While working w/ these guys on my Dad's & son's machines, I've worked w/ some techs who were very good & others who either couldn't speak english or were clueless about computers. It's really hit or miss - sadly - usually miss.... Interesting - I Have a Precision Workstation 470 w/ the Gold support. In general I'm pleased with it but I never got close to anyone being here "within hours". For one reason or another, it always seemed to take 1-2 days... (usually due to parts deliveries) Agreed. Ensure you get advice from here or somewhere else you have a reason to trust. Some of their sales help are fools. My 470 was supplied w/ 2 incompatible video cards. Took a long time to sort out the issues since the problems were random. Once we got the video card tech support on the line, he explained what was happening and said that the sales people were fools for selling that config. It seems the tech support folks are frequently upset with the sales folks & how they stitch things together (& this was on the small business side - generally better than the home group). In general, there seem to be very few people within Dell (sales or tech sup) that are truly up on multi-monitor support. Virtually all will try to help but they frequently admit they've never worked on a multi-monitor set-up. When I asked why there were so few techs w/ that knowledge, they said that most of them were over in the enterprise level support. It was in a different location & supported mid-size & larger corporations .... R
This is probably my biggest gripe about using Dell. By in large, most of the sales force is VERY young and lacks sufficient training. In fact, I have come across a lot of Dell SALES PEOPLE that really have no idea about the basic "specs" of a computer, let alone talking about power supplies, accessories, or certain video card configurations. Their "knowledge-base" is thin, at best. If you assume this right off the bat ( and do your own homework ) you'll be far better off when dealing with Dell.
Rather astonishing, don't you think? After all, Windows has supported multi-monitor for oh, like 10 FRICKIN' YEARS ALREADY... ever since W98.
Yeah, this has been one of the things that we have been trying to get corporate to understand. They promise quick support without taking true consideration of how many field guys they have and what work load we're managing. I'm generally getting to most of my clients within four hours with phone contact. Its generally a weather, conditions, traffic, time balancing act that directly impacts arrival at a site. In order to improve that, I've severely restricted my territory of coverage and outside access. I strictly will not visit (or even confirm for folks that I'm a tech) unless I get a Dell call to go somewhere. It's the only way to keep my contacts happy. And the parts deliveries piece does generally provide a logistics nightmare. To cut that down, I maintain an inventory of several parts (mostly server as that's my main business) and complete machines. I also keep a small inventory of complete server's for swap out for my better contacts.
I just upgraded to a new Dell Vostro-400 destop computer on Win XP Pro with an Intel Duo-Core E6850 processor at 3.0 GHz., with a 1333 FSB from my 4.5 year old Dell Dimension 8300 ( Pentium 4 at 2.60 GHz. on XP ) and guess what? My UPLOAD speed increased from 600 kbps to 3,000 kbps! And that is with my Comcast broadband connection remaining the same. Unreal.
Vostro is more than adequate for trading. The Precision line has a faster, more fully featured motherboard with more slots and ports.
So far, I LOVE my new Vostro. The only "negative" that I can think of is that all of the extra connectors coming off the power supply are SATA. There are no "old-fashioned" molex type connectors on this Dell PSU. I have a PCI-slot graphics card that I want to install, but it has a fan on it and the power cable to the fan is a very small 2-pin connector that needs to hook back up into a Molex connector. That can be easily fixed by spending $75.00 and purchasing a new PC Power & Cooling "Silencer-470" power supply unit on New Egg. The "Silencer-470" comes with 3 SATA connectors and a ton of Molex connectors. - - - Also has a very strong +12V rail rated at 26 amps! Other than this small "nit-pick" I love my new VOSTRO-400. It's extremely quiet, too!
Can't you get a SATA-Molex connector for a few $$$ from some online supplier? Or, maybe a new PCI card without a fan.
gnome, the thought ( getting a fan-less PCI card ) has crossed my mind but I was kind of looking to upgrade the power supply anyway, even though I am fully aware that the 300 watt Dell PSU has some fairly robust rails, especially the +12V. The SATA to Molex adaptors that you see for $3.95 online won't work because you need a "male" SATA to go into the open SATA in the computer. From what I see, all of those adaptors in the marketplace are "female" SATA's that plug into SATA driven devices. Actually, I have an old PCI slot card ( GeForce MX440 with 64mb of RAM ) from my old Dell 8300 which I used to support my 3rd monitor. I apparently replaced the onboard fan with a Vantec, and unfortunately the 3-pin power connector on the Vantec fan will not connect to the onboard power 2-pin power connector on the graphics card. I guess I can look for another fan, with a different power cable connector. Either that, or a new PCI slot graphics card . . . or I can shave off some of the plastic surrounding the 2-pin onboard connector and "fit" the 3-pin on top of it for a friction fit, which is what some others in this same situation have done in the past. By the way, what PCI slot card would you suggest? Most of the ones at New Egg are Jaton's. P.S. (I'm running an Nvidia 8600 GTS in the express slot.)