Most Reliable Brands?

[H0R53]

IMHO, I think Dell is the best.

 

I've had all sorts of computers, but I've owned more Dell PCs than any other. All of the PCs that run my store are Dells or Dell-based (mobos, etc).

 

Dell may have nasty proprietary connectors, but their build quality is by far the best. I still have a D620 (2006), and I see many from the DXXX series come through my store weekly, running W7 or W10.

 

I've had computers made by Dell with popped capacitors still running the AIDA64 for 24H+ with no sweat.

 

Dell's Optiplex, Precision, Inspiron, Latitude, Vostro, etc. machines are so incredibly well made it's hard to rip on them for 'bad quality'. Most breakage is on the user's end, and has nothing to do with Dell's quality. I honestly think it comes down to exceptional quality control. Sturdy, solid and well constructed, Dell's laptops and desktops really last.

 

IMHO, HP is the worst. No computers I've owned or had the misfortune of having to repair come close to the frustration of HP. Flimsy, fragile, and poorly designed. I have so many gripes with HP machines people ask my "are you okay" when they bring in a broken HP DVx laptop...

 

What about you guys? What's been the most reliable brands you've used?

[Colin Donoghue]

Build your own computer

 

[Me1bourne]

Apple

[TetraSky]

Dell are/were(do they still pull that shit today?) the worst when it came to having to change faulty parts due to their proprietary connectors like you've already mentioned... And they don't exactly use high end parts for their power supplies, which is what often end up failing 90% of the time in every Dell I've seen go through the PC store I worked at, so you can't blame the users for that.

 

But really, every brand have issues. The only brand I haven't had issue with so far is Intel.

[MrJarhead]

i would never buy a prebuilt from anyone especially not dell or hp, theyre overpriced junk, and im pretty sure dell own alienware, junk junk and junk.

[BingoFishy]

My Acer laptop's doing great, I've had it for like 3 or 4 years at this point. My dad's Acer from like 15 years ago still works.

 

Just a personal anecdote, I've also heard a lot of bad things about acer.

[Guest]

You can do very well if you buy all your parts custom and build your own computer. 

 

You could go after certain parts that have better reliability in your custom build or are known to be more reliable. 

 

You can go after certain companies with better customer service here such as EVGA when custom building. If you can tailor the entire build around better customer service without ruining the build you can do well. 

 

People have differing opinions on the subject. It's your decision in the end. 

 

You are kind of stuck if you go with a company. 

[Spork829]

Well I've only ever bought two computers, one being my Asus prebuilt gaming desktop, which was so frustratingly bad that fixing it up to a usable state is what got me into computers in the first place. So, not a great experience there. Other than that I love my Toshiba Satellite Laptop that's served me well for over 5 years and I still use it. 

 

Otherwise, though, it's just better to built instead of buy most computers that aren't laptops.

[MrJarhead]

8 minutes ago, BingoFishy said:

My Acer laptop's doing great, I've had it for like 3 or 4 years at this point. My dad's Acer from like 15 years ago still works.

 

Just a personal anecdote, I've also heard a lot of bad things about acer.

i had an acer laptop, and what a piece of junk it really was, it had an amd a10 cpu, 8gb ram and a 500gb hdd, it was so god damn slow.

 

it was that bad it couldnt even run csgo at the very lowest res and settings at 30fps...

 

and this was in 2015.

[DexterSmythe]

I don't know about all Dells, but my XPS 15 always runs like a champ.

[H0R53]

3 minutes ago, BingoFishy said:

My Acer laptop's doing great, I've had it for like 3 or 4 years at this point. My dad's Acer from like 15 years ago still works.

 

Just a personal anecdote, I've also heard a lot of bad things about acer.

Acer uses extremely cheap chips from mostly unknown companies.

 

6 minutes ago, e23 said:

You can do very well if you buy all your parts custom and build your own computer. 

 

You could go after certain parts that have better reliability in your custom build or are known to be more reliable. 

 

You can go after certain companies with better customer service here such as EVGA when custom building. If you can tailor the entire build around better customer service without ruining the build you can do well. 

 

People have differing opinions on the subject. It's your decision in the end. 

 

You are kind of stuck if you go with a company. 

Some companies choose Dell because they sell Optiplex and Precision and other models of business-grade PCs with great 24/7 support and technician availability. I choose Dell because I have never had a problem with them.

 

6 minutes ago, Spork829 said:

Well I've only ever bought two computers, one being my Asus prebuilt gaming desktop, which was so frustratingly bad that fixing it up to a usable state is what got me into computers in the first place. So, not a great experience there. Other than that I love my Toshiba Satellite Laptop that's served me well for over 5 years and I still use it. 

 

Otherwise, though, it's just better to built instead of buy most computers that aren't laptops.

I forgot about Toshiba. Their stuff is one tier lower on my 'companies I trust' list than Dell, which is on top, with HP and Asus on the bottom, Acer in the middle.

 

2 minutes ago, CapedCrusader21 said:

I don't know about all Dells, but my XPS 15 always runs like a champ.

The XPS machines are great, I'm glad you enjoy yours.

 

7 minutes ago, Colin Donoghue said:

Build your own computer

 

I do, but for my business I use Dell. My PoS (Point of Sales) machine is made by Dell.

 

7 minutes ago, TetraSky said:

Dell are/were(do they still pull that shit today?) the worst when it came to having to change faulty parts due to their proprietary connectors like you've already mentioned... And they don't exactly use high end parts for their power supplies, which is what often end up failing 90% of the time in every Dell I've seen go through the PC store I worked at, so you can't blame the users for that.

