-
Competitor rules
Please remember that any mention of competitors, hinting at competitors or offering to provide details of competitors will result in an account suspension. The full rules can be found under the 'Terms and Rules' link in the bottom right corner of your screen. Just don't mention competitors in any way, shape or form and you'll be OK.
Don't buy a gaming PC pre-build from Dell'
- Thread starter humbug
- Start date
I think sometimes they rush something to market and don't have time to make it properly propriety.
Don't think so, the XPS and other ranges used standard parts for quite a while, contrary to those saying Dell have always been this way. I just looked on the Dell website though and can see their current XPS desktop range has the a similar weird-shaped proprietary motherboard as the one in the GN video.
It was like a handful of models that didn't all around the same time. Everything before and after that period is propriety and with those scissor clamshell cases perfect for slicing fingers and cables.
Worse case ever was the Macintosh Quadra 800 line. It was like taking apart a laptop getting into that.
its not always the case back with my i5-6600 build a prebuilt system was running about £100 cheaper plus a windows copy
I bought my XPS 8300 in late 2011, my step-dad bought an 8900 in late 2016, both used mostly-standard components. The XPS series at least was the outlier for a good while in terms of offering decent upgrade options, so it's a shame they've changed that. The Dell Outlet deals on those machines used to be ridiculous too, I got an i7 2600, 2x1TB HDDs, 8GB RAM (which they upgraded to 12GB for free) and a Radeon 6870 for £600.
Soldato
- Joined
- 22 Nov 2018
- Posts
- 2,743
I realised 20 years ago that Dell are proprietary and not very good. I'm surprised it took the internet so long to catch up.
Man of Honour
- Joined
- 21 Nov 2004
- Posts
- 45,991
I'd never buy from them after the laptop I owned years and years ago would overheat frying the graphics card. It was fine while under warranty, albeit a pain, but then absolutely no use after that. Even the CPU started to brick itself a few years later. Wasn't exactly cheap either.
I have a Dell (Alienware) pre build from March of this year. It was a dell refurb, under £1800, and came with an i9 10900KF, 32GB, RTX 3080.
I have become very familiar with the proprietary nature of it. It is painful to work with. I will outline a few of the issues I have encountered below while moving it to a fully water cooled system. However, before I list the issues, I should note: the price was fantastic! Try finding a 3080 for much less than this entire build cost me. I was willing to accept some compromises given the pricing.
But I sort of still love it. You know, almost because it is such a quirky, odd beast.
I have become very familiar with the proprietary nature of it. It is painful to work with. I will outline a few of the issues I have encountered below while moving it to a fully water cooled system. However, before I list the issues, I should note: the price was fantastic! Try finding a 3080 for much less than this entire build cost me. I was willing to accept some compromises given the pricing.
- industrial fans fitted due to lack of natural case airflow
- Replacing those fans throws a startup error
- Unless you use one or two specific fans that over time users have worked out are okay
- But moving from the AIO to a custom loop means I will ALWAYS get a startup error as the pump is not detected
- No temperature sensor headers on the motherboard
- No RGB headers
- Custom power supply that is fully modular, but proprietary and with empty sockets...
- Cannot case swap easily due to the power button motherboard header being proprietary and shared with RGB custom pin out
- Swing arm PSU blocks natural case airflow, which causes VRMs to get hot even with the heat sink ... which is frustrating when you have moved to a full water cooled loop with an external 1080 9 fan radiator and yet you get throttling due to VRM temps
- Motherboard IO plate is fixed and needs to be dremeled for a case swap
But I sort of still love it. You know, almost because it is such a quirky, odd beast.
The biggest issue with Dell being proprietary is repairs and upgrades. Every component built system I've put together myself has lasted 5+ years and where parts have eventually failed it's been straightforward to replace them
In both my Dell computers they failed within a couple years of ownership and the repair was only feasible thanks to the extended warranty once that was out ultimately a case swap with a new motherboard and power supply due to the original proprietary connectors.
My experience has been that Dell computers are built to a price and not designed to last much beyond their warranty period! Plus when they do fail they're a nightmare to repair.
I wouldn't buy anything from Dell again! Their computers are just a bunch of badly designed and cheaply made proprietary foxcon parts cobbled together IMO!
That's because their high end "Alienware Gaming Computers" are basically just their regular home range in a fancy looking cheap plastic case with terrible thermals
Last edited:
Associate
- Joined
- 29 Apr 2015
- Posts
- 313
Cheers mate, I'll have a look.
Associate
They don't really care about the consumer market, they know their base.
Last edited:
Soldato
I recommend Dawid's recent videos on a Dell Prebuild.
https://www.youtube.com/c/DawidDoesTechStuff/search?query=dell
Performance being throttled on a 65w 10th gen at stock by the poor included cooler.
Very poor customer service.
https://www.youtube.com/c/DawidDoesTechStuff/search?query=dell
Performance being throttled on a 65w 10th gen at stock by the poor included cooler.
Very poor customer service.
Associate
Wow, that's bad. Once upon a time I bought an Alienware, but it was before Dell bought them and it was pretty good.
