OK Dopers which should we get Gateway or Dell
We can get an employee discount on both.
I value your opinions.You guys know more about computers than anyone I know.
How much computer does a college kid need. Careful you are spending my money.
He either gets this one or the new one.
Go with Gateway. You will be happier with it. I have worked with both Dells and Gateways many times. The biggest difference I have noticed is Gateway customer support actually tries to get you up and running, while Dell customer support tries to pass the buck as quickly as possible. Also, in my experience Dells seem to have more incompatibilities with other HW & SW than Gateways do.
I’ve had really good luck with Dells, but they do tend to be more pricy.
Gateway. The perfect PC IMHO would be a Gateway motherboard in a Dell case. The Dell power supply just swings out and you pop the new one in. Good customer support from both. We have many more Gateways. The Head Honcho smashed a network cable unside down into a PMCIA NIC and I removed the pieces of shrapnal with a desoldering tool from the NIC. The Gateway guy called me at home in the night helping find me a new cable. This was hardly warranty! Gateway also uses quality stuff that they don’t make…Western Digital for example.
I have a generic custom-made beige box made by http://www.aplus-computers.com. The warrantee was OK, I never needed to use it. I’m sure there are plenty of small companies that would make a perfectly good PC for you. Quality may vary - I think this company is pretty good, and honest, too. But maybe I’ve been fortunate with them.
One of my friends is a computer geek and is always putting together/taking apart computers for friends. Actually, he is going to upgrade my generic box for me!
He was just recently grumbling about Gateway, because he was trying to find some driver, and no one could help. He was muttering “Get a plain box, get a plain box” - meaning, don’t go with a proprietary system, but with a generic PC that can use generic parts. And you can download the drivers from the manufacturers’ sites.
I am just passing along his ranting. All I know is that I have been happy with my computer, and it was cheap. It appears that a well-made generic beige box is easier to troubleshoot and fix by your local computer geek friend, too.
I also read a lot of PC magazines, and the reader polls lean towards Dells. They are supposedly excellent machines. If I didn’t get a generic beige box, I’d get a Dell.
Oh my!
Is my face red. They JUST went out of business. And supposedly they were in business for 15 years. Oh well.
I’ll find a beige box from someone else next time I am in the market for a PC! (But I have been loving my iMac, so I’m in no rush these days…)
If you’re not that adventurous, I would go with Dell. In my experience, they tend to use better parts than Gateway.
Looks like you’re going to get a split opinion on this one.
It’s really not too hard to build a PC. If the idea interests you I can provide some useful links.
I don’t think there’s a big difference between the two companies.
As for what kind of computer to get, I’d suggest a low-end laptop, maybe something with an AMD K6 chip. They have enough power for word processing and net access, which is the major use for students. Laptops take much less desk space than desktops, which is important in a dorm. They’re also useufl for studying in libraries, making presentations in seminars, taking on trips, etc. Maybe a faster system (with Celeron or PentiumII CPU) is justified if he is a science major and wants to do more serious computing like data analysis and symbolic math.
You also need a network adapter, printer and a drive for backup. Preferably a CD-R drive, but SuperDisk or Zip may be OK. I found Zip drives to be unreliable, but they are cheap, and and having a backup on a Zip drive is still far better than not having any backup.
Different people apparently have different experiences with DELL and Gateway. Here’s mine.
Gateway and DELL boxes are more or less similar with DELL getting points for better (on average) quality peripherals add ins re overall quality of audio/video/hard drives etc. DELL is slightly pricer but only by a relatively small margin.
DELL used to have Gateway beat by a large margin on service as Gateway’s service was not bad when accessed but was inordinately difficult to reach. I believe Gateway has improved service responsiveness over the last few years and they are closer to DELL (overall) service levels than they were in the past. I am not familar with current DELL and Gateway warranties but DELL warranties were the strength the company was built on and are generally highly regarded.
In the end it really comes down to pay your money and take your choice. You won’t go wrong with either one in most cases.
I think you’re probably all right either way. I’m typing this on the eighth of my nine Gateway systems to date - they’ve been OK, but I suspect Dells meet the match as well.
Dell !
we order them for work and they are great machines, we also use several Dell servers. i’ve had no big problems with them and their tech support is good and knowledgable.
they are well designed machines, i would go with a Dell
Go with an Aptiva by IBM, an old hand in the computer game.
Old friends are the best friends, I always say. Or am I showing my age here?
pkbites, where did I hear the quote “No one ever lost their job for deciding to buy Intel.” ?
Not exactly the same, but close…
I must confess to zero experience with or feedback about IBM PC’s.
It all depends on how much of a computer person you are … the size of the community you live in (plus proximity to the nearest major center)… whether there are any decent local places … etc.
Both Dell and Gateway are almost identical in quality, service, etc. you can get all sorts of different machines from them so power varies by $
You are better off with a white box PC … something generic as you are not locked in to how proprietary the big boys are (be it Dell, Gateway, Apple, IBM, NEC, HP, etc.) but you need to have a good local company standing behind it.
What does that quote mean?
I have an IBM and I love it. I bought it for a song to.
Before this I had a CTX. Hated that!
At work we have Hewlette Packards, Packard Bells, and another brand I don’t remember the name of. Everyone hates them.
I have a Hewlett Packard Pavillion 6643… 500 mgz Celeron, 15 gig HD, 40x CD Rom. 64 megs sdram, 8 megs video memory…
$598 at wal mart…no problems with it at all. Very satisfied
Gee, I just can’t decide.
I work in Tech Support for an ISP. When we get calls with real modem troubles, and other hardware concerns, they are usually Gateway, Dell, or E-Machine.
This can mean one of 2 things - either there are a lot of those machines being bought so there are more to mess up. Or they are lousy machines.
There are lots of good computers out there reasonably priced. Look around. Don’t get drawn into the “rebate” thing though.
I would recommend Dell every time. Not only have I had fewer problems with Dell machines, when I HAVE had a problem the Dell support has been much better. It’s sort of a shame, too. I was all ready to be a loyal Gateway customer, because my late brother’s friend was Ted Waitt’s roommate in college, and claims that he and Ted both lost their virginity on the same night in the same dorm room (albeit with different women).
Another possibility DebiJ: Alot of the people who buy a Dell, Gateway, or other name brand computers do not have as much technical know-how as someone who is willing to buy a beige box computer, or build their own. This means they’re more likely to need to call tech support when they run into a problem.
If you want to buy a PC, sit it in your desk and then forget about till it’s ready for the trash heap go for Dell.
If you want a PC that you’ll monkey around with and upgrade as needed go with Gateway.
Don’t believe me?
*Source: http://www6.tomshardware.com/technews/technews-20000208.html *
While the above quote is in regards to AMD Athlon systems I think it sums up Dell’s feelings of wireheads. Also, Dell’s jumping into bed with Intel means they push RDRAM equipped systems that are overpriced and perform worse than a more ‘standard’ SDRAM equipped system (those are different types of memory…RDRAM costing 4-5x more and performing worse than SDRAM).
Finally, I find Dell’s case layout to SUCK lately. They are a nightmare to get into and I frequently chewup my hands trying (Dell is what we use where I work). Beyond that, though, Dell systems do what they’re supposed to and cause relatively few headaches as do Gateway systems.