are
stable. They have checked for compatibility so you known there most
likley won't be odd conflicts (at least at the driver release you
get).

How many people self build a server with a hot swap SCSI array and hot
swap redundant power supplies? Thats the sort of area where Dell is
good..
--
Gamma gamma gamma chameleon
You come and glow, you come and glow.
Kick out the cats before you reply



  #30  
Old January 5th 05, 02:29 PM
Mercury
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default

Servers cutting edge? Huh?
Conservative cutting edge IE lagging 6 months at least.
You will find more raid, more advacned controllers, system management
functions etc. but that is long in the tooth stuff.

"Gama Chameleon" wrote
in message ...
On Wed, 5 Jan 2005 12:00:20 -0000, Tx2
wrote:

snip

Whilst they may be able to secure better pricing on apps, their support,
IME, is not up to the standard you reflect it as being wherever you are
located.

They are a big organisation, and IME, it is rare for big organisations
to give as good as, and certainly not better, support than your local
independent self-builder.


Of course thats assuming that the self builder is never going to go on
say a 1 or 2 week holiday, say leaving the company the self built
machine for in the lurch until they get back.

Or say the builder is out fixing another machine whilst one fails and
is unable to get there the same day to fix that one as its a one man
business.

FTR, I am discussing Dell from a self-build angle, and not cutting edge
technology servers et al, of which i have no experience.


Servers can be self built, but unless you understand the technology
beind them I wouldn't recomend it. They don't tend to be cutting edge
technology anyway, better to be just behind the curve and have kit
that is tried and tested to be compatible, stable and robust.

I guess you are talking more from the perspective desk top PC in an
environment that can cope with it being out for a day or more, e.g. a
business non PC centric or a home user.


--
Gamma gamma gamma chameleon
You come and glow, you come and glow.
Kick out the cats before you reply



 




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