Computer Flatpanels

[Diggles]

yep and when their cheap shit breaks and YOU have to deal with them as an individual, not a company, they suck shit.

They've got some pretty ass rated customer service.

[Slamz]

I have a 20" widescreen viewsonic LCD monitor. and a 40" widescreen viewsonic TV... They are something great.

Ah damn, you know, I didn't even think about a Viewsonic TV.


... although a quick spotcheck seems to indicate that Sumsung has better stats on their TVs.

The problem I have with my Samsung is it's actually TOO good. Somehow whenever I turn on Sci-Fi HD, shows like Stargate that I always thought looked good end up looking like Dr. Who -- I think it's something to do with the improved contrast and resolution that makes the studio lighting all look extraordinarily fake in a way I never noticed in SD or even in HD on my old rear projection TV.

[Snowreap]

Dell can be good or bad. UltraSharp monitors are good; I'd stay away from the other monitor lines. Dell hubs and switches are fine, but I have no faith at all in their printers.

as for desktop (non-portable) computers:

Dimension = bad.
Dimension XPS = marginal but overpriced
OptiPlex = good and overpriced.
Precision = good, but way overpriced and not well suited for gaming

the sweet spot is when you get a refurbished or previously ordered OptiPlex from Dell Outlet. the last six computers I've bought have all been from there (4 optiplex desktops and 2 latitude laptops).

as a general rule (of course there are exceptions) optiplex computers don't break (because they are not cheap shit). as a result, you don't have to deal with dell customer support.

-ken

[Thudz]

yep and when their cheap shit breaks and YOU have to deal with them as an individual, not a company, they suck shit.

They've got some pretty ass rated customer service.

Personally I've never used any companies customer service other than my cable company's. I expect all electronics to have a limited lifespan and I regularly replace systems every 2-3 years from the ground up. I've never had a system completely fail on me.

I have no doubt their customer service is crap, personally I think CS is over rated.

[Maren]

They don't make them like they used to.... I've used the same 20" Viewsonic flatpanel for the past 10 years and it still works great.

[Jodah]

My only issue with Dell is that they made me test shit when I had told them what was wrong with it and to send me the part. I suppose they have to cause they get a lot of retards thinking they know how to fix it so when they get the genuine one that DOES know wtf is wrong they have to be careful.

[Fretty]

My only issue with Dell is that they made me test shit when I had told them what was wrong with it and to send me the part. I suppose they have to cause they get a lot of retards thinking they know how to fix it so when they get the genuine one that DOES know wtf is wrong they have to be careful.

They also have a chart of questions and responses to go through before being allowed to send you a part. You know that recording that says "your call may be monitored...blah blah blah"? Well if they are caught not going through the "trained steps and proceedures" and then just give you a replacement part, which costs the company money, they will quickly be handed a pink slip. I usually just humor them and let them finish their "steps" before I tell them I know what I'm doing, makes my life easier.

The worst I found for this was Microsoft's Xbox CS line, no matter how much I said "I tried this and this and this and this" they would go, one at a time "did you try this?" (it was listed in the things I did) "ok, well did you try this?" (that was also listed) etc. *shrug*

[Jodah]

Yea, its annoying but I figured they had to. Didn't help that I could barely understand the guy but hey.

[Kakarat]

I think this is my monitor... or something close to it.

http://www.viewsonic.com/products/deskto...2035wm.htm

And this is the upgrade to my tv.

http://www.viewsonic.com/products/lcd-tvs/n4290p.htm

[1000xZero]

yep and when their cheap shit breaks and YOU have to deal with them as an individual, not a company, they suck shit.

They've got some pretty ass rated customer service.

No more or less than any other company that offers similar service.

Actually Dell is better than all the other companies in customer service. It is just that everyone has a Dell and not a Gateway, Lenovo, HP, Sony, or etc.

All those other companies are actually worse in customer service. You just don't know since most people have only dealt with Dell.

Have you ever dealt with Sony? OMG Infinitely worse the same with all the others including HP which I would rank as 2nd to Dell.

[Diggles]

yep and when their cheap shit breaks and YOU have to deal with them as an individual, not a company, they suck shit.

They've got some pretty ass rated customer service.

No more or less than any other company that offers similar service.

Actually Dell is better than all the other companies in customer service. It is just that everyone has a Dell and not a Gateway, Lenovo, HP, Sony, or etc.

All those other companies are actually worse in customer service. You just don't know since most people have only dealt with Dell.

Have you ever dealt with Sony? OMG Infinitely worse the same with all the others including HP which I would rank as 2nd to Dell.

I deal with HP at work and its decent.

I deal with HP and Dell as consultant for clients....Dell is 5 times worse than HP. Like mentioned above, even if you've told them EXACTLY what you've done, or that you're A+/Network+ certified, they make you do it again. Its gotten to the point that half the time I lie to them to save time.

I've boycotted Sony since mid 90's after 2 monitors died after 3 years each, among other shitty overpriced Sony gear. I also boycott SOE games too (PotBS doesnt count, its only distributed by them).

Samsung and Viewsonic put them all to shame. I dont think I've ever touched a Viewsonic monitor thats died (Working in a school district with 13k computers).

[1000xZero]

yep and when their cheap shit breaks and YOU have to deal with them as an individual, not a company, they suck shit.

They've got some pretty ass rated customer service.

No more or less than any other company that offers similar service.

Actually Dell is better than all the other companies in customer service. It is just that everyone has a Dell and not a Gateway, Lenovo, HP, Sony, or etc.

All those other companies are actually worse in customer service. You just don't know since most people have only dealt with Dell.

Have you ever dealt with Sony? OMG Infinitely worse the same with all the others including HP which I would rank as 2nd to Dell.

I deal with HP at work and its decent.

I deal with HP and Dell as consultant for clients....Dell is 5 times worse than HP. Like mentioned above, even if you've told them EXACTLY what you've done, or that you're A+/Network+ certified, they make you do it again. Its gotten to the point that half the time I lie to them to save time.

I've boycotted Sony since mid 90's after 2 monitors died after 3 years each, among other shitty overpriced Sony gear. I also boycott SOE games too (PotBS doesnt count, its only distributed by them).

Samsung and Viewsonic put them all to shame. I dont think I've ever touched a Viewsonic monitor thats died (Working in a school district with 13k computers).

That's because you are not Dell Warranty repair certified.

You call they send the part, you fix the iussue and send it back.

How do I know this? I managed this for my company and had ZERO issues WORLDWIDE!

[Diggles]

your assuming that I want to ever touch a dell machine....

[dilznic]

We switched from Dell desktops at work to Lenovo ones due to a policy shift at HQ. Dell customer support is SO much better than Lenovo it's not even funny. As far as build quality go, we were using Optiplex GX before, and Thinkcentre M37s now and they both have worked very well with limited problems. Lenovo support makes me want to strangle someone though.

[Diggles]

We switched from Dell desktops at work to Lenovo ones due to a policy shift at HQ. Dell customer support is SO much better than Lenovo it's not even funny. As far as build quality go, we were using Optiplex GX before, and Thinkcentre M37s now and they both have worked very well with limited problems. Lenovo support makes me want to strangle someone though.

You know that Lenovo is chinese, right?

[dilznic]

We switched from Dell desktops at work to Lenovo ones due to a policy shift at HQ. Dell customer support is SO much better than Lenovo it's not even funny. As far as build quality go, we were using Optiplex GX before, and Thinkcentre M37s now and they both have worked very well with limited problems. Lenovo support makes me want to strangle someone though.

You know that Lenovo is chinese, right?

Yes, thank god that they haven't made too many changes to the Thinkpad line of laptops since they bought the division from IBM. Also, Lenovo customer support is US-based which would be nice if they hired people that graduated high school. Their tech support uses the public web site to get all of their troubleshooting information, and is their only source for drivers. Oh, and the website goes down for days at a time without explanation or ETA of a fix. I </3 Lenovo.

[Diggles]

Dontcha like how the company didnt do any research, they just picked the cheapest. They didnt figure in cost of repair, downtime, etc.

[Slamz]

One of my Viewsonic monitors kicked the bucket. Power supply burned out. I could get it fixed but I decided it was time to try a widescreen LCD anyway. 20th century and all that. I went with this:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001AYC...ss_product
"Samsung Touch Of Color T260HD 25.5-Inch LCD HDTV Monitor"


I liked my Samsung TV so much (and it does look really good as a computer output) so I figured I'd try this "HDTV Monitor". It's fantastic. Honestly, 26" is a little excessive, but for $330? Why the hell not.

The only thing I don't like about it is the stand is more of a TV stand than a monitor stand and doesn't have the usual full range of swivel, tilt and height adjustment. I guess that's what I get for getting an oversized monitor.

1900x1200 resolution is native (a lot of HDTV monitors like this are 1900x1080, but I didn't really want to lose height resolution over what I was already used to with 1600x1200 in a regular 4:3 monitor). 5ms response time. Really blows away even my Viewsonics in image quality.


Hard to believe how LCDs have come so far in size and price over the last few years.

[Airyth]

The problem I have with my Samsung is it's actually TOO good. Somehow whenever I turn on Sci-Fi HD, shows like Stargate that I always thought looked good end up looking like Dr. Who -- I think it's something to do with the improved contrast and resolution that makes the studio lighting all look extraordinarily fake in a way I never noticed in SD or even in HD on my old rear projection TV.

I picked up a Samsung UN55B8500 55 inch Full HD 1080p 240Hz LED HDTV just before the superbowl. The picture is amazing but it really ruins non blu-ray movies. We watched our DVD version of Ghostbusters on it and the production looks so cheesy. It gives you that 3D sense and you can see the depth in the picture but it makes the special effects look so out of date. It made me feel like it had the production value of an episode of power rangers. For watching HD channels or blu-rays or playing console games its amazing. It's just almost hard to watch any older movies especially if they've got alot of special effects. We watched Dave on it the other day and for a movie like that it was fine but anything with special effects just dosn't seem to look right if you still own it on DVD format.

[Ulfen]

I picked up a Samsung UN55B8500 55 inch Full HD 1080p 240Hz LED HDTV just before the superbowl. The picture is amazing but it really ruins non blu-ray movies. We watched our DVD version of Ghostbusters on it and the production looks so cheesy. It gives you that 3D sense and you can see the depth in the picture but it makes the special effects look so out of date. It made me feel like it had the production value of an episode of power rangers. For watching HD channels or blu-rays or playing console games its amazing. It's just almost hard to watch any older movies especially if they've got alot of special effects. We watched Dave on it the other day and for a movie like that it was fine but anything with special effects just dosn't seem to look right if you still own it on DVD format.

Have you tried setting your tv to 60hz when watching dvds?

[Airyth]

No I hadn't thought to try that, I'll test that out next time I watch an older DVD to see if that helps.