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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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.
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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...