I think they should teach computer building in middle school... it's something everyone should know.

Now if they would just ditch proprietary operating systems...

I'll believe it when I see it. Best case scenario: we'll still be stuck with 2-3 options for each piece of hardware. Dell should use their purchasing power to give us a dozen different options for each part we want. If iBuySH!T/CyberpowerPC can do this, then so can Dell.

@ Kobe - they do teach it in high school

@Kobe_No_Means_No: Any interested kid doesn't need schooling for that, the "how to's" are everywhere on the interwebs!

I used to build all of my PC's for this fact alone, parts. But, now that companies are putting retail parts(sli mobos, etc) and not some factory OEM crap its going to be a tough choice when it comes to the build vs. buy argument.

@bobdobbs: STFU!!!!

@Assimilate:

are you for real?

hey sean you got the hammer all warmed up?

@bobdobbs:
Ubuntu is a fine OS if i ever seen one

@nutbastard: Agreed; I wasn't talking linux. ;)

@nutbastard: I was just joking. Don't take it seriously.

@Assimilate: Putting the Ass in Assimilate.

@bobdobbs: What ever you say.

Now Children...

I'm just glad that gone are the days of buying a H.P, or compaq, or packard bell before that.. and it being an obsolete piece of rat droppings before you can even get it out of the box. Finding whatever you want for pretty cheap on newegg is the icing on the cake. Remember when going from 4mb of ram to 8mb was hot squat?? Remember when "gigabyte" almost sounded obscene? Remember when upgrading your operating system required about 42 floppy discs?

This post should have ended:

Flame On!

Hope my parents get some money back for their email machine.

@Kobe_No_Means_No: Yeah but like 5% of people would use it. Sadly, most people are afraid to open a pc and have no idea whats going on in there. At my school we actually do have a computers section in our I.T. class, but the most complicated it got was installing RAM. (I still had to explain to few people why SRAM wont fit in a DDR2 slot.)

Build PCs? Seems wasteful to me to teach skills that are only useful in a 5 year timespan. At least go for woodwork/metalwork which are more universal. That way we can build infrastructure for our future robot masters...

damn, that's gonna be useful.

now all we need is for apple to go standard ATX....i've been dying to shove AMD parts into a mac pro-esque case.

I applaud Dell. I may even consider their new budget gaming rig. Haven't considered Dell in years!

Now if they could just ditch the horrid tech support outsourcing. Dell makes a pretty good pc.

Holy F&*king crap! That was always my whole problem with buying anything from a major manufacturer! I came into possession of a Dell a while back, and I had to cut up the case to get a better power supply to fit. I went through Hell to change the CPU cooler because the damned montherboard had a proprietary clip for the f&$king heat sink. Dell sucked! But if this is really true, I might not be as adverse to modding the hell out of a pre-configured system of theirs in the future.

yea likewise but this setup sounds cool, and go figure i'm in the market for a new PC the last one i bought for around $1,200 about 4-5 years ago so this is perfect for me. i just need to find out the exact specs of the $1299 setup. hopefully it ships quickly, i wonder if that includes a monitor. I already have 2! but the one is getting old fast and starting to Humm. plus as long as dell isn't going to be so locked down with proprietary parts i'll put my 320GB hard drive in one of those bays!!! SO EXCITED! thanks GIZ i would've never found this on my own.

@bobdobbs: Like OS X? XD

I got my current computer from Dell, knowing that I was gonna add a few things here and there and it worked out fine. Came with the 22' widescreen monitor with DVI. The only thing is that you might have to take a bunch of stuff apart to make things fit. I added 2 stix o RAM and had to move the freakin video card because they left the locking arm on the last RAM slot UNDER the video card, making it impossible to latch. You really have to measure space in there and make sure you are going to be able to cool whatever you put in. It's more quiet than my itty-bitty vaio laptop though.

@bobdobbs: Proprietary operating systems? What proprietary operating systems? This D630 I've got here came with no OS and an "n" label where the windows label usually is...funny that...

Open-Source Desktops

Open-Source Laptops

It feels pretty good, not paying for an OS when you don't need to!

Proprietary operting system? What proprietary operating system?

Laptops, Desktops.

You there! Stop! Don't pay for that OS!

Double post cause the commenting system was sucking...rawr.

Does this new policy apply to their entire line of desktop computers or just the high end XPS line? Thanks.

From what I can remember it's going to eventually spread to their entire line. I don't know how soon, just that it's going to happen.

@bobdobbs:
If not Linux, than what non-proprietary OS are you referring to?

Bob Dobbs, stop acting like a sub genius!

It seems Dell has come full circle. My first Dell was bought in 1995 (Pentium 120mhz) and the reason for picking a Dell back then was standard components. ATX cabinets and motherboards (unlike IBM, Compaq, Digital, HP and so on). Not sure when they straid of the path, but good that they are back.

AKIRA

I'm glad to hear it.

When it came time to upgrade the power supply in my Dimension 8300 I had to break out the aviation snips to remove some sheet metal so the AC power connector would clear. (The stupid screw holes lined up, however.)

I can do without shit like that.