Backwards Dell computers

[tehboris]

I'v been seeing allot of these recently.

What I mean by backwards is the motherboard is mounted on the left side of the case rather than the right. These cause problems including:

Dead motherboard not replaced by Dell means a new case as well.
New case means new motherboard as well.
Incompatible with double hight graphics cards.

I have seen one Packard Bell computer that was backwards. the rest are all Dells creation.

Have you seen a backwards Dell?

Do you have a backwards Dell?

What I can't understand is why they would make them like this, it would increase the cost of production on the basis they have to specificity be made wrong wouldn't it?

[computoman]

Most Dell boxes are non industry standard except for the drives and external parts. Unless I get it free, I am not getting any more Dells. The only new name brand pc's I have ever bought was from Microcenter and Gateway. They were industry standard. Gateway at one time not only had a standard box, but you could set the drive bays so the machine could be used as a tower or a desktop machine. Shame pc manufacturers do not put that much care into the cases they build anymore. In fact I wish laptops could be standardized for easy upgrading. You know what will freeze over before that happens.

[latenitetv]

never owned a dell, never will. pointless to buy from a huge company when you can build one on your own for half the cost.

[ryudo]

Never had issues with Dell products and love my XPS 400 I got a couple years ago.

Just yesterday upgraded the ram to 2gb and will prob soon upgrade to 3 for fun and maybe the video card again just for fun even though I don't need to.

[computoman]

I have personal motherboards from Dell that died two days after a rinkydink one year warranty.Talk about planned obsolescence. For a premium priced computer, you should not be having those kind of problems. I might be able to rescue the cpus and memory to put in a clone box. Where I used to work we had to change out almost every ps, hd, and, mb in the several thousand Dell desktop computers(still under warranty). We had to do a few of the Dell laptops, but that was rare compared to the desktops. Ironically I have some clone pentium 1/2/3's that still are working just fine. One or two of them are at least ten years old.

[slonkak]

never owned a dell, never will. pointless to buy from a huge company when you can build one on your own for half the cost.

That is entirely the wrong way to look at it. I used to build all of my own machines. Then things would break. A video card, then a sound card on another, then a dead MB. I'm so sick of fixing computers. I buy Dell's and I get the 3 year run-it-over-with-a-car warranty. If anything breaks... anything... whether I did it on purpose or not, they'll replace it, no questions asked. That alone is worth the little bit of extra money I spend on a Dell vs. one I build myself.

Sure, if you have nothing better to do with you life than troubleshoot hardware all day, building computers is the way to go. But I do enough troubleshooting day in and day out at my job. When I come home I want my stuff to just work.

However, I do agree with this thread, because my Dell is backwards. I recently bought a better video card because I skimped when I originally bought it and the card (double height) didn't fit, because, since i had to turn it upside down, it hit the processor heatsink/fan.

I'm not advocating for Dell here, just for manufacturers that offer awesome warrantys like Dell's. When this desktop dies, which shouldn't be for a long, long time, I'll probably look at an HP/Compaq or some other company (who doesn't make backwards PCs) and get another run-it-over-with-a-car warranty.

[computoman]

You can get a special extended warranty on anything these days. Even if you had the dell warranty, you still have take the time to go through warranty service and do the dance.Except for dell most systems last at least 4 - 5 years if you do not abuse them. For a while there, even name brand hard drives had some real issues.
http://img529.imageshack.us/img529/6223/screenshotdellsearchallcj2.th.png (http://img529.imageshack.us/my.php?image=screenshotdellsearchallcj2.png)

[mikec]

A friend bought a Dell in either November or December of 2000. It is still running. The biggest issue with the machine is that it came with Windows ME. Since she bought the machine we have put XP on it, added RAM, 128Meg is not enough, and added a USB 2.0 card in it. The hard drive failed and we replaced it. (can't blame Dell for a hard drive that dies after six years of being on all the time.)

