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Does Dell make its own motherboards?



 
 
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  #11  
Old January 5th 05, 02:56 AM
Immuno
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"Lem" wrote in message ...
On 04 Jan 2005, Tx2 wrote:


ISTR that reliability too is better than average


Than average what?



Dell's reliability is often said to better than the average. See:

17th Annual Reader Satisfaction Survey
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,1623585,00.asp
click on links like 'Survey Results'


....."often said to better than the average" - cute phrase, ...says - not a
lot.

From the article:

"As you peruse the results, you'll see that no company is beyond reproach.
Each is guilty of selling machines that need repair and providing poor
technical support at times. The leading vendors-Apple in the desktop and
notebook categories, Dell in desktops and servers, and IBM in notebooks-are
those that keep criticism to a minimum."

......"keep criticism to a minimum" - how does that tranlate into MTBF?

also:

"Unfortunately, phone support is also among the most expensive support
methods. In order to cut costs, many vendors have moved call centers
overseas. Big vendors Dell, HP, Gateway, and Toshiba all use at least some
foreign call centers, and many readers complain of difficulty communicating
with technicians."

I especially liked:

"Unlike many of its competitors, IBM refuses to use overseas technicians,
and its tech-support scores are impressive. Readers give IBM a 7.0 overall
score for desktop tech support and a 7.6 for notebooks. They rate IBM
support techs' ability to comprehend user problems and to speak in a clear,
understandable manner at least a point higher than they do Dell, HP, Sony,
and Toshiba techs."

..... does that translate into "no one ever got fired for buying an IBM"
)))))))))

Pete


Out of interest - how much does Dell charge for a fifteen quid (thirty buck)
PSU?


  #12  
Old January 5th 05, 09:48 AM
peter
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DaveW wrote:
Dell uses PROPRIETARY motherboards. They are NOT standard.


The Dell I worked on yesterday (~1yr old) had a standard mATX
motherboard, with 2 unusual features:
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.
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.
As far as I can see, they now use standard ATX power supplies (they
didn't used to).

  #13  
Old January 5th 05, 10:21 AM
Gama Chameleon
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On Tue, 4 Jan 2005 17:03:14 -0000, Tx2
wrote:

snip

Sourcing and installing still apply with the Dell (let alone how long
you take checking and double checking the specs before you hit "BUY")

Of course, you haven't factored in the time you'd spend on the phone to
Dell trying to convince them an engineer is needed when it goes wrong,
with them arguing the toss, etc etc etc.


Of course it depends too on the service level you have purchased and
the system. i.e. I would tend to go for Dell and the like for servers
where you can just phone up and say "I want an engineer over here in 4
hrs", swap the unit out if necessary and install a system backup
rather than spending a day with the server down.

For a small business where the IT person is the secretary who knows
how to swap tapes over and thats about it, this sort of service level
is a reasonable compromise over having a company on retainer for call
out support.

As you say though getting an engineer out can sometimes be
problematic. I've been finding their call center problematic at times.
--
Gamma gamma gamma chameleon
You come and glow, you come and glow.
Kick out the cats before you reply
  #14  
Old January 5th 05, 11:00 AM
Rob Nicholson
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If your ever considering "looking under the bonnet", or peeking at the
BIOS - don't do Dell!


But if you want a well built system with good specification at a low price,
then do seriously consider Dell. For the majority of the market out there
who just want it to work, Dell fits the mark.

I used to build PCs for friends and family. Don't bother anymore if they're
looking for a new system - can't beat Dell on price esp. when you add in the
operating system (which lots of home builders seem to forget :-) and the
hassle factor is so much less.

Rob.


  #15  
Old January 5th 05, 11:03 AM
Rob Nicholson
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Anybody that buys a brand name computer is an idiot.
Build it yourself using good brand name hardware and build it the way you
want it. You will be very pleased with the results.


Are you serious?? :-) I would estimate a very high percentage of PCs are
bought by non-technical users who just want to plug it in and go. Building
your PC from parts, whilst not exactly difficult, is occasionally fraught
with difficulties. Like the questions & problems that this group is filled
with.

And on price, I'm not sure anymore that a custom build PC to the same
specification is any cheaper when bought in components. This doesn't include
my time as well.

Rob.


  #16  
Old January 5th 05, 11:04 AM
Rob Nicholson
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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.

Rob.


  #17  
Old January 5th 05, 11:08 AM
Rob Nicholson
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20% for not being able to support them *properly* when the machine goes
down is worth it is it?


Dell kit is incredibly reliable mainly because you don't mess around with
it. The only Dell hardware we've had fail is a CD-ROM and video output from
one laptop. Compared to the Compaq iPAQ that litereraly blew up, the custom
built Gigabyte system that decided to stop working with WD hard disk and
won't run through the KVM, the 3 Toshiba laptops that have developed several
faults etc...

If one of the Dell base units failed, we wouldn't bother trying to fix it.
We'd simply buy a new base unit for ~£200. £200 doesn't buy you a lot of
"fixing" time and you'll have a nice new higher-spec box anyway.

Rob.


  #18  
Old January 5th 05, 11:09 AM
Rob Nicholson
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I can build and have a system up and running in about half a day.

And what about time spent purchasing the components and did that include the
operating system and software?? What about those times when you got an
awkward new motherboard which didn't work with a component?

And don't get me started if one of the components was DOA! Getting the
supermarket suppliers like Dabs & Insight to replace them is a nightmare...

Rob.


  #19  
Old January 5th 05, 11:12 AM
Rob Nicholson
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As you say though getting an engineer out can sometimes be
problematic. I've been finding their call center problematic at times.


Dell's customer care did go down hill last year, about the same time they
outsourced to India... I believe there have been so many complaints that
this is under review. We had one particularly hilarious support job where we
just wanted a missing CD-ROM for a laptop (it was missing on delivery). The
probably spent more time on the support call than the £1 CD-ROM.

But compared to Gigabyte support...

Rob.


  #20  
Old January 5th 05, 11:14 AM
Rob Nicholson
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"But I have 3 year on-site warranty" you say

For what Dell charge? You must be joking! :-)


We don't bother with the 3 year on-site warranty except for the servers -
one year RTB is fine. For desktops and even laptops it just doesn't make
financial sense. For the occasional system that might fail, then just buy
another one. 2 x new systems in a 50 user site compared to 50 x 3 year
warranty - you do the math :-)

Rob.


 




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