Re: Non Cigar - Computer Query

Hutch wrote:

As all know, I should be your last choice for answering the actual
question, but I do have an opinion on this one. While the man and the
company are to be admired, the product is not one that I would
recommend. Among the 4 people in my company, two family members, and a
1/2 dozen friends....all who have fallen for Dell's pitch....not a
single one was pleased with the experience. Not a single one still
has/uses a Dell.

Here at the office, I've standardized on Dell business class servers and
workstations. Nary a problem with any of them in 8 years, but I've put them
all on 3 year replacement cycles. Then I purchase the extended next day
parts/service warranty. When the warranty runs out, I replace'em. There's
been a few issues with hardware failures, but for a dozen servers and 75
workstations, the percentage of failure has been very low. Business class
support is a bit better than what you can get with your average home user
support, as well as I have the advantage of having diagnosed any issue prior
to calling/emailing. I generally submit an email via their website saying,
"This is the problem, I need replacement parts", and they schedule a time
for the tech to come out and send the parts to the tech. I don't even have
to get my hands dirty most of the time. :-)

Most of our staff here have purchased Dell for their home use, but many of
them have upped the ante to business class systems. Of course they also have
me to fall back on in case of problems, instead of Dell's tech support.
Having a good support guy around that knows who to call at Dell really helps
avoid their crappy, home end-user East Indian outsourced tech support.

As far as portable data storage, I like to use a combo of USB thumbdrives
and firewire/USB 2.5" disk enclosures and load them with large capacity
laptop hard disks. I always make it a habit to *copy* data, not *move* it,
until I know for sure I have a reliable copy on the other end.

Printers? I lean toward HP and Xerox lasers. More toward the Xerox products
these days. It's tough to find an HP product that doesn't need a fully
bloated software suite installed with the hardware. I prefer "drivers only"
if possible.


--
--Brett
---------------------------------------------------
"Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of
arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid
broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and proclaiming,
'Wow-What a Ride!' "




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