[geeks] Wow, PCs are cheap...

[Lionel Peterson]

>From: Phil Stracchino <alaric at metrocast.net>
>Date: 2008/08/23 Sat PM 03:09:42 EDT
>To: The Geeks List <geeks at sunhelp.org>
>Subject: Re: [geeks] Wow, PCs are cheap...

>Lionel Peterson wrote:
>>> From: james <james at jdfogg.com> I've had luck with cheap Dells. I
>>> don't know how whitebox vendors stay in business.
>> 
>> I only build a PC when I want to use a particular component (for some
>> reason), otherwise I've sworn-off build-it yourself machines.
>
>I only buy prebuilt if it's something I can't build myself, like a
>laptop, a printer, a monitor or a switch.  If I buy a system from, say,
>Dell, sure, it's cheap ... but it's cheap because every component was
>supplied by the lowest bidder.  When I have to work on relatives' home
>PCs bought from Dell, HP etc, I look inside them and I want to barf.
>
>"We ship the machine with one RAM module installed.  Why would it need
>more than one slot?

I've never seen anything like you've described, except that some systems (esp. low-cost units), ship with one DIMM, but have at least two slots and support dual channel memory access. The cheap desktop I bought (Vostro 200 mini tower, no SFF) has four memory slots. 

>Sure, you have to take the entire machine apart to
>swap out the power supply ... why, is that a problem?

If a power supply dies, I've not seen any extra effort involved compared with any DIY machine I've come across. (as a refence point, I just replace the PS in an older Dimension 4300 desktop - the only "trick" required was to fold back the green shroud that covers the fan over the CPU and connects to the back panel to get at the 4 pin 12v plug. DIY boxes usually don't have that shroud, but I wouldn't call that a disassembly.

>... Add a second
>disk?  99% of our customers never need to do that.

I bet many (approaching most) users actually never add a second drive - we never do at $WORK, and most professional settings that have any serious IT dept won't allow users to do any real work on their local drive (to prevent data loss in case of HD failure).

>Our service center
>can replace the one disk there's room for with a larger one for only
>twice what the disk would cost you retail, and we'll have the machine
>back to you in three weeks or less.

Dell doesn't offer to install upgrades after the fact - that is the domain of Geek Squad/FireDog/etc.

Pricing for drives are OK, IMHO - YMMV (of course), but what I typically see is 160 - 250 gig HDs as standard, and upgrading to a 500 Gig HD is about $100-150 more, depending - similar to the price of the same drive from a third-party (newegg.com?). I typically buy the default drive and then *add* the larger drive for the same money.

The Vostro 200 I ordered takes two drives internally, and can do RAID 1 in the hardware (Intel Matrix BS Software RAID).

>...Oops, sorry about your data."

Well, without a backup, you should assume your data is toast. Again, Dell doesn't do upgrades after the sale (AFAIK), Geek Squad/FireDog charge extra (a lot extra) to backup your drive, if you haven't backed it up prior and want them to do it.

Hardware build quality is not a problem with Dell, for me anyway...

Lionel