The latest DELL computers for DVD authoring?

[lordsmurf]

I have looked in emachines, gateways, packard bells, compaqs, sonys, NECs, and lots of "homebrew" systems.

I think emachines and packard bell top the "sucks" list.

[hech54]

I love my old Dell Dimension 4500. The only thing that has gone wrong with it stuff I myself have messed up due to my limited computer knowledge.

When will people realize that "build your own" is just NOT an option for some people. And as for Dell reversing wiring to sabotage your next upgrade?....where the hell would Dell find a hardware supplier to build them such an item?
What a crock of shiite.

STUPID mis-informed, boogey man stories and out and out LIES are most of what I see (read) in threads like these.

[TBoneit]

If you feel comfortable with a Dell then by all means buy it.

Would I Buy one, No, However to qualify that I build my own.

One thing to remember with Dell these days is buy it complete as you want it, don't plan to add to it later. I say this a lot of the lower price models are not equipped for expansion. I'm seeing a lot of their cheap models that were ordered with no Floppy drive and only one hard disk that do not have the mounting hardware to add a floppy or second hard disk drive later. however if only one optical drive they do have a bay for a second optical drive.

If you are planning on doing video work order with two (2) large hard drives a DVD ROM and a DVD Reader. And of course firewire and a good sound card such as Soundblaster.

If you want Microsoft office, order it with the computer it'll be cheaper as an OEM Version than buying retail later. Get the highest speed you can afford.

Be sure to insist that they provide CDs for all software including windows. I've seen some newer (Cheaper) models that come with no CDs only a restore partition on the drive that costs you some of the drive space you think you are getting. I Believe HP Started that trend.

Do not buy Gateway, (Or Gateway owner E-Machine) and I would not buy an AMD equipped system from anybody, a Personal dislike, With Dell it'll be Intel for sure.

Good Luck

Edit for grammar & Spelling

[BJ_M]

that may be true on the cheaper Dells - but on the workstations they come with all the extra mounting rails and hardware and even cable connections to add additional harddrives etc .. all the mounting parts are right in the case, which are toolless (as is hard drive and dvd-r mounting ..

[hech54]

One thing to remember with Dell these days is buy it complete as you want it, don't plan to add to it later. I say this a lot of the lower proce models are not equipped for expansion. I'm seeing a lot of their cheap models that were ordered with no Floppy drive and only one hard disk that do not have the mounting hardware to add a floppy or second hard disk drive later. however if only one optical drive they do have a bay for a second optical drive.

AHEM, AHEM bullshit AHEM AHEM


I have been "Frankensteining" my Dell since day one....I have one additional HD inside....neither optical drive is original(it came with one now it has two)....and even the original HD has been replaced with a larger one(keeping the original data...including the Dell partition).

And why in the hell would Dell provide mounting hardware for a piece of hardware that they do not know about in advance?....are the people at Dell supposed mindreaders now too?

More lies and bullshit
...and I cant spell today....

[gom]

From the replys to my origional post, I can see that there are fans and haters of DELL.

It would seem that with any system, you get what you pay for. As for add ons like 2nd hard drives, I don't see that as an issue since you can add on just about anything thru USB these days.

I have an old DELL P2 (2nd hand) that I've been using for 4 yrs. with no problems. That's not to say that DELL hasn't gone to cheaper componments for a bigger profit margin. I don't know. That's why I posted on this thread. The responses have been very helpful.

I live in a major East Coast city and one of the best hospitals along with it's major university all use DELLS. That must say something regarding DELL.

[budz]

From the replys to my origional post, I can see that there are fans and haters of DELL.

It would seem that with any system, you get what you pay for. As for add ons like 2nd hard drives, I don't see that as an issue since you can add on just about anything thru USB these days.

I have an old DELL P2 (2nd hand) that I've been using for 4 yrs. with no problems. That's not to say that DELL hasn't gone to cheaper componments for a bigger profit margin. I don't know. That's why I posted on this thread. The responses have been very helpful.

I live in a major East Coast city and one of the best hospitals along with it's major university all use DELLS. That must say something regarding DELL.

