A Register reader was a bit shocked when he contacted Dell tech support and was told, “Mac is a good option”.

The reader emailed the Dell tech support wondering whether he could upgrade his one-year-old Dimension 9150’s processor to a Core2 CPU without having to go to the trouble of replacing other components as well.

The trusty (perhaps not so trusty when it comes to Dell) tech support replied with the following:

“Thank you for your response to Dell hardware tech support. It’s true that if you want to upgrade the processor to a high end, you need to upgrade motherboard and consequently other devices like PSU, proc fan etc. I would suggest that purchasing a new PC is a better option than to upgrade it on this system as replacing the motherboard and processor is going to be expensive.

It’s better you get a new system with duo or quad core processor. Mac is a good option. You may also look at XPS systems of Dell [XPS One is the best in XPS performance line], you may google on this system to get more information.”

Oh dear, silly man.

One dedicated Reg reader seems to believe that the mistake was intentional.

“By suggesting to the customer that he should look at Macs, he’s got him to check out some very, very expensive, powerful machines that, however attractive, won’t run his software. Next, he offers a top of the line Dell box which *will* run his games or whatever.

He’s flattered the customer by suggesting that his needs are so great he requires the best of the best, got his budget expectations sky high with a competitor’s product that he’d never buy, then offered his own version which will seem like a good deal.”

Either way, it wasn’t a wise move. . .