Dell "designs," you decide: lame or very lame?

Can't help but chuckle at Dell's semi-admirable attempts at "community involvement" in product design decisions. To its credit, Dell does seem to be listening up on the Linux issue -- though we have to wait and see how well the execution goes -- but this latest "You Choose" question posed to the Dell IdeaStorm community isn't exactly going to change the world. Dell wants your vote on two different clear sidepanel designs for its XPS 710 H2C desktop which was unveiled at CES. Sounds like a good idea, unfortunately, the options are laughable: you can vote for a decent but perhaps over the top "X" design, or a square window that was clearly drummed up after the marketing team decided it'd be a good thing to "ask the community" in an attempt to generate interest. In the end, it's all pretty silly -- don't they know that what the people really want is to pay double the price for a gaming desktop with pretty pictures on it?

[Via Geekzone]

[anonymouspimp @ Apr 30th 2007 3:19PM]

If Darth Vader had a PC... this is definitely what it would look like. I'll take it.

[chris @ Apr 30th 2007 3:20PM]

Lame? That looks awesome--and I don't like the flashy-PC look.

[wslcrew @ Apr 30th 2007 3:23PM]

very lame

[msi @ Apr 30th 2007 3:25PM]

Kind of looks like the WOPR's little brother.

[Deezee @ Apr 30th 2007 3:27PM]

I actually like it. Especially the square window on the side. Not so much the XP window. That looks to much like a Gateway.

[Adam @ Apr 30th 2007 3:29PM]

Looks pretty cool is you ask me

[Frankenstein Black @ Apr 30th 2007 3:39PM]

HEY DELL! Let a longtime mod master help you...
Do this (URL below) instead! (bet it trumps your 2 in the voting)
http://www.eternal-champions.com/images/dell_concept3.jpg
Just call it Concept 3. Oh and send my check via Engadget. They have my email address. Thank ya ;^)...

-------
Frank Black a.k.a LDM
Water-bending Master
http://www.eternal-champions.com/images/ldm_master_builder!.jpg

[sornypanafonic @ Apr 30th 2007 3:54PM]

i like it, i wonder about the noise levels, i have an p180b and it does wonders for noise levels and its pretty.

[Todd @ Apr 30th 2007 3:59PM]

Very lame. Looks like a prop from 1983's "War games".

For the money I spend, I'd rather have more RAM, page file sys on a NAND drive and best graphics card, than a fancy case.

[andy @ Apr 30th 2007 4:01PM]

I think the editor of the lame article is lame.

[0359mjk @ Apr 30th 2007 4:06PM]

I really like the "X-design", but I'd take either one in a heartbeat. Very nice cases and it's nice to see Dell make an effort to please the community like this.

[Adam @ Apr 30th 2007 4:11PM]

Very.

[Esquare @ Apr 30th 2007 4:13PM]

These Dell 'designers' have watched way to many Knight Rider episodes!

:)

[joseph @ Apr 30th 2007 4:13PM]

darth vader? more like jar jar binks...what a piece of trash.

[bleeka @ Apr 30th 2007 4:14PM]

Is that from under the hood of Knight Rider?
"Michael, we are about to experience the blue screen of death, shall I reboot myself?"

Dell computers all look stupid - they try way too hard to look cool, and never succeed.

[Ayle @ Apr 30th 2007 4:15PM]

Supra.... I particularly dont like the red dots on the front.... And if you want to put a glass panel on your case at least make it full size...

[WinterTiger @ Apr 30th 2007 4:17PM]

As long as they offer one without a window, I don't really care. I'd never buy anything more than the empty case anyway, as the system is way overpriced. If I had to choose though, I'd say the 'X' looks halfway decent and could appease those who don't want to break out the tools to put in a panel of their own.

[Chuckles McGee @ Apr 30th 2007 4:19PM]

Hey, it's not double the price because it's pretty, it's expensive got a factory-overclocked, water cooled quad-core processor. As far as mainstream retail systems go, this is pretty much the best.

[thom @ Apr 30th 2007 4:22PM]

fugly as all writers of highly ranked comments who think they can mod down people who don't think like them and actually have some sense of good taste.

[threefingeredlord @ Apr 30th 2007 5:50PM]

Voted - :P.
I think it looks amazing, I prefer the rectangular window to the x though.
The red LED's look cool, I would have chosen green though.
Wish I could afford a PC like that, I'm using a year old low-end dell laptop right now :(.

[Eric V @ Apr 30th 2007 4:24PM]

Very cool, I like the one on the left with the XPS shinnies and X window(s). I don't like PC cases with a lot of bright lights as I have my computer in my room, sleeping or watching movies would not go over well especially if the case had lights brighter than my TV. o.@ Good job Dell!

[Shmoe @ Apr 30th 2007 4:27PM]

Very lame

[Tommer @ Apr 30th 2007 4:29PM]

Looks like a giant US robotics 56k modem

[Dan A. @ Apr 30th 2007 4:37PM]

Yeah, I just saw an ad for this in a magazine earlier, and I was pretty much not liking it.