You pay for what you get! As for USB the transfers are faster with FIREWIRE when doing video editing. Best you buy a top of the line desktop from DELL because the low end models will probably not allow you to upgrade. Motherboards BIOS maybe limited as well. You'll end up having to purchase upgrades from them which are costly compared to walking in a local computer store like Office Depot, CompUsa, & Best Buy. Another thing if you purchased a dvd burner on your own to add to the DELL pc and you have problems with the drive, DELL will not give you tech support because you didn't purchase the drive from them. This has been reported on other forum sites.

Good luck and let us know what you've decided to buy. As BJ_M pointed out that the WORKSTATIONS are great then maybe you could purchase one of those.

[TBoneit]

One thing to remember with Dell these days is buy it complete as you want it, don't plan to add to it later. I say this a lot of the lower proce models are not equipped for expansion. I'm seeing a lot of their cheap models that were ordered with no Floppy drive and only one hard disk that do not have the mounting hardware to add a floppy or second hard disk drive later. however if only one optical drive they do have a bay for a second optical drive.

AHEM, AHEM bullshit AHEM AHEM


I have been "Frankensteining" my Dell since day one....I have one additional HD inside....neither optical drive is original(it came with one now it has two)....and even the original HD has been replaced with a larger one(keeping the original data...including the Dell partition).

And why in the hell would Dell provide mounting hardware for a piece of hardware that they do not know about in advance?....are the people at Dell supposed mindreaders now too?

More lies and bullshit
...and I cant spell today....

On the other hand the cheapest clone generally comes with at least 3-4 5.25" drive bays plus at leats 3 3.5" drive bays and many, excluding small footprint cases, seem to come equipped to hold 10 drives total.

We used to sell a Small case that only had spce for a mini-atx MB that could still hold 1 optical and 1 floppy plus 3 hard drives.

Why can't Dell? I agree their better model (PCI Express DDR2 and SATA drive equipped are better set up for expansion but many are buying the cheaper models and they don't come very expandable.

And Yes I'm seeing current models when you pay $299 to $399 you get what you pay for.

Cheers

[TBoneit]

From the replys to my origional post, I can see that there are fans and haters of DELL.

It would seem that with any system, you get what you pay for. As for add ons like 2nd hard drives, I don't see that as an issue since you can add on just about anything thru USB these days.

I have an old DELL P2 (2nd hand) that I've been using for 4 yrs. with no problems. That's not to say that DELL hasn't gone to cheaper componments for a bigger profit margin. I don't know. That's why I posted on this thread. The responses have been very helpful.

I live in a major East Coast city and one of the best hospitals along with it's major university all use DELLS. That must say something regarding DELL.

a. They are most likely using the Better grade of Dells, IE Workstations
b. Even USB 2 is still slower than a internal drive. Approx 55% of internal ATA 100 drives and 55/150% of SATA. I could be slightly off as I'm working from memory.

The current Dells are decent quality, I'd stay clear of the small footprint models myself. And repeat to yourself, "You get what you pay for", There's ain't no such thing as a free lunch" TANSTAAFL. If you spend a grand on a New Dell you get a decent system. CHeck their website everyday at least. They runs lots of short term specials that only seem to be there for a short period of time and many times those have things like free shipping or free Monitor or free Flatpanel.

And why I say buy a Dell equipped like you want it, They have been known to give no support if the computer is not as they shipped it.

Good Luck

[thecoalman]

And as for Dell reversing wiring to sabotage your next upgrade?....where the hell would Dell find a hardware supplier to build them such an item?
What a crock of shiite.

Anyone they are willing to pay, the propetary hardware issue may not be true of the Dell's of today but propietary hardware was one of the "standard" features of many the leading manufacturers in the past. The one about the power supply is particularly disturbing because they used the exact same plug as a standard power supply. How many people do you think fried their machines because of that?


Regardless unless your buying the cheapest machine they make they are overpriced. You can purchase a better machine cheaper from one of the smaller vendors. And don't hand me that great service crap either.... they all use the same damn guy in India who can't speak english and doesn't know the difference between software and hardware.

I live in a major East Coast city and one of the best hospitals along with it's major university all use DELLS. That must say something regarding DELL.

Yea, it means they gave them the best price when they put the compouters out for bid.

[BJ_M]

coalmaster is right on that -- at one time (not sure now) , many of the dells, microns, ibms, necs etc had none standard form factors - im not sure they do that much any more .. maybe they do and if so - avoid those models ..


the best way (as pointed out) is to watch for specials on the various websites that track special deals (many are not advertised or require special codes) ...

often you can get massive good deals, free lcds and other stuff thrown in -- if you are buying more than one machines OR call in for workstations - dell reps will give you a better deal than on on the web (IBM did this also on their workstation line which were top notch machines (at one time - not sure now) .

