Hi All!
Have you guys had any experience with Dell computers? I'm considering one right now and I've heard a lot of good things and bad things. Just wanted to some other opinions. Keep in mind, I'm a casual computer user...most creating music and some gaming. Nothing too heavy...

Thanks!
Eddie

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Joeninpo

The tyrant custom, most grave Senators,
Hath made the flinty and steel couch of war
My thrice-driven bed of down

Dell gives the worst support for people at APOs, currently they've had my money for over 2 months and i still don't have my monitor. they refuse to second a new one till 12 weeks after the ship date.

personally i just build mine myself

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Dell is the best from what I can tell. Taichan would have the same problem if she was dealing with Dell, Compaq or any other U.S. computer company.

I just bought a Dell for my brother who lives in MA and he loves it.

Mike

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Visit USFK Classifieds, the FREE classifieds in Korea!

The Govt. uses Dell in our offices. No serious problems here. I suspect if I were you I would hold off until I get to Korea. New models are coming out in September, I am told, and last years models will be reduced in the PX; they have HP, Compaq, and Sony here. There should be a market for used models as folks upgrade. If you are sure what you want, you can build, or have built, any combination of motherboard, hard drive, disc drive, etc.here in Yongsan Electronic Market. The price may not be much different from the PX, but to be SURE you get a genuine original version of Windows Software, you will have to buy it elsewhere from a trusted source, and that price will raise your total cost above the PX price. There are a lot of beautiful cases available here, in colors, some transparent, some with external 6 inch fans, larger power supplies, cooling chips, liquid coolers, etc.! It makes it hard to choose. I can get 17 inch flat screen displays for about $275.00 with a one year guarantee. Brand names cost more, but come from the same factories. Your choice. Taichan has more experience than I about putting together components. Work with her. (I can give the Electronics Wholesale Mall tour.)

Personally, I would consider either an HP or an Apple for my next one. I bought two Dells two years ago before going to Korea the first time (I'll be there again in another week).

The service was adequate, but painstaking. I did have one problem with upgraded RAM that had to come out and be resent to the factory. That was huge pain. I had to go through Tech spt many times trying many things before they would just send replacement RAM...and that was only after I sent them my original RAM first.

HP support has been much friendlier at least.

However, if you go Dell, as Mike alluded to earlier, your problems may not be all that different from any other dealer.

ONE IMPORTANT POINT: if you're doing ANY kind of gaming on your computer, buy a computer with a separate video card so you can update. It is a pain in the butt if you have "integrated" video. The mother board will take a separate video card but doesn't seem to like it all that much. Just save yourself the trouble and get a computer with a separate card that already runs correctly.

Mike

You should consider building or havng one built for you. Although there is no savings on the initial build, the pay off is in the upgrade down the road. If you are fairly adept with a screwdriver and a little knowledge of an OS (Windows, or LINUX) you should not have to much trouble assembling one. If you decide to go this way look for the latest MB configuration. Consider ordering from one company so you can obtain tech spt. You should consider having the Mb with CPU, and Sys Mem installed.

Dell is at least the Army's sys of choice and have been decent in not having too many problems. The one thing I do not like about them is the design of the front USB port. They really did a terrible job in the design. I am not sure of the model; however it is a very common wks in the govt. I have 2 of them.

The advantage to a custom build is the ability to upgrade in a few years. An example I recently built a sys with an AMD 939 chip set MB. Since I am not a gammer I did not require the latest CPU. I am running 2 Gb RAM since I use CS2 that is very graphic intensive. When I need to upgrd in a couple years I will replace the CPU with the lastest one made for the 939 Mb. The savings will be substantial since the only part that I need to upgrd is the CPU.

The other advantage is bypassing the advertisment and the usual junk software you really do not need. It only slows the sys down.

It has been a few years and unless HP computers has made some drastic improvements I would shy away. Their printers are good.

It is beyond the scope of this forum to make recommendations on sys. You should try to google the news groups for recommendations.

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Chill

Well...looks like I'm going to buy a Dell through the BX portal. Don't know if you guys knew this or not, but you can go to the AAFES website, go to their computer section and buy direct through Dell, HP and some other company. It looks like you get a decent discount, you don't pay taxes, and you can use your star card. Yeah, star card! Anyway, I'm probably going to get it ordered some time this week and I'll let you know how things work out. Thanks for all the help on this!
Eddie

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Joeninpo

The tyrant custom, most grave Senators,
Hath made the flinty and steel couch of war
My thrice-driven bed of down

I will tell you this I HATE DELL with a passion I mean many consumers (even if they are your casual computer users) buy Dells because they believe that they are getting a deal. However, that is not the case I mean in the long run you are going to want to upgrade and the way Dells are made they are limited to what you can upgrade. I understand that you dont want anything fancy but trust me just wait until you get to Korea and build one yourself. heck if you need help and you are in the Younsan area I will help you build it. You will be able to get a lot more for your money. If you still don't want to go through the trouble or you need a computer now then check out www.pcclub.com they have some pretty good pre- assembled computers that you may be interested in.

You can look all over the place i know people who bought a dell laptop though the PX in iraq with an extended warrenty and dell refused to validate his warrenty stating "you took it outside of the US thus voiding the warrently"


Dell does not support the troops


and Joe, i've seen 20" LCD monitors for $400 shipped, and 17" for $220 shipped so your price isn't that great there :P

do not buy computers/computer parts (except maybe ram) in korea as its more expensive

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Okay, I am a cheap person. I don't buy a computer unless it is dirt cheap. I can get a Dell computer much cheaper than if I build it myself, and I mean cheap like from 80 to 200 dollars for a good system w/o monitor. Since it is so cheap, when I need to upgrade I just buy a new one. You should also check out the Dell website; sometimes they have better discount than the AAFES site. As for the monitor, I can get a 19" with 8ms refresh rate for 130 dollars after a simple 100 dollars rebate. That is if I ship to the US, not sure if I can do it from oversea or not. I haven't tried it. I have a system that I built myself and also a dell desktop and a couple of dell laptops. I got to say that I did spend more money on my custom built computer than the dell one.
Same as any other company, the support oversea won't be that great.