Is Dell Going Downhill?

I have worked with Dell PCs at work since 1998. In that time, I have always recommended to friends for personal purchases because they were good machines. But that seems to be changing. In my current job, I maintain close to 200 Dells. In the past month, I have had to replace parts on about 9 of those computers. They have all been about 2 years old (and still under warranty). The problems that I have seen inlcude mostly bad hard drives, but there have been a few bad motherboards as well.

This recent increase in bad machines makes me thing that we are having some bad luck or that the Dell quality has gone down. They used to make some really great machines. In fact, I have 2 Dell Precision 410's and 2 Precsion 420's that I still use on a daily basis. Two of those PCs run 24/7 and have been doing that since 2001!

In addition to the apparent decrease in quality, their tech support quality has gone down as well. Not only have they outsourced their phone support, but their website seems more disorganized and slower. The slowness is especially apparent when you searh their forums.

Now, I am hesitant to recommend Dells to my friends and family. Then again, I don't know what other manufacturer I would recommend. All of them seem intent on selling REALLY cheap computers that are nearly a disposable item now.