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Re: Which Dell Dimension ?



On 21:30, Wed 02 Mar 05, Hannes Mayer wrote:
> On Wed, 02 Mar 2005 13:24:15 -0700, Glenn English <ghe@slsware.com> wrote:
> > I've always bought one of their (less expensive) servers -- no Windows
> > tax, and they work good and last a long time.
> 
> Sorry, forgot to add that it'll be a workstation, no server.
> I'm no gamer, but a developer, who enjoys short compile times ;-)
> 
> The reason I want a Dell is the quality - I have a no-name machine
> currently, which already starts to fall apart after 3 years and it's
> quite noisy too.
> 
> Thanks & best regards,
> Hannes.


Dell and Quality do not fit in the same line, I would
suggest you follow some of the discussion being hashed out
in comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.chips on Usenet. Especially the
which notebook thread, and the intel vs amd thread, both
have long good discussions about the virtures of what we are
talking about.

To make it short and sweet, it is recommended to build your
own system. Dell, HP, Gateway both use sub standard parts,
Powersupplys are non standard and only work with their
system. Remember their is a reason why they can sell you a
system for so cheap. Its common for one or two manufactures
in Taiwan to make 85%-90% of all the motherboards used in
the big boys systems. Most of these systems have problems if
you plan on adding more devices down the road. Also if you
need parts, often times you have to purchase it from the
OEM, due to the problems of being non standard. 

Another aspect for us Debian users, is if you build your own
system, and choose parts that are Linux supported you reward the
manufactures with your business.  You also are getting
better quality drivers, so your system is more stable. If
you buy OEM its really a crap shoot, do you really think
that they consider Linux, they are more concerned about
costs then about any other factor. 

If you never have built a system before its not that hard,
if you have taken out a PCI card, or swapped out a hard
drive its about that simple. Another thing to consider, is
your in control of the whole process, you know that the
memory is inserted right, you know exactly what is in your
system. I have also heard that the big OEM's are having
problems with the newer heatsinks falling off, moving around
durning shipping, even with all the packaging material.  In
a way its kink of scarry having a two pound block of metal
banging around in your case, because the box was handled
incorrectly.

If building a system is not you cup-o-tea then I would
strongly consider you purchase a prebuilt Gnu/Linux box.

http://www.debian.org/distrib/pre-installed

It might be a little more than the big OEM's, it comes with
your favorite distro installed, can't get any better than
that. You always here of people complaning about why
Gnu/Linux does not have the hardware support that windows
has. At the same time these very people go out and buy the
big OEM machines, the cycle keep feeding it self, but if you
buy or make your own the cycle is broken. The more people
who buy hardware that is supported under Gnu/Linux the
better off everyone is.

Gnu-Raiz



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