[burnman99]

I'm not sure if it is still this way but used to be Dell's Power Supply was Proprietary. The only place to get a new one is thru Dell That's the way my old machine was, course it's a 266Mhz Dell with a Iomega Buzz capture card. I believe the dinosaurs were around when it was popular

Later!

Roger

[BJ_M]

all dells use normal power supplies now - specially their workstation models which use standard motherboards also .. but a really nice system for cooling on those models - just like the ibm workstations i used - they use not the intel or amd fans but a massive copper heatsink and cooling tunnels with redundent cooling - they also have built in HD cooling and case fans ...

[hech54]

I STILL say that most people posting nonsense about Dell's non standard power supplies are confusing Dell with Packard Hell.

[TBoneit]

all dells use normal power supplies now - specially their workstation models which use standard motherboards also .. but a really nice system for cooling on those models - just like the ibm workstations i used - they use not the intel or amd fans but a massive copper heatsink and cooling tunnels with redundent cooling - they also have built in HD cooling and case fans ...

As far as I can tell you are right on their standard towers. However that is why I say stay away from the Dell small footprint computers. We had to replace a power supply for a local Fire Department. It was a small long skinny PS and used a non standard pinout on the PS to MB plug. It was also a couple years old. We had to scratch around in our oddball PS box for one with the same pinout just to verify it was the PS. We offered them the old PS to hold them over until the replacement came in but the case of course could not be closed and they declined.

2 things occurred, It was a Bleep dealing with India to try and order the replacement, That took over an hour. Then they shipped the wrong one and that took approx 1.5 hours to straighten out.

second thing is Dell's claim that all New parts they sell come marked as refurbished.

For sure the special MB for one of these little footprint machines and the Power supply looked new but stated with a big sticker on the box refurbished.

The regular sized machines do seem to use standard Power Supplies but now I'm starting to see the PS's with a extra 6 pin plug hanging that I'm sure they do use in some models.

Cheers

[thecoalman]

I STILL say that most people posting nonsense about Dell's non standard power supplies are confusing Dell with Packard Hell.

Oh my god it's such a conspiracy they even make an adapter for it. :P http://www.endpcnoise.com/cgi-bin/e/dellconverter.html

The power supply that came with your Dell computer manufactured since September of 1998, may look like a standard ATX power supply. A standard ATX power supply will even physically fit into the Dell computer and the electrical components will look like they line up, however if you don't use a proprietary Dell power supply or a Dell to ATX Power Supply Converter with your standard ATX power supply, your computer will not work and damage may occur to the motherboard and/or the standard power supply.

They shpuld change that may occur to will occur.

[TBoneit]

I STILL say that most people posting nonsense about Dell's non standard power supplies are confusing Dell with Packard Hell.

Well We work on tons of Dells and the older models, Mostly P3, had to have a Dell power supply Those Power supplies had a ATX style connector and another that was a AT type plug. Also seen the same thing in old Compaqs.

Cheers

[BJ_M]

the extra 6 pin plug thing is normal for some xeon and other systems, in fact there is also the 4 pin smallpower plug also ... freaking confusing on many different PS types ....

there is also the mini atx PS , which sometimes use a different connector (ive seen one that 2 less pins than a atx i recall)

im not sure of all the types - i do know that (as coal pointed out) dell used to use a custom PS , but i know for sure the workstation IBM and Dells use a normal one ..


edit:

I found that they do now use standard PS in all models now (so they claim) , prob. to many pissed off people ..

There was a period when Dell used non-industry standard voltages on their ATX power supplies (1996-2000) the pin-outs matched the standard ATX plug-ins but their voltages were different. Thus if you used a different motherboard with those power supplies or a non Dell power supply with a Dell motherboard... Zap... You were fried. Here is a Dell link with the pin-out voltages for the 180 Watt power supply used with the 4300S http://support.ap.dell.com/docs/systems/dim4300s/techov.htm

[BJ_M]

I had several of the Compaq servers, rack mount with dual p3's in them ...

they weighed about 120lbs each and were built like a tank - NOTHING was standard (even the memory) in them and they used the scsi hotswap harddrives... BUt boy those things prob. could run for 100 years ..

same kind i had - i used these at home and at work ..

http://womendivorce.com/ebay/compaq/compaq-proliant-1600r-2.jpg
http://womendivorce.com/ebay/compaq/compaq-proliant-1600r-3.jpg

[dukenukem]

Hell our emachines comp which was bought in 1999 still runs good and has never needed to be repaired when the 3 year warranty was in effect.On topic though try and find someone who could build you a pc since newegg is a good place for parts or try building one yourself,but if you don't feel like building then go with what you want.

[thecoalman]

You and them friggin giant pics...

[maek]

One thing to remember with Dell these days is buy it complete as you want it, don't plan to add to it later. I say this a lot of the lower proce models are not equipped for expansion. I'm seeing a lot of their cheap models that were ordered with no Floppy drive and only one hard disk that do not have the mounting hardware to add a floppy or second hard disk drive later. however if only one optical drive they do have a bay for a second optical drive.

AHEM, AHEM bullshit AHEM AHEM


I have been "Frankensteining" my Dell since day one....I have one additional HD inside....neither optical drive is original(it came with one now it has two)....and even the original HD has been replaced with a larger one(keeping the original data...including the Dell partition).

And why in the hell would Dell provide mounting hardware for a piece of hardware that they do not know about in advance?....are the people at Dell supposed mindreaders now too?

More lies and bullshit
...and I cant spell today....

Language aside, , I completely agree. I have been Frankensteining my Dell as well. It helps, however, not to get their (as currently listed) 2000 series models and opt for something in 4000's or above.

When getting a Dell, the best balance to strike is to get a system that has a case that is easily expandable and somewhat affordable. Getting a $399 system is the kiss of death.

I've revised mine to add a 250 GB hard drive (when I found 80 to be too tedious for my use). I have also added 1GB of memory. I plan to be adding the new 256 MB Nvidia 7800 Ultra card soon.

Neither of those parts were from Dell, but there are no hardware conflicts either. I had a similar experience with my previous Dell; I had heard nightmares of hardware conflicts of custom-built machines, but I have never encountered one with a Dell.

Don't get me wrong, however - I am NOT knocking custom-built systems. Some people, especially many on this site, KNOW what they are doing so it's never an issue. What aggravates me are the people who DON'T know what they are doing and blindly go about custom-building. I knew someone who was so frustrated that he blamed the whole thing on the IBM PC community and went to a MAC.

I, for one, am too lazy and would rather modify an existing one. Never had trouble with a Dell.

[BJ_M]

You and them friggin giant pics...

get a bigger monitor or two , they dont even fill my screens so i am unaware of it ..

[gom]

Well folks, I don't know how to build computers and my doctor wants my blood pressure to stay down so I'll probably stick with a DELL Workstation unit that's just right for my needs which is lightweight video authoring.

One thing I noticed though is that many of these computer companies offer a TV tuner card.???????

Is this for watching cable TV, or internet TV, or rabbit ear antenna TV? Is this the wave of the future or just a frill that the computer companies are pushing to sell something not needed?

I mean with broadband (which I have) and a new system, will it be any good?

Anyone with experience in this area?

[jtoras]

When I was shopping for a desktop computer, I got Dell Dimension 4550 mostly because of a really good discount/special offer, which basically cut the price by about $400 I think.

It has been few years and it is still running fine. Never needed customer support. The instructions book that came with it was really excellent and described adding additional parts, with step-by-step illustrations, etc.

At the time I bought this machine, I was also seriously considering to have Dell add as many things as possible because I really didn't think I could install hardware myself. My previous experience, many years earlier, was installing a new hard-drive in no-name PC compatible. It took 3 days and could not get it to work. But adding DVD burner and bigger drive would price this Dell out of my range, so I decided to get it without the extras, thinking that since it has USB2 I'll just add external components.

Of course, later I found that external USB components are much more expensive than internal. But at one point I had to add more RAM and so I had no other option but open the machine up. I expected a disaster. But I was so wrong. The case opened up without any tools, like a book. Everything was accessible, and everything was at my fingertips. Installing the RAM chips was easy. My next project was installing second hard-drive and DVD burner. When I discovered that I needed rails for the drives I had no idea where to get them. Looking at the Dell manual I discovered that extra rails were attached inside of the case. And true enough, the case had a special place, which I overlooked before, just for these spare parts. This is just a small detail, but it made a huge difference.

