Are Dell PC Prices For Real?

[Jinx]

Dell is offering a respectable desktop for $299 and a laptop for maybe a few hundred more. What's the catch here?

[groman]

Economy of scale? Rebates? The usual? What's your problem with a $299 PC? It's just crappy, it's not a trick.

[kunilou]

I'm typing this on a Dell I bought online at the price it was advertised at.

Other than it taking three weeks to arrive, I didn't experience any catch.

[RealityChuck]

Dell does very strong volume so they can build a computer more cheaply than other dealers.

[Jinx]

Economy of scale? Rebates? The usual? What's your problem
with a $299 PC? It's just crappy, it's not a trick.

Uh, can you say low profit, too? We checked on line, and it isn't seem so crappy. I wonder what's the S&H? - Jinx

[samclem]

I'm typing this on my two month old $299 Dell. It got here 6 days after I ordered.

It actually cost just a little bit more. 'Cause, the flat screen monitor was just an additional $75, and the CD burner my kids need was another $75, and the improved speakers so I could listen to music were $35 more,.....you get the idea.

My $299 turned into $800. Not that I'm unhappy.

Just depends on your needs and your restraint.

[DougC]

- - - It's a low-profit, low-performance setup, intended to get you to look at better choices they offer for more. But it is priced lower than probably anything comparable you could build by shopping for parts on your own.
- I saw one catalog offering a basic setup (with monitor) for only $199, but the catch was that you had to pre-pay for a year of AOL. Definitely a bad deal, IMHO.
~

[astro]

Re additional costs shipping a PC and 17" CRT monitor is not cheap. It can easily cost $ 60- 90 delivered so you've got to add that to your "deal" and Dell charges sales tax.

[Hyperelastic]

Count me as another satisfied $299 Dell customer (although the extras, including a dinky flatscreen monitor, did push it up in to the $500-600 range.)

I think it's just fine for home use. I don't really need the HP xw8000 workstation I use at work just to do home stuff, like read the Dope and store photos.

[Ruby]

I almost ordered the Dell last week. Office Depot just ran an ad today for a Toshiba laptop (modest specs) plus a free w/ rebate PalmZire 21 for $549. Major good deal, IMO, for what I'm going to use it for. I volunteer for a non-profit military group (FRG) and that laptop is perfect for my use. The PalmZire is a glorified address book but it's a good deal for free.

[asterion]

I've found that the most expensive part of building a new computer isn't the hardware but the software. However, they also manage to get rid of some of that cost by deals with Microsoft and not including much of any other software--there is just WordPerfect, for instance, not Microsoft Office or even OpenOffice. I'd assume everything else is economy of scale.

[pool]

I don't know if this is true but I've heard that you can only have dell printers and scanners and such for dell computers. If you just look around you can usually find a good deal or if you know someone. A friend that worked at Compusa got me a sony vaio laptop with bluetooth wireless and dvd player/cd burner and a 60gb harddrive for only 650 bucks! Unfortunately it got stolen when I was working in Florida. That really sucked but I bought a toshiba laptop with 80gb harddrive dual layer dvd burner and trubrite screen with a 2 year T.A.P. agreement for only $1078 before a $150 mail-in rebate.

[asterion]

I used to have a Dell (an 8100 so this was a $2000 computer instead of a $200 computer) and other than a very annoying proprietary power supply and case/motherboard design, I never had any problems with peripherals or adding/changing hardware. Now I suppose they could be basically DRMing their hardware with something in the software, but I don't see why they would do that (mostly I don't see what they gain.)

[La Llorona]

I don't know if this is true but I've heard that you can only have dell printers and scanners and such for dell computers.

Purely from anecdotal evidence, I don't think this is true...I have a Dell laptop hooked up to an HP psc (printer/scanner/copier) and I've never had any problems with 'em.

[Charlie Tan]

When low end computers are advertised, they bring up specs for hard drive, CPU, RAM ASF. There are other things to a computer. The casing, fans, power supply, keyboard, mouse. My mouse was about $100 and I would never trade that.
You may find that a cheapo casing and loud fans get very annoying after a while and you'll want to replace them. However, check the warranty. Many large makers, that ship and offer on site support, will not honor the warranty if you tinker with the computer in any way at all.
TANSTAAFL and you get what you pay for. But you knew that.

