I am in the market for a new computer. My buddy who put's together computers on the side and built mine 8 years ago told me to just get a Dell.He said he can't build them that cheap and they are reliable and you can order what you want. Any opinions on Dell? Paul

We have owned a dell for four years... I think the value is well worth the cost... but remember the pre installed software is bought by dell and it is dell's resposibility for it so if you end up with an issue that is in say a microsoft product you would need to go to dell for the fix... notwithstanding updates and such. I guess why I say this is you should consider a service contract when you buy.... it only take one time where you have an issue and you can't seem to resolve its is nice to have the pakistani to help you out.

other than that it is a verry nice product and you can build it so if at some time you can upgrade it.
best bang for the buck is ram so leave that open as an option.

sol...

agreed. I have three Dells. two desktop towers and a laptop.
they don't give them away, but worth the money with the dell update service and all...

/ al

Paul, I have had 2 Dells! They are great machines!!

I just set up 4 of the $299 Dell 2400's at my friends office. They are ok out the box, but you will need to upgrade the Ram ASAP! They only come with 128 amd i bumped them to 512 amd they are screamers now!!

Circut City has some great Ram prices right noe like $30 something after rebate for 512!

So when you make the order see what they get for the upgrade of ram, if its alot just buy your own when you get it and install in 5 min.

You will love it!!

We own a Dell laptop. Our next desktop pc will be a Dell.

Dells have a good bang for the buck - just be sure to opt for 2-3 years of service contract unless it is disposable (computers can and do fail) or you are a genius :tm:

For some of the best pricing on a Dell - you need to watch fatwallet.com and the hot deals forum for good deals on these. But you need to be able to pull the trigger when a deal comes out as they can last between a few hours and no more than a couple days - but you can occasionally score well.

I had needed to upgrade my work laptop for a while and wanted best bang for buck. With a responsible budget around $2K I could get something OK but I new sooner or later a $750 off $1500 laptop coupon sould come along so I kept in the loop and when it presented itself in June 05 or so, I was able to spec out a $2600 laptop, stay well below my self imposed budget (public entity - trying to be responsible), and essentially save the city I work in some coin - just being responsible about it. Sure, Dell hates me from time to time :hihi: but WTH?

FWIW, I had to purchase 6 computers for work. I talked to a local IT company who suggested Dell earlier this year. We purchased 6 Dimension 3000's. Dell just came in and replaced all 6 cooling fans and processors (P4's) because the machines were acting real slow. Granted this was on a network but the network was just converted to CAT 6e. The tech that came out said he's been replacing the processors on many of these machines. Not sure if it is a Dell problem or an Intel problem. Good part was they were there the next day and seem to work fine now!

That FatWallet is a good wintertime addiction when I am not fishing. The only problem is I find myself buying things I really don't need because the deals are so spectacular.I have also gotten alot of free fishing magazines off of the free stuff section of that site. I second the recommendation of Dell, upgrade the 90 day warranty, I believe they are running a special on the warrantys now, a rep called and offered me $50 off a three year yesterday.

Picked up an Dell for a family member for Xmass. Easy to set up. Easy to deal with.

I just got an inspiron from dell last week. So far so good.

I'm a network admin with 80 dells, and 25 other pc's. 90% of my time is spent on the other PC's. We have exclusively ordered dells for some time now, and will continue to do so.