Dell, What the Hell?

It started like any typical service call. Dial the number, get the pre recorded messages, and eventually talk to a real live person! Unfortunately it went down hill from there. I was informed by the young man on the other end I would have to ship my new (2 months old) Dell Latitude D531 to the “Rapid Response Depot.” That my not sound so bad, but all I needed was a hard drive. In the past, Dell would ship me the part and I would replace it myself. That made them happy because they didn’t have to pay a tech to come out, and it made me happy because I didn’t have to let some Bozo touch my system.

I made the call on a Sunday night, so I expected the box to ship the laptop to arrive on Tuesday. Wrong! It showed up Thursday, and because of prior commitments I couldn’t have it picked up until the following Monday. One week of productivity gone. Did I mention I bought this for my business? I received a voice mail telling me the laptop arrived at the depot the following day. This is great! I’ll have the repaired system back on Wednesday or Thursday so I can reload the OS. Wrong again! I get a notice from DHL on Thursday telling me they tried to deliver the laptop but no one was available to sign for it. There was also a mystery package left by DHL. What’s this? A hard drive? Why would they send a hard drive when they just replaced the drive at the depot?

Having received no messages from Dell I could only assume some one had mad a mistake. Then on Friday I received the laptop. The box looked as if it had been used to beat some one over the head. It had a big hole that had been taped closed prior to shipping. It still had the brown sealing tape that Dell sends with it to the customer for return. Now I’m all for recycling, but this is ridiculous! It wasn’t even the same box I sent it out in. I know because that box looked like it had set in some water, the bottom corrugations were beginning to separate. I opened the box hoping for the best. I found a nice note from the REPAIR depot that the laptop needed the hard drive replaced (what a revelation!) and it was out of stock!

Now I know what the hard drive was for. I was happy to see the laptop seemed no worse from the trip, but they didn’t even put the laptop in the plastic bag Dell had included with the original box.


I replaced the drive and started loading the OS. Then I called Dell to find out what the deal was. I spoke with another nice young man that explained to me the first young man I spoke with nearly two weeks before was mistaken, that because I am a certified Dell repair Tech, they could have sent the hard drive in the first place!

I hope some one from Dell reads this. It should serve as notice that they still have a long way to go to get their customer service back to what I remember from years gone by. There is no excuse for a vendor to not have the proper information or parts available to them. I don’t care who signs their pay check. When I call the 800 number listed on Dells support site, I am talking to Dell. When I send my device to the depot using the shipping label provided by Dell, I’m sending it to Dell. The manner in which this was handled was very unprofessional. I think I can speak with authority, I have an award from Unisys on my shelf that reads “Unisys Global Network Services Exceptional Service Award, In Grateful Appreciation For Your Contribution And Support Of The Alliance With Dell Computer”

Rapcomp

Can We Build It Cheaper: Dell - WalMart Edition

So I'm walking through the local Wal-Mart, and I see a whole stack of Dell PC's front and center in the aisle. I had heard that they were going to sell some preconfigured computers in the largest retailer, and I would guess that this was a good move for them and their sales figures. I looked at the stats, and at first glance, the $498 price tag didn't seem so far out of line. Hmmm, Wal-mart is known for low prices, let's see how good of a deal this thing really is.

The piece of hardware I'm talking about is a Dell desktop, the E521. While it is basic, it's no real slouch, and would probably be adequate for plenty of folks out there. It sports an Athlon X2 3600+ processor, and I'm pleased that they went dual core, and not for a budget single core Sempron. The hard drive is also a spacious 250 GB which is also pretty good for an entry level machine. Rounding out the package are 1 GB of RAM (of the 667 MHz flavor), a 16x DVD burner (maybe they finally used up the pile of CD-RW's...), and a USB keyboard/mouse. The OS is Vista Home Premium, and it has some basic software, but nothing that couldn't be downloaded for free including Acrobat Reader, Microsoft Works (just use OpenOffice which is free and far better), and Roxio Basic (the optical drive always includes writing software anyway). The graphics are integrated into the motherboard, and it uses the nVidia 6150 chip so serious gaming is out, but what do we expect for under $500?

For the sake of comparison, I'm going to forget about the included keyboard and mouse as most users will recycle one, or they can be purchased for under $10; also I'm not including the 56k modem in my system build as most users don't use it anyway. Also, remember that the Dell does include a one year warranty, and interestingly by buying through Wal-Mart, the PC can be returned within the first 15 days with no restocking fee (gotta love their return policy). I'd also like to point out that despite the large box that the Dell comes in, it does not include any monitor, or a set of speakers so I'll just leave them out of the comparison equation (as an aside, from the size of the box, I really thought they were in there at first).

All right, without further delay, here's what I built to try to beat this low end Dell. I started with an Athlon X2 3600+ like the Dell. I plugged that into a Biostar motherboard (there were ASUS mobo's at a similar price point) which includes a similar nVidia 6100 integrated graphics. I went with a Samsung SATA hard drive of the same 250 GB capacity. Add in a LiteOn 20x optical drive that is faster than the Dell's 16x if you can find media to support it. For the memory, I went for a full gig of OCZ memory, of the faster 800 MHz variety, that may add a little performance boost compared to the slower RAM Dell is using (for the difference in price, I always stick with a decent brand as RAM issues can be especially vexing). This is going to be housed in a budget case that includes a 430 Watt power supply; it's no beauty, and my faithful fans know that we should stick with name brand power supplies, but who knows what Dell is using, and their case is no looker anyway. All of this hardware will be run by Windows Home Premium. I went with an OEM copy which is actually a fair comparison as you can't reinstall what Dell sells you on another computer either. You can view the parts list here to get the current price breakdown should you want to build our "TechNudge Beats Up On Dell" system.

So how did we do? Remember that I'm trying to beat a Dell budget box mass produced and mass sold at Wal-Mart- the largest US retailer, and known for rollback pricing. How does $391 sound for my box? I was kind of surprised that I could beat the Dell by so much, and so easily. Maybe I'm just getting good at this! Does this mean there is a 25% profit margin on the Dell E521? For this price, they really should throw in a cheap monitor.

From my price analysis, the E521 looks to be quite overpriced. I wouldn't buy one, and neither should anyone else. Of course, I'm going to recommend to build your own computer. With the extra $100, we can upgrade the processor, and decide between doubling the RAM, or a cheap graphics card for a much better system. That's worth a night or two of assembling to many of us out there, and if you think about it, probably to you too.

--Jonas

Build vs. Buy: Can We Build It Better?

Back by popular demand, I wanted to look at another "build vs. buy" comparison. I've previously shown that at the very low end, it's hard to beat the price of the Dell. We've also looked at the very upper end, and the Dell can be built for around a grand less with a home build. However, most of us don't have the cheapest, or the most expensive desktop around.

$500 is a good price point to build around, particularly for a student. It's still a reasonable amount of cash that can be parted with after a summer of savings. So, I'm going to compare what Mikie Dell can deliver for that price point, and what I can build it for. Unlike previous builds I've done, there is a twist this time. Rather than blindly just matching parts exactly, I'm going to build a desktop that I would actually want to own. Follow along, and you'll see where we're going with this.

On the Dell side of things, I'm talking about the Dell Dimension E521. For exactly $499 we get the following specs:

• AMD Athlon 64 3200+ Processor
• Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005
  
• 512 MB RAM
• 80 GB SATA Hard Drive
• DVD/CDRW Combo Drive
• 15" LCD
• Integrated Graphics & Audio
• Dell USB Keyboard & Mouse
• No Floppy Drive
• No Speakers
• 56K Modem
• 1 Year Warranty

In my opinion, these are decent specs for someone looking to do word processing, internet surfing, and basic audio tasks. In other words, this isn't exactly a computer that most of us would be drooling over. Let's go component by component, and build a box that we would actually want, with an eye towards the budget of about $500. As always, the parts are all from NewEgg so we can all see the prices that are nationally available to all of us.

First stop is the processor. While an Athlon 64 is ok, I'm not sure why Dell didn't go with a budget dual core processor. With quad cores on the horizon, a dual core is the way to go. For a mere $92, we can get a Pentium D 805. This is a wonderful processor, not to mention its overclocking abilities.