[Penchan]

Count me in the satisfied Dell consumer group. My laptop, a Dell Inspiron 6000 normally runs for around $1500, but one of my friends showed me a deal for an online code for $750 off if I got online at 6am on a certain date and bought it (they were only letting a few thousand use that code for the discount) by entering the code as I checked out. The laptop took a little over a week, but I got a 60gb hd, widescreen 15 in monitor, external floppy drive and a 256 mb flashkey, internal wireless yadda yadda and the standard software and hardware for $825 (shipping was free!). I didn't need to spruce my laptop up too much as I'm not a techgeek like my SO, but it works very well for the things that I need it for. I think it was a very good deal since the specs are exactly tuned for my wants and needs.

So I guess they just want to spread the laptops so more people get interested and buy more of their products. They're coming for you next!

[DMark]

This (http://techbargains.com/) site is worth bookmarking. They always have the most up to date tech deals, and discount codes. They often have Dell specials as well.

Just thought I would mention it if you want to do some comparison shopping.

And no, I have nothing to do with the site other than get my geek jollies looking at it on a regular basis.

[Shakes]

I'm typing this on my two month old $299 Dell. It got here 6 days after I ordered.

It actually cost just a little bit more. 'Cause, the flat screen monitor was just an additional $75, and the CD burner my kids need was another $75, and the improved speakers so I could listen to music were $35 more,.....you get the idea.

My $299 turned into $800. Not that I'm unhappy.

Just depends on your needs and your restraint.

Ya' see, Dell pretty much advertises the same way auto dealers do. When they list a price, it's for the absolute bare minimum. But really, who's going to buy a car these days with out power steering or air conditioning?

I too bought a Dell and wound up spending about $400 dollars more than I thought I was going to. But I'm not unhappy either.

[Fromage A Trois]

Another happy Dell customer here - in the UK of course so all the prices are different, but they do the same thing. You see the cheapest one, but then you decide that it's worth getting the better motherboard... and then a bit more RAM, and a DVD drive... and wireless networking, obviously, and Microsoft Office, not Works... and suddenly it's not quite as cheap.

But I reckon they're still a good deal - I'm very happy with mine.

[Padeye]

Getting what you want for a good price from Dell can be quite an exercise. If you start adding optional features the price can rise dramatically and of course shipping is a big cost. I watched the ads until what I wanted was on sale for free shipping. I needed to get a minium of options so price was still quite reasonable. I did add my own RAM which saved a lot. I've got a Dell 3000 and my only complaint are the fans which absolutely roar when the CPU temp goes up. Still looking for quieter replacements if anyone has any suggestions.

[TommyTutone]

I don't know if this is true but I've heard that you can only have dell printers and scanners and such for dell computers. If you just look around you can usually find a good deal or if you know someone. A friend that worked at Compusa got me a sony vaio laptop with bluetooth wireless and dvd player/cd burner and a 60gb harddrive for only 650 bucks! Unfortunately it got stolen when I was working in Florida. That really sucked but I bought a toshiba laptop with 80gb harddrive dual layer dvd burner and trubrite screen with a 2 year T.A.P. agreement for only $1078 before a $150 mail-in rebate.

My HP OfficeJet would like to talk to you. Basically, if it runs off of a USB port, it'll work with Dell. We did get a free Dell printer with our last purchase, but it did not include the connection cord (and they tell you you have to order it separately, bleh).

[Johnny L.A.]

IIRC, there was a lawsuit in California in which Dell was charged with 'bait-and switch' tactics, telling customers that the computer with the advertised low price was no longer available. It was a couple of months ago that I heard this.

[Napier]

I think the Dell prices are arguably not for real. I hear folks saying you pay more for this and that thing that you wish you could add, but - who would mail order a computer without having it shipped? That's $100. And there's a $75 rebate involved. So for the $300 PC I ordered a little while ago, they charge my VISA card $475. I think that makes it a $475 PC.

The rebates don't have zero cost, so it's not like you can consider the "after rebate" price as accurate. I spend about an hour looking around and calling Dell and messing with my supposed "online account" for which the password didn't work anymore, while trying to get the $75 rebate. At this point I have spent more time than $75 is worth, so they win, I'm giving up. I think they must figure the percentages and use rebates as what might as well be a hidden cost.