Now it's mostly just front panel and fan headers on Optiplex and Precision business PCs for rich companies. Ages ago they'd use proprietary heatsink mounts. Most consumer grade PCs made by Dell use standard PWM, 9-pin front panel, etc. They use HIPRO power supplies, which are the most rugged and reliable PSUs I've ever used. My 10 year old Dell precision PSU is still pulling 80% efficiency.

 

8 minutes ago, MrJarhead said:

i would never buy a prebuilt from anyone especially not dell or hp, theyre overpriced junk, and im pretty sure dell own alienware, junk junk and junk.

Alienware is garbage. I agree.

HP is The. Worst.

 

 

Any opinions on IBM and Lenovo? I know the old P4 ThinkCentres and ThinkPads were extremely popular.

[MrJarhead]

1 minute ago, H0R53 said:

Acer uses extremely cheap chips from mostly unknown companies.

 

Some companies choose Dell because they sell Optiplex and Precision and other models of business-grade PCs with great 24/7 support and technician availability. I choose Dell because I have never had a problem with them.

 

I forgot about Toshiba. Their stuff is one tier lower on my 'companies I trust' list than Dell, which is on top, with HP and Asus on the bottom, Acer in the middle.

 

The XPS machines are great, I'm glad you enjoy yours.

 

I do, but for my business I use Dell. My PoS (Point of Sales) machine is made by Dell.

 

Now it's mostly just front panel and fan headers on Optiplex and Precision business PCs for rich companies. Ages ago they'd use proprietary heatsink mounts. Most consumer grade PCs made by Dell use standard PWM, 9-pin front panel, etc. They use HIPRO power supplies, which are the most rugged and reliable PSUs I've ever used. My 10 year old Dell precision PSU is still pulling 80% efficiency.

 

Alienware is garbage. I agree.

HP is The. Worst.

 

 

Any opinions on IBM and Lenovo? I know the old P4 ThinkCentres and ThinkPads were extremely popular.

i think acer are the worst.

[BingoFishy]

11 minutes ago, MrJarhead said:

i had an acer laptop, and what a piece of junk it really was, it had an amd a10 cpu, 8gb ram and a 500gb hdd, it was so god damn slow.

 

it was that bad it couldnt even run csgo at the very lowest res and settings at 30fps...

 

and this was in 2015.

Mine has a Haswell U series i5. It's not the greatest from a pure performance standpoint, but it's still snappy and I can play light games like Portal 2 or whatever without issue. Awesome screen/speakers, pretty good keyboard for a laptop. Great build quality too. Battery is still decent (4-5 hrs).

 

As I've said - this is a personal anecdote. Not all of their products are the same, and neither are all of the experiences with them.

[H0R53]

4 minutes ago, MrJarhead said:

i think acer are the worst.

It depends on what you get. With Acer generally you get what you pay for. $150 Chromebook? Shit hardware. $600 SMB laptop? Less shitty hardware.

[ProjectBox153]

I agree with you OP. Dell is the best. I have 10 of their systems (if I'm counting right. I may have one more) and none of them ever had reliability issues, etc. 

[Leadneck]

What I will say about Dell is this.

 

Whenever I am working on a Dell machine, I am always very pleased with the case and hardware design and layout. They are a pleasure to work with, having very logical and easy to access placement for most of the components. I'm looking at a Dell Precision T7600 right now that I have had to modify recently and it went very smoothly!

 

They also have a very convenient prompt to select the boot device, giving you plenty of time to find the key and letting you know when it has been recognized!

 

However, the pleasure stops there. Trying to deal with firmware and drivers is a yuuuge hassle. Compatibility with the new modifications that I just put in is a total nightmare. The same goes doubly-so for my rack-mounted servers.

 

Why are they such a nice experience to modify and fix yourself, and then such a clusterfuck to get any of those easy modifications to work?!

 

But, once I do get them functional they chug along happily for eternity it seems like!

[PSUGuru]

I am not saying HP is super reliable, but my HP Pavilion has been kicking strong for 5 years with zero hiccups.

[yathis]

HP is good, old AMD ddr2 Pavilion is gone now tho, went with a newer HP with i5 much better, day & night better.

Buy used if you can.

[H0R53]

7 hours ago, yathis said:

HP is good, old AMD ddr2 Pavilion is gone now tho, went with a newer HP with i5 much better, day & night better.

Buy used if you can.

There's one of those in my shop right now that has a blank screen on boot and I'm trying to figure out the problem without buying a new motherboard.

It's trash.

8 hours ago, Leadneck said:

Trying to deal with firmware and drivers is a yuuuge hassle.

The thing with Dell is they try to make most machines with hardware that Windows will recognize out of the box. My Precision, my Latitude, and even my Optiplex all had hardware that were immediately recognized by Windows. Even the Precision's SAS5 controller (which is another great thing about Dell...no Intel RST!) was recognised.

 

Dell also has a few proprietary utilities like their SAS and RAID controller setups. Fantastic software, and infinitely better than Intel's solutions.

8 hours ago, Leadneck said:

Why are they such a nice experience to modify and fix yourself, and then such a clusterfuck to get any of those easy modifications to work?!

 

But, once I do get them functional they chug along happily for eternity it seems like!

Incompatible mods, I guess?

 

I hacked my Inspiron 545 to run a Xeon, that lasted for way longer than it was supposed to, considering the G33M06's poor power delivery chips.