Packard Bell
Strangely enough, I did some Googling and found that
Packard Bell is still around, except for one tiny little detail: they no longer cater to the US market. I do know that Packard Bell became a part of NEC sometime in the mid-90's, which I thought was funny because neither company was really known for a stellar home computer. A few years afterward I no longer saw new Packard Bell computers around; sometime around 1999-00 or so. NEC is still around and doing quite well (all of the new ceiling-mounted projectors the school has are NEC, and are doing quite well), but they're no longer in the home computer market either. I'm willing to bet that producing commercial equipment exclusively is what seems to be improving their reputation.
I found this
mildly amusing article where Packard Bell tops the list for "10 worst PCs of all time." From the problems our "Legend 101" experienced, I'd have to agree with them there. No doubt ours had some used parts in it as well. I can still hear the robotic female voice to this day, after it started up..."Welcome to Packard Bell Navigator."
Back to the Dells. Wanting to try something other than a store brand, we bought a Dimension 2400 in the summer of '04 as part of one of their little package deals...I think ours was the $499 one they had at the time. 17" LCD monitor, 2.4 GHz, 512 MB RAM, XP Home, 80 GB (I believe; could be less) hard drive, two CD drives (one CD-ROM, the other being a CD-RW) but no floppy drive which would prove annoying for me later on. The standard trackerball mouse started becoming erratic a year afterward, so it was replaced with an optical, and then last year the LCD display would only "blink"...it would not stay on and had to be replaced (with an LG widescreen). The machine itself was OK, but suffered from the usual "slowness" trouble. I don't remember the specifics, but earlier this year it suffered its first major failure, a bad power supply. It was repaired, and seems to be working fine now...I figure if we can get at least 2-3 more years out of it that would be great, but honestly, considering the amount of trouble we've already experienced, that seems like more of a longshot than anything.
As for myself, I was going to stick with a Dell (familiarity more than anything...), but NOT a residential machine. During the summer I was taking some dual-credit courses up at the local junior college, and they were using commercial-grade small-form-factor Dells which I was impressed with. So last September, I searched eBay for a few weeks to get an idea of the price and decided to buy one there. Buying a computer off eBay isn't as bad as it sounds, however, you definitely have to look for the right one. Furtive advertising tactics and poor feedback are a big no-no, obviously. After I found what I was looking for from a reputable seller (who dealt strictly with new computers; was in the 'business'), I ended up purchasing a brand-new Optiplex GX520 for less than retail. 3.4 GHz Pentium 4 hyper-threaded processor, 40 gig hard drive (this was a mistake...way too small for video!), 1 gig RAM as well as floppy and DVD-ROM drives, all in a small-form-factor case. It was equipped with an optical mouse and the "slim" keyboard (which I quite like), and I provided an LG 17" LCD and an external LG Lightscribe DVD+RW combination drive. In addition to that, I now have a Sony speaker system and HP multifunction with the built-in card reader.
Other than a few teething troubles I had during setup (registry conflicts with the drivers for either the external DVD drive or the LCD), it hasn't had any problems, and is on (for the most part) 24/7. I do agree with Larry though on Dell cases not allowing enough airflow, as this one does tend to overheat. Sometimes after it's been sitting for a while, I'll hear one of the fans come on and rev up to moderate speed, and receive an "Insufficient System Resources" message when I try to run something. After I power off and restart, the problem disappears. Also, even though it handles Premiere Elements fine, when I'm compiling the project into the final WMV, you should hear it laboring then...those fans run full blast!
I'm hoping this one will last me through college, at the very least. Sure, there's no room for expansion in an SFF machine, however, that was partly my intention. The next computer I own (besides the obligatory Panasonic Toughbook of course) will be built myself using only high-quality components and peripherals...
Austin