It also is weird that you can't turn down the speakers or the printer to save anything, because they're "free". Somehow, after dropping half a grand, I think they aren't. It can't help but increase the price to be shipping everybody printers and speakers they didn't want. I have now several unopened in the basement.

And, yet, Dell still leads in reliability, and I don't know of a competitor that doesn't have all the rebate and free printer foolishness and has a record of good reliability and good prices. Though, I am looking - and the minute I find one they're getting my business.

[Ogre]

I don't know if this is true but I've heard that you can only have dell printers and scanners and such for dell computers.Totally untrue. Dell computers are set up with standard FireWire, USB, and parallel interfaces. I have an Epson printer/scanner, a Seagate external HD, and a bazillion other 3rd party peripherals hooked up to my Dell. They all work perfectly.

[Wesley Clark]

This (http://techbargains.com/) site is worth bookmarking. They always have the most up to date tech deals, and discount codes. They often have Dell specials as well.

Just thought I would mention it if you want to do some comparison shopping.

And no, I have nothing to do with the site other than get my geek jollies looking at it on a regular basis.

slickdealz and fatwallet are other really good sites for dell deals too. I know its not uncommon (although not daily either) to find a Dell 3000 with a P4 (instead of the celeron) and 15" LCD going for about $400 After rebates and with free shipping.

[fishbicycle]

If you don't mind turning some screws and plugging in some IDE cables, you can save big bucks buying a barebones system. Next week, we are buying my wife a computer that comes as case, integrated motherboard, power supply / fan, 1.6 GHz AMD Duron CPU, 512 MB DDR RAM, Maxtor 60 GB HD and a floppy drive, for $257. That's moving up from the PII 266 Sony VAIO that cost $1500 new.

I don't know why more people don't buy these. They are so cheap and work so well.

[Wesley Clark]

If you don't mind turning some screws and plugging in some IDE cables, you can save big bucks buying a barebones system. Next week, we are buying my wife a computer that comes as case, integrated motherboard, power supply / fan, 1.6 GHz AMD Duron CPU, 512 MB DDR RAM, Maxtor 60 GB HD and a floppy drive, for $257. That's moving up from the PII 266 Sony VAIO that cost $1500 new.

I don't know why more people don't buy these. They are so cheap and work so well.

What all do you need to add to a barebones system to get it working? Just monitor/mouse/keyboard/speakers or are there parts of the actual computer that you need to buy as well?

[Chronos]

One other word of warning, for cheap computers (though I don't know if Dell specifically does this). Often, on a cheap computer, many important bits of hardware are integrated onto the motherboard. This does allow some greater efficiency in production, and hence a lower price. And it works fine.

Until something breaks. Eventually, your sound card will burn out, or your modem, or your video card, or your USB ports, or something. And when it does, you probably will not be able to just buy a new part to replace that one. You'll have to replace the entire motherboard, which (as you might expect) costs more than any one of those parts individually.

Again, I'm not saying this is true of Dell specifically (I haven't bought a PC in years). And it might not be a dealbreaker, either: It might be two or three years before any such component fails, and maybe that's all you expect from a computer. But it is certainly a question to ask and to consider.

[Lorenzo]

If you don't mind turning some screws and plugging in some IDE cables, you can save big bucks buying a barebones system. Next week, we are buying my wife a computer that comes as case, integrated motherboard, power supply / fan, 1.6 GHz AMD Duron CPU, 512 MB DDR RAM, Maxtor 60 GB HD and a floppy drive, for $257. That's moving up from the PII 266 Sony VAIO that cost $1500 new.

I don't know why more people don't buy these. They are so cheap and work so well.

If one includes the price of an operating system, it's not as great a deal.

[Lorenzo]

Those I know who have bought $299 Dell workstations on the phone have always spent much more for "upgrades."

If one knows exactly what one needs and can resist the pricey upgrades, it may be cheaper to purchase online.

[nerd]

It actually cost just a little bit more. 'Cause, the flat screen monitor was just an additional $75, and the CD burner my kids need was another $75, and the improved speakers so I could listen to music were $35 more,.....you get the idea.If Dell's selling CD burners for $75, then that might be a clue as to how they make money on the $299 systems...

