Hp vs Dell (new title- need more feedback for new PC).

[UnSub]

I built a system a long time ago. It is a pain in the ass and I don't relish the idea of doing it again. I have precious little free time as it is with the baby nearing toddler stage (he is mobile now and hard to wrangle!), and I didn't want to slap everything together.

Okay, let's assume it would take you 2 hours to put the thing together, assuming you're nervous about doing so, and want to take the time researching every step along the way.  Hell, let's say it took you 3 hours just to be generous.  You're saying that your time is worth more than $333 per hour?  What the hell do you do for a living???

The alternative is spending those part of those 3 hours putting things together only to find your beloved darling child has drooled all over a video card or gone chomp chomp on an internal cable lead. Also I've found with kids you don't get 3 hours to concentrate on doing anything - you might get an hour tops. So it might take two or three days to actually put things together.

Alternatively: I could probably save a bunch of money if I learned to be a mechanic. Even doing basic stuff like changing oil filters and <insert engine stuff>. However, I don't want to take the risk of messing up my car without having a guarantee to fall back on and I also don't want to be spending my weekends fixing my car when I already have such limited free time.

I'll pay for the convenience if it saves me free time. Sometimes you get screwed over - I had a local shop build my last PC and had to take it back 3 times in 2 month to get them to try to fix it (still doesn't work correctly) - but at least I had the option of taking it back to be fixed.

[Hawkbit]

I'll stay away from harping on how much you could have saved.  Instead you'll get a similar story. 

About 3.5 years ago I got a Dell 21" LCD as a birthday present from my wife.  Dell support at that time was based almost entirely out of India (we can all imagine the stories).  The first LCD had a minor screen defect, but since I'm paying full price I want it perfect.  I call Dell and speak with about 12 people over a two hour period.  Dropped calls, being hung up on, "I can't do that, but X dept can"... so on. 

I finally get them to cross-ship a new LCD out.  On the day I get it, the driver is supposed to take the defective one.  He doesn't have orders for it and doesn't take it with him.  Now the second LCD has oil smudges all over the screen.  At this point I'm livid.  After another hour on the phone with Dell they cross-ship another (3rd!) LCD. 

Get the third one, driver can't take the first two monitors because he wasn't ordered to.  The third LCD has the same light leak issue the first one has.  I throw up my hands and tell them to come pick them all up. 

Nobody ever shows.  I keep looking at my credit card, and they're not billing me for the other two, even after a month.  Finally I said fuck it, cleaned up the other two monitors and kept them.  Never was billed for the extra two LCDs, Dell never even called to see what happened. 

Dell is amateur hour.  I will never buy a thing from them again, even though the odds are in my favor. 

[Engels]

Ya, I have never had this bad an experience with Dell at work. I hope that this change to clownshoes is temporary, because 100% of our computers are dells. That's over 100 units.

[Rasix]

If he's happy with his purchase, who gives a fuck?

He asked us what we thought.

What's the point then in being a total dick about it (not you)?

ETA:  To take the analogy further, and put it in context, what if I told you I could sell you the same watch, either brand, that would work identically for $200.  The only catch is that you would have to attach the band to the face yourself, but I'd give you all the parts to do so.  What's the better deal?

I'd tell you to attach the band for $30, because that's how much my time is worth in relation to a $200 watch purchase. Not surprisingly, like all analogies, that one sucks.

[schild]

If he's happy with his purchase, who gives a fuck?

He asked us what we thought.

What's the point then in being a total dick about it (not you)?

What's the point in sugarcoating it? Who does that help?

[Rasix]

Deal's done, dude.  Who exactly are you helping?  Way's just going to likely build a premade next time, because his free time isn't composed of vacuuming potato chips out of his favorite keyboard.  People value time and convenience when their life lacks either.

[Hindenburg]

Way's just going to likely build a premade next time, because his free time isn't composed of vacuuming potato chips out of his favorite keyboard.  People value time and convenience when their life lacks both.

Rasix wins. By a fucking mile.
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And no, you shouldn't post a NO U pic.

[schild]

Deal's done, dude.  Who exactly are you helping?  Way's just going to likely build a premade next time, because his free time isn't composed of vacuuming potato chips out of his favorite keyboard.  People value time and convenience when their life lacks either.

Who said this was about helping?

I'm confused, what are you going on about?

I'd tell you to attach the band for $30, because that's how much my time is worth in relation to a $200 watch purchase. Not surprisingly, like all analogies, that one sucks.

You edited your prior post and then responded to me after I responded. As such, it's not a matter of an analogy sucking, it's a matter of how you value your time. And much love to the new one and all, but your time is in a totally different universe than bachelor land. Odds are WAPs is also, but there is no way he's crazy enough to ask f13 to pat him on the back for buying a computer. He asked what we though. A bunch of us answered. OBVIOUSLY the extra money may be worth it to him.

To me, the guy that cleans hand salsa out of a keyboard built before I was born, I would build my own PC and save the money and spend it on games.

