Dell laptops shipping with 10/100 ethernet adapters -Am I being ripped off?

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#1748614 27-Mar-2017 11:31

Dell have been doing this for a long time. The last three laptops that I've brought from them have all been 10/100 on machines that would benefit from a faster network connection. My Vostro 1500 "Small business" notebook only had a 10/100 connection. It was a bit sad that the wireless interface was the fastest network interface on the laptop.

More annoyingly, what is now my main machine which was the dell laptop that was on here in the deals section also only has a 10/100 interface (and had a low spec wireless card as well). Intel I7, high definition touchscreen, 16GB Ram, had a 1TB hybrid SSD drive, but dell saddle it with a 10/100 network interface. I've replaced the wireless card so I can now do sustained 30MB/S transfers, however, for the rest of the spec of the machine, 10/100 really is pathetic.

I suspect, as others have suggested, that Dell are trying to push people to their more expensive business machines.

ubergeeknz

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#1748615 27-Mar-2017 11:32

dolsen:

I suspect, as others have suggested, that Dell are trying to push people to their more expensive business machines.

This is surely the reason, as it would not reduce manufacturing costs more than a few cents.

linw

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#1748692 27-Mar-2017 13:43

Well, if a lot of buyers aren't informed of the low spec, it can't be much of a marketing ploy.

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#1748698 27-Mar-2017 13:49

linw:

Well, if a lot of buyers aren't informed of the low spec, it can't be much of a marketing ploy.

It will be to prevent corporates / companies from buying the home spec gear.

yitz

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#1748722 27-Mar-2017 14:35

HP Probook 430/450/470 is comparable in price range and has Realtek GbE LAN.

smalltrader

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#1748741 27-Mar-2017 15:11

The price difference between a 10/100 and 10/100/1000 NIC card is no more than USD 1 or 2 dollars.

As someone has said, Dell does this deliberately to differentiate their business and consumer offering.

A silly decision in my view but if you were Dell you will say this is a good decision to prevent cross shopping.

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#1748748 27-Mar-2017 15:19

smalltrader:
The price difference between a 10/100 and 10/100/1000 NIC card is no more than USD 1 or 2 dollars.

As someone has said, Dell does this deliberately to differentiate their business and consumer offering.

A silly decision in my view but if you were Dell you will say this is a good decision to prevent cross shopping.

Would all that many people notice the difference, apart from if you are connecting it to a business network via Ethernet? It is a bit like them not including a DVD writer anymore, in that wireless data transfer seems to be the future.

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mattwnz

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#1748751 27-Mar-2017 15:24

Fishfingers:
It's got an ssd, so the hard drive speed isn't the issue. This issue is accessing multiple large graphics files stored on a local network server. It's really noticeably slower opening up these files and dragging and dropping compared to anything else on the network. File sizes are typically 300MB, but can be up to 1.2Gb. Crazy, I know. Just an unexpected hassle for a ssd, i7 with 16Gb DDR4 machine. Talk about a bottleneck.

Don't dell have a returns policy if you are not happy? You do have to wonder who is making the decisn to put in a 10/100 card, solely to save a little bit of money, while crippling it for certain things. Is is possible to install an dongle to speed up data transfer via usb3?

dolsen

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#1748776 27-Mar-2017 15:27

mattwnz:
Would all that many people notice the difference, apart from if you are connecting it to a business network via Ethernet? It is a bit like them not including a DVD writer anymore, in that wireless data transfer seems to be the future.

Wireless is great if you are just browsing etc. If, like me, you transfer around 15GB images on occasion, no, wireless is not that great. Knowing that you could have transfers 3x faster (and, leave the wireless free for things it is good for, eg mobiles / tablets), it is annoying.

I could get a usb 3.0 interface and transfer it a bit faster, but, it's just something I live with at the moment.

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#1748777 27-Mar-2017 15:27

You certainly can't call it being "ripped off" simply because of your own lack of due diligence.

networkn

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#1748781 27-Mar-2017 15:33

joker97:

Wow you (Dell)'ve got to be kidding me!

Why? It's an entry level machine, with an entry level price tag. People need to understand the downside of a small spend.

It would be surprising to me that anyone spending $600 or less on a notebook would need GB speeds over ethernet. Most mobile devices connect with Wifi and get speeds far less than 100Mbit.

Just like in a car you spend $15000 on might have aircon but a $25000 might have climate control.

networkn

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#1748783 27-Mar-2017 15:36

dolsen:

mattwnz:
Would all that many people notice the difference, apart from if you are connecting it to a business network via Ethernet? It is a bit like them not including a DVD writer anymore, in that wireless data transfer seems to be the future.

Wireless is great if you are just browsing etc. If, like me, you transfer around 15GB images on occasion, no, wireless is not that great. Knowing that you could have transfers 3x faster (and, leave the wireless free for things it is good for, eg mobiles / tablets), it is annoying.

I could get a usb 3.0 interface and transfer it a bit faster, but, it's just something I live with at the moment.

Well then, if it were important, perhaps it might be something you checked prior to purchase?

/me shrugs.

dolsen

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#1748786 27-Mar-2017 15:42

networkn:

dolsen:

mattwnz:
Would all that many people notice the difference, apart from if you are connecting it to a business network via Ethernet? It is a bit like them not including a DVD writer anymore, in that wireless data transfer seems to be the future.

Wireless is great if you are just browsing etc. If, like me, you transfer around 15GB images on occasion, no, wireless is not that great. Knowing that you could have transfers 3x faster (and, leave the wireless free for things it is good for, eg mobiles / tablets), it is annoying.

I could get a usb 3.0 interface and transfer it a bit faster, but, it's just something I live with at the moment.

Well then, if it were important, perhaps it might be something you checked prior to purchase?

/me shrugs.

I did know about it prior to purchase and am fine with it (same with the other 2 dell machines that also have 10/100 connection speed). Annoyed, but fine.

What I was saying there is that wireless is supplementary to wired.

I do think having a 1x1 wireless card, and 10/100 network interface is poor on an otherwise highly speced machine, however, that's their business model. Cripple the lower range to try and make people buy the more expensive machine. Dell certainly aren't the only people doing this.

mattwnz

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#1748789 27-Mar-2017 15:52

dolsen:

mattwnz:
Would all that many people notice the difference, apart from if you are connecting it to a business network via Ethernet? It is a bit like them not including a DVD writer anymore, in that wireless data transfer seems to be the future.

Wireless is great if you are just browsing etc. If, like me, you transfer around 15GB images on occasion, no, wireless is not that great. Knowing that you could have transfers 3x faster (and, leave the wireless free for things it is good for, eg mobiles / tablets), it is annoying.

I could get a usb 3.0 interface and transfer it a bit faster, but, it's just something I live with at the moment.

It is probably just a downside of going cheaper. A pity though that they didn't have a way of upsizing the speed. I remember the old day of buying an Inspiron PC, where you could configure a lot of the hardware when you ordered it. They also did it for their normal level Inspiron PCs as well.

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#1748807 27-Mar-2017 16:26

networkn:
joker97:

Wow you (Dell)'ve got to be kidding me!

Why? It's an entry level machine, with an entry level price tag. People need to understand the downside of a small spend.

It would be surprising to me that anyone spending $600 or less on a notebook would need GB speeds over ethernet. Most mobile devices connect with Wifi and get speeds far less than 100Mbit.

Just like in a car you spend $15000 on might have aircon but a $25000 might have climate control.

I expect a base 2017 toyota yaris to have manual wind up windows.
I don't expect a base 2017 toyota yaris to have a 3 speed auto transmission.
Maybe my expectations are a bit high.

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