Excellent *cracks knuckles*
I bought an Alienware Aurora computer back at the start of March but held off posting about how bad it was because I wasn't sure how hard you were allowed to roast competitors on the forums (to be clear I knew it was a glitter coated turd when I bought it, but I had so much discount it cost less than the parts in it, and it was in stock), but if it's open season on Dell then lets list the fail
Here's some positive points to make it not entirely negative:
I bought an Alienware Aurora computer back at the start of March but held off posting about how bad it was because I wasn't sure how hard you were allowed to roast competitors on the forums (to be clear I knew it was a glitter coated turd when I bought it, but I had so much discount it cost less than the parts in it, and it was in stock), but if it's open season on Dell then lets list the fail
- First of all it's a Ryzen 5900X model and has a Ryzen 5900 non-X CPU, this is because at the time I bought it shortages/gouging meant Dell couldn't use the 5900X and break even so they had to either raise the price or use the non-X, they chose the latter and cancelled orders for existing 5900X systems due to "technical difficulties". Then changed the CPU name in the fine print but kept calling the system the 5900X model to sucker people into reordering what they thought was the same system (at this point in time they didn't even offer the non-X as an option so nobody noticed when reordering).
- Secondly it comes with air cooling as standard but with the option to upgrade to the "liquid cooling package" for around 1.5X the cost of an AIO, so you would think you could save the money and buy your own AIO right? Wrong. The liquid cooling package also includes the proprietary VRM heatsinks (not needed on the air cooled model as the CPU will thermal throttle before reaching power levels that require VRM cooling).
- The RAM is Kingston HyperX Fury, more specifically a proprietary version of it made specifically for Dell by Kingston with XMP settings not replicated on any other module they sell (so if you want to upgrade you need to buy from Dell or swap out the stock RAM).
- As it's the Ryzen 5000 series model it comes with a 500 series chipset, the B550A, except it's not a 500 series chipset it's a B450 with PCI-E Gen4 enabled for the first 16x slot, that's what the A stipulates.
- Oh and that PCI-E Gen4 x16 slot, it's only wired for x8 so you're only going to be getting PCI-E Gen3 speeds anyway.
- The second PCI-E x16 slot (Gen3) is wired for x4.
- The two PCI-E x4 slots are both wired for x2.
- Oh and one of them is only Gen2, they figured as it's under the GPU and they only sell two slot GPUs nobody would ever try to use it anyway.
- On the plus side it does come with a Gen4 NVMe drive, by Samsung, their OEM version of the 980 PRO.
- But the M.2 slot is only Gen3, because of course it is.
- The 6800XT GPU has a light up RADEON logo, which cannot be software controlled, in a case with no window, just a grill through which lines of red illuminate your room at night (this GPU was made specifically for this system by an OEM).
- The case fans are good, but loud, the exhaust is a 38mm thick Delta 4000 RPM static pressure/airflow beast, which provides excellent cooling, however it sounds like a jet turbine even at idle. Essentially the only fans you can replace it with to lower the noise without compromising cooling are 3000 RPM EK Vardars or Noctua PPCs, slower fans won't really cut it on a hot day even at 100%.
- It only has a 2.5G NIC, not a problem for people who don't have 10G networking at home but still you'd expect better on a computer costing four figures.
- The AIO is essentially the same Asetek unit that Corsair sold as the H50, just with a slimmed down pump. Not a problem in itself but this is a 14 year old design, they could have used Asetek's equivalent of the H80, especially as they charge near H80 prices for the AIO.
- The "Alienware Gaming Mouse" they charge £12 for (and delay your shipment date if you remove) is the same sub £1 mouse they have been shipping with OptiPlex systems for the past decade >.>
Here's some positive points to make it not entirely negative:
- On the plus side the 6800XT made for Dell by either MSI or Sapphire (genuinely forgot which) is VERY well built, like it weighs as much as some cheaper brand 2.5 slot triple fan cards, this thing has amazing cooling for it's size.
- The PSU is actually really good, silent fan and 1000w of gold plus power, it even has an extra set of PCI-E cables, you know in case you wanted to go Xfire/SLI using that x4 wired x16 slot
- The Case only has room for two 2.5" drives plus either a single 3.5" or a third 2.5", but has four SATA ports, this means you have an extra you can use with one of those PCI-E cards with two M.2 slots which holds an x4 NVMe SSD connected through the bus plus a SATA SSD connected via a port/cable. Just in case you want four SATA SSDs and two NVMe drives in the system
Dell always seem behind the times when it comes to a lot of things, cooling being one. Afaik the alienware towers (the pyramid looking one at least) only support a 120mm rad which really is a massive oversight with how hot some cpu's run these days. Just baffles me how they managed to trot out a case with that kind of limited support when 240's and above were common at the time. And they even sell systems with that tower with threadripper cpus installed, the sound of the aio fans when that gets stressed must be deafening.
Caporegime
- Joined
- 18 Oct 2002
- Posts
- 30,846
Never bought a Dell or any other prebuilt thank Christ, unless you happen to include an Atari 520ST or Commodore 16 in that!!
Wasn't there a time Alienware was really good before Dell bought them?