Next up is the operating system. It's a little strange to me that Dell went with Windows Media Center Edition, for computer with no TV tuner, or remote. I'd save the money and use Windows XP Home for $87.99. (If you really want MCE, on a computer that relly doesn't need it, it's $110, but I'm not using it in the calculations).

Now we turn our attention to the motherboard. I'm choosing the ASUS P5VDC-MX. It's based on the Via chipset. It is a micro ATX board with both AGP, and PCI Express slots and on board graphics, audio and ethernet. It retails for $54.99. I probably would add a budget video card down the road, but this isn't essential to get this all up and running, and the Dell doesn't come with one either.

The RAM retails for the identical price of $54.99. That gets us a single stick of Kingston ValueRAM, DDR 400, 3200. I'd go with the single stick because we'll probably want to upgrade at some point to a full gig. For a few bucks more, there are a few other choices as well.

The Dell is quite cramped on hard drive space at a mere 80 gigs. I would double that and go with a 160 GB Western Digital SATA drive. This will only run us $54.99, and give us double the storage. This is a no brainer of an upgrade in my mind, and my only temptation would be to go for a 250 gigger drive which is only $25 more.

The next component is the optical drive. Again, the Dell cheaps out on an essential component. When we can get a MadDog 16x DVDRW burner that even supports DVD-RAM, I'm puzzled why Dell would be using a DVD/CDRW combo drive unless they've got them laying around and want to use them up. If we'd like a different brand, there are plenty of other choices at NewEgg in the downright cheap $30 range. The Mad Dog goes for $28.99.

Let's look at the monitor next. Dell is giving us a mere 15". Trust me on this, our eyes deserve better. Unless you live in a cramped Manhattan studio apartment, go for the 17" (or even bigger; I use a 19"). Besides, a decent monitor can outlive the desktop. There are some choices for around $150, but this one for $146.99 is pretty rock bottom priced. Besides, it's only $20 above a 15" LCD!

I'm going to skip over the next few items. Dell doesn't supply speakers, so we won't go there either, although we'll clearly need something to hear the audio. A mouse and keyboard can be recycled from an older system, borrowed from a friendly geek, or picked up on the cheap when on sale for less than $10. Most users won't need a 56k modem on their desktop because they'll use their ethernet port to connect to the campus or office LAN, or the broadband router in their house.

This leaves us with the issue of the case. Again, we should get a semidecent case that will allow us to upgrade the motherboard down the road. I spotted this one that includes a 350W power supply that will help us keep the cost down. It is well rated, and even has a front panel temp display. It sells for a mere $49.99.

Now let's go to the calculator. Remember that because we can choose the components we made a few upgrades. We chose a dual core processor, doubled the size of the hard drive, went with a larger LCD monitor, and upgraded from a combo drive to a DVD rewriter. I will admit that even I was surprised that my total, even with all of these upgrades, and not buying anything on limited time special or rebate, was still only $570.93. To me, just the dual core processor upgrade is worth the extra $70. This is the real value of building our own computer. I'm calling this one a win for the builders, hands down!

--Jonas

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Technorati tags:
build vs buy, dell, do it yourself pc, pc building

Can We Build It Cheaper Than Dell: High End Edition

What Happens When We Price Out A System We Would Actually Want...

Last month, I heard about a really great deal on a Dell desktop. Was the price too low? Well, after some research, and calculator time, we concluded that the Dell beat the home built rig by a margin of 50%! If you didn't read it, you can see all the gory details here.

Was I ready to call up Mike Dell and tell him to screw one together for me? Not quite. You see, this was on a very barebones computer, suitable really for only basic needs. This is not at all the kind of rig that I would want by my desk at all. The question came up in all of our TechNudge minds pretty quickly if the ultra cheap Dell was an aberration, or if all their computers were that much cheaper. After all, Dell is the number one computer maker for some reason. But would a high end system be 50% cheaper than from NewEgg? Or was Dell playing a game of bait and switch here betting on the idea that no one was really looking to buy such a low end system, and they would make it up on the upgrades?

