Dell Fell

My first two computers were from Dell -- a laptop and then a desktop. The desktop came with the lovely Deathstar hard drive which, er, exploded after a few months. Dell replaced it ... with another Deathstar which also died a few months later.

Dell, again, sent a new hard drive. Fortunately, it was a 100GB beast from Western Digital. My computer was under warranty. So, Dell provided the new drives without charge.

After that, I decided to custom build my own computers. I've heard and read that the quality of Dell offerings has declined. Their reputation in the late 90s was stellar but now it's so-so.

Comments

[Jewel]

We were thinking of going this route with our next computer, although the man wants to spend a few thou on a mac. I am inclined to think otherwise, but I don't have any good arguments against it.

[Isaac Schrödinger]

The pro and con arguments are described here:

Advantages and Disadvantages of Mac Versus Windows.

One component that will make for a snappy computer is a solid state drive (SSD). This is a relatively new and expensive technology but it's worth it. It will make everything faster: the boot up, opening documents, editing photos, etc.

The only downside is that once you use a computer which has an SSD, you'll be annoyed when you use a computer which doesn't have one.

Intel, OCZ and Corsair make quality SSDs.

[Jaujau]

So I have seen! I know that Asustek made a 300 dollar ssd netbook that got some rave reviews.

[Mike T]

Apple's quality has gone down as well. My Macbook Pro had to be serviced after a not quite 2 years of use because of a dead motherboard.