Ok, ok, you know what I mean..!!!! Some have positive things to say and some don't...!!! :D

The nation anxiously awaits the result of your deliberation...

:p

SD

For what it's worth...... have a mate who picked up his dell laptop with one hand when the cd bay wasn't occupied and it snapped! Ok I know you could say that the design isn't meant to be at it's strongest when there's a piece missing but there we go..... I don't think it would put me off buying a laptop from them in fact I know it wouldn't!

However -

Another oppo has a DELL desktop and I put some new RAM in it for him and was surprised to see so much plastic. Seems to me lots of corner cutting. :hmm:

Checkboard has a Dell Inspiron 8000. Tough laptop although, more of a desk top replacement. Good screen, quite user friendly and hasn't given a hint of a problem. Couple years old now.

The company I worked for in Australia used Dell laptops in a very harsh environment. (High humidity salt air) They were fine. Great support too. (late 90's though)

Toss of the coin says it is the lappy, Inspiron 8600 it is then. Thanks for the advice. :) :ok:

Don't come whining here about after sales support...you were warned :}

Timothy

Don't want to set the cat amongst the pidgeons again or hijack your thread Big "L" but after searching for a bargain for months now (including the states)I just picked up a Fujitsu Siemens with 2.4 sticks of celery in it from Dabs for £575 incl VAT....... Might be worth a look especially since it comes with grace of payment until march 2005!!!

Anyone care to comment on the Fujitsu Siemens jobbies?? :}

BRL,

So a Notebook it is. Let us know when you get it and what you think of it. ;)

Take Care,

Richard

If it's not too late for my tuppence worth ...

Desktop - Dell are good machines/value, but repuation for support is poor these days. Alternative (our policy) is good local supplier who will charge a touch more -also builds to your spec - but jump in the van and come round and fix it if it goes wrong - assuming you can't do without your machine for a week or so.

Laptop - try AJP, we've used them for years - lots of bang per buck - reasonable support (particularly if you are London based) www.ajp.co.uk

Brgds

Tim

(edited for cr*p typing - twice)

I only see broken Fujitsus so can't comment on quality etc - I'm not sure if they do on-site warranty work for notebooks/laptops as I only get jobs for towers (Dell do on-sites for notebooks and towers).

Fujitsu's technical support is superb - but then again the number I dial gets me to the front of the Q. everytime :ok: .

By the way of all the responses on this thread no-one has really offered a good replacements for Dell - i.e. where the choices/prices/performance are matched and supplemented by the holly grail of excellent and promp technical support - apart from Mesh maybe... (their 64bit machines are tempting, very tempting - when I have 3K spare....mmmmm).

amofw

amanoffewwords,

If you want to talk alternatives for Notebooks, I have one from a very unlikely source. eMachines, yes I know, but believe it or not eMachines!!!

eMachines M6807

• Mobile AMD Athlon™ 64 3000+ Processor
• 512 MB DDR SODIMM (PC 2700)
• 60 GB HDD
• DVD +/- RW Drive
• ATI® RADEON™ 9600
• 56K* ITU V.92 Fax/Modem
• Integrated 802.11g Wireless LAN
• 15.4" Widescreen TFT LCD WXGA
• 4 USB 2.0 ports, 1 IEEE 1394, 1 VGA External Connector, 1 S-Video Out, Microphone In, Headphone/Audio Out, 1 PCMCIA Slot
• Microsoft® Windows® XP Home Edition

All this and you can find it in the U.S. for $1,450.00 ($100.00 less thatn the eMachines Website which I linked.) which is a great price for a notebook of this class.

Take Care,

Richard

Here is what happened. Toss of the coin 1, yes or no to a Dell........Heads it is then, gonna buy a Dell. Now, what one, laptop or desktop...... Toss no'2 heads again, so it is the laptop. (Also like the look of the widescreen on it.....)

Many thanks for all the advice again, lets hope I don't have to come whining back here soon..... :D

Very, very busy in April so I will buy it in May.

Just a wee note about the widescreen - the resolution you get with it means the screen fonts are extremely small - and if you tweak the settings the whole thing looks weird - so you're stuck with the initial settings basically. Web pages also tend to be stuck in the left hand-corner as they are generally unable to cope.

But I only see them for a short period of time so there may be a magic setting I am not aware, though I doubt it.

amofw

nb: thanks Richard, but is their support the dog's doodles?

Aahhh, thanks amofw. I just knew there would be something like this to make me think twice about it.

Does anyone have any more info about this please? Anything will do, thanks.... :ugh:

My laptop has a 17" 1440x900 widescreen and I am delighted with it and don't suffer any of the problems amanoffewwords mentions.

Timothy

Thanks Timothy - glad I put my little get-out clause in my previous post :) though the laptop BRL mentions has a different screen size/resolution than yours:

15.4" WXGA (1280 x 800) UltraSharp Wide - Aspect Screen
15.4" WSXGA+ (1680 x 1050) UltraSharp Wide - Aspect Screen
15.4" WUXGA (1920 x 1200) UltraSharp Wide - Aspect Screen
15.4" WUXGA (1920 x 1200) UltraSharp Wide - Aspect Screen

The ones I have seen are of the 1920x1200 flavour and the "problem" (read working-as-designed-feature) was apparent on them.

But according to a reviewer of the 8500 the font issue can be fixed so maybe this is a non-issue - I'll check next time I see one.

amofw

Pheeeew.....!!!!!!! :D :D

amanoffewwords,

The 15.4' WXGA is 1280 x 800 on the M6807.

Now that eMachines is a division by Gateway, support is much better.

Take Care,

Richard

P.S. It is about the best bang for the buck on the market, and if you can get to the U.S. it is well worth the look.

Bleedin' 'eck. How are you supposed to be able to read that!?!?! Do they supply a free electron microscope with every one purchased? :p

Timothy

More Dell woes......

After waiting to be called back and getting fed up with answer machines, I finally got through to someone at the end of March to discuss their failure to repair my laptop. Profuce apologies, then another of those wretched conversations with someone in Bangalore. They agreed to collect it and repair it and picked it up on 1 Apr. Yesterday there was anote saying that it was waiting for me at the local DHL depot....

Went to DHL, picked up laptop. But it hadn't been fixed - in fact it now doesn't work AT ALL. Switch it on and it just says 'Operating system not found'. So - another phone call to my helpful chap at Dell who told me again that he was very sorry, but I would have to ring Bangalore AGAIN to get another 'DPS' number. This took about half an hour of arguing with someone who seemed incapable of understanding that all the problems of the last 6-7 weeks had been down to Dell. Eventually he agreed to issue a new 'DPS' number; so I rang my chap again and told him. "Right" he said, "I'll track this personally as I'm as dubious about these people as you are!". So yet again my laptop will be enjoying a trip with DHL on Wednesday in further attempt for Dell to service it. This has now been going on for over 4 months......

In all honesty, I cannot recommend Dell! Their laptops are very nice, but their customer service is utterly dreadful. Many companies are learning that these Indian low-cost call-centres are alienating their customers; I know of no other company who expect customers to accept such appalling service!