Dell over Gateway Any Day!
Written: Oct 16 '00
|
Product Rating:
|
|
| Ease of Use: |
 |
|
| Quality of Tech Support: |
 |
|
|
Pros: Very easy to use, reliable, fast.
Cons: Nothing that wasn't resolved quickly.
|
|
|
| bnlchick's Full Review: Dell Dimension XPS T600 w/DVD |
I purchased a Gateway laptop in the fall of 1998 for graduate school. What a mistake. The hard drive was a lemon from the start. Gateway was good with its customer service, but product reliability... it hasn't got. I quickly learned from my mistake, and in March of this year purchased a Dell desktop at the recommendation of a good friend.
I haven't looked back since.
I settled on the XPS - T600, building my system on Dell's easy to use website. I went all out. I purchased a DVD player, which still plays my favorite DVDs on an almost daily basis. I also opted for the CD-RW as that seemed the thing to do at the time. Seeing as how I can quickly backup any CD or CD-ROM, this was the best $199 investment in the system. These two drives allow me to play my games and listen to music at the same time. Hard core gamers understand. Flying through outer space, blasting Empire planes and being able to play John Williams' Star Wars score is unbeatable!
I chose the 600mhz processor because I don't really need anything faster for what I do. It works fine for my games and for internet usage. It always seems pointless to buy the high end processors anyway, as the prices rapidly drop... I also stuck with 128mb RAM which I kicked myself over. 256 is the way to go!
I opted for the 20.4 GB hard drive and have still not used more than half the space. This includes many wav. mov. jpg. mpeg. etc files that are notorious for taking up space and gathering dust within your files. If I find myself approaching overload, I can always opt for a second HD.
As for graphics, I chose the NVIDIA GeForce graphics card at the advice of the Dell sales rep. I believe that it was a good choice because I haven't have a single problem with the card, and the graphics are very sharp. I chose SoundBlaster Live! as my audio base, and I haven't been disappointed. There is some debate as to the quality of this card, but the negativity has yet to be a reality for me. In good time I can change this or the graphics card as technology advances.
I didn't include a monitor in this purchase, as I already had a trusty 17" at home. So, I put the extra money into a 100mb zip drive and Altec Lansing speakers. The zip drives is... well... a zip drive. Works fine most of the time... gives me fits the other times... That's Iomega for you! My speakers are great, and I love the subwoofer, though I quickly got used to the bass.
Overall, I give my system high marks. I did have a problem hooking my Microsoft Sidewinder joystick to the system. Customer service was not helpful during my first call, but I called back right away and got another rep who actually knew what he was talking about. This system now belongs to my mother, who, like me, loves it. I upgraded to a new Dimension 4100 800mzh, 256mb system. What can I say? I love to buy new stuff!
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 2000.00
Operating System: Windows
Processor: Intel Pentium III
Processor speed: 501-600
RAM: 128
Internal Storage: CD-RW and DVD
Hard Drive (GB): 13-20
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
bnlchick
|
|
Reviews written: 26
Trusted by: 9 members
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.