Does Dell make its own motherboards?

daytripper wrote:
On Tue, 04 Jan 2005 02:05:17 GMT, Rob Stow wrote:


Robert Hancock wrote:

Lem wrote:


Do all Dell PCs (for the UK market) come with Dell's own motherboards?

I am thinking of getting a Dell but I don't want to find that it uses
a Dell proprietary motherboard that may have little technical data
available.

ISTR hearing that Dell used a non-standad wiring on the 20 or 24 pin
mobo power connector. And I imagine there may be several other Dell
quirks.


They don't make their own boards, but they do have boards made for them
(usually by Intel)

Intel hasn't made a motherboard for about 6 years now !


Really? So these two dual-Prestonia/Lindenhurst server boards that we got from
Intel (one is a "Roadrunner" and the other is a "Coyote") don't actually
exist? Wow - that's a scary reality! ;-)

You weren't paying attention. I didn't say Intel
wasn't selling motherboards - I said they weren't
/making/ them.



There was a big hubbub in the IT/tech news about it at
the time - how could everyone have forgotten already ?


Possibly because it wasn't true?

/daytripper

"Venom" wrote in message
...
Anybody that buys a brand name computer is an idiot.

Let's see, now. I've built about 20 PCs in my time. Yet, recently, I have
chosen to buy in some Dell PCs for the office. One reason might be that I
am, as you say, an idiot. The other reason might be that the Dells do the
job I need for the office, and they cost 20% less to buy in ready-built than
the price at which I can buy the parts.

Your generalisation is a bit idiotic.

Tx2 wrote:
In article ,
, a.k.a GB says...

"Venom" wrote in message
...
Anybody that buys a brand name computer is an idiot.

Let's see, now. I've built about 20 PCs in my time. Yet, recently, I
have chosen to buy in some Dell PCs for the office. One reason might
be that I am, as you say, an idiot. The other reason might be that
the Dells do the job I need for the office, and they cost 20% less
to buy in ready-built than the price at which I can buy the parts.


20% for not being able to support them *properly* when the machine
goes down is worth it is it?

"But I have 3 year on-site warranty" you say

Good luck then.

Personally, i'd spend the extra 20% (which is how much on a home brew
machine, £100?) and be able to replace stock parts.

Buying Dell is false economy, IMO

Remember you need to factor in the time taken to spec, order, build, test,
run-in the system, install the operating system etc. etc. your £100 has just
jumped to £500 at least (remember to also factor in the additional accounts
required to source parts from more than one supplier).


Keep well,

Will
--
Will Reeve

On Tue, 04 Jan 2005 04:22:22 GMT, Rob Stow wrote:

daytripper wrote:
On Tue, 04 Jan 2005 02:05:17 GMT, Rob Stow wrote:

Intel hasn't made a motherboard for about 6 years now !


Really? So these two dual-Prestonia/Lindenhurst server boards that we got from
Intel (one is a "Roadrunner" and the other is a "Coyote") don't actually
exist? Wow - that's a scary reality! ;-)

You weren't paying attention. I didn't say Intel
wasn't selling motherboards - I said they weren't
/making/ them.

Define "make". Do you mean simply that Intel doesn't have any board shops of
their own and thus contracts out fab and assembly?

If that's it, I must have missed what significance was being attached...

/daytripper

you are an idiot.
say you've got an enterprise company. you supply them with a large
quantity of desktop pcs you've built yourself. these may end up at
various sites, being used at weekends and holidays. you're going to
support them all, are you? on site response with a guaranteed SLA?
you can guarantee exactly the same configuration will be available for
a minimum of say, 3 years, so that their IT guys can standardise a
build image for them, are you?
i build all my own systems and a lot for other people, but for
corporate use you want something with a low Total Cost of Ownership,
not just cheap.

ric

daytripper wrote:
On Tue, 04 Jan 2005 04:22:22 GMT, Rob Stow wrote:


daytripper wrote:

On Tue, 04 Jan 2005 02:05:17 GMT, Rob Stow wrote:

Intel hasn't made a motherboard for about 6 years now !


Really? So these two dual-Prestonia/Lindenhurst server boards that we got from
Intel (one is a "Roadrunner" and the other is a "Coyote") don't actually
exist? Wow - that's a scary reality! ;-)

You weren't paying attention. I didn't say Intel
wasn't selling motherboards - I said they weren't
/making/ them.


Define "make". Do you mean simply that Intel doesn't have any board shops of
their own and thus contracts out fab and assembly?

That is what I meant.

However, I should have qualified it a bit.
Intel no longer makes boards for x86 but I
have no idea if they make any for Itanic.