What exactly are you white knighting anyway?

[Hoax]

Don't buy prebuilt because they suck mostly for the case airflow and part replacement nightmares that tend to follow if you try to make normal upgrades to extend a prebuilt's life.  It is really going to suck if that GPU becomes a bottleneck and you can't replace it because they design everything in prebuilts to never be removed ever.  Hope that doesn't happen.

Also I would have tried to get the Dell computer for free just in case they fucked up on their end and they've lost the machine in the system, I've known something like that to happen w/ smaller retailers twice.

[Morfiend]

He asked which one was better, not whether he got a good deal.

My bad I read it wrong. Thought he said, what do we think.

My thing with building my own systems is this: I am usually on a budget, and I can get a much better computer for the amount of money I have if I build it myself.

[Big Gulp]

My thing with building my own systems is this: I am usually on a budget, and I can get a much better computer for the amount of money I have if I build it myself.

I don't really have anything so complex as a "budget".  What I do have is a deeply ingrained sense of cheapness that refuses to hand over money to middle men when what they do is something that is trivially easy to do for myself.  I sure as hell wouldn't give my money to a PC vendor who'll overcharge me, intentionally limit my upgrade path, and to top it all off, they'll fill my pre-installed OS with so much crapware that I have to reinstall the OS just so I'm not assaulted by the bullshit apps their business partners forced onto the system.

Sorry man, but when I see someone buying a prebuilt system I either assume that they're clueless or that they're suckers.

[schild]

He asked which one was better, not whether he got a good deal.

My bad I read it wrong. Thought he said, what do we think.

My thing with building my own systems is this: I am usually on a budget, and I can get a much better computer for the amount of money I have if I build it myself.

I can't believe this is coming down to interpretation. He asked which was better. The he asked how he did.

How he did.

We answered that. We also answered the former. Both were win/lose against eachother. Graphics vs. Processor. Better processor wins because a graphics card is a trivial replacement. Also, he paid too much. Sorta closes the book on it, imo.

[fuser]

Better processor wins because a graphics card is a trivial replacement.

I dunno man, some of those cases/motherboard (dell included) are a hard fit for dual slot cards + the PSU might be shit for power output on 12v rail 

[dusematic]

I built a system a long time ago. It is a pain in the ass and I don't relish the idea of doing it again. I have precious little free time as it is with the baby nearing toddler stage (he is mobile now and hard to wrangle!), and I didn't want to slap everything together.

Okay, let's assume it would take you 2 hours to put the thing together, assuming you're nervous about doing so, and want to take the time researching every step along the way.  Hell, let's say it took you 3 hours just to be generous.  You're saying that your time is worth more than $333 per hour?  What the hell do you do for a living???

I mean is it really THAT much cheaper?  I built a computer once off of newegg and I didn't feel like I saved $700.  Probably a few hundred.


Edit:  Also, it takes longer than 2 hours for a newb to assemble a computer from individual parts.  It's kind of a shitty process that will eat up half a Saturday.


Edit:  Please spare me the nerd pride in how quickly YOU can assemble computers and how it's no big deal.  Some of you people are too fucking predictable.

[Rasix]

I built a system a long time ago. It is a pain in the ass and I don't relish the idea of doing it again. I have precious little free time as it is with the baby nearing toddler stage (he is mobile now and hard to wrangle!), and I didn't want to slap everything together.

Okay, let's assume it would take you 2 hours to put the thing together, assuming you're nervous about doing so, and want to take the time researching every step along the way.  Hell, let's say it took you 3 hours just to be generous.  You're saying that your time is worth more than $333 per hour?  What the hell do you do for a living???

I mean is it really THAT much cheaper?  I built a computer once off of newegg and I didn't feel like I saved $700.  Probably a few hundred.

Last time I bought my Dell, I priced out the parts at places like Newegg and came up with about a $300 premium on not building it myself on a ~$1900 purchase.  There are future considerations that I mentioned above, which are negatives beyond what I essentially paid for labor.  Take into account that I paid for legit versions of Windows XP and MS Office (just Word/Excell/Outlook).  

Pertinent to nothing; I've since traded out the video card, memory, hard drive (twice!), keyboard/mouse (duh), and power supply.  The power supply was incredibly difficult to change out and barely fit (technically).

edit: I needed pretty much everything.  There were no wasted parts beyond the wireless kb/m that I hated.

[Trippy]

I mean is it really THAT much cheaper?  I built a computer once off of newegg and I didn't feel like I saved $700.  Probably a few hundred.

It's cheaper in the sense that you only get what you need. Most of those "full featured" pre-built boxes have a lot of extra crap you don't need/want.

[dusematic]

Yeah $300 makes a lot more sense.  It doesn't make sense in a free market that it would be as big a difference as some of the more exaggerated claims in this thread.  I'd pay $300 to not have to fuck with putting a computer together and install the software myself any day of the week.  But I'm loathe to get into another discussion about my time over money theory again.  That ended poorly last time.

