So I Bought a Dell... (and stoll this topic name)

[Board of Command]

Ironic, because the Latitude line is the business class and are supposed to be much better than the Inspirons. I have an Inspiron 640m and a classmate has a Latitude D620 (I think). The difference in build quality is huge.

[Animeniax]

Yeah, but unfortunately that's how Dell operates and they're still one of the top PC vendors because people are suckers. I suppose they figure a business user will take better care of their company equipment, so they use cheap panels and substandard parts to manufacture the Latitudes, then take care of it on the back-end by replacing parts under warranty. At work I had so many latitudes where it was basically a new machine because absolutely everything had been replaced under warranty. Plus Dell had that issue with the USB ports not providing enough juice to power USB-bus-powered equipment. That might have been a problem on the Inspirons too though.

[Assertn]

Well, actually Dell operates on a very low-overhead between the factories to the end consumer. I forget the details, but its a business model that allows them to cut a lot of typical manufacturing expenses.

This is what allows them to sell their products at practically the same price as if you built one from scratch.