I decided to find out. I went to the Dell web site, and went to their standard high end desktop, the XPS 600. This is their most expensive desktop line, suitable for serious applications, with an over three grand price tag to match. I left it "as is" and didn't customize anything.

The Dell XPS 600 system can be viewed here.

The rules are the same as last time. I will now go through the parts bin at NewEgg matching up the parts, and pricing out the Dell system. Let's see who is cheaper this time on a system that we would actually want...

The heart of a system is the processor. Sticking to their Intel only philosophy, Dell goes with a Pentium D Processor 920 with Dual Core Technology (2.8GHz, 800FSB). This is one of the 900 series of dual core processors, and it retails for $213.99 over at NewEgg. Hmmm...I thought a computer over three grand would use a more expensive processor. Never mind that I can buy a refurbished 920 for $20 less.

Of course we don't know exactly what motherboard the Dell folks are using. I looked for one that would support the processor, the RAM, have built in RAID, SATA, and work with the dual graphics cards. This one satisfies these requirements, and will lighten our wallet an affordable $139.99.

As a no cost upgrade, Dell includes for the operating system, the Windows Media Center Edition 2005 release. While most stores won't sell it to consumers as it's intended for manufacturer's only, NewEgg will sell us a copy. It will set us back $114.95 to have the full set of media capabilities to match the Dell.

Dell has to include some serious parts to justify the high price tag. they come through in the graphics department. Not one, but a dual graphics card setup using a pair of 512MB nVidia GeForce 7900 GTX cards. Over at NewEgg, they sell for $489.99 each.

Next, we turn our attention to the RAM. Here, the Dell delivers 2 GB of RAM. This comes in two 1 GB sticks of Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHz. Now this is serious memory. Over at NewEgg, to match it I went with the Corsair two 1 GB sticks of the even faster DDR2 675 memory. This will set us back $190 for this serious part.

The XPS 600 includes two hard drives in a RAID array setup. The part specified is a 320GB Performance RAID 0 (2 x 160GB SATA 3Gb/s HDDs). While that sounds real expensive, I was surprised to see that we could buy hard drives in those specs (including 8 megs of onboard cache per drive) in the Hitachi brand for $64.99 a piece. If you have a preference for Western Digital, they're only a buck more per drive so get ahead and splurge.

The Dell includes two optical drives: a DVD-ROM, and a DVD writer that is dual layer capable. This is somewhat silly, as the writers are just as fast at reading as the DVD-ROM's. Perhaps if you read a lot of discs this makes sense, as you can save the wear and tear on the DVD writer, although by the time you wear it out, it's time to upgrade anyway. Without further discussion, we'll need a DVD-ROM from LiteOn for $18.99, and an equivalent DVD writer from Benq for $34.99.

Dell throws in a 13-in-1 media reader for flash card duties. While a USB reader would be cheaper, an internal one runs $26.99, and includes audio connections that the Dell won't have so consider it a bonus.

Like the budget system, Dell throws in a 19" analog LCD. While NewEgg was having some one day sales, and rebates from better known manufacturers, to be completely fair, I chose this 19" LCD monitor that will run $229.99. After all, who makes them for Dell anyway?

The Dell uses a top end sound card, the Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeMusic, which is the latest offering. This part will empty our pockets of $121.99.

For such a great sound card, you'll never really enjoy it with the speakers that Dell includes which are only one better than their cheapest. They're a 2.1 30 watt setup in the included package. These Logitech speakers are probably a little better, and will run us an affordable $33.99, but have similar wattage and are 2.1. C'mon Dell, for three grand can't you throw in speakers worth more than $30?

The Dell includes a Saitek keyboard that retails for $46.99, and a Logitech G5 gaming mouse worth $44.99.

Of course, the Dell ships with one of their signature cases. When we configured our barebones, we went with something more inexpensive (aka: cheaper). This time we'll go with this case that goes for $64.99 after a rebate. It includes a 450 W power supply.

Ok, now that we've dissected the Dell system, and priced out the components, it's time to whip out the calculator. The Dell system comes in at a hefty $3354 total for the parts as described. And the drum roll please....our equivalent home built box comes in at a more affordable $2392.80. I'm even surprised that this is about a grand less than Dell.