[alterego]

Dell makes a lot of money off of pre-installing software. No, they aren't saving you money by installing all of this (pardon the POV) junk - they are making it. My dirt-cheap dell had the following programs pre-installed, which I promptly uninstalled:

3 America Online programs
Dell Media somethingorother
Dell Picture Studio
Earthlink Setup Files
"Get High Speed Internet!"
H&R Block Tax Offer
Jasc Paint Shop Pro Photo Album 5
Jasc Paint Shop Pro Studio, Dell Edition
Learn2 Player
Microsoft Plus! Digital Media Edition Installer
Microsoft Plus! Photo Story 2 LE
Modem Helper
MusicMatch for Windows Media Player
MusicMatch JukeBox
MyWay Search Assistant
NetWaiting
NetZeroInstallers
RealPlayer Basic
Sonic DLA
Sonic RecordNow!
Sonic Update Manager
ViewPoint Media Player
WordPerfect Office 12


Not to say that I wasn't a satisfied customer.

[fishbicycle]

What all do you need to add to a barebones system to get it working? Just monitor/mouse/keyboard/speakers or are there parts of the actual computer that you need to buy as well?
All you need to do is take out the drive(s) from your current computer and fasten them in the bays and connect the IDE and power cables, plug in your existing monitor and speakers, printer, scanner, mouse and keyboard. An integrated MB comes with sound and video. A non-integrated one means you put your own sound and video cards in the PCI slots. You then start it up and run the driver installation CD that comes with the barebones system. It'll be the same system you had before, in a new machine. Same OS, same programs, everything. Just faster.

[SlyFrog]

Yes, there is nothing wrong with their low end systems. They are just low end (but still cheaper than you could probably find elsewhere).

I just built my own computer for the first time ever. People who say that building your own is cheaper are generally full of it. I challenged people to put together a comparable machine as Dell sells standard, and they have been unable to do it (don't forget, all that software you conveniently pirate . . . I mean don't use . . . tends to come with the Dell, like XP and Word).

Where Dell does make cash are on upgrades like memory. They start you off with 256 or 512, and then charge roughly double what it costs to buy it yourself for upgrades. For example, for awhile, I thought about buying a Dell 9100 instead of building my own. One of the things that irked me, however, was that to get to 2 Gigs of RAM, Dell wanted an extra $400 (if I recall correctly). My 2 Gigs that I put in my homebuilt costs about $200 total (and that's not considering that Dell is really charging you for 1.5 Gigs, as the you start with 512 or so.

[citybadger]

One other word of warning, for cheap computers (though I don't know if Dell specifically does this). Often, on a cheap computer, many important bits of hardware are integrated onto the motherboard. This does allow some greater efficiency in production, and hence a lower price. And it works fine.

Until something breaks. Eventually, your sound card will burn out, or your modem, or your video card, or your USB ports, or something. And when it does, you probably will not be able to just buy a new part to replace that one. You'll have to replace the entire motherboard, which (as you might expect) costs more than any one of those parts individually.

More likely, you'll be able to disable the onboard component, slap in card, usb or firewire device and carry on after spending a few minutes and $29.95 from Comp USA.

[Padeye]

AFAIKT the Dell 3000 has a normal ATX format motherboard so a generic replacement should be possible. On the downside mine only has three slots and no AGP slot for a video card. I'm not a gamer so the integrated video has more than adequate performance for me as does the integrated sound.

I used to build all my own PCs and finally decided it wasn't fun any more. Buying a Dell was ultimately cheaper but getting exactly what you want for a low price can be an exercise in frustration. Best deal I found was by waiting until they had almost exactly the configuration I wanted on sale and getting it with as few options as possible. I did find for example it was cheaper to decline the anvivirus and firewall software, install the demo versions and license them direct from that manufacturer. In short buying a Dell is kind of like shopping at Fry's Electronics, you can get a great deal if you know exactly what you are looking for and don't have to depend on a salesperson.

[CookingWithGas]

I have a Dell Dimension 2400 which I bought for a very fair price and also am getting fairly good customer service.

