would it be stupid for me to buy a Dell?

ForefrontStudio

ForefrontStudio

Micah Amstutz
Jan 1, 2009
264
0
16
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NE Ohio
no discussion of fruit please :saint: I'm curious what you guys think of Dell pcs for recording. I just got out of a chat session with a dell rep, and they were not able to tell me what mobos they use... (fishy?) I am looking at a Studio XPS 8000 with i7 processors and 8gb or ram. I also looked into alienware pcs (sold through dell's website) with i7's and 9gb or ram (tri-channel). there is about a $200 difference between the two (plus the alienware would have 9gb ram, the xps, 8).

The reason I am looking at these two brands is because I think my current pc is dying on me and I don't have the cash up front to build one. I have financing through dell, so I could get it, and keep recording, and keep making some cash to pay it off with...
 
Don't know how Dell suits for recording in general, but I think it's a brand held in reasonably high regard.
 
ForefrontStudio said:
no discussion of fruit please :saint: I'm curious what you guys think of Dell pcs for recording. I just got out of a chat session with a dell rep, and they were not able to tell me what mobos they use... (fishy?) I am looking at a Studio XPS 8000 with i7 processors and 8gb or ram. I also looked into alienware pcs (sold through dell's website) with i7's and 9gb or ram (tri-channel). there is about a $200 difference between the two (plus the alienware would have 9gb ram, the xps, 8).

The reason I am looking at these two brands is because I think my current pc is dying on me and I don't have the cash up front to build one. I have financing through dell, so I could get it, and keep recording, and keep making some cash to pay it off with...
Click to expand...

was unsure of dell but i got the 8000 a week ago, i7 860
its great
 
they cant tell you because its some cheap crap they make overseas. thats how they are able to sell them for so cheap. crap MBs and ram. I used to be one of the techs that would stop by your house if your laptop mobo crapped itself, and they always would. 90% mobo replacements. building a pc really isnt hard at all. you can get all parts at newegg for good prices.

if you dont want to go that route and go for the dell, get the extended warranty. youll need it.
 
honestly i don't know why people shit on dells so much

i've used countless dells at work/school/etc. over the years, from HS to college, and companies over varying sizes, and the dells never have any problems

i also have a dell that i've owned for over 5 years now that i record with. it's honestly not fast enough for my needs - it gets pretty sluggish when i hit about 24 tracks and 50 plugins in cubase, but it's also only a single-core 3ghz processor, and i got the entire thing with monitor for about $800. OTOH, i also haven't encountered one issue with this PC that would be any fault of dell's...i've had some problems, but they were all due to my doing stupid shit!

i also looked the other day, and they're still offering up some systems with XP pre-loaded that you can score for anywhere between $700-1000. maybe not the fastest shit out there, but for people who don't want to dick with their own build, i consider them a viable option.
 
Go for an HP, man.

They've got amazing tech support, and best of all... They all come with a system restore harddrive partition.

I've been using HP for like 4 years now, and I wouldn't look back.

Back when I worked for a web design firm, they had contract agreements with Dell, so we used Dell at the office, and personally I don't think Dell's are up to today's standard.
 
I have a Dell XPS m1530 laptop. As for a regular usage - it's great,built well, great warranty, smooth performance. The problem starts when you want to plug a firewire interface to it. The onboard fw slot is completely useless, and even running additional one on expresscard bus, I still had some issues to solve. But I have to admit - as I configured everything right, works damn solid.
 
thanks for all the info guys. I did some more research, and found out they DO use cheapo proprietary mobos (and power supplies). does anyone know anything about the alienware pcs? I'm thinking maybe they would use a nicer mobo?
 
Since a few years, Alienware is property of Dell.

If you know anything about computers, you should just grab something off of Newegg and save the hassle of dealing with Dell or HP or anything. Cheaper and you don't get all the random software they impose on you.
 
I wouldnt.

My dell laptop (inspiron 1720) is a dog. It can sit there doing nothing and be at 50% CPU usage, and this is 3 weeks after a fresh install.

Gut shots of XPS i7s show a really suspect looking horribly stripped down mobo. I wouldnt trust it.

Get one built/build one. Gigabyte make at least one x58 mobo with a TI firewire chipset thats a bit cheaper than the standard (asus p6t, which doesnt have TI), I'd use that, with a decent power supply some fast ram (why you need 9gb I have no idea but then again, why not) from a decent manufacturer (corsair, OCZ etc), quiet/silent cooler and you'll be good to go. I'm still on my E6600/striker extreme/4gb corsair 800mhz-CL4 that I put together about 3 years ago and its rock solid and hasnt given me any reason to upgrade. An i7 rig with sensibly chosen components should slay for a few years: I wouldnt rely on the dell to do the same.
 
I work for a software design company, and we use business class Dell comps for a shitload of stuff, and they're really solid, reliable computers. My only experience so far with consumer class stuff is my new Inspiron 546 that I got for super-cheap. It seems solid enough so far. I've had 2 BSOD's in Windows 7, but I'm not sure yet what caused them...I need to look at the Memory.dmp files. I'm thinking it's a fucked up driver.

Dell's Customer Service can be quite the pits due to the corporate structure of the company. I knew several people that work for them and my roommate just had a pretty shitty experience with them.
 
Zozobra said:
Get one built/build one. Gigabyte make at least one x58 mobo with a TI firewire chipset thats a bit cheaper than the standard...
Click to expand...

Sorry to derail but do you know which Gigabyte x58 mobo uses the TI FW chipset? I just can't find the answer to that! Looking at the x58-ud3r or the x58 extreme i think they are called?

Gonna be building an i7-075 (i hope) soon. :headbang:
 
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