Happy Freeper Dell Owners please comment ( Vanity )

8/17/13

[sushiman]

My 4 year old HP Touchsmart ( as well as the internet modem and router ) got knocked out during a lightning storm and apparently the PC requires major surgery . Our insurance company will pay for a new computer and I'm looking at a basic Dell Inspiron 660 desktop with the I3 Pentium , 4 GB and 500 GB . It's all I need . Never owned a Dell before but several of my Japanese friends seem to be pleased with theirs so I'm considering one . Before taking the plunge , I'd like to hear from fellow Freepers about their Dell experiences .

[tomkat]

Have an '08 Inspiron 531 out in the shop, and an Optiplex 745 of about the same vintage as a spare upstairs and they're both solid as rocks.

Both hum right along on 4GB, the 531 w/ XP and the 745 w/ W7.

Add relatively fast (10mbps) cable and they'll do everything that 90% of users would ask of them.

[sushiman]

Model I am looking at is a 64bit Windows 7 Home .

[Rannug]

I got a 660 a few months ago, and am very satisfied with it. As others have posted it is a bit shy on usb ports, and it is extremely quiet. No problems with Win8 either. I would make the same purchase again.

[JSteff]

Uhmm, they all are made by parts from the same basic suppliers.

Be smart and buy a refurb from Dell Leasing. In some ways it is better than a new Dell beceuse it has any bugs already worked out and gone over before it is sold.

DFS (DELL Financial Service) resells them on Ebay for great prices.
We have 3 in the house that we got for bargain prices. I right now am working on a Optiplex 760 c2d, 2/93 ghz, 300 HDrive, and 4 gb of ram, with Win 7 Pro, that I got for $123 a few months ago.
My wife has a Optiplex 745 c2d 2.6ghz, 2 gb of ram, 1435hd, XP pro that I got her a year and a few months ago for about the same rice.
I also have a Latitude D820, 2.0 gb ram, 80gb hard drive, win XP Pro, that I got for $269, that we got about 2 years ago and we have had NO problems with any of them.

DFS refurb is the way to go. New computers are like buying new cars... a wast of money. A refurb is better than a new one. I have gotten all mine on Sunday or Monday night between 11 and 2 a.m. and they seem to be cheaper then.

[GeronL]

I know. I can’t believe people and businesses wouldn’t just wipe the HDD and give them away instead of PAYING to have them recycled.

Ubuntu works great. Sure Linux doesn’t have a lot of great games but for internet and for OpenOffice its awesome.

[sushiman]

Which processor did you opt for ? RAM ? HDD ?

[sushiman]

I’m in Japan .

[FAA]

I had Dell laptops for work computers for years and they were mostly great but I did have one that was a mess.

I have a Dell Netbook now that is, well, “challenging.” It works fine but I thought the idea of the netbook was to reduce hardware, increase speed, and increase efficiency for lesser things like web surfing. This Dell didn’t get the memo.

Current laptop is a Toshiba and it’s been a good one 4 years on.

[PieterCasparzen]

Don’t forget that the 32-bit OS limits you to only 4Gb of RAM, but the 64-bit OS lets you use as much RAM as the motherboard will support. If you don’t have software that requires 32-bit, I would opt for the 64-bit system.

32-bit linux is 16G max.

[psjones]

I got a VAIO after my two dell laptops didn’t last. Love the VAIO and plan on getting another one to replace the other dell laptop.

[PieterCasparzen]

I have a Dell Netbook now that is, well, “challenging.” It works fine but I thought the idea of the netbook was to reduce hardware, increase speed, and increase efficiency for lesser things like web surfing. This Dell didn’t get the memo.

I run CentOS (community redhat linux distro) on a Dell NetBook, works nice.

[OrangeHoof]

My last three employers all used Dells and they seemed quite reliable under heavy use. For home, I bought my first Dell in 2011. It’s an Inspiron 580 with the max hard drive and memory that was available.

I wanted a simple PC that had maximum storage and processor speed for under $1000. It has worked fine for the most part. I did not buy the service plan because I’m generally handy with computers and can replace parts if/when they go bad. It’s over two years old now and I still have had no major issues.

[JSteff]

Sorry to hear of your problems. I got 3 refurbs from Dell Financial Services. All have been perfect... and cheap.

[Rannug]

i3220 CPU @3.30 GHz 3.30 Ghz 6 gig RAM 900+ HHD

[TChad]

In spite of the doom and gloom, Vista has basically been solid,

Almost every problem I had with Vista was solved with Service Pack 1. Microsoft fixed the bugs.

[q_an_a]

There is a reason Dell has been #1 or 2 for the last 15 years, assembled in America is nice, but got solid quality. I’m on my third one load up the RAM, get plenty of hard drive - or two. Windows 8.1 and the new Harwell chip should make you the envy of everyone.

[TChad]

Since there are posts here about Dell laptops, I will mention that a Dell Inspiron n5010 that I recently dealt with had an interesting design feature: the hard drive is very difficult to remove.

Most laptops have a little door on the bottom that is held in place by two screws. Remove the screws, swing the door open, pull the drive out. Easy.

Dell's accountants decided to save a few cents by omitting the hard drive door on the n5010. You have to take the entire computer apart to get to the damn hard drive.

Here is a YouTube video showing what is required to remove the hard drive from a Dell n5010:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-5YSPimZCk

This is an absolutely terrible design. Hard drives are inherently unreliable and MUST be easy to remove.

Buyers beware.

[MEG33]

My H/P laptop died and wasn’t worth a fix..last summer
I got my first Dell..Inspiron 5520 8GB 64 bit at Best Buy and love it..Windows 7 Home Premium. Good price
No overheating..no problems..

[sushiman]

They are # 3 now . HP # 1 and Lenovo 2 .

[TChad]

32-bit linux is 16G max.

With PAE (Physical Address Extension) 32 bit Linux can address 64G.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physical_address_extension