Disappointed with Dell

i dont feel the same way as you do
1.i have heard alot of great things about dells cs so IF i get a lappy with core duo i will wait
2.also i dont really care about core duo i just want them to finish building/making/shi the dell xps renegade.
3.i think core duo will only help some people, like video editers etc.i dont think it will help people like me "gamers" because i dont think/know anybody plays a game,is on photoshop,surfing the web and writing an email at the same time

It doesnt really matter what Dell does, people will always buy computers from them. The majority of the population doesn't research laptop purchase, they just simply buy a dell.

Also Dell is probaly waiting for some new outbreaks in Core Duo, and is taking there time to test out any new systems that they will be shipping late 2006.

I agree,when I first starting looking at dell notebooks,they always offered the most up to date technology first,at a great price,they also used to be one of a very few who offered dedicated graphics in a lot of their lappies when everyone else was pissing into the wind with integrated shite.

Now it seems unless you want a 17" laptop,dell is only going to offer bottom of the range graphics while other manifacturers like acer,asus are going to offer X1600 in sub 17" notebooks while being thinner and having more features,so I guess its back to the old adage "you get what you pay for".

Dell used to have the best features [best video,screen res,swappable bays,docks] for the best price,now they still have great pricing,but the last couple of inspiron model revamps [including whats coming up] the features are becoming more and more watered down compared to the opposition,in 14 and 15.4 models anyway.

I still like Dells warranties and the way you can configure them,but the appeal of a maxed out I6000 [or 6400 from rumours] or I630 pales in comparison to what you can get elsewhere for me now.

Just thought of another thing,I'm sure I can recall Dell using the fact that they don't have distributors or middlemen which enables them to bring the newest technology faster to the consumer,guess they proved themselves wrong on that one.

I had to rewrite my response seeing that the I6500 is just about to come out. Personally, I'll probably end up with one of these unless I can find a better 15.4" Core Duo for around the $1200 mark. We'll see. All I know is that I could really use a Dual core notebook with all the multitasking that I do.

Banias had 2 years, Dothan has 1.5 years. Life is short for Dual Core, less than a year, then it comes the Meron. Perhaps its not cost effective for Dell to have so manay models with a life span of less than a year.

Disagree!

Game developpers are gona take advantage of duocore in the future. In fact they already started. Call of duty 2 and quake4 have patches for duocore.(I dont know about the performance gain tho.)

Also...you always have processes running on your computer.

Also from toms hardware mobility section
"Gamers, who look for notebooks with dedicated high-end graphics chips to let them indulge their passions, should wait for dual core technology notebooks in any case. That's because 3D games (such as Call of Duty, Quake 4, or King Kong), which normally overwhelm even fast graphics processors and high-performance single core CPUs, run flicker-free on the new dual core processors."
http://www.mobilityguru.com/2006/01/...se/page25.html

8600 motherboard fail in 18 months

have almost lost faith in dell notebooks,

My 8600 just died after just 18months, it looks like dell systems are not reliable that is why they insisting on extended warranty.

Just to give you my personal experience - i had one fujitsu system didnot fail at all, i used for more than 5 years without any system problem..

THe dell systems will always have manufacturing defects... looks like, because the components will minimum have 5-10 year life time, but dell systems are failed to perform more then 1 - 2 years, looks like they are not doing any reliablilty tests or they are using low reliable components.

why would a motherboard fail in just 18 months...............


Thanks

I think you get a certain failure rate with any brand,I've had not one failure with any of the dell laptops I've owned,but then again I've never kept one for 18 months.

Reading these and other forums I would have thought from peoples opinions that dell is as reliable as any other brand,probably more so given that there is a lot more dell's in circulation.