Why is this so much cheaper? The theory we're proposing is that the $400 desktop to them is the loss leader. This is like the 99 cent item in the grocery store. They're not making any money, but they are generating the traffic. Once you're there, we surmise that everything must be a good deal, and you buy the top end stuff. Is it working? You bet, as Dell is the #1 PC maker for quite a while now. Will they get my money? No way, I'll hang on to my screwdriver and zip ties. A few nights of work is definitely worth a grand to me, how about you?

--Jonas

Bargain Dell

Is This Price Too Low?

Just this week we learned that Dell was losing market share by a tiny amount. How small are we talking about? We're in the neighborhood of 0.4%, but I suppose the number one PC maker wants to reverse this trend. Well, when a supermarket wants to get you in the door, they sell one or two items at a ridiculously low price, in the hopes that you'll do your weekly shopping once in the door. This is known as the "loss leader." I believe that Dell is doing the same thing currently.

Link to the Dell bargain system.

I thought it would be interesting to add up the cost of the components if I were going to screw the box together myself. I used NewEgg's prices for comparison as they usually reasonable, and sell a wide variety of parts.

Let's start with the processor. Dell is using a Pentium 4 chip running at a 2.8 GHz clock speed, and with a 533 MHz bus. This is hardly cutting edge, and for around $30 more if I was building a system, I would go for the intro dual core chip. However, this is the chip that Dell is using, and it should be more than adequate for most users with general needs. At NewEgg, the chip is going for $111, before shipping.

Next stop is memory. Personally, with Windows XP, I wouldn't build a system with less than 512 MB of RAM, and would much prefer a full gig. However, Dell is including a bare bones of 256 MB of DDR 400 SDRAM with their system. NewEgg has this part in its arsenal for a bargain $17.

The processor and RAM get inserted into the motherboard. Dell is notorious for using their own proprietary motherboards, that can't be flashed or upgraded. You can get this one at NewEgg for a bargain of $39.50. It is compatible with the RAM and processor, and uses a microATX format.

Of course, we'll need a case to house all of this in. About the cheapest you can go on a case and get a power supply is $24.99. Personally, a higher quality case is a good investment as it can survive several system rebuilds. However, we'll go for this cheap case, and its included power supply.

Next up is the hard drive. Dell includes an 80 GB 7200 RPM, ultra ATA 100 drive in the system. If you don't edit video, this is probably adequate for many users, but again,, nothing cutting edge here. NewEgg has a Western Digital hard drive with these specs for an even $50.

In the Dell system, the included optical drive is a combo drive that can read DVD's, and write CD's. For the price difference, I would include a DVD burner, but we'll go with what Dell includes. If you don't burn DVD's, this should be ample. NewEgg has a LiteOn combo drive for $24.99 that is comparable.

One of the highlights on the Dell system is a 19" LCD. I upgraded to this a few months ago, and it truly is the way to go if you have enough room on your desk. Even if you don't, make the room, cut a hole in the wall, whatever it takes. Anyway, how much is this worth? On the NewEgg site, the best price for a new 19" LCD display is still $232 for a Hyundai brand.

The Dell includes Microsoft's Windows XP Home Edition. Until Vista is released sometime next year, this is the consumer edition of Microsoft's latest operating system. NewEgg will sell it to you for $89.95.

Many users will simply reuse an old keyboard and mouse on a newer system. However, to be fair, the Dell does include a mouse and keyboard. You can get a standard keyboard at NewEgg for $5.25. The mouse will set you back $4.36.

So what is the verdict? Well compared to Dell's price tag of $399, my parts, even using many of the cheapest components, came in at $599.04. I'm 50% higher! A significant part of my system budget does go to the 19" LCD monitor. Also, the Windows operating system Dell can get significantly cheaper than an individual is able to purchase it at. Still, I can barely purchase the monitor, Windows and the processor for what Dell is selling the entire system at.

For this week at least, Dell's agressive low end pricing is the consumer's gain, assuming you can live with a low end system like this. In the end, at least you'll be able to reuse the monitor with your next system!

--Jonas