Re: Anybody use Linux on Dells?

From: Chris Cole (ithinkiam_at_gmail.com)
Date: 10/15/04 

Date: Fri, 15 Oct 2004 11:31:21 +0100

On Thu, 14 Oct 2004 22:00:30 -0500, Supervisor wrote:

>> Another thing I just learned about Dell, from the O'Reilly PC Hardware
>> nutshell book, is that they make ATX machines but the pins in the power
>> connector are scrambled from what the ATX spec calls for, so if you put
>> a regular ATX power supply in a Dell machine, or want to use a Dell
>> motherboard in another case and power supply you will toast it.
>
> Yep, that is one of my main complaints. Just like IBM used to be, none
> of their parts are standard except for the harddrives. Even if the
> powersupply was wired standard, it wouldn't fit into the case properly.

Yeah it is a pain in the arse, but how often do you really want to change
the mobo/power supply on a machine in a work environment? After the three
years of support is over it's not cost effective anymore anyway. Just buy
a new machine.

> Blow a floppy? Can't use a normal 10 dollar one - you have to spend some
> ridiculous amount for a Dell form factor floppy. I barely caught my
> order clerk before she sent off an order for replacement Dell hard disks
> at $120 each - for 40gb drives!!!!!. Heck, I picked up a 7200 spin
> 250gb for that price recently.

The mark-up is normal in any industry. Car parts are exactly the same; buy
a wing mirror from VW and expect to pay more than your local parts dealer.
The companies just bet on a combination of laziness and perceived better
quality of their product. Those of us who know better save money by
getting the cheaper item. The only things you may need to change in a
machine are memory and HD; there's no problem in upgrading our Dells with
non-Dell parts in this respect.

> And what really ticks me is the fact that their CD drives do not have an
> activity led. Can't tell if it is reading or just off in never never
> land. Now how much did they save by deleting that? 12 cents?
>

My Precision 450 has one ;-)

Chris.

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