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Vostro vs Optiplex
I am just going to throw thos out there. If you search the web of this topic you basically come up with two reasons the Optiplex is better. 1) It is a better build quality and 2) The Vostro is really only intended for Smal Businesses with either no network or 25 or less user network.
The problem I am dealing with is that neither of those two reasons make a lot of sense to me. Especially #2. No real concrete reasoning and/or detail can be found for either of those comments. My only real complaints about the Vostro are that the case seems a little flimsey and the power supply (300W) a little week.
I want to ask the Experts. 1) How often do you reccommend to your customers to replace their computers and 2) What is your opinion of Vostro vs Optiplex?
The problem I am dealing with is that neither of those two reasons make a lot of sense to me. Especially #2. No real concrete reasoning and/or detail can be found for either of those comments. My only real complaints about the Vostro are that the case seems a little flimsey and the power supply (300W) a little week.
I want to ask the Experts. 1) How often do you reccommend to your customers to replace their computers and 2) What is your opinion of Vostro vs Optiplex?
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Personally, I prefer HP, so although I know this is not a direct answer to your question, one thing you need to take into consideration is the level of support you get. That makes a big difference in a decision to buy to me.....
That and price....
That and price....
I would agree. Let me expound a little further. I think since I started in the PC arena right when they first came out in what? 1980? I have really only pushed three motherboatds. AOpen, then Intel now Vostros only as recently as Jan of last year. I have always prided myself on putting together quality computers. Intel mobo, Kingston memory, WD hard drives. They would work forever. I mean zero problems until they became too slow to work.
My main complaint with Dell has always been that they are propreitary. A real pain. Your would have to go back to Dell for parts because they were so propreitary and Dell would rape you. A year ago last January I just for grins got in a Vostro 220 just because the price was so low. Much to my suprise there was no a component in it that could not be replaced with off the shelf parts and as mentioned the price was screaming.
I just somehow in the back of my head feel that I might have lost a lot of quality. Support isn't that big of a deal for me. I usually troubleshoot problems on my own. That is a drawback with Dell. Their support leaves a whole lot to be desired. I just don't want to short change quality. DIdn't know if Vostros were acceptable and thought I would ask the experts. Optiplexes might be a little better quality but I think they might be propreitary again. Just thought I would get some expert opinions...
My main complaint with Dell has always been that they are propreitary. A real pain. Your would have to go back to Dell for parts because they were so propreitary and Dell would rape you. A year ago last January I just for grins got in a Vostro 220 just because the price was so low. Much to my suprise there was no a component in it that could not be replaced with off the shelf parts and as mentioned the price was screaming.
I just somehow in the back of my head feel that I might have lost a lot of quality. Support isn't that big of a deal for me. I usually troubleshoot problems on my own. That is a drawback with Dell. Their support leaves a whole lot to be desired. I just don't want to short change quality. DIdn't know if Vostros were acceptable and thought I would ask the experts. Optiplexes might be a little better quality but I think they might be propreitary again. Just thought I would get some expert opinions...
Can't really upgrade the vostro, it has less pci/pciexpress, weak psu, less ram slots. Basically a cheap mb an psu.
I run an office that has 8 Optiplex workstations that I speced and purchased in 2005. Since then I have had to add two workstations then a short while later two more. For the first two I decided to try the Vostros because of the price. For the second two, although we still could have used the savings, I went back to the Optiplex. The Vostros felt like a consumer grade machine compared to the Optiplex; smaller, flimsier. The Vostros still work, but my gut tells me they won't outlast the older Optiplex machines.
As for service from Dell, if you have a warranty on a business class machine, I think the service is good. They have replaced a couple hard drives and a DVD drive in the workstations. My own XPS laptop is on its fourth mobo in as many years. That doesn't say much for Dell XPS laptops, but each time Dell came to my house the next business day and swapped out the mobo, all under warranty.
The only issue I ever had with proprietary pasts was with a Compaq (now HP) server. Never with Dell.
As for service from Dell, if you have a warranty on a business class machine, I think the service is good. They have replaced a couple hard drives and a DVD drive in the workstations. My own XPS laptop is on its fourth mobo in as many years. That doesn't say much for Dell XPS laptops, but each time Dell came to my house the next business day and swapped out the mobo, all under warranty.
The only issue I ever had with proprietary pasts was with a Compaq (now HP) server. Never with Dell.
Interesting comments. I am not sure the Vostros not being upgradable is a show stopper. Not much in this day and age is upgradable. Intel rolls over processors so fast that by the time any computer needs a speed upgrade the processors were discontinued years earlier. The Vostros seem to have everything a normal business user would require. I too, however, have this nagging feeling about their quality. The only saving grace is that you can use off the shelf parts if something does go bad.
I have had good experiences with Dells under warranty. It it out of warranty that I am concerned about. I have had nightmares with Dell servers out of warranty because they are propreitary. I think it was a Poweredge 2800. $1,000 for a refurb motherbard but the chassis and mobo were so propreitary I had no choice. Then I was told "oops we don't have any. You will have to seach the internet". But anyway... I guess no one has a crystal ball. No telling what will happen with these Vostro's four or five years down the road.
I suppose if Dell had real quality issue going with these Vostro 230s it would e common knowledge by now. @tommyBoy have you been through these Optiplexes with a fine tooth comb to see how propreitary they are?
I have had good experiences with Dells under warranty. It it out of warranty that I am concerned about. I have had nightmares with Dell servers out of warranty because they are propreitary. I think it was a Poweredge 2800. $1,000 for a refurb motherbard but the chassis and mobo were so propreitary I had no choice. Then I was told "oops we don't have any. You will have to seach the internet". But anyway... I guess no one has a crystal ball. No telling what will happen with these Vostro's four or five years down the road.
I suppose if Dell had real quality issue going with these Vostro 230s it would e common knowledge by now. @tommyBoy have you been through these Optiplexes with a fine tooth comb to see how propreitary they are?
I've done very little to the Optiplexes in my charge. No major hardware repairs to those or the Vostros or to the five PowerEdge servers in the office. I know the hard drives are standard SATA. Optical drives are standard as are the memory chips. I have upgraded the memory in the original 8 Optiplexes from 512 MB to 1 GB. I purchased the chips through Dell. The price was very reasonable as I recall. I have not had to replace a motherboard yet in any of the Dell machines. We are only about a year away from upgrading the whole office with new machines, so I doubt I ever will replace a motherboard. We have spare machines if I have any fatal hardware failures.
It seems companies push off replacing pc's as much as possible. In order to keep employees productive I would suggest upgrading every 3 years. Now if we throw a business perspective into the mix you can understand replacement every 4 years with an absolute longest time of 5 years. Of course it all depends on what your user is doing but typically it's just basic stuff.
As for vostro vs optiplex for me the answer would be more simple since I've worked with optiplex and it is a proven business standard. I aldo havent had too much issue with parts on this model either. I'm not familiar with vostro and like you I'd think the internals are a bit cheaper. I guess the old saying "you get what you pay for" starts flashing in my mind when I hear a scenario like this.
One thought... Have you reached out to a technical contact from your Dell team with the same question? In my experience they are pretty straight forward on differences and comparisons like this.
As for vostro vs optiplex for me the answer would be more simple since I've worked with optiplex and it is a proven business standard. I aldo havent had too much issue with parts on this model either. I'm not familiar with vostro and like you I'd think the internals are a bit cheaper. I guess the old saying "you get what you pay for" starts flashing in my mind when I hear a scenario like this.
One thought... Have you reached out to a technical contact from your Dell team with the same question? In my experience they are pretty straight forward on differences and comparisons like this.
One "large network" feature that Optiplex have over the Vostro line are network/systems management and deployment tools, which usually only make sense in a large environment. Also, the Optiplex has a standard 3 year warranty, versus 1 year standard for the Vostro.
These are not going to have many proprietary parts. With the exception of always-non-standard parts like a the control panel, etc., you'll find that all the major parts are standard ... memory, drives, processor (although heatsinks may be specific to interior design), and power supplies. Servers are a different story ... nearly all makes are proprietary in some fashion in the system design for motherboard, backplane, expansion cards, heatsinks, fans, etc., as the company tries to pack as much tech, performance, and reliability in as small a package as possible.
These are not going to have many proprietary parts. With the exception of always-non-standard parts like a the control panel, etc., you'll find that all the major parts are standard ... memory, drives, processor (although heatsinks may be specific to interior design), and power supplies. Servers are a different story ... nearly all makes are proprietary in some fashion in the system design for motherboard, backplane, expansion cards, heatsinks, fans, etc., as the company tries to pack as much tech, performance, and reliability in as small a package as possible.
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