Dell Laptops??

[gustavo77]

So i am in the market for a new lap top and i was checking out the Dell website and Studio 17 lab tops...they look sweet and you can customize them anyway you want. I have a Compaq PC and have had not had any problems at all in three years.. I just wondering if i can expect some of the same quality from Dell. Anyone have any thoughts on the quality of Dell??

Thanks.

[Richter]

ya... don't buy a Dell!!! Stick with HP.

[gustavo77]

ya... don't buy a Dell!!! Stick with HP.

Why?? Is the quality poor?? I am not look for anything advanced....i am not into gaming or anything...just movies, music and smooth sailing online...

[Richter]

Well, my ex had a dell laptop and she always had problems with it. Always freezing, getting too hot, crashings and so forth.

I had a co worker who's sister bought a dell and had problems in the first month and sent it in to be fixed. 4 months later they still had her dell!

One of my geek friends said if I ever buy a dell, he'll loose respect for me.

I've owned 2 HP laptops. Both were/are great. I bring mine to work everyday and watch stuff on my breaks.

On a side note, I'd wait more towards the new school year for great laptop deals. That's only if you can wait. I got a nice 17 inch AMD 6000 XP with Vista and 2 GB ram 250GB HD for $599 2 years ago. Best thing I've ever bought!!

[Richter]

OH, and because I hate vista with a passion, I changed it over to Windows XP Pro. Worked much much faster than that shitty Vista!!!

[spitfire]

I hate dell. I had nothing but problems with my old dell. HP or Toshiba seems to be good now. Sony is great but always more expensive. But don't buy dell.

[PdH]

I have a Dell Inspirion E1705. Best machine I've ever owned.
Here's a good info site: http://www.notebookreview.com/

[z83]

I wouldn't touch a Dell with a 10 foot pole.
Take a look at Lenovo laptops. The thinkpad serie is really good.

[gustavo77]

Wow, with these reviews i wonder how they stay in business...

[spitfire]

Dell used to be a great company back in the day. They went downhill when they exported their manufacturing. They put in cheap shit in there and often it breaks down. But the dells of the early 2000's were hard to beat. Nowadays, most people avoid them.

[PdH]

Wow, with these reviews i wonder how they stay in business...

They stay in business because they build a good quality product for a fair price. Far too many people blame build quality on what is either an operating system problem or pure neglect by the user. They don't clean their registries or adjust the parameters, don't defrag, don't delete junk files and links, and then blame the manufacturer when they get hangs, BSOD, overheating, etc.

[PdH]

Nowadays, most people avoid them.

Sale Rankings in 2008

1- HP - 20.8%

2 - Dell - 15.1%

3 - Acer - 14.6%

4 - Toshiba - 9.3%

5 - Lenovo - 7.5%

6 - Fujitsu-Siemens - 5.2%

7 - Apple - 4.6%

8 - Asus (includes Gateway) - 4.3%

9 - Sony - 4.2%

[spitfire]

My keys popped out. My hard drive failed once and finally my screen died. **** Dell. My Toshiba is the sweetest machine now :)

[spitfire]

Sale Rankings in 2008

1- HP - 20.8%

2 - Dell - 15.1%

3 - Acer - 14.6%

4 - Toshiba - 9.3%

5 - Lenovo - 7.5%

6 - Fujitsu-Siemens - 5.2%

7 - Apple - 4.6%

8 - Asus (includes Gateway) - 4.3%

9 - Sony - 4.2%

Can you get the breakdown on demographics. I would say most of those sales were in the US cause they still think Dell is made there and they are supporting their own. I don't know one person in my nerd group of computer users that has a dell :(

[PdH]

My keys popped out. My hard drive failed once and finally my screen died. **** Dell. My Toshiba is the sweetest machine now :)

My AMD Athlon fried up, my Asus MOBO burned out twice, my Seagate hard drive died, my Maxtor hard drive arrived DOA. Isolated incidents of failure are not representative of a manufacturer's build quality. Every manufacturer has breakdowns. It's kind of like saying you had to change the brakes on your Honda so Honda's are crap.

