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Don't buy a gaming PC pre-build from Dell'

This is nothing new.

Compaq if you remember them, used to be worse for this though, good luck upgrading anything on those.

Also, outside of Dell, I do t think pre-builds are a bad way to go now, yes you pay more but saves you time and stress if things go wrong, particularly if you have to start going down the RMA route.

And further to that in today's climate it's an easier way if getting a new graphics card.

I built my 5800x machine in December, and partly wished I'd just gone pre-build now with a new GPU as like everyone else, I can't get a new graphics card for love nor money.
 
humbug said:
Just about everything in them is proprietary, they probably do this deliberately so that if the motherboard or whatever breaks outside of warranty you have to buy it from Dell at probably very inflated prices for something that's of very average quality, or just plain bad if you're used to building your own.

Once its out of warranty, or you want to upgrade some of the components there is little or nothing you can do with it, it just becomes landfill.

They had to have spent time and money on developing a system like this so that its components are incompatible with industry standards, its a really cynical way of trapping you into their ECO system to squeeze more money from you if it goes wrong out of warranty and making the components on their own useless.

Don't buy their junk, its bad for the environment, your pocket and your sanity.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4DMg6hUudHE

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This is hardly surprising. Considering a huge part of their business is providing SMB's/Enterprises with business workstations - which as you've seen in the video, is more of a modular/proprietary approach. That would likely be under a business warranty and businesses won't care about it not using standard components.

But i agree, not really worth a purchase.
 
humbug said:
They had to have spent time and money on developing a system like this so that its components are incompatible with industry standards, its a really cynical way of trapping you into their ECO system to squeeze more money from you if it goes wrong out of warranty and making the components on their own useless.
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The Artfull Bodger said:
upgraded the rubbish psu's along with the gpu's (which had a proprietary power connector which went to the motherboard if I remember correctly)
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Nope - they spent time and money developing systems to reduce power consumption particularly at low psu load (which most office and home PCs other than gaming, typical operate at), by eliminating or appropriately sizing components.

Both Dell and HP are using 12v only PSUs, with additional rails then being provided by VRMs on the motherboard (rather than in the PSU), which the motherboard then determines what connections etc are available (which will generally be tailored to the size of the case - e.g. no point having a 5v rail that can cope with 20 Hard Drives if the case has space for 1)

Intel are also pushing to move the whole industry to a similar standard with ATX12VO
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ATX#ATX12VO
https://www.gamersnexus.net/guides/3568-intel-atx-12vo-spec-explained-what-manufacturers-think


humbug said:
Don't buy their junk, its bad for the environment
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It's actually not, given that Dell and HP machines are deployed by the millions - even saving just a few watts per PC has a huge impact across that big of a deployment.
 
Armageus said:
....

It's actually not, given that Dell and HP machines are deployed by the millions - even saving just a few watts per PC has a huge impact across that big of a deployment.
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Large companies might care about that, but someone wanting a gaming pc doesn't. Dell is didn't do this for the environment in this case. They are doing to reduce costs and maximize returns.
 
OspreyO said:
Large companies might care about that, but someone wanting a gaming pc doesn't. Dell is didn't do this for the environment in this case. They are doing to reduce costs and maximize returns.
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Dell/HP/Others are doing this as they are being required to by Law - not because of the people ordering PCs.

OspreyO said:
What requirements in a gaming PC...
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Dell are an OEM/SI so have to comply regardless of whether it's a gaming PC or office PC.

It states why in the gamersnexus link above:
As mentioned earlier, the main motivation for anyone to adopt the ATX12VO standard is a new, stricter standard for assembled systems being sold in the state of California in July 2021. OEMs will now have to meet strict efficiency requirements at 20% and 50% load, not just at 100%. Further, Intel is trying to get companies up to speed with a 2% load efficiency requirement, initially proposed to power supply makers around 2018. The relevant section of Title 20 for PSUs and ATX12VO is 1605.3, although there’s plenty more surrounding that section that governs other aspects of computers and monitors. These regulations will ONLY apply to new complete systems sold by OEMs and SIs, not DIY PCs and not PCs sold before Tier 2 goes into effect.
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The standard is quite detailed:
https://energycodeace.com/site/cust...rstelevisionssignagedisplaysandconsumera5.htm
 
NickTheBiz said:
Saw a pre-build including a 3060Ti yesterday that was tempting.
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for the money that rig was the best pc deal of the last year. dell obviously build systems and in a way to benefit their business but who doesnt whos succesful ?

think of the youtubers. most are shills to whoever sponsors them or in relationships with.
retailers are all scalping everyone on gpus regardless at moment.
dell is evil for making prebuilds....:D

if it does what you need for the required time what does it matter if its prebuilt or not ?
 
