Quality of Dell Computers

[AuroEdge]

Sucks. In my owning this laptop I'm using right now I have had to replace the motherboard, screen, memory once and I'm on video card number three. If you go on Google and search the topic of this thread you will find a good mix from really great to really crap. They seem to have a majority of good stuff. At the time of purchase this wasn't really known as well as it is now. It also didn't help that also at the time this laptop was the best you could get almost anywhere. I haven't even really used it for anything but infrequent browsing for a while now. For those of you that still choose to buy a Dell because they look to be nice, you've been warned! Their only saving grace is if you own a business class laptop their customer support is overly accommodating. I really have no idea how their regular support is. You also won't have any trouble finding replacement parts and they're no where near as crap as HP or Sonys.

What are some of your all's personal experiences with Dells?

[Code-Red]

I've got a Dell laptop right now. It's a 1.3Ghz Pentium M, and it can't even run YouTube videos.

I didn't buy it though, it was given to me.

[Specially Cork]

I own a Dell inspiron now and have had no problem with it to date. Im actually fairly impressed with how cool and quiet it runs compared to previous laptops I've had.

[MulletMan13]

I had a Dell Latitude E4300 for a while. Build quality was good, everything was pretty solid on it (reminded me of a cheaper thinkpad). The Lattitude line is really solid (and cheap! look through the outlet!). The Inspirons and even the Studio line didn't feel that great in my hands. Then again, I've been using a MacBook Pro and an X61 for the last couple of years :-\

[melancholy]

Honestly, I have no personal experience with Dell, but I've heard all over the board with them. Though I have noticed that people complain more about them nowadays ever since they stopped being an online only store.

But I dunno, I buy strictly HP.

[Nico0020]

ive never had problems with dell. I use an inspiron E1505 laptop that I bought about 3 years ago at most. I dual boot, so the windows side has nothing but essential software on it and runs great. Ive never had any major problems on my Ubuntu side either. It has always run very quite and cool. The only thing I don't like is the battery killed off pretty quick on this machine, and to buy a new one through dell is expensive (and none of the reviews are good for their model of battery)

I have an older Dell machine still set up in my house. Somewhere between 5-10 years old. I cant think of when I got it. The only thing I have had to replace on the machine was the motherboard as somehow the piece that holds the heatsync broke. I have no clue how that happened, as ive never moved the machine before. It was just a very cheap piece of plastic. The fan has also started making a strange sound that I have yet to investigate due to the fact that I never use the machine anymore. But like I said, the machine may almost be 10 years old now.

My customer experience has always been great with dell. And anytime I have had a problem it was with customer support (which I just kept demanding to talk to supervisors and always got what I wanted, that is by the time I was talking to someone in the States)

[AuroEdge]

I think the issue is that their hit or miss, but for the most part they're good. I know the model I have, E1705/9400, has a major problem overheating which is directly responsible for the video card crapping out. All in all I'm mostly happy. I'm able to do a lot with it even after nearly 3 years of ownership.

[Eviltaco64X]

Having some experience from owning several Dell's, I can say that most Precisions, Dimensions, PowerEdges and laptops are alright.

Their older laptops were pretty bad, though. We've gone through a few Inspirons that were powerful, but just faulty.. Especially their keyboards.

Two other bad models from Dell I can think of were the Dimension 8300 and the Precision 350. The 8300 just had issues right out of the box. The Precision 350(s) we had would overheat so much that the processor would literally melt into the board. Fortunately, it had an excellent warranty, and it was replaced twice. The last replacement was "specially made" since the 350 had already been discontinued (probably due to all the issues, especially when the 340 was still on sale) and it still works (it's my computer now, haha).

[hearld500]

I have a Dell XPS M1330 laptop. Besides having to send it back because of the whole Nvidea overheating deal its been a great laptop. It been six months or so and don't have a single complaint.

I think their quality has really increased in the two years or so.

[Lartrak]

I had a Dell desktop for several years. Inspiron or something. I forget. It worked fine, ran quiet, never had a problem. It did run games worse than it should have considering the specs though.

I'm using a Dell XPS Gen 2 laptop, bought it when there was a 40% off sale when they were new. It's been my main computer ever since, and I've never had any real problems except for a fan dying in the three years I've had it. That was very annoying, and it was out of warranty so I had to replace it myself (fan was only about $15 off eBay). Believe me, that's a PITA - you have to dismantle like the whole thing, even disconnect the screen. Took like two hours. However, I've now seen the insides of the XPS Gen 2, and I have to say it is VERY solidly built. Very good quality components too.

So, my experience is good.

[Zealous zerotype]

I've got a Dell laptop right now. It's a 1.3Ghz Pentium M, and it can't even run YouTube videos.

I didn't buy it though, it was given to me.

Throw tiny xp on that bitch my friend has an old celly 600 or something and it plays youtube vids with tiny xp on it.

[gRiMgRaVy014]

My family still uses an old Dimension 3000 desktop with a mid level P4 and such, and we haven't had any problems. I formatted and installed Windows 2000 a few years back though.

By the looks of it, desktops might be a completely different story than laptops though.

[AuroEdge]

The biggest issue is their cooling design and their wavering quality of manufactured components in their laptops. For the more experienced users here they know all to well a video card model made by x manufacturer will perform and last 10 times longer than y manufacturer.

[JuddWack]

I had an Inspiron 6000 which lasted me about 3 years before I was so fed up with it that I never opened it again. I unplugged the monitor just a few times to upgrade my ram and then suddenly the monitor wasn't making a secure connection to the mobo anymore and the screen flickers if you move the laptop even the slightest bit. Also I upgraded my battery and it died within a year and a half, but that could have been from plugging it into chinese outlets which people told me should be alright.

When I got the laptop it had so much crap installed on it I had to wipe the hard drive and start fresh, but Dell doesn't send you the install CD when you buy the computer. You have to request it.

[Caboose]

A few years ago I had a third generation XPS desktop. It was pretty good, aside from the tower being huge and the fans noisy as hell. In fact, I've built my current PC using many of the parts from that machine including the processor, video card, sound card, RAM, and hard drive and they haven't given me any trouble (mind you, none of those are manufactured by Dell). Some of those parts are getting on 5 years old now.

The only problem I had with that desktop was that the hard drive failed. The computer was still under warranty though and a quick call to customer service got that sorted out. In fact, they replacement drive they sent me was 250 GB while the original drive was only 120 GB. As much as people like to rag on them, I don't have any complaints in terms of quality, personally.