| DELL DATA DUMP Everything I've Learned about the "New IBM" of the Corporate I.T. World |
| The PC's role in business started in the 1980's, and has continued through today, that's over 40 years. And of course, in that time, the players in the industry would change drastically. In the 1980's, IBM was the ubiqutous PC Manufacturer, with their IBM PC, PC XT, PC AT, and later PS/2 line of desktop computers, and then the ThinkPad line of laptops proceeding that. Along side them was Houston based Compaq, whose Deskpro and Portable lines were the HP to IBM's Dell. Today - Dell and HP Dominate those same marketplace lines, with Dell having the same position as IBM.
So what is my qualifications? Well, I have been Deploying Dell Equipment professionally since 2003. I have been a Dell CSR Technician during a good chunk of 2005 through Qualxserv. Boeing was a Dell shop, and I got a little more privledge to fix Dell things on a deeper level because of said experience. When I worked at Microsoft, Dell was one of the various OEMs used and TechLink/HSTs would service a LOT of Dell Equipment. Currently I work in a Dell shop as well working on pretty much their entire product line ranging from the lowest i5 OptiPlex Desktop, to broadening my horizons with PowerEdge server work. Heck, I'll probably be typing parts of this page on a well used E7240 or XPS 9550 frankenstein, and grabbing resources off my PowerEdge T610. Dell is very much like IBM was in the 80's in regards to stranglehold on the industry. So this is sort of my data dump with information on various Dell Enterprise/Higher-end Models that I've worked on, their common issues, common fixes, and even some cross-referencing in the repair of a Dell with a shortage of parts, or even Frankensteining your own Dell Models out of multiple models built on a specific platform.Dell Product Organization: What is make for what market and what purpose... Dell, like any other company, has multiple tiers of product. Consumer - The consumer lines include the entry-level Inspiron Laptops and Dimension Desktops, the higher end "Psudeo-Corporate" Vostro line meant for small business or work-related "BYOD" (Bring your own device), the top-of-the-line workstations of the XPS line that are sort of the Lexus version of the Dell Precision/OptiPlex/Latitude/Inspiron/Dimension line, mxing bits of all with the latest features. At the top of the COnsumer line, is the Alienware PCs which are aimed at high performance gaming, sort of like Dell's "Carol Shelby" or "Racing Division" of sorts. They're like a flashy XPS with more of a focus on performance than new features. Business - The Business/Enterprise lines for users are the Latitude, OptiPlex, and Precision desktops and laptops. Latitude share some parts with Inspiron, OptiPlex shares some parts with Dimension, and Precision shares parts with the XPS series. Difference is, these are designed with more of a focus on durability, stability, dependability, and interchangeable parts so an I.T. Department doesn't need a friggin warehouse of RAM, SSDs, HDDs, Screens, and other crap to keep their fleet of workstations going. I consider these second only to Lenovo, which in some cases, Dell surpasses Lenovo, and sometimes vice versa, but more on that later. Servers - These are out of scope but I figured I'd mention them in case you ever heard the name "PowerEdge" uttered. Dell's servers are the PowerEdge line, these are the big, rack-mounted, sometimes tower-based PC's that live in that magical closet at your workplace that sounds and looks like the engine room of the Starship Enterprise when you walk inside. If you want to read more on thesee - see my "Server" section which is a ltieral "work in progress" section. Dell Design Trends going back Dell 2021-present - It seems Dell is returning to Silver for some of it's more recent products, particularly the Dell 5000 series Latitudes, but are keeping the same organization and layout with thier Desktop systems. Precision is now getting "compact" systems, such as the 3260 Compact which is a i7 powerhouse about the size of a larger Mac Mini. Seems Corporate I.T. these days tends to prefer the Micro sized workstations the most as they basically reduce Dell 2015-2021 - Black, Black, Black, Black, and the curves are combing back. This era starts with the E7x50 Latitudes, and ends with the post-E-series 7x00 series all looking a lot like Lenovo/IBM ThinkPads with their rubberized coating (We shall see how Dell's version of that holds up in 30 years). The Micro desktops started to take over popularity during this time. During this era, Dell 2007-2015 Dell 2001-2007 Dell Beforehand - |
