# Dell Precision

23 Hacker News commenters recommended Dell Precision and 12 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 9 of 13 months; owners who said how long report a median of 10 years (6 owners).

**Verdict:** People recommend Dell Precision workstations for build quality, longevity and Linux support; critics cite heat, power draw and sleep problems.

## Why people recommend it

- Long lifespan and sturdy build (4 comments): "the same Dell Precision system I gave them almost 10 years ago works great today" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47278024)) "these are built like tanks, somewhere between consumer and toughbook standards" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48975400)) "late-century, grossly-overbuilt Dell Precision desktop" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49178572))
- Reliable in daily use (4 comments): "I have been using Dell Latitude and Precision for about 15 years and I have have great luck with them." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46150456)) "My company uses XPSes and Precisions. They work great." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46380311)) "It has done everything I asked of it." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49352975))
- Good Linux support and battery life (3 comments): "Dell have pre-installed & fully supported Ubuntu on a bunch of their Precision, XPS, and, more recently, Pro laptops for over a decade now." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49420419)) "I still have a rather old Dell Precision mobile workstation (sold with Linux) with excellent quality that no Apple laptop ever approached." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46120052)) "The Linux battery life's even quite good, ~10 hours." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46114971))
- Cheap refurbished on eBay (2 comments): "if you are happy with those specs you can get corporate ewaste dell towers on ebay for low prices" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46148285)) "buy 3 year old Dell Precision refurb on eBay for a third of that" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48390862))

## What people warn about

- Runs hot and uses lots of power (2 comments): "They are all heavy, pretty bad at energy efficiency and run extremely hot" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46530673)) "the issue is they use a crapton of power" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46150536))
- Sleep and wake problems (3 comments): "basically the only issue I had was on the Windows side with sleep states" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46114918)) "frequently have problems going to sleep" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46120701)) "never woke from S3 sleep properly" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46571681))
- Quality varies between models (2 comments): "Some models had problems and others were rock solid." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46581502)) "They can never seems to get their shit together." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46578107))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Mac Pro](https://hackerapproved.com/p/mac-pro.md): 49 recommend
- [Tinybox by tinygrad](https://hackerapproved.com/p/tinybox.md): 25 recommend
- [Sun SPARCstation IPX](https://hackerapproved.com/p/sun-sparcstation-ipx.md): 12 recommend
- [SGI Indy](https://hackerapproved.com/p/sgi-indy.md): 9 recommend
- [Puget Systems workstation](https://hackerapproved.com/p/puget-systems.md): 9 recommend

## Where to get it

- [See price on Amazon](https://www.amazon.com/s?k=Dell+Precision+workstation&tag=hackerapprove-20) (affiliate link)
- [Official site](https://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/workstations/sf/precision)

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Dell Precision", https://hackerapproved.com/p/dell-precision/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).