I am still amazed how incredibly well designed this box is. It was made for regular people. If I was a computer guru doing all kinds of hardware modifications and overclocking and what have you, all of this would be probably trivial. But for me, Dell designed the perfect computer case and created perfect documentation. I don't know if other manufacturers have such accessible case design -- most of the computers I've seen have standard case, and you'd need very nimble fingers to do anything inside. I certainly would have a big problem, probably wouldn't even try. With my Dell case, the inside bascially opens up for me.

My most recent additon was capture card (PVR-150), took about 15 minutes to install. Also, just want to mention that there are external capture devices, but some software may not support these. Often you will be limited to software that comes with the device to capture your video.

Just my 2 cents...
JT

[gom]

Yep, this old P2 DELL I have now opens up without any tools. I had a friend put in some extra memory 2 yrs. ago and I was impressed that the thing could just pop open.

He liked DELLS too however I've lost contact with him to ask him about what to buy but I think I have enough info from the many posts to make a decent decision.

[hech54]

I STILL say that most people posting nonsense about Dell's non standard power supplies are confusing Dell with Packard Hell.

Oh my god it's such a conspiracy they even make an adapter for it. :P http://www.endpcnoise.com/cgi-bin/e/dellconverter.html

The power supply that came with your Dell computer manufactured since September of 1998, may look like a standard ATX power supply. A standard ATX power supply will even physically fit into the Dell computer and the electrical components will look like they line up, however if you don't use a proprietary Dell power supply or a Dell to ATX Power Supply Converter with your standard ATX power supply, your computer will not work and damage may occur to the motherboard and/or the standard power supply.

They shpuld change that may occur to will occur.

Thanks for clarifying. That is a FAR cry from what this guy says:

Oh. and another thing Dell reverses the wiring on some of their wires ie from the power supply so don't be surprised if you try to upgrade a component and you see smoke after it's hooked up. They want you to upgrade from them and their upgrade prices are redicously high

[thecoalman]

One thing I noticed though is that many of these computer companies offer a TV tuner card.???????

It's like having a regular TV on your computer, it doubles as a capture card. You can record from either antennae, regular cable, RCA or S-Video on nearly everyone. What you can't watch with it is digital channels, you'sd have to run the video from the cable box to the card. Quality varies and audio sync issues can arise easily.

Thanks for clarifying. That is a FAR cry from what this guy says:

Oh. and another thing Dell reverses the wiring on some of their wires ie from the power supply so don't be surprised if you try to upgrade a component and you see smoke after it's hooked up. They want you to upgrade from them and their upgrade prices are redicously high

I don't think what he said is a far cry from the truth though, it's a standard plug they used so you could easily plug a regular PS into it and fry your machine. That's just bad engineering, if they wanted to use non-standard PS's then they should have also used non-standard plugs. In any event if you read further into that article above you'll see that the higher end models use a standard PS.

I don't know if other manufacturers have such accessible case design --
JT

Most do, I can have mine off in 1 second. It's so accessible it's got a lock on it. It's the smaller cases where they are trying to pack a lot into a small space that it becomes an issue. As far as building your own if you can install a PCI card you can build one. It really isn't that hard. They even sell barebones systems with the case, PS and CPU preinstalled.

[BJ_M]

those small cases are cute looking , but unless you are going to a lot of lan parties or building a system for playback for your home theater - you will regret the small case and small form factor motherboard down the road any time you want to upgrade..

[TBoneit]

I won't say that Dells are bad the good ones are nice machines and expandable to a certain extent. I'll clarify.

The more expensive ones even with built in video usually have a VGA or now a PCI Express slot for Video upgrades. Mounting rails in the box etc. extra memory slots and either Dual Channel mode memory setup or DDR2 memory on new models.

The Cheap models usually do not have any place to upgrade the built in video beyond PCI. No dual channel memory capabilities. they don't use rails they use screws. They don't put the hardware in to mount extra drives from what I've seen. They seem reliable and as long as you don't buy planning to change they'll be fine for most people.

What else I've seen is that you pretty much need to buy any replacement MBs from Dell due to funny connector layout on the back and special non-standard connector to the front of the case. It doesn't mean it can not be done it just means more work.

Cheers