Welcome to MSDN Blogs Sign in | Join | Help
Buying a new computer

I have not write blog for several weeks because of the economy and election news are overwhelming. Nevertheless, I am back blogging.

I am a long time Dell customer and I buy a new DELL computer almost every 2 years. This year, I am in pain. Why? I spend almost 1 month browsing DELL web page, and I found there is no good deal at all.

I am not sure whether I am a typical customer or not. The new computer I am looking for need a big big hard disk (500G above) and a lot of RAM (3G or more), and I am looking for reasonable processor. And I found there is no default config which did that and if I upgrade, I don't think the price is fair.

One thing I notice which probably is not DELL fault, it is more INTEL or AMD fault. I have no idea how fast is their processor by looking at their name, I remember the good old time (P IV 90, P IV 100, etc). I can base on the number to guess if I add a hundred dollars, how much I can expected in return. Now, I am confused by the number and I dont understand why there are so many different type of processor available. So, I am more tend to go for AMD processor because it had reputation of value. Unfortunately, DELL doesn't seem to have a lot of choice on AMD processor.

Because I still have some DELL gift card, so, even I can't find a computer I want, I am trying my best to look around to see whether there is anything I could buy, I almost wanted to buy a mini 9, but the small harddisk space is scaring me. If I search the net, I guess I am not worry much about processor speed, but I may download a lot of stuff. 16 G probably can't hold 1 month of stuff that I download and need me to do regular cleanup.

The worst is that when I look into HP computer, their configuration seem much better or fit my need, and also because my recent DELL desktop have a very bad video card/driver problem which hang my computer every 2/3 days, and I can't seem to get it fix by downloading tons of DELL update. I probably will need to change my habit and start buying from HP in this holiday seasion. 

So sad to see DELL go down like that, it really used to sell high quality computer with reasonable price. Now, I guess the company is focus more on look instead of the computer spec.

Posted: Monday, October 13, 2008 1:10 AM by TikiWan

Comments

Buying a new computer : Easy Coded said:

PingBack from http://www.easycoded.com/buying-a-new-computer/

# October 13, 2008 1:27 AM

Korn1699 said:

Where were you having trouble finding out the processor speed on DELL's site?  I am just wondering because I've never had a problem on there, although it is almost impossible to find out at most retail stores, unless you already know how fast each model is (and I wouldn't recommend trusting what the sales person says...).  There is a lot more than speed now too because I have noticed major differences with different architectures, cache sizes, and spacing of components in the processor.  For example, my Inspiron 1520 came with a 2.2 GHz Core2, and it is noticeably faster than the 3.0 GHz Pentium D that is on my work PC, even though both are dual cores.  I recently upgraded my laptop processor to a new 2.5 GHz Core2, which had 6 MB cache instead of 4 MB, and it is 45 nm instead on 65 nm (so it runs cooler and uses less energy because the parts in the chip are closer).  

Most of the time is it cheaper to buy a DELL that can be upgraded and just add the parts on your own, since they change at least what the part is worth to just upgrade to a bigger hard drive or something like that.  For example, they may charge you $150 to upgrade from a 250 GB hard drive to a 500 GB one, when you could just buy it with the 250 and put in your own for $150 (which they are now on newegg), and you have another 250 GB drive that you wouldn't have if you opted for just the upgrade through DELL...

# October 20, 2008 9:41 AM
New Comments to this post are disabled
Page view tracker