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General discussion

Mac Vs. Dell Comparison

Feb 14, 2006 3:59AM PST

I know, I know, I'm feeding off of the major sites today. BUT, this is a REALLY awesome comparison of what you get with a Dell vs. Mac.

I have to say that I think you will get a lot more with an HP though. I don't own an HP, I don't work for them. But in my experiences, you get more equipment from HP.

http://tinyurl.com/c6uep

The other thing is, if you can use free or open source software rather than bundling software with a notebook, you will definitely get a much better price and system.

Discussion is locked

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The meat of it
Feb 14, 2006 6:07AM PST

I wonder how many people actually read the article through to this conclusion:

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When you actually configure offerings from Apple and brand-name Windows PC vendors comparably, you?ll often find the two to be surprisingly price-competitive
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But even if it weren't price-competitive, it doesn't make a difference to Mac users because we'd still pay more for what we consider to be a more enjoyable computing experience. The "fanaticism" exists for a reason.

-Kevin S

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Personally
Feb 14, 2006 8:00AM PST

I avoid Dell like the plague, especially their laptops. HP, on the other hand, I trust pretty much trust entirely.

Not related to hardware, but I want to share anyway:
At my old job, I had to call both companies for support and will say that hands-down, HP is much better, especiallly when the guy I talked to apologized profusely for making me wait 5 minutes. When you compare that to the 45 minutes just to get somebody to answer the phone at Dell, I think it becomes apparent who made the better impression on me.

Okay, I'm done.

-Ryan

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Dell = Plague
Feb 14, 2006 8:15AM PST

I have to agree wholeheartedly on the Dell customer service. For me personally, I do not like having to figure out what the person on the other end is trying to say. I know that sounds a tad racist...but, its true. For me, its really hard to figure out.

I don't have any problems with Dell giving these people jobs, we all know that everyone needs a job. But, to be honest I wish that when I call tech support, the call stayed in this country just as I am sure the people in other countries would want it to stay in their country.

To be fair, I have called Dell a few times and GOT a person in this country that I couldn't understand either!

With that aside, I also have had to wait forever on the phone. A colleague of mine called them up one time about a broken monitor, after 3 days, they finally said they would ship a new one. He got a manual.

I haven't had the pleasure of dealing with HP though. The only thing HP that I've got is my PocketPC which I ordered through CDW and haven't ever had problems with.

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More Dell Problems
Feb 14, 2006 8:32AM PST

(I just noticed a big dell ad at the top of this page yay)

I ordered a top of a line Dell and its broken, memory issues on the motherboard, brand new out of the box and dell won't help, the response from the tech, and I quote 'oh golly golly gosh'.

As for HP, I broke my iPaq and the support was expertly, the mailed me a new iPaq (and then I broke it and bought a new one because that time it was my fault).

I did find Linksys (Cisco?s home division) support very hard to deal with, I don't seem to think that they are interested in problems that can not be replicated in a 20 minute phonecall, however they are good at getting you to ping the router and describe the lights on the router.

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Just Love It
Feb 14, 2006 8:36AM PST

Don't you just love it when you call up tech support and they walk you through doing a ping!! That cracks me up, every time.

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(NT) (NT) ha! yup!
Feb 14, 2006 8:45AM PST
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Dell UK owe me
Feb 14, 2006 8:20AM PST

I gave up on dell and got a refund. Well its been well over a month and dell have stopped the order but have not got round to giving me my

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All else fails
Feb 14, 2006 8:22AM PST

SUE! lol NOT REALLY. But seriously, don't give up!

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My eXPerience with Dell ..
Feb 14, 2006 1:16PM PST

Where I work we buy Dell PCs exclusively (don't ask me why; it's way above my pay grade). I can definitely relate to the tech-support service. Since it was outsourced, it's almost impossible to get in touch with someone who speaks English very well. When we have problems with our Dells, I don't even bother calling tech support anymore. Thankfully, they have a way to do tech support online, and it's FAR less trouble than talking on the phone. No waiting forever on the phone, and no wondering what country your call is going to end up in. Happy