New Computer - Your Thoughts?

[kinster]

Does it have to be a desktop? Seen a few Core Duo & Core 2 Duo Dell laptops at £399-499. If you have trouble with cashflow, use a 0% credit card.

[mediaroots]

Dell PCs are crazily over priced. The price advertised says like £300, try building it, you wont get it for that price, they add on loads extra for support, shipping etc.

I got my PC built for me through a listing I found on eBay, I thought was very risky as I've bought from PC World before (very good support etc and good priced), but I've had it for a year now and had no problems with it, I didn't really need support as I know a fair bit about PCs.

Dual 19" monitors
4GB Ram
3.2Ghz dual core pentium core duo
512Mb ati saphire graphics.

Year old, still better than anything dell etc are selling.

Cost: £720 inc delivery and all that.

[kinster]

Originally posted by mediaroots
Dell PCs are crazily over priced. The price advertised says like £300, try building it, you wont get it for that price, they add on loads extra for support, shipping etc.

lol, you CAN get it for the price stated. Sometimes lower if you downgrade the warranty. Best check the site first before making stuff up.

[mediaroots]

ok. I am not making stuff up. Generalising maybe. but I actually know what I am talking about, especially considering I had a corporate sales pitch from Dell about a month ago (they have nice food).

I went to Dell's corporate HQ in the middle of nowhere (by Thorpe park or something?) where we were given a presentation by the head of some department. During this corporate sales pitch, the guy freely said 'ok, I work here but as a Dell customer myself, obviously you see the price in the magazine or on the homepage or whatever but when you actually go to buy it, it never works out this price unless you reduce loads of options off it like support to basically nothing etc which I would not recommend anything less than 3 years, so that is like a hook and a lower price to get you interested, but you pay better money for better support etc).

So it depends how much you know about computers, if you are paying for good quality support, then you are going to pay a higher press for a less high spec machine from dell. If you are looking for just a good pc, not too concerned about support then look at other options (the add-on support package offered by Pc World as an optional extra is a complete rip off as well).

[kinster]

Originally posted by mediaroots
ok. I am not making stuff up. Generalising maybe. but I actually know what I am talking about, especially considering I had a corporate sales pitch from Dell about a month ago (they have nice food).

I went to Dell's corporate HQ in the middle of nowhere (by Thorpe park or something?) where we were given a presentation by the head of some department. During this corporate sales pitch, the guy freely said 'ok, I work here but as a Dell customer myself, obviously you see the price in the magazine or on the homepage or whatever but when you actually go to buy it, it never works out this price unless you reduce loads of options off it like support to basically nothing etc which I would not recommend anything less than 3 years, so that is like a hook and a lower price to get you interested, but you pay better money for better support etc).

So it depends how much you know about computers, if you are paying for good quality support, then you are going to pay a higher press for a less high spec machine from dell. If you are looking for just a good pc, not too concerned about support then look at other options (the add-on support package offered by Pc World as an optional extra is a complete rip off as well).

Warranty and support are a separate issue. If you are after a PC with typical RTB warranty, Dell is cheap.

PC problems are easily resolved nowadays and I find most people don't bother buying the 'top up' warranties.

[mediaroots]

ok sure, you win