STONE or DELL Computers

[Nij.UK]

Im looking to buy in some new hardware, and i was just wondering peoples experiences with Stone computers and Dell computers!

 

I have been previously been buying Viglen machines and they have been very good, but they seem to be getting a lot pricey at the moment, so have been looking else where

 

any comments about the above suppliers

[GavRob]

Dell are very competivly priced but i think there component quallity has reduced in the last couple of years. so i would recomend adding getting the warrenty so as not to be caught out

 

As for Stone i have never used them for anything

[Chris]

used stone computers good quality better customer service than dell

[broc]

I don't think you can go far wrong with either DELL or Stone. Personally I prefer DELL equipment, however dealing with DELL can be a chore at times. Having said that, with a 3 year next working day warranty repair service on our PCs this means that when equipment does go down it gets fixed quickly and painlessly. The most tedious part is logging the fault and going through the problem determination script with DELL technical support, but at least it means that the engineer turns up with the right parts. Fortunately this doesn't happen too often.

[Vegas]

Used Stone for 3 years, I can count the problems on one hand, when they have gone wrong I call through to someone in this country give a serial number and they have someone out to you the following day.....what more do you want

[alan-d]

By the end of this FY we will have 90% Stone PCs.

 

We have found them to be pretty solid machines and the very few that did have a problem were fixed very quickly.

 

Having said that - they are not the cheapest around so if budget is a problem look at the NECs.

 

P4 Small Form Factor Black Flex ATX Computer System

System Quantity = 1

* 1 Intel P4 3.0GHz (630) 775pin CPU 2MB Cache

* 1 Intel D915GAGL 775-pin Motherboard with LAN, Audio, Graphics and SATA

* 1 Kingston 256MB 400MHz SDRAM DDR PC3200 Unbuffered Non-ECC DIMM CL3

* 1 Seagate Barracuda 80GB (SATA II) 7200RPM Hard Drive

* 1 Sony Black 52x32x52 CD Rewriter/16x DVD ROM Combo Drive- Nero Express & Showtime

* 1 Windows XP Home Edition Replicated COA

* 1 Stone Microsoft Black USB Comfort Keyboard

* 1 Stone Microsoft Black Optical Wheel Mouse USB/PS2

* 1 Ever Case Black OE1380B Small Form Factor Case

* 1 3 Year On Site Next Business Day

* 1 3.5" Black 1.44MB Floppy Disk Drive

* 1 Club 3D X300SE 128MB DVI TVO PCI-Express Graphics Card (HM and LP Adapter)

* 1 Power Cable

* 1 Stone Mouse Mat

* 1 WIN XP Home SP2 NTFS D915GAG with Recovery

Valid for a period of 30 days unless otherwise stated.

Net 410.00

Delivery 0.00

VAT 71.75

Total 481.75

 

This was the quote I got for our next batch from Stone.

[MkII]

256ram, XPHome, no monitor - sounds expensive

 

Dell P43.2, 512, XPPro, 40HD, 3yr OnsiteNBD, 17" TFT = £446

[E1uSiV3]

256ram, XPHome, no monitor - sounds expensive

 

Dell P43.2, 512, XPPro, 40HD, 3yr OnsiteNBD, 17" TFT = £446

 

Was that from the website or did you phone them, i find i get the best results when i call (up to 40% discount in the past)

[MkII]

phone - that wasn't thier bottom price either - went for HP/AMD in the end

[john]

I have had stone, and appart from the obsession with Intel motherboard which are IMHO nasty boards really and hold the PC back in performance, but the warranty support was excellent, one of the best I have had, much better than HP or Dell support. So the only reason I don't use them is they are a bit pricy and that they use Intel boards.

[ZeroHour]

Dell for price definetly, they are as cheap as you can get I have found.

The quality of our dells (300-400 over years) have been brilliant. I think one failed once and thats it. It was old and the kids loved to abuse it

You *can* have a battle with the sales team, just keep trying its worth it.

Not had to deal with there tech support as non failed that were in warrenty.

 

Just my $0.02 for now

[MkII]

One of the few good things about Intel boards - advance replacement.

[Dos_Box]

I don't like Stone because beige annoys me.