The title of this thread should really be 'Don't buy a gaming PC pre-build from Dell'. They are a mass production specialist trying to tap into a market that they are ill-suited to cater to. You might as well ask Scania to build you a car for the BTCC.
However, whilst we are on the car analogies, they produce a product that needs to pass a much wider range of standards than we do. This is exactly why most car manufacturers are racing to the bottom of the emissions numbers. However, some customers want a super car and that's why there are still manufacturers of premium products.

As a supplier for business PCs they tick the right boxes but for somebody getting into PC gaming they're a minefield. If you want a gaming PC go to a gaming specialist! If you want a lorry full of well priced business PCs or an entry level home PC, go to Dell. That said, if you want an entry level home PC, there are countless "local" SI's who'd be happy to bend over backwards to help you, using upgradeable off the shelf parts, rather than giving your money to a multi-national.

It isn't an imaginary problem, there is a very good point to this video. It's almost daily that somebody comes to us with a two/three year old Dell, Acer, HP etc asking us for advice on upgrading them and we have to tell them that we can't help because we don't know how many proprietary parts they used and they aren't particularly open when it comes to publishing detailed specifications. Which leaves the customer with a choice of buying a whole new PC or blindly buying parts in hope that they'll fit.
 
ScottiB said:
The title of this thread should really be 'Don't buy a gaming PC pre-build from Dell'. They are a mass production specialist trying to tap into a market that they are ill-suited to cater to. You might as well ask Scania to build you a car for the BTCC.
However, whilst we are on the car analogies, they produce a product that needs to pass a much wider range of standards than we do. This is exactly why most car manufacturers are racing to the bottom of the emissions numbers. However, some customers want a super car and that's why there are still manufacturers of premium products.

As a supplier for business PCs they tick the right boxes but for somebody getting into PC gaming they're a minefield. If you want a gaming PC go to a gaming specialist! If you want a lorry full of well priced business PCs or an entry level home PC, go to Dell. That said, if you want an entry level home PC, there are countless "local" SI's who'd be happy to bend over backwards to help you, using upgradeable off the shelf parts, rather than giving your money to a multi-national.

It isn't an imaginary problem, there is a very good point to this video. It's almost daily that somebody comes to us with a two/three year old Dell, Acer, HP etc asking us for advice on upgrading them and we have to tell them that we can't help because we don't know how many proprietary parts they used and they aren't particularly open when it comes to publishing detailed specifications. Which leaves the customer with a choice of buying a whole new PC or blindly buying parts in hope that they'll fit.
Click to expand...

This 100% covers the point of limitations of large company prebuilds
 
ScottiB said:
The title of this thread should really be 'Don't buy a gaming PC pre-build from Dell'. They are a mass production specialist trying to tap into a market that they are ill-suited to cater to. You might as well ask Scania to build you a car for the BTCC.
However, whilst we are on the car analogies, they produce a product that needs to pass a much wider range of standards than we do. This is exactly why most car manufacturers are racing to the bottom of the emissions numbers. However, some customers want a super car and that's why there are still manufacturers of premium products.

As a supplier for business PCs they tick the right boxes but for somebody getting into PC gaming they're a minefield. If you want a gaming PC go to a gaming specialist! If you want a lorry full of well priced business PCs or an entry level home PC, go to Dell. That said, if you want an entry level home PC, there are countless "local" SI's who'd be happy to bend over backwards to help you, using upgradeable off the shelf parts, rather than giving your money to a multi-national.

It isn't an imaginary problem, there is a very good point to this video. It's almost daily that somebody comes to us with a two/three year old Dell, Acer, HP etc asking us for advice on upgrading them and we have to tell them that we can't help because we don't know how many proprietary parts they used and they aren't particularly open when it comes to publishing detailed specifications. Which leaves the customer with a choice of buying a whole new PC or blindly buying parts in hope that they'll fit.
Click to expand...


Agree with all of that. But is it worth buying their pre-built for a 3060Ti (to put in a custom build of my own)? It's still just a standard GPU card right? Not proprietary in any way? And frankly I think I have no other way of replacing my dying 1070 any time soon.
 
NickTheBiz said:
Agree with all of that. But is it worth buying their pre-built for a 3060Ti (to put in a custom build of my own)? It's still just a standard GPU card right? Not proprietary in any way? And frankly I think I have no other way of replacing my dying 1070 any time soon.
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I think I read somewhere some of these machines come with a custom GPU also, however I guess taking one out to put in a different case may not matter as much as trying to fit a new replacement GPU within the dell case.
https://www.dell.com/community/Alie...I-purchase-the-Dell-OEM-RTX-3080/td-p/7756158
 
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