Some of the boutique / enthusiast shops will send the disks along, but the major manufacturers don't like to and you have to wheedle it out of them, either by special request or extra fee. See the following image (I took two screencaps from dell's current website and pasted them together). Click me.
Now, they don't completely leave you hanging; they DO include a way for you to recover to factory settings (the hidden recovery partition), they just don't include a disk is all. Disks are an extra expense, Dell can charge extra for a disk if they don't include it by default, aaaaand I'm sure the companies paying to have their bloatware pre-installed don't like users having an easy way to get rid of it (recovery disks don't have bloatware; recovery partitions do).
Now, they don't completely leave you hanging; they DO include a way for you to recover to factory settings (the hidden recovery partition), they just don't include a disk is all. Disks are an extra expense, Dell can charge extra for a disk if they don't include it by default, aaaaand I'm sure the companies paying to have their bloatware pre-installed don't like users having an easy way to get rid of it (recovery disks don't have bloatware; recovery partitions do).
New PC: to build or not to build
02/05/2011 04:16:46 PM
- 1062 Views
The advantages of building your own computer seem to be smaller these days.
02/05/2011 05:19:09 PM
- 837 Views
I take satisfaction in tinkering with computers...
02/05/2011 06:40:12 PM
- 1163 Views
Also, one of the big savings for building your own computer...
02/05/2011 07:27:37 PM
- 829 Views
yah that's part of the problem. I don't have a desktop right now. Not even a case
02/05/2011 07:37:45 PM
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It's not hard at all anymore. Link for Lorraine, too
02/05/2011 09:32:48 PM
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I always buy Intel. Papa works there
02/05/2011 09:39:00 PM
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Huh, small world. What site?
02/05/2011 10:36:55 PM
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I have no idea what the name of his site is. Probably not that one
03/05/2011 01:50:38 AM
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I don't know about you...
02/05/2011 08:21:41 PM
- 864 Views
Just get a pre-made and add a few components (ie: graphics card) to make you feel like you built it. *NM*
02/05/2011 08:53:07 PM
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Build it.
03/05/2011 02:54:12 PM
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Warranty/Troubleshooting
03/05/2011 04:14:47 PM
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How?
03/05/2011 05:04:27 PM
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Re: How?
03/05/2011 06:47:56 PM
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Wow, I never heard about that.
03/05/2011 07:10:07 PM
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Nah, it was years ago. The one you gave me advice for was the replacement of the replacement, hah
03/05/2011 07:41:24 PM
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Yeah, I meant the power supply of the problem machine.
03/05/2011 08:10:04 PM
- 835 Views
Ah. yeah, it was one of the pieces that got replaced. It was probably at least partially responsible *NM*
03/05/2011 08:12:50 PM
- 462 Views
I like how you seem to think I'd buy a Dell
03/05/2011 04:17:58 PM
- 824 Views
If you like tinkering, then build one. Quality control is all on you, but it's "yours" then.
03/05/2011 03:00:21 PM
- 787 Views
#1 reason to build your own: no pre-loaded bloatware. *NM*
03/05/2011 04:52:45 PM
- 447 Views
Or just format when you get it. *NM*
03/05/2011 06:48:47 PM
- 428 Views
With a pre-built you can't often do that.
03/05/2011 07:19:28 PM
- 831 Views
for the record, sometimes stores will remove the bloatware for you
03/05/2011 07:28:58 PM
- 750 Views
Do prebuilts come without OS discs these days? That's bullshit. *NM*
03/05/2011 07:43:39 PM
- 447 Views
Yah, they don't.
03/05/2011 07:47:36 PM
- 783 Views
Well, it's understandable, just annoying.
03/05/2011 08:05:00 PM
- 777 Views
You really should just stop using Dell as your example
03/05/2011 10:51:10 PM
- 776 Views

Oh, hush.
04/05/2011 12:50:15 AM
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YOU SHALL NOT MALIGN THE HP!!!
04/05/2011 10:16:50 AM
- 794 Views
Re: YOU SHALL NOT MALIGN THE HP!!!
04/05/2011 04:55:49 PM
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My anecdotal evidence has HP failures being rare but spectacular.
04/05/2011 08:19:52 PM
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I had a Compaq laptop (built after HP had bought Compaq).
04/05/2011 09:13:54 PM
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Huh. I have a Compaq too. It shipped with bad RAM, but once I fixed that it's worked like a charm.
05/05/2011 12:43:48 AM
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Yes, almost without exception.
03/05/2011 07:58:32 PM
- 927 Views