I agree with the above posts that Dell advertises low then tries to upsell you. The only thing that keeps this from being an illegal bait & switch is that if you insist, you can actually buy the advertised machine.

Before purchasing, I called Sales to get some information about the advertised machine. I asked about expansion slots. She asked me what I wanted expansion slots for; I said I wanted to install a FireWire card for video capture. She then said I would have to get a much more powerful machine for video editing, and recommended a machine that cost, oh, maybe twice as much. The funny is that I had been doing video capture and editing on my IBM Aptiva 300 MHz machine. (Turns out there are three slots but one is taken up by the OEM modem, or maybe it's the Ethernet card, I can't remember.)

This machine ships with a DVD, CD-RW, and hard drive. I called again to ask if it could accommodate a second hard drive. Admirably the sales people didn't know but turned me over to tech support. Now, tech support is geared up to answer questions for owners, not pre-sales, so it was a little tricky to get to a human being. You normally enter your Service Tag to get to tech support. Anyway, I got the answer (the controller could handle another drive, the cable had a secondary plug on it, and there was an unused power plug, but no bracket to mount another drive. Don't ask me why.).

I ordered online to avoid the sales pitch.

Two weeks ago, 21 months later, my hard drive failed. I purchased the machine with 3 years on-site warranty. They sent a local contractor to my house to install a new hard drive. So then I looked at upgrading. It turns out--this is utterly undocumented so there's no way you could know this unless you knew to ask the question in advance--that the controller cannot handle a disk bigger than 120G. I learned this from a guy at CompUSA, and, skeptic that I am, called Dell to confirm, which they did.

(Post Script: The limit does not apply if you use an external drive connected by USB.)

What's the catch here?
As mentioned, you will almost certainly find that you will purchase add-ons beyond the advertised price. Unless you know something about computers, you may find out later that your machine is very limited in terms of potential upgrades. But you will get your money's worth, Dell is aggressive about sales but not downright fraudulent.

[devilsknew]

This (http://techbargains.com/) site is worth bookmarking. They always have the most up to date tech deals, and discount codes. They often have Dell specials as well.

Just thought I would mention it if you want to do some comparison shopping.

And no, I have nothing to do with the site other than get my geek jollies looking at it on a regular basis.

Damn, Damn, Damn! I bookmarked your site earlier in the day but didn't really peruse it very well. I just bought a Dell Inspiron 1200 Notebook on special promotion (http://configure.us.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?cs=19&kc=05302&oc=d80906&x=14&y=7) ($549 reduced from $649) not a half an hour ago for my Mom. She brought the flyer from the paper to me and asked if it was a good deal. Hell, I thought it was a great deal! 1.4 GHZ, 40gig, CD burner/DVD drive combo- can't really do better than that (or so I thought). She said go ahead and purchase it it for her so she can have her own computer and out of convenience for when she goes to FL.


Ya see, what Dell doesn't tell you in the add for the $549 notebook is that there is $50 shipping and handling and about $40 tax. So after the $100 automatic rebate the total is about $640, anyways. So what do I do? I order it tonight and only after do I go looking throught the deals on techbargains. Turns out I could have saved $40 and gotten a comparable but slightly better HP Compaq notebook (http://h71016.www7.hp.com/html/mailin_6110/index.asp?jumpid=ex_r2910_performics/k3736/%24599%20HP%20nx6110%20notebook%20shipped%20free) for $599. It beats the Inspiron in it's 15" screen as compared to a 14" and has integrated wireless, something my Mom was considering as an add on with the Dell.

I feel like I could have done better...I'm such a dipstick.

[devilsknew]

Turns out I could have saved $40 and gotten a comparable but slightly better HP Compaq notebook (http://h71016.www7.hp.com/html/mailin_6110/index.asp?jumpid=ex_r2910_performics/k3736/%24599%20HP%20nx6110%20notebook%20shipped%20free) for $599.

Just to clarify, the Compaq is a better deal because of free Shipping and handling, although I don't know if tax is included in their advertised deal, so maybe I would have only saved $10 at the most. It still has better features, though.

[Chronos]

More likely, you'll be able to disable the onboard component, slap in card, usb or firewire device and carry on after spending a few minutes and $29.95 from Comp USA.When last I owned a PC, this was not an option. If it is now, then I retract my earlier comment.