Dell Hell

I’ve been purchasing Dell Computers since before they were labeled “Dell” – they were PCs Unlimited, if I recall correctly.

I purchased a PC Unlimted 80286 (w/o math co-processor) with a then-girlfriend as our first computer around 1990(?).

It “just worked.” (Sound familiar?)

Since that time, I’ve personally purchased probably a dozen Dell-branded machines for personal use, and the same number for others for their personal/business use. And – with the occasional Gateway or Acer tossed in – have had Dell desktops at wherever I worked.

I’m a fan of the Dell desktops (for laptops, prefer ThinkPads or Macs).

That is, until recently.

Why?

Hard Drives.

Now, hard drive failure is a fact of life. That said, I’ve personally – on my home desktop units – have had only two disk failures over the dozen or so Dell desktops I’ve personally purchased – this goes back to the Pentium Pro model I purchased back in ~ 1998: More than a decade ago (hint: I recently put this machine offline not because of HD failure, but because the HD was too small [80G]). I’ve never personally had a HD failure on a work desktop.

Yet two of the three failures have been over the last three Dell’s purchased – going back only two years.

At work currently, the same has happened. New computers’ disks failing. (Not mine, but on others’ Dells.)

Why? Mainly because the quality of hard drives Dell is putting into computers is declining. At work, most (NEW!) desktops have 2.5″ heights (mobile device height) vs. 3.5″ heights. So there might be heat issues – in laptops, they account for heat in HDs; in desktops, not so much.

And the drives – even when full-height (3.5″) – are Seagates.

Seagate drives, even the low-end models – used to be good. Not so much now.

The “two drives in last thee computers” have been Seagate drives. I’ve put in WD Blue drives; no issues to date.

Doing the same at work.

Hey – I’m and my fellow workers are dorks. What happens when some poor schmuck buys a Dell with a crap HD, and – when that HD dies?

Yeah, he buys another Dell….