   Dell Computers
  OK, I've decided against building my own laptop, so I needed a new thread for this.  What experience do you guys have with Dell laptops.  I worked at an office and we had bought a Dell desktop for the office, and the only real catch was the lack of accesories, (think modem).  But it never had any problems except that.  Give me any criticism you can, good and bad.   
  I work in a computer shop, and repair desktop and laptop comupters all day. From what I've seen come in, Dell laptops don't have any different problems from any other company. If you treat it roughly part will break, the LCD etc. Just treat it nicely and you should get atleast 4-5 years of good performance out of it.   ;  I have an Inspiron 1150, its pretty decent.The hardware never really gave me any problems except once when my brother spilled pop into the keyboard area and it died. I called, told them what happened (I didn't lie), and sent it in, got it back quickly and its worked without problems since.For all the crap people give Dell they have a good waranty and all the systems I have from them are quite stable and usable. Customer service is also good and patient, I have no problems with dell, in fact I actually like them. That said, you know the Ibook is going intel soon and they are pretty cheep with some decent stuff. I cant wait to get one.   ;  The power supplies in Dell desktops die all the time, we probably get atleast 1-2 a week in the store needing nothing more than a new power supply.   ;  Every dell I have seen performs way below what you would expect from a machine with the specs it has.  Although the laptops may be different.  I have only seen desktops.  And mid-low range ones.Also, the blue text on your website background is hard to read.  Change the color.   ;  It doesn't matter.  All big players are essentially the same as far as I'm concerned.  If Dell or Compaq or HP or Toshiba or any other big name computer brand had any really big problems, they wouldn't be as big as they are.  (By big I really do mean big, not things like Alienware).  So, if you see a Dell you like, buy it (provided, of course, you can't find a computer with better/same specs for the same or lower price).  I would always opt for an extended warranty, though...Those are always nice to have.   ;  Dell desktops are assembled by Dell from commodity parts, so really it's not different then building it yourself, only using the cheapest possible memory, powersupplies and screws (buying screws for yourself doesn't matter much, but if Dell can save even $0.01 per machine by using cheaper screws, they get a lot of savings due to volume). Dell laptops are made by a company called Quanta (who happen to make the majority of all laptops sold - the IBM Thinkbooks, all the larger Apple iBook and PowerBooks [Asus makes the 12" and some of the 14"/15" models], and many others). Dell then drops in some memory, a CPU, and a harddrive (and sometimes a modular CD/DVD/CDR/DVDR unit).Trying to judge Dell laptops based on the quality of Dell desktops is not a wise route. In general Dell laptops occupy a spot for acceptable prices (so long as you watch that they don't screw you on memory) on usable hardware, backed by actual support.If you where trying to buy "smart", you'd start looking at ODMs (ODM designs and makes the laptop, OEM like Dell or IBM plugs in a few prefabricated pieces, paints it, and sells it to a dealer or diret) who offer "white book" laptops. A white book is basically a barebones laptop that you can buy your own components for. Most smaller companies, who don't have the volume to get exclusive production runs, buy white books and brand them as their own. Recently Asus (one of the bigger white book makers and a large OEM laptop supplier) started pushing white books more directly at the public (white book in a box, rather then white book sent to dealer, who configures it with components on hand). Acer is another good ODM who sells white book units - stay away from makers like Clevo, they are the "budget" ODM crowd, making laptops almost exclusively for those small rebranding companies.   ;Quote:Original post by MichalsonIf you where trying to buy "smart", you'd start looking at ODMs (ODM designs and makes the laptop, OEM like Dell or IBM plugs in a few prefabricated pieces, paints it, and sells it to a dealer or diret) who offer "white book" laptops. A white book is basically a barebones laptop that you can buy your own components for. Most smaller companies, who don't have the volume to get exclusive production runs, buy white books and brand them as their own. Recently Asus (one of the bigger white book makers and a large OEM laptop supplier) started pushing white books more directly at the public (white book in a box, rather then white book sent to dealer, who configures it with components on hand). Acer is another good ODM who sells white book units - stay away from makers like Clevo, they are the "budget" ODM crowd, making laptops almost exclusively for those small rebranding companies.... clevo are no worse than anyone else, ive sold laptops from quite a few diffrent companies and branded them as my own, the truth is, you have to read the specs, as long as you get a good model, it is ok... e.g. buying a intel one, make sure you get the intel chipset and not the cheaper sis one... from doing this time and time again, I now know that you usually just get what you pay for, the only real diffrence between clevo and the others is they allow you to buy in lower volume, they dont want to see returns as much as other companies and build quality is pretty much the same.   ;  So it's like I though it was.  I have to make sure I have every card that I need in it, all the hardware(modem, etc...) but there isn't anything truely wrong with the Dell brand.  I didn't think so.  Does anyone know why Dell has a bad stereotyped reputation??  Also, I did see the comment on my website, thanks for looking, I DO intend to change that.  I thought it looked cool at the time.   ;  I got a I9300 over the summer.  I <3 it so much.  No real complaints so far.-Jeff   