Account deleted by request

morning guys,

just wanted a quick bit of advice re dells.

Im starting a new business thus need a new pc. Basically although its for business I dont need to network or anything just a very reliable desktop to run, internet, word, excel etc and maybe autocad lite. Its only me to start with and when I do employ a PA she wont need to network in so I can just buy another for her to work off.

Question is do I go for a relatively highly spec'd Insprion which is strickly their home cumputer or a Vostro which is listed as the 'business computer'

What do people think? any advice?

Thanks

chop

GC8WRX

Avoid dells, most of their parts are dell only, so if your power supply dies in a puff of smioke, only a new dell one will fit, you cant just go to micro direct or pc worl and buy a generic one!

I would bear that in mind if my pc was "mission critical"

Iain Young

Possibly a valid point about the bespoke power supplies, however I wouldn't personally use it as an excuse not to get one. I recently bought an Inspiron for my dad, and the power supply looks pretty standard to me. I think the one in the smaller cases tend to be a bit odd though.

I've used hundreds of the things, and they've been the most reliable machines I've used by a long chalk, (never had a supply go in 10+ years of using them). One of my development Dells at work have been turned on 24x7 for about 5 years now

As for Inspiron vs Vostro, you pays yer money and makes yer choice. Both are built to be pretty reliable, so really you need to compare the specifications, (note that if you want to do CAD stuff, you may want to have a better graphics card than comes as standard with the entry level Vostros and Inspirons).

AndyMoody

iTrader: (2)

Dell Outlet were doing free delivery and £55 off. I got a Vostro recently for £212.48 total, don't go by the list price.

bioforger

iTrader: (1)

The psus used in Dell's are of a very high quality to, so the chance of them goin pop is slim, but I am biased I got an XPS420 for £480, about £270 under list price, happy days

GC8WRX

Agree dells arent all bad.

My mate runs his own business, and managed to spill coffee on his desktop, next thing is a puff of smoke from the psu!

Phoned dell to sort a replacement, and they wanted the pc delivered back to them to fit a new psu, i told them we didnt have time for that as the pc was needed for the new business!

The only way they would send out a new psu is if we voluntarily gave up the rest of the warrenty as it wasnt fitted by a dell engineer!

The psu was a wierd size and the connectors were a unique size too, making it almost impossible to get a psu from anyone other than dell!

My local pc specialist (who claims to be a AMD trained retailer but has never heard of my FX60!) said he wont touch dells cos they are too much hassle!

If you cant build yourself, go to a local specialist, tell them what you want the pc for and let them build it

At least if it goes **** up you can knock on their door and get it sorted asap!

Iain Young

I've yet to find a pc built by a local "specialist" that could be termed as reliable though. The number of machines I've had to sort out that have been built by these people is a joke. If you get a good one then fair enough, but how do you know you are going to get a good one in advance.

Personally, I'd buy two cheaper Dells. One for main use, and one for backup just in case. Probably could be networked and used for backup purposes as well