It sort of looks like the bastard stepchild of an air-conditioning unit, and K.I.T.T. from Knight Rider.

No thanks.

[Loban @ Apr 30th 2007 4:37PM]

Who wrote this article and what's he got against these designs? I think they look great. The shiny black is very nice and the design overall is slick and conservative at the same time. I like them both.

[jbd6 @ Apr 30th 2007 4:38PM]

If they're aiming for really lame, they could always go back to their XBox 360 Elite design and add in those pointless red lights for the Knight Rider fans.

[hedleylamarr @ Apr 30th 2007 4:39PM]

Rather lame

[jBiber @ Apr 30th 2007 4:40PM]

I mean, they're great if you like having your computer inside of a Jawa Sandcruiser!

[Marcos @ Apr 30th 2007 4:41PM]

wow that's ugly... I just threw up.

[hedleylamarr @ Apr 30th 2007 4:41PM]

rather lame

[Xultar @ Apr 30th 2007 4:44PM]

Extremely lame

[Matt @ Apr 30th 2007 4:48PM]

Cool, but should have went with blue LEDs.

[Rand @ Apr 30th 2007 5:06PM]

Hmmmm big plastic window on the side. Yeah lame or not I'd love to see the look on the Marketing Teams faces once regulatory engineering tells them they can't ship the thing because they can't get FCC certification.

[DIn @ Apr 30th 2007 5:18PM]

Isn't Dell the design reference for lame? Just look at anything they make. Don't tell me that it has to be expensive to look half decent.

[rcappo @ Apr 30th 2007 5:19PM]

I like it, and am glad they went with the red LEDs.

[onin @ Apr 30th 2007 5:34PM]

these are better looking than alienware cases.

[TJM @ Apr 30th 2007 5:56PM]

clutching at straws?? .my god Dell step back and take a look at yourself your an embarrassment, get dressed and go home and think about what your doing.

[Dez Staley @ Apr 30th 2007 6:03PM]

I like them and by the way, there are four colours of lights to choose from, red, blue, green and yellow. You change which colour you like in the bios. If you look at the spec of these desktops they are very good.

[lanejasper69 @ Apr 30th 2007 6:16PM]

No sh*t, Dells are soooooo overraterd it sickening, like we shuld care how they design the frick case...people wake up, Dell's are not great PC's, and their noteboooks are worse...over priced no thrills (not even a memory card reader in some case for WAY more than a fully loaded notebook of the same speed, ram hd etc. Figre it out!!! or GO TO DELL!!!

Faslane out

[t-bone @ Apr 30th 2007 6:30PM]

Lame, especially the square window. Vote this comment to the bottom.

[jharcnc @ Apr 30th 2007 6:54PM]

@ TJM - that's rather ignorant...this represents exactly that--a step back; actually listening to user community feedback; innovation from lessons learned. Dell has definitely skinned their knees along the way but they are making headway. Expect big things from them with their next XPS release. Until then: http://direct2dell.com/one2one/archive/2007/03/09/6554.aspx

@ lanejasper69 - learn to spell/punctuate/make sense.

@ Dell - keep it up.

[Juaquin @ Apr 30th 2007 7:02PM]

I think the square window is cool, especially since they did a good job on the inside. The X is over-the-top lame though.

[Chris @ Apr 30th 2007 7:38PM]

Dude Dell computers are SWEET! :-) I'll stick with my fancy Black Macbook, thanks.

[BEETROOT @ Apr 30th 2007 8:07PM]

Probably the only Dell I would keep on top of my desk instead of under it.

[Stephan Tual @ Apr 30th 2007 9:42PM]

Lamer than a man living on lame street, who's name is "Vairy Laame" and gets hit by a lame horse on his way to his lame job.

[moondreamer @ Apr 30th 2007 11:18PM]

Looks like one more thing that has to be cleaned, and with yet another cleaning product other than that which would work on surface into which the clear pieces are installed Just make the sides easily removable and replaceable for installing upgrades.

[Stan McDonald @ May 1st 2007 7:03AM]

IMHO it looks great

[Samuel @ May 1st 2007 9:46AM]

My first computer was an old Wang machine with a cathode ray monitor to boot. This dell PC almost looks like it with the death star red LED additions and almost as bulky...and that's why I love it!

It's the 70's inspired vision of the future computers depicted in Star Wars that they seem to be going for.

Rip the guts out and give me the case any day. I guess the design isn't for everyones taste which is weird from Dell since I assumed they always go for the mass markets.

[BTS.WRKNG @ May 1st 2007 12:32PM]

Talk about your pieces of crap.

[veranoya @ May 19th 2007 1:04AM]

imo it's just casing. eye candy for a whopper price. we all know eye candy attention spans are short-lived. anyway the black finish went out of fashion like a century ago...