OT: Is it just me or is Dell sliding in quality gear?

[Daddy Dee]

It could just be Murphy's law, but don't know. The first week in December I ordered a Dell Vostro 14" laptop. Vostro is Dell's (sub Latitude) Business line. It is actually an Inspiron in a black case and not loaded up with crapware that usually comes on a new pc.

DHL lost the first one in transit. Dell sent another, but it was sick and I got tech support to finally diagnose a bad main board. It had an intermittent crackling sound in the audio and gave me a message that a usb device had failed even when there was no usb device attached. Dell offered to send a guy to my house or they'd send a new computer and I'd just ship the old one back. I told them I wanted to think it over because I might just want to choose another option, not having too much faith in the Vostro. I do have to say, though, that the look and feel of the little rascal was pretty nice. A few days ago I got an RMA number and I'm going to return it for a refund.

While this was going on my wife's 7 year old 12" Latitude has a display failure. It's been a good little pc. We decided to replace it with a Dell XPS M1330 a nice little 13" screen. I have alot more confidence in this unit that the one I'd ordered before. Anyway, I'm setting it up and notice that it is not level on the table. Every time I put my hands on the keyboard to type the left front leg will go down to touch the table, since it's usual position is slightly airborne. I placed the notebook on three more flat surfaces with the same results. I called XPS support (far and away better than standard Dell support) and they said, yeh they'd had a few units with that. They'll ship a replacement today. I think that will work.

For my unit, I'm leaning toward a 14" HP that is nicely priced with 3GB DDRam and 250GB hard drive. I think the LightScribe CD burner is a fairly cool idea to burn a label after burning a CD or DVD.

Sort of a hard choice because the wife's XPS is a pretty sleek little laptop. Oh, well. This is the fun part.

Any thoughts or advice appreciated. The budget is under a grand.

[Gilbert]

DELL has never been known for building durable (aka lasting) PC's. They are know for building cheap PC's, (aka affordable PC's). They will in time follow the path of Micron, Gateway and many others.

If your not intimidated by electrical wires, plugs and printed circuit boards, and have a little patience, you should learn to build your own PC. It really is not difficult to assemble a working PC, the trick is tweaking the BIOS and setting up the OS to suit your needs. Once you do your first machine, you'll quickly learn why any 5-thumbed dorky high school kid can be the lead Tech at Best Buy and the now dead CompUSA.

[LarryC]

OT I guess -- my brother is getting a Mac. He's getting a good tech advice from IT people at the college where he's on the faculty, and many faculty have Macs. My music teacher has one (so do all the music faculty at his U), and I marvel at its easy, superior operation in programs I labor over with my (Dell) PC. Plus, his Mac has a nifty calendar whereas I'm limited to Palm's so-so software because no one else makes a decent business calendar for PCs AFAIK. I think my next computer is gonna be one of those. I'm told that the "dual core" feature lets one use PC programs -- but I don't understand how that works.

I'm just rambling here, but I sure don't like Dell's ineffective India tech support!

[kev313]

*cough* ((mac)) *cough*

[Jay481985]

Daddy Dee do not buy a Lenovo as I spoke about it before.... 3 times sent in for a broken latch (the best part is they broke the lcd screen trying to repair the latch which is no where near there and is in the palm rest. Also I wrote a great sticky with what they should try and repair and where the problem is diagram on the second try and that was when they opened up the lcd and now the benzel is popped open??? WTF), now they said that I can replace the laptop with any model they make... to bad I brought the top of the line tablet..... If they refunded the money I would have most likely brough the xps 1330. But now the new macbook air looks nice but I bet it will have problems. Apple does a good job in masking their failure rates. Remember guys the apples use the same hardware as the other vendors. Now with the intel chip the only difference is software and case. If hardware fails on one laptop it will fail on the other. Also if you guys do not believe me, goto any apple store at 10:00 am or whenever they open and see the genius bar full of broken computers. I know, I worked at one of those stores. I came to work at 9:45 to see people lined up daily with their imacs and mac books, macbook pro, power mac, etc.

[DrWho]

The Dell Latitudes are tanks, but the rest of the line seems a bit finicky. I have found that many of the HP notebooks are the same way. If you really want something reliable I would look into some of the offerings from IBM - of course, be ready to spend a bit more for it. The Apple notebooks are alright, but they have quirks too.