[Ric_]

@Dos_Box: Wondered how long it would be before you shared your love of Stone computers

[Dos_Box]

I tried to hold back...I did, honest.

[john]

I don't like Stone because beige annoys me.

The last stones I bought were silver and black actually

 

Silver and black annoys me too.

[Norphy]

We went right off Stone when they provided us with an AV install a few years back. First of all, one of the whiteboards died. They gave us the number for their distos and told us to sort it ourselves. Then the projectors they supplied started blowing their bulbs prematurely. One actually exploded inside the projector. Again, they gave us the runaround, gave us Infocus' number and told us to sort it.

 

Infocus eventually agreed to replace the projectors with the same model and gave us some replacement lamps. The replacements also blew their bulbs within 300 hours. We got back onto Stone and after several letters to the MD from our headmaster asking for the projectors to be replaced with another brand. After a LOT of pressure they offered a later model of the projector. We agreed on the condition that should they blow again, they replace them with another brand.

 

Well, guess what. After 300 hours both blew their bulbs. This time they blamed it on the school's power supply (handily ignoring the other 6 projectors installed in that block alone, none of which prematurely blew the bulb), saying we were overvolting them and refused to replace them. They offered to supply us with some power conditioners but refused to supply new lamps. We agreed to the power conditioners and installed them. Then low and behold they started blowing bulbs after 300 hours again. At that point we were completely fracked off and just went out and bought a pair of NEC projectors from Probrand. So far, they've done 450 hours and counting.

 

Stone have not seen a penny from us since this debacle. They have lost well over £40000 of business. Which is a shame because the PCs they supplied us were good and reliable and the support on them was good.

 

The moral of the story is, avoid Infocus like the plague and don't use Stone for your AV installs.

[GrumbleDook]

They do black as well you know ... in fact that is the only colour we buy from them since it hides the dirt better.

 

In my last place the Principal hated black ... thought it was too oppressive and dismal ... until he saw the price saving of buying black from Dell ... he then changed his mind.

 

Then he saw the saving we got a few months later with beige from Stone ... and when we bought them in black (since they had just started the black cases) he was a little peeved but we just wanted to keep a common theme around the school ;-)

 

Yep ... he didn't like me after that ... (and still doesn't)

[ZeroHour]

Just FYI but we just got a spam email (as in we did not sign up for this stuff) from stone. This normally would be bad enough for us not to talk to them (we will not buy from cold calls/spam ever) but it gets worse.

They included the email recipients from the list so if anyone wants a spam list, say thanks to stone computers for that one.

Good to know your details are safe

[sahmeepee]

They included the email recipients from the list so if anyone wants a spam list, say thanks to stone computers for that one.

Good to know your details are safe

 

That is one of my pet peeves. I take the time to send a guide to the BCC function of their email client. Hopefully some others do the same and the message sticks

[ZeroHour]

Its pretty disgraceful to give a list out like that. We have tons of peoples addresses now and we have NEVER bought anything from stone, nor have we had a quote.

Anyone want to see if they on it?

[W32Jbot]

I have 300 stone samsung laptops, they are pretty good actually with a great next day service and 3 years battery warranty yes THREE YEARS BATTERY WARRANTY!

 

We also had 17 desktop PC's from stone to kit out our music tech department but we had 3 DOA's out of the 17, and thought they were over priced too so we wont be buying stone desktops again.

 

Now we design our own boxes and have them built and shipped by compubits with a 3 year onsite warranty.

 

The difference is that stones PC's are built on a production line by production line operatives, compubits boxes are built by Techies in a workshop - hence less DOA's

[Jake]

I have a personal dislike of all things Dell....no real sane reason for it

[Disease]

I have a dislike for all Branded Desktops, component builds is where it's at and cheaper too.

[darkest_star]

We have bought Stone PC's for the last 3 years as with a limited budget we can't afford to buy branded pc's (they are a lot cheaper than Dell, website price is guide only).

 

they come in black

 

they were shipped to our spec as and when we needed them

 

Pre imaged

 

they have a 3yr NBD warranty

 

all Intel boards

 

We have had very few problems and as these workstations are in constant classroom abuse (sorry use) thats very good

 

perhaps Dell is a better build quality but at £50 to 75 per unit more we just cant justify it when buying 100+ units