[PdH]

Can you get the breakdown on demographics. I would say most of those sales were in the US cause they still think Dell is made there and they are supporting their own. I don't know one person in my nerd group of computer users that has a dell :(

Sorry, no demographic profile available. However, I'm not really sure I follow your line of reasoning, which is based on you presuming to know what U.S. buyers of Dell laptops are thinking. :confused:

[Spyder122]

My girlfriend own's a Dell laptop, the battery became useless after a year, (paid extra for the better battery too). It die's if it's not plugged in. It is very slow, (but due to a shitty processor, Celeron) it also overheats. Plus Dell screwed up by sending me two laptops, I ordered the one for her, charged me for two, and when I asked to ship it back the representative tried to convince me to keep and possibly try selling it to one of my friends. Took a lot of screaming at him for him to email me a shipping invoice so i could send it back via UPS. Since than I decided to avoid DELL at all costs.

I personally use an IBM/Lenovo T-60 and love it. Quick and reliable.

[spitfire]

Sorry, no demographic profile available. However, I'm not really sure I follow your line of reasoning, which is based on you presuming to know what U.S. buyers of Dell laptops are thinking. :confused:

Dunno, was just presuming. But I still say it's a sucky computer :)

[z83]

when you need your dell fixed, you have to send it to Dell directly.
When your lenovo, Toshiba or HP fail, you drive to the nearest authorized repair center. They order the broken parts and fix it. You won't have to wait : shipping, repair, shipping.

[nii]

Hrm I'm surprised at the neg rep of Dell. I can say first hand, as someone whos a tech at a company and maintains something like 200+, and as a Computer Engineer that Id give their PCs two thumbs up, but have no clue about their laptops.

As for their service, i have no clue.

But if you can afford an IBM laptop,do it, those things are absolute tanks and are designed for functionality.

[gustavo77]

Well i have searched online and the dell lap top model i am looking into getting has some pretty good reviews for it...it is very basic but here is what i am thinking of getting...any thoughts?? Again, i am not into gaming, just movies, music and surfing:

Studio 17
Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T6400 (2.00GHz/800Mhz FSB/2MB cache), Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium Service Pack 1 64 Bit
Studio 17 Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T6400 (2.00GHz/800Mhz FSB/2MB cache)
Memory 4GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 at 800MHz
Built-in Keyboard Options Standard Keyboard (included in the price)
LCD Panel Glossy widescreen 17.0 inch display (1440x900)
Video Card Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 4500MHD
Labels Windows Vista™ Premium
Hard Drive Size: 320GB SATA Hard Drive (5400RPM)
Operating System Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium Service Pack 1 64 Bit
Adobe Software Adobe® Acrobat® Reader 9.0
Combo or DVD+RW Drive 8X Slot Load CD / DVD Burner (Dual Layer DVD+/-R Drive)
Sound Card High Definition Audio 2.0
Wireless Networking Cards Intel®WiFi Link 5100 802.11agn Half Mini-Card
Camera Module Integrated 2.0M Pixel Webcam
Office Productivity Software (Pre-Installed) Microsoft Works
Anti-Virus/Security Suite (Pre-installed) McAfee SecurityCenter with anti-virus, anti-spyware, firewall, 30-Days
Battery Options 85 Whr Lithium Ion Battery (9 cell)


I selected the 9 cell battery cause i think it will give me running time than the 6 cell, is this correct?? Sorry for the basic Q's, i have limited knowledge of computer hardware..

[PdH]

The machine you're looking at will do everything you want and much more. Some suggestions to consider:

Vista Premium 64 is a serious resource hog. Dell used to offer an "upgrade" to "downgrade" to XP Pro. It cost an extra 100 bucks or something. If you downgrade this machine to XP Pro it will fly.

Get rid of the McAfee Security Suite and obtain standalone products. My advice would be NOD32 antivirus coupled with ZoneAlarm Pro firewall (shut off the anti-spy on this). If you know your stuff with firewalls then Comodo Firewall is one of the best and free.

Then download Superantispyware Free Edition and Malwarebites Anti-Malware Free Edition. These are scanners only and you need only run them every couple of weeks or so as very little will get past NOD32. Now you're set to go.

The 9 cell battery gives you longer operating life than the 6 cell. If you're leaving your machine to run off AC power for extended periods of time, take the battery out. Leaving it in will kill it before its time.