[mas]

MacBook for a ~$1000 laptop. Otherwise MacBook Pro for a desktop replacment laptop.

And for a desktop, the MacPro with dual quad core Xeons (not cores or pentiums) for $2800 is SWEET.

And if you want a 24 inch desktop all in one, the IMac for $1800 is hard to beat.

And don't forget, the Mac is a PC, and will natively run any OS or program a 'regular' PC can, but with the advantage of also running OSX - the most POSIX compliant UNIX under the covers of an elegant GUI (but with a full blown command line interface terminal session should you desire that avenue) - that even a newby can operate.

This combined with the integrated Parallels, or with VMWare's incredible Fusion for $79, and you have a machine supporting multiple native OSes (OSX< Windows, Linux, BSD, etc...) simultaneously in their own protected space(s). In other words, you can have full blown OSX AND Windows on the same machine running at the same time without any limitations.

And customer sat figures second to none.

And with the plethora of applications actively being moved to the Mac, its definitely time to move back to the Mac.

[Jay481985]

The Dell Latitudes are tanks, but the rest of the line seems a bit finicky. I have found that many of the HP notebooks are the same way. If you really want something reliable I would look into some of the offerings from IBM - of course, be ready to spend a bit more for it. The Apple notebooks are alright, but they have quirks too.

IBM does not make the thinkpads anymore, Lenovo does..... I brought my lenovo based on past ibm t40 standards. was I horribly wrong.

[boom3]

I've had two Dells here at work...both were dogs. The first was such a POS that it was replaced by a Gateway after 11 months...very sorry when corp IT made me give the GW up. The second Dell had its motherboard replaced in the Great Capacitor Scandal of 2005.

I've been told by my household IT manager that when my home 2001 HP desktop (never a great machine for many reasons) gives one more problem it WILL be replaced by a Mac.

I will then be issued my robe, hood and secret handshake as I enter the cult. [H]

[seti]

I only buy apple laptops but even after 4years my 17 inch powerbook is having some issues. Will be ordering 15 inch powerbook this month. I support 120 dell workstations and 15 dell servers. The business class gear is great.

Hey Dee let me know when your in town we can grab some Simm's BBQ.

[Daddy Dee]

Seti,

Yeh. we definitely need to get together at Simms.

Well, on the MacBook, it looks like an intresting option. I'm reading that it has no headphone jack? Is that so?

[BEC]

Dee,

Michael just bought a new MacBook. His has a headphone jack.

Bob

[seti]

You may be thinking of that new mac air which may not have headphone jacks. People use mac books in the field to do audio and video pre production work because the macs have so many inputs and outputs.The Mac laptops are more expensive but they are so good. I have used mine every single day for four years.

[BroMike]

Dee,

Copied from Apple's Tech Specs page on the MacBook:

Audio

Built-in stereo speakers

Built-in omnidirectional microphone

Combined optical digital audio input/audio line in (minijack)

Combined optical digital audio output/headphone out (minijack)

Hope this helps,

BroMike

[Daddy Dee]

Thanks guys. I'm warming up the idea of a macbook. If we might continue this Macbook for idiots thread... pardon my ignorance.

I've got mp3 and other files on USB portable hard drives. Does Mac read and write on the same drives as PC's?

I'm guessing that HP has Mac drivers for the same HP USB Inkjet printers I've been using.

How does a MacBook run on 1GB ram? Upgrading to 2GB is $150 from Mac. If needed, it looks like the same ram 2 1gb chips could be purchased for about $60 bucks. Is this a reasonable plan?

[DrWho]

And don't forget, the Mac is a PC, and will
natively run any OS or program a 'regular' PC can, but with the
advantage of also running OSX - the most POSIX compliant UNIX under the
covers of an elegant GUI (but with a full blown command line interface
terminal session should you desire that avenue) - that even a newby can
operate.

This combined with the integrated Parallels, or with
VMWare's incredible Fusion for $79, and you have a machine supporting
multiple native OSes (OSX< Windows, Linux, BSD, etc...)
simultaneously in their own protected space(s). In other words, you can
have full blown OSX AND Windows on the same machine running at the same
time without any limitations.