Another member of the same family still has basically the same machine, running ME still, with no upgrades. The owner uses it to check email and do some web surfing.

I'd say that they have gotten their $$$ worth.

[computoman]

If that is one of the old brown box or p3 dells, They were pretty stable. I picked up one for free about two weeks back. I have probably 6 or 7 of gx1/gx110 machines. I like to use them as servers and when needed as diskless clients. Linux runs great on most of the brown boxers, The dells were fine till they went to the black cases, Supposedly all the kinks are worked out now and "NEW" Dells should be ok. Caveat emptor on the dell gx2XX and other early socket 478 p4 black box series Dell machines.

[mikec]

If that is one of the old brown box or p3 dells, They were pretty stable. I picked up one for free about two weeks back. I have probably 6 or 7 of gx1/gx110 machines. I like to use them as servers and when needed as diskless clients. Linux runs great on most of the brown boxers, The dells were fine till they went to the black cases, Supposedly all the kinks are worked out now and "NEW" Dells should be ok. Caveat emptor on the dell gx2XX and other early socket 478 p4 black box series Dell machines.

It is indeed a P3 machine, a Dimension 4100 or something along those lines. My friend still uses that thing but Photoshop Elements bogs it down, hence the need for a newer and faster box.

Personally, if you get five good years out of a computer, you bought a good machine, anything after five is bonus and the maker can't be blamed if something fails then.

[computoman]

It either needs more ram or a larger swap drive.

[karyyk]

I'm pretty sure you're talking about the BTX form-factor. This is actually an Intel creation, although Dell seems to be one of the few OEM's pushing it. Intel officially discontinued future development of BTX products in 2006, which makes it that much more weird that Dell is still selling them.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BTX_(form_factor)

The company I work for recently moved to the Dell Optiplex 330 (not a decision I was happy with), and it utilizes the BTX form-factor. From a control standpoint, it's a great move from a company that wants to force you to come back to them to buy their overpriced replacement parts (although you can get BTX motherboards elsewhere...they're not totally impossible to find).

[computoman]

Nothing I have is btx yet.

[julie]

Dell customer service is horrible. I just build my own now. For a laptop I stick with Lenovo who used american English speaking customer service(which was great for me since I only speak English).

[computoman]

The thinkpads were always good laptops. I still have an old celeron that still keeps on ticking. I do like the Dell web site for drivers and other downloads. I use the website for some of the old brown dells given to me, The old gx110's just seem to keep on working. I use them mostly as servers and nas's. My black dell bit the dust. I scavenged it for parts and the rest went go to charity. I build all my desktops also, but I stay a bit behind the technology curve and therefore save a boatload on parts. Drives, power supplies, and usb gadgets are the only thing I get brand new anymore.

[gta_bmx]

Rolling your own is the way to go. Instead of dropping $500 on some base Dell PC with low RAM, a Celeron CPU, and crappy graphics, you can instead buy a bunch of awesome parts from Newegg and build your own PC that'll be way better. 4 gigs of RAM for $60, Nvidia 8600GT card ($50 after rebate), choose your own case, etc..

[computoman]

It is wasy to make an emergency case. The price of cases seems to have risen very quickly lately. I bought a killawatt from newegg, but never any computer parts. I get emails from them and they seem to be heavily discounting stuff so they have possibly room for newer inventory. Pata drives are harder to come by though.

[minion4hire]

What's with all the Dell/BTX haters? Does no one remember a few years ago when BTX products were slowly working their way onto retail shelves alongside ATX? I don't know if I would blame Dell for being an early adopter. And if nothing else you should be hating on Intel. They developed BTX and then dropped it when its cooling benefits became unnecessary. Besides, Dell is slowly moving back to ATX as the BTX standard teeters and stumbles upon its last legs.

[computoman]

One thing I did like about some of the btx boxes were that you only had to connect cables that were actually being used. That saves on clutter.