They have had a couple of unreliable models long term though like the 5150 and 5100,which had a high failure rate with motherboards,but then other brands have had the same...sony s series with heat problems,looks like acer is having a few issues with heat with the 8204 also the 8104,the list goes on if you want to look.

gerryjoson i agree with you,. the concern here is, though the components are meant to perform for minimum 5 -10 years, in some cases even higher life period. Especially, motherboards should not fail, if the right quality reliable products are used, and right manufacturing processes are followed. I agree if there is any operating conditions vary, but in my case, there is no change with the enviroment, or operating conditions.

I worked for a company where we used to manufacture high industry standard systems, we used calculate the life of each components,,,, each components life would be more than million hrs.... see, earlier days, we beleived that spending more money for a quality product would help to keep the systems running for a long time, and for it's longer life...
PAY HIGH - GET HIGH life... but looks like it is not true n case of Dell....

If a motherboard fails, i suspect, it could be a manufacuturing defect, because we don't know what component made this motherboard fail... may be they didnot conduct any reliability tests on these products or they don;t have any reliablity estimation/or prediction process.in place, or i;m not sure, even if they collect failures at customer site and put a graph how reliable their systems are... i bet out of every 100, there may be 5 - 10 failures, if that is the case... DELL is just 95-100% success, this is just a minimum failure... compare to fujitsu.... it worked for 5 years amazingly.... but tell me onething, why can;t DELL give life time warranty on these motherboards... like any other products which are very low in price...

I think people just they were going by the name, DELL, i don;t think that is going to work anymore, if DELL continue to maintain the same defective products, if the products are meant to last for just over a year, why would we go for DELL, instead, we can go for systems, which is 30-40% less price tag than then, then even if the system fails, we can throw and afford to buy new systems........

just a thought,... any comments

Laptops have had problems for YEARS on end. They are entire, powerful computers crunched into small plastic cases, and moved around from place to place, work, home, school, travel...they just arent going to hold up as much as desktops that sit in ur living room all day.

The KEY is buying the 4 year warranty. 4 Years of coverage is very reasonably priced from Dell, and should be automatic when you buy a laptop.

Dell WINS because they can sell you 4 years of full coverage and they OVERNIGHT service and parts for FREE if needed.

Dell is the #1 safest route to go in terms of computers today. They may not be the "coolest looking", have AMD processors, or other high end gimmicks, but when its my hard earned cash, I trust them with my money.

are you saying that dells cost more then others?....I'm not sure I understand.
Check the 9400 and try to match the price with any other company. I find that the Dell comp is substancialy lower in price. Slap on a 3-4 year garanty and it cant be beat.

I think it is only cheaper if you use the coupons. If you don't, then there are probably many other computers that can compete.

Anyone else get an email about a new system that they are releasing. A 15.4" Core Duo?

I havent found anything that compared for the same price. Everything I find costs alot more even without any coupons....But....why cant we take in to account the coupons? Shouldnt we count what comes out of your pocket? not what the listed price is?. But like I said...even withotu coupons its substancialy cheaper.
A toshiba satelite P100 t2400 is listed at $2400 canadian.
An equivalently equiped 9400 is $1800 on the Dell site. Before any coupons.
With coupons I can upgrade the screen, the cpu,the video card, the batery and use coupons and come out at $2250.

Back when IBM contracted with Lenovo, Asia would get the latest Thinkpads first. But now that Lenovo is in charge, they are taking a much more aggressive stance on product launchs. Lenovo will also be rolling our AMD chips in 6 of their 9 desktops. No confirmation if AMD laptops will roll out or not though.

I'm disappointed that the offerings are becoming more watered down. I suspect Dell is trying to push business users into the Latitude line. I like the 17" screen though so I needed the Inspiron that doesn't have the options they did three years ago, including: modular drive bay, port replicator, legacy ports (not a big deal to me).

The i6400 is the latest salvo....only possible to get a matte screen in WXGA. Glossy laptop screens have no business purpose. The Latitude line is nearing 3 years old.

Come on Dell...stop getting cheap or I'll switch to Lenovo for my next round of systems.