I don't care to get into
the technicalities but the notion that you can run whatever you want on
a Mac is simply not true. I've got a geek friend who does IT work for
the super computers on campus (in other words, he knows computers) and
so far he has been unable to get me the same functionality on his
MacBook. It always starts with, "Oh it can do everything" and then
followed by excuses about everything being an exception to the rule.
Lots of talk and idealistic theory, but nothing based on reality.

Apple
does one thing very well: selling an image. What's that speaker company
we all love that does the same? Oh the irony... [^o)]

The
MacBooks are fine laptops, but it depends on what you want to do with
them. When it comes down to it, a laptop or OS or whatever is just a
tool - so I recommend first figuring out what the job is and then picking the best tool for the job. Each flavor has its own niche where it works best.

[seti]

Thanks guys. I'm warming up the idea of a macbook. If we might continue this Macbook for idiots thread... pardon my ignorance.

I've got mp3 and other files on USB portable hard drives. Does Mac read and write on the same drives as PC's?

I'm guessing that HP has Mac drivers for the same HP USB Inkjet printers I've been using.

How does a MacBook run on 1GB ram? Upgrading to 2GB is $150 from Mac. If needed, it looks like the same ram 2 1gb chips could be purchased for about $60 bucks. Is this a reasonable plan?

I have external firewire drives with my backed up files from old PCs and Macs. I have hooked all these up to my current macbook and transferred files without problems.

You need to go to the manufacturer website to double check because not all printers have drivers for macs. I am sitting at an imac right now and it is hooked up to an hp 6310 and it works great scans and prints.

If it is a PC or Mac I usually double the amount of ram it ships with when ordering. Although this imac has 1gig and runs fine.

[BEC]

Dee,

You can go to hp.com and select "support and drivers. Type in your printer type and they will list the operating systems they have drivers for. I am still waiting for a new driver for my HP Laserjet 3055 before I upgrade my machine to MacOS 10.5. The driver they have now is for 10.4 and does not support the fax and scan function under 10.5. I don't know why HP has been so slow on getting drivers out this time.

Bob

[seti]

And don't forget, the Mac is a PC, and will
natively run any OS or program a 'regular' PC can, but with the
advantage of also running OSX - the most POSIX compliant UNIX under the
covers of an elegant GUI (but with a full blown command line interface
terminal session should you desire that avenue) - that even a newby can
operate.

This combined with the integrated Parallels, or with
VMWare's incredible Fusion for $79, and you have a machine supporting
multiple native OSes (OSX< Windows, Linux, BSD, etc...)
simultaneously in their own protected space(s). In other words, you can
have full blown OSX AND Windows on the same machine running at the same
time without any limitations.

I don't care to get into
the technicalities but the notion that you can run whatever you want on
a Mac is simply not true. I've got a geek friend who does IT work for
the super computers on campus (in other words, he knows computers) and
so far he has been unable to get me the same functionality on his
MacBook. It always starts with, "Oh it can do everything" and then
followed by excuses about everything being an exception to the rule.
Lots of talk and idealistic theory, but nothing based on reality.

Apple
does one thing very well: selling an image. What's that speaker company
we all love that does the same? Oh the irony...

The
MacBooks are fine laptops, but it depends on what you want to do with
them. When it comes down to it, a laptop or OS or whatever is just a
tool - so I recommend first figuring out what the job is and then picking the best tool for the job. Each flavor has its own niche where it works best.

Apple hardware is killer. I have owned alot of it and it consistantly last longer. The Mac OS doesn't have to support nearly the same amount of hardware windows does and this results in a smaller more efficient kernel. The Mac OS is my favorite so far and I am completely biased. Comparing Apple to Bose is way off IMO. Apple = Quality not just an image.

If you are in any specialized field you need to make sure the hardware and software you need to use supported by the OS and computer. You are correct the right tool for the job especially if you are specialized. Doing research before you buy any computer pays off.

If I need Windows for something specific now I can boot right into Windows and do what I need then return to the safety of OS X. I beta tested Vista and I can honestly say it is the worst OS they have ever made. Now windows xp is just getting very stable and mostly trouble free as long as you have antivirus plus adware/spyware detection software running. Windows has consistantly missed the security boat and they are paying the price now as not many are in a hurry for vista or their new BS security model. This is something that apple took seriously years ago and microsoft didn't.

