Buying a Dell Computer 1196

I have a Dell Inspiron 8200 notebook four years old, an XPS Gen3 two years old, and an XPS Gen4 one year old. All bought from the Business side of Dell, even though the XPS is a 'Home' machine. Only service call was a boot failure due to spyware. Hold time on that call was four minutes, problem solved within another ten minutes. Listening to some of the posts on this group leads me to echo others recommendation of buying from the Small Business Side. You wind up paying sales tax, but the phone support seems to be faster and more reliable. IF you don't have a 'small business' and the sales rep asks, just tell the rep that your business is named "John Doe Enterprises" -- subsbreastute your name for 'John Doe'.

I think (can't prove it) that any computer brought from a reputable dealer, even a local white box, can be put together with pretty much the same parts. So, it comes down to how much you want to spend, how knowledgeable you are about solving problems without tech support (knowledgeable=short warrantry, newbie=longer warrantry.... except for laptops and then get the longest warrantry you can afford), and how much you trust the company.

Do your research. Listen in to newsgroups-forums dealing with the major makers. Ask your friends!

Paul