I'm a BIG FAN of the Dell Oulet sites! Have just purchased my 3rd computer from them . . . this time a Vostro 400 from the Business Outlet site, and an E6850 at 3.00 GHz. with the 4MB of L2 cache and 2 Gigs of 800 Mhz. RAM and a 1333 FSB on Windows XP with an Nvidia 8600 GT 256mb PCI-Express card supporting dual-DVI and 80 Gig HD with 16x DVD r/w. and free shipping for $520.00 One year warranty too. You just have to keep an eye on the inventory. Every now and then they seem to make a pricing "mistake" and you can nab a real nice performance rig on the cheap! I'm gonna be cautious and throw in a "Silencer-470" power supply from PC Power & Cooling for $75.00 at NewEgg and I will be good to go!
Dell has a reputation of having high quality and under rated PSUs. Replacing a stock Dell PSU should not normally be an issue unless you're running a hot video card...
You are more than welcome! The inventory comes and goes. You just got to keep checking every day, morning and night. Not sure if there is more to choose from at the end of the month, beginning of the month, or what. The refurbished computers are ALL brand new Dell's that were "returned" back to Dell within 21 days of purchase for whatever reason. They are tested, and then put into the inventory at the Outlet site. There are 2 outlet sites . . . One for Home Sales, and the other for Business Sales. I bought my Dell from the Business Sales Outlet this time because I wanted to find a computer that still had Windows XP on it! 99% of the inventory on the Home Outlet have Vista on them.
Thanks Gnome. An excellent point and one that I am already well aware of. I believe that the 300 watt PSU that comes on my Dell Vostro-400 has some pretty strong "rails" that actually make it outperform many other 400w and even 500w aftermarket power supplies from Antec and others. For example, I believe that the +12V rail on my Dell 300w power supply is rated at 18 amps. Compare that with a Thermal-take 500w at 14 amps, or an Antec Earthwatts 380 at 17 amps. Now those power supplies have multiple 12V rails, but I have never been sold on that kind of feature. It's ALL about the kind of amps that come off the +12V rail, along with the +3.3V rail, and the +5V rail. As you correctly point out, Dell has always been extremely conservative in that aspect.
I came across this thread just after I purchased the T3400 today. Fascinating coincidence!! I've been purchasing Dell product for 13 years now and, overall, I've been very pleased. And I concur with a previous comment regarding their Gold (now called Pro) tech support. These support reps are knowledgeable, they answer your calls quickly and they are all based in the US. HOWEVER, for anyone considering the purchase of a Dell product you are far better off purchasing from their small business vs home/home office division. Furthermore, NEVER go with the price you get when you build your configuration on-line. You can easily get a price that is hundreds and hundreds of dollars less by negotiating with a hungry sales rep if you do a little research first. For example, the cost for going from 2 gigs of DDR2 800mhz RAM to 4 gigs is about $200. However, Dell sells the 2 gigs of this RAM in their accessories division for a little over $100. So why pay the additional $200? Negotiate. The same goes for the processor you choose, the graphics cards, monitors... whatever else you're configuring your system with. Negotiate!!
Just got my Vostro-400 from Dell Business Refurbished Outlet. Unfortuntely, my keyboard was dead on arrival and I could not boot up the machine. The keyboard appeared to have a cable that was slightly crimped. In any event, Dell sent me out a new keyboard that same day. It arrived this afternoon via DHL and I am now good to go. It really looks like they are trying hard to improve their customer service. Very nice!