Sincerely,

MacAddict

[mas]

And don't forget, the Mac is a PC, and will
natively run any OS or program a 'regular' PC can, but with the
advantage of also running OSX - the most POSIX compliant UNIX under the
covers of an elegant GUI (but with a full blown command line interface
terminal session should you desire that avenue) - that even a newby can
operate.

This combined with the integrated Parallels, or with
VMWare's incredible Fusion for $79, and you have a machine supporting
multiple native OSes (OSX< Windows, Linux, BSD, etc...)
simultaneously in their own protected space(s). In other words, you can
have full blown OSX AND Windows on the same machine running at the same
time without any limitations.

I don't care to get into
the technicalities but the notion that you can run whatever you want on
a Mac is simply not true. I've got a geek friend who does IT work for
the super computers on campus (in other words, he knows computers) and
so far he has been unable to get me the same functionality on his
MacBook. It always starts with, "Oh it can do everything" and then
followed by excuses about everything being an exception to the rule.
Lots of talk and idealistic theory, but nothing based on reality.

Apple
does one thing very well: selling an image. What's that speaker company
we all love that does the same? Oh the irony...

Absolute and utter Nonsense....collegeboy (I just couldn't resist sticking this in while we still can!!!!!!!! [][] Heck, in a few months we may not be able to do that! [:'(]

(But then, you are going to do the scuba thang aren't you? I guess that is why we found that black wetsuit just for you...if the kinky women don't get you, you look just like one of them tasty seals that the sharks like so much! And it sounds like I finally have a reason to try my pneumatic speargun that is restricted in so many other environments! YeeHaw!! I can already see it now - a featured slot on Entertainment Tonight! [] []

The Mac is the latest incarnation of the Intel Roadmap (and yes, that is a matter of standards and compliance!). It is 'just' a PC that happens to natively utilize the next generation EFI BIOS developed by Intel as a native 64 bit BIOS as opposed to all other PCs utilizing a proprietary 3rd party BIOS (usually Phoenix). If it doesn't run, you have an application problem.

And if you want to run multiple OSes simultaneously, while Parallels works great, VMWare Fusion kicks rear. The only thing that restricts the number of simultaneous environments are your available system resources, as with ANY machine.

Having myself been just a bit involved with "supercomputers" - in fact one that will kick their supercomputer to the curb [][] there is no problem with running any other OS on the Mac that runs on the X86 platform.

But while you are at it, unless they are handy with defeating the TCM, show me a full blown UNIX for the PC that offers the functionality and APPLICATION support that OSX does. And the Linux folks can wander about muttering "Applications! Applications! Gee, thats not fair! We don't need no stinkin applications!"

And anyone in the trades that has read InfoWorld over the past few years has seen the transformation that has been happening in the IT world. Enterprise apps are flying to the Mac. In fact, that very subject and the articles reporting it have riled quite a few people lately.

The fact is, unless you are adept as bypassing the TCM, the Mac offers more OS and application options than a comparable PC.

And why is it that only folks who live in the PC world have all of these compalints about the Mac and its 'problems'? The silence is deafening among the Mac folks who actually live on these things. And the PC world wishes that they had the customer sat figure that the Macs do. Of course many of them don't even know that there is a full blown command line terminal environment that the Windows folks can only wax philosophically about as it has been several generations since they have been able to do anything but ping, fdisk, and ipconfig (and on a regular basis as Windows loses communication with the I/O devices!) Oh, and I hear that Windows has finallly heard of a functionality called "scripting'! Go figure! []

Its quite literally time to go back to the Mac - even if you ONLY want a Windows box.

Oh, and as you are going to be dealing with DAWs, you had best get used to the Mac, as it OWNS that market. And nothing comes close to the deal that the Mac Pro with dual quad core Xeons offers!

And as far as Apple only selling image....hmmm. so Windows is still command line? No? And Excel, and LabView, and a plethora of other industry standard products that you now associate with Windows...where were they developed? Oh yeah, about the only thing that Windows actually offers is marketshare. As Windows CONSISTENTLY has ranked LAST of all of the major enterprise OSes in the annual DHBrown assessment for the last 10 years. But Vista does look purty...if you have a new machine just to look at its purtiness. But does anyone wonder why the adoption rate for Vista is so abyssmal...but gee, its so purty! It almost looks as purty as what OSX had several years ago...