Dell PCs are complete and utter crap

[time]

This is by no means the first time I have had to work with Dell PCs, but I've really had about as much as I can take. Dell Optiplex GX280 SFF. These 3GHz space heaters are the slowest thing I've seen for years. Maybe the Symantec crapola suite is contributing, but 5 to 7.5 minutes (repeatedly) to file-search through 20GB of files on freshly imaged PCs seems over the top to me.

The same operation on my overclocked Athlon 754-2800 across 60GB of files (170,000+) took about one minute, before indexing caught up and it reverted to being nearly instantaneous.

And then there's the poxy half height DVD drive that couldn't suck the skin off a rice pudding. Of course, it feels like molasses with everything. I've seen Athlon 1600 that felt quicker. :evil:

 

[Mercutio]

Symantec is a big contributor to that, I think.
But I don't think anyone is going to argue with you about Dell's suck factor.

 

[Bozo]

Didn't Dell invent suck for PCs?? :wink:


Bozo :mrgrn:

 

[Mercutio]

Nope. I'm pretty sure it was Packard Bell.
Tannin will probably say it's Osborn or something.

My personal favorite Dell experience: Receiving 12 PCs and one of their baby servers, absolutely NONE of which had the power supply plugged into the motherboard.
QA? What QA?

Ironically, those with looonnnngggg memories might remember that Dell's early years were largely spent doing the sorts of goofy things that companies like Alienware do today: They shipped overclocked and/or highly customized configurations with a standard warranty. That's pretty much the opposite of the Dell we know today.

 

[Buck]

Ironically, those with looonnnngggg memories might remember that Dell's early years were largely spent doing the sorts of goofy things that companies like Alienware do today: They shipped overclocked and/or highly customized configurations with a standard warranty. That's pretty much the opposite of the Dell we know today.

I used to praise Dell as an OEM because of the great systems they produced. Wow, that's been a long time. The Optiplex SX280 is slow, but I think Symantec is making it much worse. Since it uses the i910 chipset and everything is integrated, I've noticed how important it is for these machines to be properly defragged and for the swap file to be set to a fixed size (minimum and maximum the same). With these sort of system, every little detail that you can alter to improve performance makes a difference.

 

[mubs]

Buck is back!

 

[GIANT]

Ironically, those with looonnnngggg memories might remember that Dell's early years...

Or a dozen years before that -- walking into a store in Austin, TX called "PC's Limited." This was where Dell started off. The computers were called PC's Limited. The name changed around 1990 or so after the first billion or two revenue was made.

 

[Mercutio]

Yup.
I have a few old issues of Computer Shopper with some of their ads.

 

[mubs]

Whatever, the man is worth $18B today.

 

[blakerwry]

i've been impressed with Dell's Dimension line of p4 desktops with i845 and up chipsets... good quality motherboards and standard replacable items.

We've bought half a dozen or so in the last 2 years and the only issue was with one of the PSUs dying after a year. Replaced cheaply with a FSP-300 from newegg and was back up and running.

The dimension 3000 line is cut back and only has 2 DIMM slots and no AGP port, but if you never plan on upgrading the graphics (let's face it, many home users never touch that) then it's acceptible. If you want the added flexibility get the $50 upgrade to the 4xxx line and get 4 DIMM slots and AGP/PCI-e

 

[Dïscfärm]

I have a few old issues of Computer Shopper with some of their ads...

Computer Shopper came out around 1989. The hole-in-the-wall store experience was ummm... 1983-ish.


Something completely different: Now that you've brought up Computer Shopper magazine, I was talking to someone back in June or July or so about a series of adds that appeared in the back pages of Computer Shopper and sometimes PC Magazine for a few years. It was an add for some place in Tampa or St. Petersburg, Florida that was selling PC clone systems. Nothing unusual about that, as there were thousands of places doing that at the time. The unusual thing was their advertisement, which had a slightly overpriced forgettable 386 AT clone positioned ever so perfectly in front of a laughing naked woman -- positioned so that ummm... it could just squeak by whatever standards are out there for making the grade so as to be printed in a mainstream publication. The ad was pretty ridiculous. Eventually the ads -- and presumably the company -- went away (as far as I know).

 

[Adcadet]

so, if it's time to get my parents-in-law a new computer, is there anybody left? I used to like Gateway, but then realized they kind of bit. Then I liked Dell, but they seem to be crapping out. Should I just start recommending the little mom-and-pop shop in town?

 

[Will Rickards]

No you should build it yourself, or have somebody here do it and send it to them. Only way to be sure you aren't getting crap.

 

[Buck]

Personally, I'm biased towards local shops. Although, the one you linked to can't even create a proper web page, let alone the fact that they used Frontpage 5.0. Hopefully, their computer skills are much better than their html capabilities.

 

[Adcadet]

Yeah, Tran Micro has always had a crappy web page. But they install stuff there in the shop, seem to have OK prices, and generally seem to know what they're doing. And from what I remember from a few years ago, their standard boxes used decent, standard parts, and wouldn't do crap like put in a $200 GeForce whatever into an office machine, not put an integrated video card into a basic gaming box. I've recommended the place to a few people in years past, and all have had a good experience. Haven't looked at them closely lately, though.

And yeah, I prefer to build it myself, but then wives, parents, friends, etc expect tech support. I like having a backup option that involves someone else doing the tech support.

 

[Mercutio]

I have a few old issues of Computer Shopper with some of their ads...

Computer Shopper came out around 1989. The hole-in-the-wall store experience was ummm... 1983-ish.

No, I'm quite certain I have some old computer magazines - PC Magazine or Byte, maybe - that have PC's Limited advertisements. I remember thinking that the owner was an idiot for letting that typo go out in all his ads... until I saw an article that indicated that the name was, in fact, correct.

 

[Dïscfärm]

No, I'm quite certain I have some old computer magazines - PC Magazine or Byte, maybe - that have PC's Limited advertisements...

Long before there was a Computer Shopper, there were advertisements for PCs's Limited boxes in all the mainstream computer magazines -- PC World, PC Magazine, Byte, etc.

I recall the technical articles that began appearing in Computer Shopper after its introduction. Talking about crap on every level, those articles were like reading drivel from some modern-day overclocker's forum. Things didn't change that much when Ziff Davis bought them a little later.