boxx machine v's dell machine

[t3dm]

Hi All,

we are just about to add onther workstation to our expanding collection!

we are 100% boxx at the moment, but after recent problems with our machines, I was looking at giving Dell 690 a try on a similar spec machine.

inital costs on same processors, ram and graphics cards in a 1000 pound saving for the dell.. is it worth going down the dell route?

Dont have the time or patience to build a custom system. I know the boxx may well have better motherboard etc but wondering if the cost/performance trade off is worth it.

g.

[re:FORM]

If dell offers you next business day on site warranty, I'd go for dell. The warranty I have for my laptop has been a life saver.

[EricKlein]

Funny, we've had nothing but Dells here, and I've been looking at Boxx...the grass is always greener...

a couple of things I've noticed about 690's:

-they take an eternity to shut down.
-We run xp64 with Nvidia QFX 4500's, and some, but not all the machines we've gotten like to BSOD from time to time with a driver error, and no new or old driver helps the situation...
-We've supposedly got 'gold' service or whatever, but it still takes at least a couple of days to get a hardware issue fixed.

What problems have you had with Boxx?

Eric.

[Da_elf]

my boxx has never crashed or given an error in the last 3 or 4 years ive owned it

[t3dm]

the newest machines we have are dual quad core xeons, 2,33's and they are okay... but the earlier machines had stability problems, but that's not neccessarily a problem with boxx..

it just that we can save around £1000 quid by going to dell, which is alot of cash for like for like machines..

[Neilg]

Oddly enough, we went with boxx over dell because they worked out cheaper for us.

A grand is a lot for each pc, so you mayaswell go for it. So long as they offer a similar support system anyway - next day/replacements/etc.

[t3dm]

hmm, thats interesting that boxx worked out cheaper than dell! we are getting very little off boxx machines.. that much have a fair bit of margin compared to dell.

current thinking is to go with a boxx dual quad core 2.66 machine with 8 gig ram, and nivida fx3500 for around 3700 ex vat, to keep us all boxx.

[Sawyer]

In the past I have speced machines at both dell and boxx and if you tried to match the the exact components it seemed that they were pretty close. BUT... Dell has good sales and if you can build a much cheaper dell than you could build a boxx. But now when I look it seems that I have found dell to be a lot cheaper. Well again at times.

Now the last machine I bought was a boxx and I have been so happy with it. Support has been great. By far the most stable system I have owned.

[dbuchhofer]

I've been back and forth myself.. being part of a large arch firmy we have a decent deal with dell in general, but the fact that i can ask for specific (read: non quadro) spec parts when i'm quoting up a boxx, and have a long enough relationship with them as to get a fair volume discount.. they work out to be pretty similar.

its really just you need to check both when you price up, it seems to go back and forth

the one thing thats a given though, is if you're heavy into fast support, boxx is a winner.. if you're going for huge volumes, dell is ;P

[GALACTUS]

We go Dell all the time, and I can’t see anybody beating them on price as they are really aggressive. I even had other vendors complain about how ruthless Dell can be in order to win business and I likes it.

At the end of the day you want to save money, so play them off against each other. So long as you are buying in volume they will want to beat any other quote you have received, in fact all resellers do.

Speak to your account manager if you have one, and make them earn their salary.