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I was just trying to find something decent looking for about $20. I think I got my foot in the door at least

Auiotour, dude, you need to chill the [censored] down. Don't get hostile because someone called you out on your BS parade.

I don't own a Dell, would likely never own a Dell, and certainly do not work for Dell.

First off, the rebate was not applied to your little pricing comparison that you thought made you look so great that kinda fell on your face. Just click on the link you used and actually read the whole thing and you can see that.

Here's let me show you the bottom of that post you quoted that, I guess, you just forgot to post:

Quote:

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= $625.38

- $200 mail in rebate

= $425.38 after everything

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Face it, Dell can make a cheaper PC than you. And judging by the prices that you gave, your stuff was hardly any better than that used by Dell's suppliers. A case and a 400W PS for $20. I'd feel lucky if that power supply made it through the week and if the case wasn't made of cardboard.

As I said in my first post, I have always built my own PCs, for almost 20 years now. I put myself through school partly by building systems, and continue to do so by building a new one of my own every few months for fun, and I know for a fact that you can't always beat Dell's pricing.

And don't pull that 'Made in China' [censored]. 95% of any PCs components are going to be made in China/Taiwan. "Your" PCs are no more American than Dells' are -- and if you are using a majority of American components, then you're using a majority of cheap [censored]. Virtually all high-quality PC components are not made in the US. In fact, I can't think of a single decent manufacturer of MoBos, RAM, HDs, or Video Cards that manufactures even a majority of their parts within the US. Here's a little piece of info -- Just because "Western Digital" sounds English, doesn't mean their stuff is made in the US.

Are Dells crap? Yeah, many of them are. But I think you're going to have a hard-time convincing people that your hand-made, cobbled together from PriceWatch Bonus Deal, zero reputation, PCs are a lot better (Not saying they're not, just that people see Dell's all the time and are used to them). Thousands of corporations around the world wouldn't use them if they broke every other day. I know the one I use at work has never gave even the slightest hint of a problem. A company is far more worried about long-term costs of maintaining than the one-off costs of purchasing. Dell got to where it is now precisely because it could be a mass-produced system that was cheap for a company to maintain because it didn't break so often.

And, just a little piece of advice; Think before you try to call anyone out on ignorance. Don't try to tell an engineer who has been building PCs since before you could walk than he doesn't know what he's talking about. And definently never claim that Viewsonic doesn't make some of Dell's low-end monitors because that really shows your ignorance and no one wants to buy a PC from someone who has no clue what they're talking about. Anyone who knows the slightest bit about the PC industry knows that. For Christ's sake, it's right on their respective webpages.

Another little piece of info: Don't make such an outrageous claim as Dell using 130W power supplies. I mean, come on, that wouldn't even power the fans. I haven't seen a 130W PS since the days of my IBM PS/2 8086. Dell does use a 200W Power Supply though on their cheapest model. But those have no room for expansion anyways, so who cares. 90% of people will never open that case, so they don't give a damn. All their other models have 350W or above power supplies.

Besides, my comment was not on the price of your case and PW (although it is absurdly low), but on the look of the case. That is very important to many people, and a big reason why Dell was able to grab a lot of share from Gateway when they were head-to-head competitors. People like aesthetics -- there is a reason why I have a $200 tower sitting next to me.

The biggest concern, and I'm truly surprised that you didn't mention this, is that Dell uses a proprietary power supply and motherboard ATX configuration. So, if your power supply blows up (rather common occurence) and you go and buy one at Best Buy, you'll fry your system. That would definently suck. Or if you upgrade your MoBo, you'll have to get a new power supply.

Quote:

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You either work for Dell, are really are a stuborn dumb ass that only thinks things are good if he likes them.

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Well, we established that I don't own nor like Dell's. I just recognize that, for the majority of people, they're a good value for the.

But your statement is mighty ironic coming from someone so damn stubborn they can't even admit when they're wrong, that some people know more than they do on a particular subject, or that someone else can do something better than they can.

Well stated sigma.

http://www.junkmachine.com/nintendo/members/tutorial.shtml

build it now!

Wow Sigma...very well put.

An alternative at Dell that nobody mentioned are the 400SC Servers.


Once in a while, about every 4-5 weeks, Dell will sell you a 400SC tower server for about $290, shipped. This is usually accompanied by a free upgrade of the CPU to anything from a 2.26 to 2.6 P4. The remaining components are bare bones. It has Gigabit ethernet and built in video. Add in a decent video card (it has an 8X AGP slot), some RAM bought from Crucial, and a good sound card and you're set.

The machine itself is great, if large and heavy. Excellent components, great build quality and almost completely silent. It also has a lot of expansion room.

I bought one of these for my mechanic for his DVD shop manuals, accounting, invoicing and internet/email for his eBay account. It's been rock solid since. Total cost would be about $500 to you, shipped, with a decent video card, memory and sound card, leaving you plenty to wait for a Dell sale on LCDs. I bought a 17" Samsung for $430.

The only drawback to this is that the running of a workstation OS is not supported by Dell in the Server. The AGP port is also not supported, even though it works fine. The rest of the components would be supported by Dell Business support, which is much better than the consumer side support.

Sorry Jason - just saw this!
Tiger Direct has a NEC/Mitsubishi 17" LCD flat screen for $419.99 - I'm thinking about picking it up.

I'm PM'ing you with some pertinent info...

If dell can offer the computer for $200.00 less, just shows you one they get a discount for bulk, and two, their parts are that much cheaper. I did not see that -200 on the bottom of their, my mistake on my part. The higher end dell computers are worth it. but if your gonna try to save a buck or 200. just go to a local comp store and get a very low end computer that uses good pieces. they can build them too!