If that's it, I must have missed what significance was being attached...


The significance goes back to someone else's statement
that Intel makes motherboards for Dell. Intel contracts
out - just like Dell.

As a matter of fact, the reasons Intel cited for getting
out of the x86 motherboard market were low profit margins
combined with their failure to land any of the big OEMs as
a customer.

"Tx2" wrote in message
t...
In article , ,
a.k.a GB says...

"Venom" wrote in message
...
Anybody that buys a brand name computer is an idiot.

Let's see, now. I've built about 20 PCs in my time. Yet, recently, I have
chosen to buy in some Dell PCs for the office. One reason might be that I
am, as you say, an idiot. The other reason might be that the Dells do the
job I need for the office, and they cost 20% less to buy in ready-built
than
the price at which I can buy the parts.


20% for not being able to support them *properly* when the machine goes
down is worth it is it?

Maybe not. We'll see. My experience is that PCs don't break very often.
Actually, I'll rephrase that. The PCs at the office never break. The PCs at
home (which the kids use) seem to break rather a lot.

When there is a problem, it tends to be one of the moving bits such as the
hard disks, which are completely standard on these Dell machines.

In fact, these were very cheap system boxes - under 200 Pounds including
VAT. The component cost would be about 250 Pounds. However, there's also my
time to build up and test the systems if I bought the bits - worth say
another 50 Pounds per computer.


"But I have 3 year on-site warranty" you say

For what Dell charge? You must be joking! :-)

What I do have is several systems that are the same. There's one system box
that is only occasionally used and could be cannibalised for parts if
necessary.

"Lem" wrote in message ...
On 04 Jan 2005, Tx2 wrote:


ISTR that reliability too is better than average

Than average what?


Dell's reliability is often said to better than the average. See:

17th Annual Reader Satisfaction Survey
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,1623585,00.asp
click on links like 'Survey Results'

....."often said to better than the average" - cute phrase, ...says - not a
lot.

From the article:

"As you peruse the results, you'll see that no company is beyond reproach.
Each is guilty of selling machines that need repair and providing poor
technical support at times. The leading vendors-Apple in the desktop and
notebook categories, Dell in desktops and servers, and IBM in notebooks-are
those that keep criticism to a minimum."

......"keep criticism to a minimum" - how does that tranlate into MTBF?

also:

"Unfortunately, phone support is also among the most expensive support
methods. In order to cut costs, many vendors have moved call centers
overseas. Big vendors Dell, HP, Gateway, and Toshiba all use at least some
foreign call centers, and many readers complain of difficulty communicating
with technicians."

I especially liked:

"Unlike many of its competitors, IBM refuses to use overseas technicians,
and its tech-support scores are impressive. Readers give IBM a 7.0 overall
score for desktop tech support and a 7.6 for notebooks. They rate IBM
support techs' ability to comprehend user problems and to speak in a clear,
understandable manner at least a point higher than they do Dell, HP, Sony,
and Toshiba techs."

..... does that translate into "no one ever got fired for buying an IBM"
)))))))))

Pete


Out of interest - how much does Dell charge for a fifteen quid (thirty buck)
PSU?

DaveW wrote:
Dell uses PROPRIETARY motherboards. They are NOT standard.


The Dell I worked on yesterday (~1yr old) had a standard mATX
motherboard, with 2 unusual features:
1, the CPU cooler consisted of a green plastic duct over the metalwork
led to a 120 mm fan on the rear, nice and quiet.
2, No AGP socket - the solder pads are there on the board, but no
socket. This one had onboard graphics. If you wanted to upgrade to
decent graphics you'd have to use a PCI card.
As far as I can see, they now use standard ATX power supplies (they
didn't used to).

On Tue, 4 Jan 2005 17:03:14 -0000, Tx2
wrote:

snip

Sourcing and installing still apply with the Dell (let alone how long
you take checking and double checking the specs before you hit "BUY")

Of course, you haven't factored in the time you'd spend on the phone to
Dell trying to convince them an engineer is needed when it goes wrong,
with them arguing the toss, etc etc etc.

Of course it depends too on the service level you have purchased and
the system. i.e. I would tend to go for Dell and the like for servers
where you can just phone up and say "I want an engineer over here in 4
hrs", swap the unit out if necessary and install a system backup
rather than spending a day with the server down.

For a small business where the IT person is the secretary who knows
how to swap tapes over and thats about it, this sort of service level
is a reasonable compromise over having a company on retainer for call
out support.

As you say though getting an engineer out can sometimes be
problematic. I've been finding their call center problematic at times.
--
Gamma gamma gamma chameleon
You come and glow, you come and glow.
Kick out the cats before you reply