[gustavo77]

The machine you're looking at will do everything you want and much more. Some suggestions to consider:

Vista Premium 64 is a serious resource hog. Dell used to offer an "upgrade" to "downgrade" to XP Pro. It cost an extra 100 bucks or something. If you downgrade this machine to XP Pro it will fly.

Get rid of the McAfee Security Suite and obtain standalone products. My advice would be NOD32 antivirus coupled with ZoneAlarm Pro firewall (shut off the anti-spy on this). If you know your stuff with firewalls then Comodo Firewall is one of the best and free.

Then download Superantispyware Free Edition and Malwarebites Anti-Malware Free Edition. These are scanners only and you need only run them every couple of weeks or so as very little will get past NOD32. Now you're set to go.

The 9 cell battery gives you longer operating life than the 6 cell. If you're leaving your machine to run off AC power for extended periods of time, take the battery out. Leaving it in will kill it before its time.

Great points, thanks for your feedback.

I already plan to downgrade to XP but it won't cost me $100. :D

McAfee comes with the labtop but i probably won't use it at all. I already use SuperAnti-spyware...great program. The Malwarebites Anti-Malware Free Edition i will look into.

Thanks for the battery tip also.

[cog]

Dell's customer service center is in India.I believe their reputation has gone way down.HP,Toshiba,IBM is likely tops.Knowing what happens if service is required is important,a bargain Acer I bought was virtually unrepairable through Acer.Have had good luck with HP and Toshiba laptops.

[Dozer1980]

stay away from dell bro the customer service blows along with all the other parts in the unit the drives and such might be brand name but the motherboard, powersupply and all connectors are probably the lowest grade shit out there the warranty department is a joke i build systems myself and years ago had first hand problems with the poor quality of the internals of a dell machine. yes vista is a huge ram hog and would for sure run xp i would go HP or toshiba or IBM. Side by side they may look the same as a dell but inside the "big 3" are far superior, on another note they overcharge IMO sometimes on tiger direct there is some real good deals bro id look around b4 id touch a dell. IMO AMD processors are much better as they were the first ones to actually make a 64 bit processor and run slightly cooler from my experence hope this helps.

[MuSuLPhReAk]

I've had Dell, HP, IBM, and Toshiba laptops.

My favorite is IBM and Toshiba.

And for the record, I like Vista running on an Intel dual core 64 bit processor. Never had a smoother system. 4GB of Ram running though. I've even got a server running on this toshiba laptop :D

[gustavo77]

So i ended up going with a toshiba. I bought the toshiba satillite A350. It is the future shop exclusive model, so it does not have the t-6400 processor but the t-3400...also has just 3GG of RAM instead of 4GB. I figured that would be more than enough power for what i do. Got a great deal on it too, 699.99....i think the regular model is between 8-900...

This is my first time running windows Vista. Any one else notice it takes forever to restart their computers with Vista compared to XP?? My desk top only has a Pentium 4 in it with 500MG of RAM and it is way faster on start up that my new laptop here.

[RagingRandy]

^^^^ Go here....http://www.pcdecrapifier.com/ install and run this software. It will get rid of all the bloatware.

[z83]

So i ended up going with a toshiba. I bought the toshiba satillite A350. It is the future shop exclusive model, so it does not have the t-6400 processor but the t-3400...also has just 3GG of RAM instead of 4GB. I figured that would be more than enough power for what i do. Got a great deal on it too, 699.99....i think the regular model is between 8-900...

This is my first time running windows Vista. Any one else notice it takes forever to restart their computers with Vista compared to XP?? My desk top only has a Pentium 4 in it with 500MG of RAM and it is way faster on start up that my new laptop here.

if your laptop isn't connected, it will run lower mhz and will be slow

edit : uninstall norton asap !

[R-Money]

one of my laptops is a dell and i'm pretty happy with it overall.

[gustavo77]

So after getting the new laptop on friday, i check the mail and low and behold a sale starting at Future shop on Sat. For $100 more than the A350 i bought there is a toshiba Satellite model with 4GB of RAM, the intel Centrino t-6400, a 320GB hardrive and a 17.1 inch screen...it also has a number pad...

So today I went back to Future shop...lol....and exchanged my A350 for this L350 ....it is a beast but it is sweet and has 8 times the RAM as my old PC...lol...