[Surlyboi]

Heh... Dell... 

[schild]

Heh... Dell...  

Tell me you aren't suggesting he buy something that's $1500 too expensive and only runs games via futzing around ;)

[Trippy]

[dusematic]

Heh... Dell...  

Tell me you aren't suggesting he buy something that's $1500 too expensive and only runs games via futzing around ;)

$1500 is extreme hyperbole.

[Trippy]

Not if you are buying a Mac Pro.

[dusematic]

Macs are lame.  I guess if you're really into hardware the same way people get really into cars, it could make sense to pay more and get less (except for an aesthetic).  But if you just use your computer for games, jacking off, and fagging up the internet like I do, then Macs are lame.

[schild]

But if you just use your computer for games, jacking off, and fagging up the internet like I do, then Macs are lame.

Don't simplify our lives like that. Jesus christ, man.

[dusematic]

But if you just use your computer for games, jacking off, and fagging up the internet like I do, then Macs are lame.

Don't simplify our lives like that. Jesus christ, man.

genuinely laughed.  lol

[Surlyboi]

But if you just use your computer for games, jacking off, and fagging up the internet like I do, then Macs are lame.

Don't simplify our lives like that. Jesus christ, man.

I got nothin' 

[Merusk]

Integrated Audio

Try not to make stupid mistakes like this when buying nearly $2000 of equipment.

I'd take integrated over a Creative card any day at this point.

I took the creative card on my last build.  It's worse than my wife's integrated sound card for many things.  Voices in WoW play very quietly, or always 'behind' you on the SB, for example.  Lots of sound artifacts and glitches in my FPS games, and absolutely pathetic bass, even when maxed in the software.  I shouldn't have to turn my subwoofer up to max to get thumping noises in Bioshock.

[Big Gulp]

I mean is it really THAT much cheaper?  I built a computer once off of newegg and I didn't feel like I saved $700.  Probably a few hundred.

Just last week I bought a 3Ghz AMD quad core/Asus mobo combo with 8 gigs of DDR 3 at 1066Mhz, with a 9800 GTX.  I also bought a new case, power supply, wireless card, hard drive, and DVD burner.  Grand total?  $598.89

Yeah.  It is that much cheaper.

ETA:  On the other hand, I didn't go crazy with all the little subsidiary components.  The power supply is only 580w, but since I'm not SLIing or anything crazy like that it's more than sufficient.  The DVD burner is nothing special, but then again they're going for around $20 nowadays, so if it dies I just replace it for a quick $20.  The case is nothing special, but I made sure it has 3 fans and plenty of air intakes/outlets.  Again, cost me around $20.  I didn't buy an OS since Windows 7 RC1 is just fine 'til I get a system builder version for around $100 later down the road.

With OEMs you're paying for a lot of extra bullshit, some of it of negligible value, some of it an actual detriment (non-standard case design).

[Sophismata]

The HP is the better computer. While the Dell has better GPU(s), nearly everything else on the HP outshines it, and video cards are damn easy to replace.

You paid a lot for a prebuilt, but if you're willing to pay that much for convenience, more power to you.

[sanctuary]

My only experience with Dell support was very positive. I bought a Studio 17 laptop for the wife about 5 months ago, it arrived on time but unfortunately had a red vertical line on the screen. Dell support offered to replace the laptop or replace the screen. I chose the latter and a technician came out the next day. Haven't had any problems with it since *touches wood*.

[Sky]

People like this shouldn't even have computers, it's why god created consoles. Get off the internet you moronic simpletons, important people need to use it.

[OcellotJenkins]

I custom built PCs for a decade but gave it up and opt for pre-mades going forward.  One big reason for me, that I haven't seen mentioned in this thread, is noise.  You can't build $600 gaming PC that is anywhere near as quiet as something like a Dell.  In fact, it probably sounds like a fucking vacuum cleaner.  I used to spend a lot of time tweaking my custom builds to be quiet and cool too (hanging out on silentpcreview.com and similar sites).  You can get quieter components but you'll spend more and the machine is still likely to be annoyingly loud.

The premium cost of a pre-made can be worth it if you research what you are getting.  The time saved building, the warranty, and the silence make it an easy choice for me these days.

[Mrbloodworth]

People like this shouldn't even have computers, it's why god created consoles. Get off the internet you moronic simpletons, important people need to use it.

lol!

[Sky]

You can't build $600 gaming PC that is anywhere near as quiet as something like a Dell.  In fact, it probably sounds like a fucking vacuum cleaner. 

Though I'll give you one thing, you might not be able to do it for $600. But who the fuck builds a $600 gaming PC? Turn in your gaming card, there are pc gamers who need it. Go buy a console.

[ghost]

I last bought something from Dell in 1999 or 2000.  It was a piece of shit laptop that is easily the worst computing device I've ever used other than a PC Junior.  The customer service smells of rotten dog feces and almost every Dell box I have at my office (not bought by me ) has something wrong with it.