Quick Question regarding a Dell

somano

Can a sound card be added onto a Dimension 9150 easily enough ?

What is sound quality like without one like for playing downloads, cds or dvds ?

What is the difference between 16xIDE Dvd Rom & 16 x DVD+/-RW and 48-32xcd-rw & 16x DVD+/-RW ?

How does a 320gb hard drive which is 160 x 2 work ?

Creamy Goodness

a sound card can be added if the pc has a PCI slot available (generally they do) but with a dell if you open the case you void your warranty i think.

you won't notice any difference in sound quality unless you get quality speakers.

16xIDE DVD rom & 16x DVD+/-RW.............. will play dvd's and cd's and burn dvd's and cd's

48-32xcd-rw & 16x DVD+/-RW..............will do the same as above but cd burning i'd imagine would be faster.

with the hard drives windows is installed on one, the other can be used just like normal space. unless dell use a technique called RAID which they can make windows see the two physical hard drives appear as one in windows.

somano

How many PCI slots are there on a 9150 or 5150 ? and (excuse the ignorance but) what other peripherals are used on PCI slots ?

I have decent set of speakers already, will either of the above Dells have the relevant holes for speakers ?:o

Laguna

somano wrote:

Can a sound card be added onto a Dimension 9150 easily enough ?

What is sound quality like without one like for playing downloads, cds or dvds ?

What is the difference between 16xIDE Dvd Rom & 16 x DVD+/-RW and 48-32xcd-rw & 16x DVD+/-RW ?

How does a 320gb hard drive which is 160 x 2 work ?

A sound card can be added as long as you have a vacant PCI slot on your motherboard, I don't know what motherboard the 9150 has, maybe someone else can tell you how many PCI slots it has and uses by default.

I prefer using soundcards as opposed to not having one, simple reason I think this is the fact not having a sound card leaves you using onboard audio which uses your processor, having a soundcard takes a load off your processor leaving it free to do other stuff. The quality of soundcard sound is far better than onboard audio when you start talking about mid range soundcards, it's a dedicated chip for sound after all.

IDE DVD Rom + 16x writer??, IDE is just the type of connection the DVD uses to connect to the motherboard, the 16x DVD+/- RW is a rewritable DVD player, meaning that it can read, write and erase DVD's + or - specification, this is probably using an IDE connection to the motherboard.

The 48-32xcd-rw & 16x DVD+/-RW, well it's pretty much the same as the other DVD drive mentioned above, it reads CD's at 48x speed and does everything the drive above can do.


BTW, that was not a quick question lol.

Laguna

somano wrote:

How many PCI slots are there on a 9150 or 5150 ? and (excuse the ignorance but) what other peripherals are used on PCI slots ?

I have decent set of speakers already, will either of the above Dells have the relevant holes for speakers ?:o

PCI slots can house modems, soundcards, tvcards... any general peripherals.

Creamy Goodness

all dells now afaik come with onboard sound so they should have the right holes for your speakers.

other things that go into pci slots are modems, wireless cards, network cards, usb2.0 cards (adding extra usb ports) etc.

irlrobins

Cremo wrote:

but with a dell if you open the case you void your warranty i think.

Bollix....

irlrobins

Here are the ports for a Dell 9150:

3 PCI slots
1 PCI Express x4 slot
1 PCIe x 1 slot
1 PCIe x 16 (graphics) slot

So the video card will use the PCIe x16 slot. As far as i can make out the 9150 at the very least would have integrated sound. So that should leave all the other slots free. (According to the recommended packages currently on their site). So you should have no prob adding a better sound card at a later stage if you want.

As regards using on board sound, its ok, but to get the full effect of watching DVDs get a good sound card for sorround sound. The X-Fi one Dell offer is pretty much the best out there at the mo.

And the 2 hard drives are in RAID 0 mode which basically means the 2 hard drives appear/act as if there was only one hard drive.

if you're unsure about any of the components, click on the "Learn more" link beside each one for more info and details.

hope that helps.

somano

I'm trying to decide which of the following is a better option:

9150 v 5150

P4-640 3.20ghz v P4 630 3.00ghz
memory:1024 v 2048mb
HArd Drive: 320gb v 250gb
Video CArd: Both 256mb
16xDVD Rom & 16xDVD +/-RW V 48x32Xcd-rom & 16xDVD +/- RW
No sound card V Sound Blaster x-fi

Assume same price

Opinions ? Thanks for your help.

irlrobins

mmm close to call.

9150 allows more expansion, but only in terms of pci slots as far as i can make out. And the 5150 is better spec'd. (more ram, sound card).

I'd go for 5150. What do you want to do with this PC?

Oh and what video card is in each? they might both be 256Mb but that doesn't mean they preform the same.

somano

256mb ATI RAdeon X600 Hypermemory graphics card.

PC for video editing, multimedia and no gaming.

Laguna

Not to throw a spanner into the works, but does it have to be Dell?, they're hugely overpriced and the quality of some of their components is not as good as the price you're paying for them..

www.komplett.ie sell PC's, with warranties that you can customise to your hearts content. It's a far better proposition in my opinion, when making a big investment like a PC, wouldn't you prefer it if every component in the PC was of your choosing instead of what happens to be in the model you buy from Dell, plus the fact the PC from Komplett will be half the price; no exaggeration.

irlrobins

somano wrote:

256mb ATI RAdeon X600 Hypermemory graphics card.

PC for video editing, multimedia and no gaming.

should be grand for that. I know some people here are more up to speed on their video cards so they might offer some advice.

somano

Well too late bought the 5150 . Did a comparison with Komplett for the same spec albeit perhaps inferior products with Dell and Komplett were €600 plus delivery dearer. I wouldn't notice subtle differences. I have spent the last couple of months with a dying pc, waited and waited for prices to come down and got this in outlet store. Hope it works out ! Thanks for help.

irlrobins

enjoy!

Laguna

tbh the only reason it was €600 more expensive from Komplett is because you bought from the Dell outlet store (refurbished PC), well - good luck anyway.

Wertz

Outlet currently have an xps 600 that when configured on their main site would cost just over 4 grand....it's going for 2600 all in....that's crazy money to spend on a dell (coming from someone who owns three) but that's also one hell of a price difference. Oh and refurbished isn't necessarily a bad thing...

EOA_Mushy

Cremo wrote:

but with a dell if you open the case you void your warranty i think.

Lol, dint have my warranty for very long then....:o
opened the box(cardboard 1) took out the pc and imediatly put a scsi card and dvd burner in it....

TerrorFirmer

All Dell pcs come with onboard sound which is grand for general gaming, multimedia viewing and the like. If you are going to get a sound card you'd need to get a set of good speakers to go with it to notice alot of difference. I use the onboard with my 8400 and the 5.1 speakers that came with it. I find it grand for playing games and watching movies. As with anything, some people want better then the norm, be in in regard to sound, gfx, etc, so its really up to you!

Since I've had my 8400 I've opened it plenty if times to replace ram, gfx, hd etc. as they needed changing. Customer support told me it does not void the warranty but they strongly advise against it. How true this is, I don't really know, but it's what they told me directly!

Also, the x600 is a crap card for gaming, but its grand for multimedia - hope you don't change your mind in the future

irlrobins

you don't void the warranty by opening the case of a desktop system. Their user guides even show you what to do if you want to add a hard drive, RAM, etc.

somano

Laguna wrote:

tbh the only reason it was €600 more expensive from Komplett is because you bought from the Dell outlet store (refurbished PC), well - good luck anyway.

Surely €600 is a good enough discount ? If there is anthing wrong with it, it will be returned. Has anyone encountered problems with outlet store ?