Dylan Greene dot com

I'm trying to help a friend who is a student teacher purchase an affordable computer. We decided to go with Dell because they have some great discounts.

I've built computers for the last 10 years and I'm overwhelmed with all the choices on Dell's "Desktops starting at $299!" web site.

What does it say about a novice trying to pick out a computer when somebody highly technical like me can't figure out what to get?

Some things wrong with their web site:

1. Pop-in ads for the page I'm already on.
2. Huge ads on the top and side for the page I'm already on and discounts that have nothing to do with what the offers I'm currently looking at.
3. Too much fine print about rebates, credit cards, and discounts.
4. Too much technical details such as processor FSB speed (800), RAM bus speed (400 MHz), hard drive RPM (7200), and model numbers of monitors (E193FP)
5. Too many links to apply for a dell credit card - over 50 links on that one page!

What Dell needs to do to fix it:

1. Offer three choices: Cheap, Good, and Powerful.
2. Ask the users what's most important to them. Maybe they can only spend $600, and are willing to get smaller hard drive in order to get a larger monitor.
3. Stop trying to up sell so hard. The $299 Dell Desktop has thousands of dollars in extra up sell, from high end monitors to software, services, and even USB thumb drives. Is somebody buying a $299 computer going to add a monitor that costs more than the machine? Are they going to add a $150 printer when there isn't even a picture of the printer to help them decide?

The offending page: http://www1.us.dell.com/content/topics/segtopic.aspx/odg_special49?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs