Im sure you probably havent had that many issues, what Im trying to say is that if your after a performance machine Dell is simply not the solution.
Archicad and Plotmaker whilst used in tandom are extremely thirsty for power, so it makes sense to get the most powerful and durable product for your money. With Dell you are paying for the name and not for quality components, ask the rep or sales person what brand of ram?, what brand of hard disk? what brand of video card?, and no "whatever we choose to put in that matches these specifications" will not do for an answer.
Example, I have gone to the Dell website and found their overpriced most powerfull machine. As follows:
Dell Dimension(TM) XPS Gen 4 Pentium(R) 4 650 / 660 w/HT Desktop
E-VALUE CODE : M210629 for $2898AU
And Dell are like rug sales man never pay full price everythings always on sale.
Some of the specs for this machine specs of this machine
512 MB Dual channel DDR2-533MHz SDRAM standard, upgradable to 4 GB1
Firstly I guarantee the ram on this machine will not run at 533Mhz no ram to my knowledge is ECC(Certified Officially) to run over 400Mhz thats why most true performance machines use pc 3200 by a reputable manufacturer such as Corsair/ Kingston. This is usually the easiest way to tell if someones trying to sell so you something by playing the numbers game. Secondly which manufacturer?
(although no ram is ECC 533 some will run at that speed but itll only be from the big reliable names and real expensive. An if you had that in your machine you would have it in bold print. Ram that is not ECC = NECC can run at much lower speed as it is not regulated, so you can be a generic electronic component manufacturer and claim it was 722Mhz NECC and no one could do anything except not purchase.
Obviously trusted manufacturers dont do this, and thats why nearly all good performance machine will carry high quality ECC pc3200 400Mhz.
128MB PCI ExpressTM x16 (DVI/VGA/TV-out) ATI RadeonTM X300 SE
Manufacturer?
Hard disk, these are notorious on Dell's for dieing, because of the moving parts and it being a cheap generic component.
Some people say its not Dell's fault your machines bust, well who else made the decision to put dodgy components in there.
Dells are probably ok for a lot of people for the security factor. But for people wanting complete control of their machine and knowing exactly whats in there and how its all working I strongly recommend building your own system. And developing an interest in computer technology cause then you will never be stiffed again.
Its not rocket science to build your own machine, its actually very very simple, just pick up a screw driver, its the ownly tool youll use.
Have a look through computer magazines at the most expensive machines and what components they comprise of and keep comparing it to other machines. Anyway the best non commercail website with accurate reviews on componentry and such is
www.tomshardware.com
J
