Need a new computer????

[Guest SUNTZU]

Delicious.

[Guest Jamie]

"Components. American components, Russian Components, ALL MADE IN TAIWAN!"

That pretty much sums up computers, in my opinion...

Angus, if you like your new comp, that's all that counts.

J.

[Kelemvor]

ASUS, Gigabyte, Intel, Epox, MSI... all good boards. They all make boards for all kinds of applications. Asus computers are great from what I hear. They are cheap because you aren't paying for a name like Apple. You can build a $1000 Mac equivalent for $250. Dell is guilty of the same namewhoring that Apple does, just not as bad. Dells also are terrible. I have had 1 good Dell and that was nearly a decade ago. The best computer I've ever had is the one I'm using and I built it myself. If you want a good computer, find a computer geek that you trust and ask him to build one for you.

[E4 No More]

ASUS, Gigabyte, Intel, Epox, MSI... all good boards. They all make boards for all kinds of applications. Asus computers are great from what I hear. They are cheap because you aren't paying for a name like Apple. You can build a $1000 Mac equivalent for $250. Dell is guilty of the same namewhoring that Apple does, just not as bad. Dells also are terrible. I have had 1 good Dell and that was nearly a decade ago. The best computer I've ever had is the one I'm using and I built it myself. If you want a good computer, find a computer geek that you trust and ask him to build one for you.

Dell used to sell the cheap crap until they figured out that that cheap crap accounted for the vast majority of the calls into tech support from customers trying to run cheap crap on business networks because they were cheap-assed morons.

In other words, (to use my truck analogy), using F150's to tow 20,000 lbs and then whining because it doesn't work very well.

Dell leaves Acer to that market now.

As far as white boxes are concerned, I agree that you can build a great box for less as long as you don't shop for the cheapest components you can find because you will get what you paid for.

[Angus]

True, Asus makes some of the components in Dell and HP, and others: however, that does not mean that they are all made the same.

Do you really think that you can get a $1,000 computer for $250?

Had a Dell for 6 years, it worked great. But for what I wanted Dell wanted almost twice as much. I tried to "customise" my Dell, but they wouldn't upgrade the power supply unless I bought an Alienware( I guess that is an F-350?). Dell supplies good computers to people who just use what is in the box. I have a need to upgrade things because that is who I am and what I do. Probably the same reason not all shotguns come with the standard 24 inch barrel.

I love the ASUS, while I didn't pay $250 for it, I sure as hell did not give Dell $1500 for it.

Daniel, I woulda let ya build me one, but then I would have come home with the new comp and probably a couple pistols.....that woulda been bad!

[enfield]

I'm on my second ASUS motherboard in this computer, and it has a glitch also.

[BryanP]

What part of, "You get what you pay for" is unclear?

In the case of Dell you're paying for a brand name and some of the worst customer service I've ever had the displeasure of dealing with. And that was on an enterprise level. I hate to think what the support on their consumer grade gear is like.

[E4 No More]

In the case of Dell you're paying for a brand name and some of the worst customer service I've ever had the displeasure of dealing with. And that was on an enterprise level. I hate to think what the support on their consumer grade gear is like.

Things change. Consumer grade customer support is still in India whereas XPS and enterprise grades are in America. It's been that way for a few years now.

[Angus]

I see where they were, don't know if they still do, charging a fee to speak to and english speaking tech.. Even more of a premium if you want one in the US....kinda weird, but if people pay then whatever?

[Guest strelcevina]

for that money i could build you core I7 power house

[BryanP]

Things change. Consumer grade customer support is still in India whereas XPS and enterprise grades are in America. It's been that way for a few years now.

Actually the crappy enterprise level support I received was from people in America. But I'll admit that was a few years back.

[TripleDigitRide]

You can get great products for great prices from lesser-known companies. This usually boils down to advertising costs. When a company spends millions and millions on advertising, the money must be recouped from somewhere, and that's usually the consumer.

I'm a fan of custom-built computers, but that's hardly necessary for the average user.

[E4 No More]

Actually the crappy enterprise level support I received was from people in America. But I'll admit that was a few years back.

This is not to be construed as to apply to you or anyone else on this forum. It is the truth behind perception.

I have known a few people from Dell Technical Support over the past several years, and I have talked to MANY customers who call to complain about tech support to the sales staff. I do not sell, nor have I ever sold, computers, so there is no motivation for me to color the following or even outright lie about it. I work in a technical pre-sales role for networking equipment on a salaried basis, and because of this I am in contact with tech support and the customer regularly.

1. Tech support tells me that the vast majority of calls they receive is because of stupid crap the end user does to the computer; not because the computer is malfunctioning. Many customers get pissed when tech support refuses to teach them how to use the computer or software they bought. They expect Dell to be their free IT consultant or IT staff. Consumers are notorious for this.

2. Hardware issues account for less than 3% of the calls into tech support. Considering that no one knows what DHL, (the most notorious of the carriers), FedEx, or UPS has done to the boxes during shipment, or what the customer has done to the computer, (see #1 above), this is an extremely low figure for the industry.

2. At the time of purchase the customer chooses the level of support that they want. Most customers make their decision based on how much it costs, and then when they do something stupid they get mad because, "Dell's crappy support" can't help them when the real issue is that the lowest level of support that they chose is the real problem. Fact of life: When one is cheap they should expect cheap results.

3. All electronics are built for an expected level of use and lifespan. My truck analogy comes in here in that many customers buy pick-up trucks for a bargain price, and then expect it to perform as a dump truck. In other words, they want to save money by purchasing consumer grade desktops/notebooks and expect them to perform flawlessly in a business environment. These customers account for the majority of calls into tech support clogging the works for other customers, and this is why Dell no longer offers super cheap computers to businesses. We let those customers go to Acer. In extreme cases, customers buy desktops, load server software on them, and then complain because their "server" isn't running right.

4. Customers don't understand what they are being told. They don't want to appear stupid, so they don't insist that the tech rep explain it to them better. I have handled many customers like this who call their sales reps complaining about tech support, and then when I get on the line with the tech support rep and the customer the truth comes out.

5. Customers lie...frequently!!! I have dealt with many customers who claim to have called tech support and got no assistance. When I research it, (calls are logged with case numbers and the Service Tag Number of the device), I find out that the customer never talked to tech support. They may have chatted in some forum with someone, or they outright make it up. Boy, do they feel stupid when I call them on it.

So when you hear people bitch'n about tech support consider that there's two sides to every story. Companies like Dell, HP, or Apple don't get their size by producing and selling it to the company.

[lowbud]

keep in mind that dell, ibm, hp, in most cases use the same damn parts to build said computers. The same holds true in the server market. I used to build my own pc's from the ground up but have since started using refurb computers from Tiger and building them up from that.

Right now I have a gateway branded core 2 quad running 8gb ram on two 1TB raid 0 disks under Vista64, which runs two vmware virtual machines (1 windows XP and 1 Redhat Linux) and have never had an issue. The box is two years old and at the tme, I couldn't build one from the ground up as this one stands today for the price.

So you get what you pay for doesn't always hold true. Get what you can, as cheap as you can cause before you know it.. it's obsolete anyway.

[trblmkr13]

+1 SWJewellTN I design call centers and have had similar experiences