Originally Posted by meredithf

well I bought a Dell in 1999 or 2000 I think (?), whenever the first 1g p4 processors were coming out. now that I know more about PCs I can look back and say it was A B S U R D L Y overpriced. I actually financed it through Dell because I couldn't pay for it at once.

I will say while it worked, it worked great. but it "crashed" one day (the WEEK before I was sending them my final payment, lol) and I couldnt figure out if it was the mb or the power supply. either way I couldnt fix it without ordering new parts from dell because the parts they use are (or were, I dont know if they still are) so proprietary. so I just built a new pc at that point. the only part I was really able to use in the new pc I built was the floppy drive, lol, and I even had to rip the face off it to get it to fit in any new case.

so I wouldnt really call that "user error"... it crapped out and I couldnt fix it without ordering the parts from dell at about 50% more cost.

with that said I wouldnt buy a dell if I had to by from a manufacturer unless I got a rediculousy good deal and it was only going to be temporary. I also bought a gateway back in 1995 which honestly worked just fine. of course I knew even less about PCs then but I don't recall ever having problems with it. in fact I still have the 4gb hd that was in it, lol. but I can't speak for them now because since the dell issue I have only built PCs if I need them.