M. Adam Davis wrote:
> You are correct that this is done primarily for profit margins. 
> However, if you buy a mid to high end PC from Dell, you should get a
> power supply that can handle a few more items (one hard drive, or a
> few cards, etc).
>
> If you buy the low end PCs (or worse, the rock bottom cheap PCs) then
> you are going to get exactly enough to run the system until the
> warranty expires, and nothing else.
>   
Yes, well, I think that is why I griped.   The latest one was a Dell 
Dimension 4700, which is not really all that low end, although I bought 
it from Dell Outlet, so it is "refurbished."   It came with a 160 GB 
SATA disk, and I added another hard drive to it.  I didn't sit down and 
calculate the power consumption versus the power supply (although I 
should have, but hindsight is a wonderful thing of course).   Anyway, I 
have ordered a new, hefty power supply from PC-Power, which hopefully 
will cure the problem (assuming I didn't blow any components).   So the 
main purpose of the OP'ing was to alert people that Dell seems to be 
shaving the margins thinner than they used to.  Or at least that is my 
belief.
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