[wplug] eMachines?

[Bill Moran]

Ryan Brown wrote:
> This is true. After reaching a certain sales volume someone at Dell
> contacted me about their priority support that I "qualified" for. I have
> never had a problem yet, so I do not know how their phone support for
> priority vs normal is. I did have a 1650 that was recalled due to a
> malfunction on the motherboard which caused it to fry, but Dell contacted me
> about this and scheduled a replacement rather than me calling in.
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Ryan W. Frenz [mailto:rfrenz at andrew.cmu.edu] 
> Sent: Thursday, January 29, 2004 9:39 AM
> To: wplug at wplug.org
> Subject: Re: [wplug] eMachines?
> 
> That kind of support only comes to those (usually companies) who spend 
> $.  This could be bs, but I was once told that Dell has a sliding scale 
> for support -- they ask for your name and address, then they call up how 
> much you've spent in the last x months.  How high that $ amount is 
> determines where your call gets connected to.  So Grandma with her $349 
> Celeron system gets a guy reading a script 10,000 miles away.

I've seen both these scenerios from Dell.  My former room mate had a Dell,
and when it went nuts, support was useless (He's a fairly clueless computer
user).  I ended up fixing the problem for him.  Fact is, there was no
fix, Windows had gone nuts and needed reinstalled, but he needed to back
up his files first and couldn't, and Dell told him that was his problem,
their support didn't cover it.

On the flip side, my brother James works for Kennametal often, and they
buy _all_ Dell, and he has _nothing_ good to say about Dell computers or
their support.  Keep in mind, however, that he's being called in when
the Dell computers break and standard support fails, so his experience
with this is a bit biased.

Personally, I would never buy a Dell unless I couldn't build the machine
myself.  (May end up buying a lappy from them) but if I were going to
purchase a pre-built machine, and for some reason it couldn't be a Mac,
I would probably go Dell.

> 
> Ryan Brown wrote:
> 
> 
>>What do you use for servers then if you have any? I used to always make my
>>own servers but I found it was a waste of my time if a part went bad within
>>3 years (atleast 1 hard drive would go bad for sure in that period). With
>>Dell's 4 hour response, 24x7x365x3 they will be here within 4 hours at any
>>time to change parts. Up until recently I used to colo all of my equipment
>>in Los Angeles. This would sure be a pain in the ass to change drives, add
>>memory, etc being in Pittsburgh. With the Dell support contract they would
>>go to the data center and do the changes I needed. Yes Dell is expensive
>>compared to home built boxes, but I find the support I receive definitely
>>worth it. I have yet to find a rack case that compares to the quality, ease
>>of opening / swapping parts / and sleek design of a Dell 1750 / 2650 model.
>>
>>Also as for Dell pricing, they have a mailing list where they constantly
>>email you 10 or 15 % off coupons. So this helps in reducing the price. You
>>can also buy these coupons off people on Ebay (they are one time use
>>coupons) if you do not want to join their mailing list.
>>
>>Ryan
>>
>>
>>-----Original Message-----
>>From: Guy Patten [mailto:gpatten at verizon.net] 
>>Sent: Thursday, January 29, 2004 6:00 AM
>>To: wplug at wplug.org
>>Subject: RE: [wplug] eMachines?
>>
>>You couldn't give me a Dell or any other OEM system.  
>>
>>From:           	"Ryan Brown" <wplug at tblive.com>
>>To:             	<wplug at wplug.org>
>>Subject:        	RE: [wplug] eMachines?
>>Send reply to:  	wplug at wplug.org
>>	<mailto:wplug-request at wplug.org?subject=subscribe>
>>	<mailto:wplug-request at wplug.org?subject=unsubscribe>
>>Date sent:      	Thu, 29 Jan 2004 00:14:55 -0500
>>
>> 
>>
>>
>>>Buy a Dell.
>>>
>>>You can get the Poweredge 400SC tower server for around $250 (I have
>>>seen as low as $228) after rebates when they run their specials
>>>(almost every week).
>>>
>>>P4 2.26 ghz, 128 ram, 40 GB hard drive, CDrom. Also has SATA
>>>connectors on the board and 1 year warranty.
>>>
>>>Ryan
>>>
>>>-----Original Message-----
>>>From: Brandon Kuczenski [mailto:brandon at 301south.net] 
>>>Sent: Monday, January 26, 2004 1:57 PM
>>>To: WPLUG
>>>Subject: [wplug] eMachines?
>>>
>>>I am looking to set up an inexpensive gateway/firewall in my lab ato
>>>CMU.  Some cmu.misc.market (cmu-private newsgroup) guy is selling an
>>>eMachines 2 GHz Celeron system for $200.  Would it be a mistake for me
>>>to use such a cheap POS as a linux gateway and fileserver?  The only
>>>reason I even looked at the ad was because it had a couple peripheral
>>>devices I was personally interested in (like an internal DVD/CDRW
>>>drive).

-- 
Bill Moran
Potential Technologies
http://www.potentialtech.com