From: "Mark" 

Yes, Dell has always had those multiple routes around the site and various
deals du jour. If the current deal wasn't to your personal preference, just
wait until "Tuesday at midnight" to see if next week's come-on
was better suited to your needs.

I don't really think there's anything to be said about one manufacturer
over another in general, but I've had no complaints about Dell. I bought my
son one many years ago when he was in grade school (which is still chugging
along), I bought my current one about 3 years ago, and my son just bought a
notebook from them a few weeks ago based on our past experience. 

But, yea, they used to do the "mail-the-rebate-check" thing
regularly, the most recent purchase didn't employ that tactic.



"Frank Haber"  wrote in message
news:45be7dd6$1{at}w3.nls.net...
> While bulk purchasers may get deals on these no-opsys "N" machine from
> their Dell rep, the user or small consultant often pays *more* for the
> privilege of no Windows.  There are never deals, rebates or coupons on the
> Ns.
>
> (Actually Dell is moving away from rebates, period. You still can get
> fifteen diferent pricings on one machine "build" by approaching from
> permutations of five different routes/entry-pages.  And if you're still
> not confused, there are always free monitors, RAM, CPU upgrades, etc. to
> make comparison even harder..)
>
> I theorize that Dell's cost/seat for Windows varies lots.  They used to
> get $70 for the upgrade to XP pro.  Then it went to $90.  Then they
> polluted that comparison by replacing all XP Homes with MC.  Some machines
> came with Media Center builds that were quite shameless - you had DVD
> drives, sometimes even DVD burners, and no operable DVD player.  Media
> center came up at 6x4x256, or bluescreened, and it was very difficult to
> get it out of the picture.  Pro forma and desultory, I'd call those
> efforts.
>
> (The more "consumer" oriented machines, with tuners, etc.,
worked better.
> It was the small biz machines with MC that really suffered.)

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