by Alan Fernald

Created on: January 20, 2008   Last Updated: December 18, 2008

The first time I worked on a Dell was one I would like to forget. It was one of their newly launched mini-tower desktop designs and I needed to upgrade its memory. My first impression was astonishment at how small the computer was. After opening the case, I started to wonder how hard this job was going to be. It didn't take long before I realized that the case was too small, my hands were too big, and I had to take out nearly every other component to get the memory upgrade installed.

That day led to usage of a large number of four-letter words expressing my feelings towards Dell and I swore that I would never again touch a Dell computer.

Then my home computer died and left me in a lurch. I was desperate. After making a few phone calls, the only affordable computer I could find was a Dell. As I am very much a computer addict, I drove to the store and picked up my new Dell computer, cursing myself the entire way as a fool.

When I got home, I opened up the box, and pulled out my new computer. I set it up, and wow, was I surprised! The setup went much easier then expected, and it was obvious that Dell had invested a great amount of time in doing what was necessary to make their computers not only powerful, but also extremely easy to get running. Then the dreaded moment came as I decided it was time to move the hard drive and memory from my old computer to the new computer.

I extracted the memory and the hard drive of my now dysfunctional computer, and popped open the case of my Dell. Even though this one had a full-sized case, I dreaded a repeat of the problems from my first experiences with a Dell. Fortunately, another surprise awaited me. Not only was there plenty of space inside the computer to easily access all the computer components, the internal design was now fully modular. This meant that if a component did happen to be in the way, I could remove just a single screw and remove the entire assembly. This made it much easier to access and replace any of the internal components of the computer. Within just a couple of minutes, I had the new hard drive installed and the memory upgraded, and I was back at work!

"Never again" I vowed. Never again shall I disparage Dell computers as they have indeed changed from being a mass provider of dime-store equipment to truly being a leader in providing quality machines for a fair price. Though my daughter eventually ran off with my Dell computer a couple of years ago (she needed it for school), and I replaced it with a home-built computer, I can now fully recommend any of my clients to purchase Dell computers for both their home and their business.

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