Another "Does This PC Look Ok" Thread!

adox

I`m looking to upgrade my 2 year old laptop and since it never really leaves home,it seems better value to opt for a PC.

I`m quite a novice on the hardware side of things,so am looking for peoples informed opinion on the PC I`m considering ordering from Dell.

Main uses will be internet browsing,downloading and maybe some gaming.

The specs I selected are as follows:

SYSTEM COMPONENTS

Dimension 9150 (D02915) Qty 1
Intel® Pentium® 4 630 (3.0GHz, 800FSB, 2MB Cache), Genuine Windows® XP Home Edition, SP2

Module Description Show Details
Base Intel® Pentium® 4 630 (3.0GHz, 800FSB, 2MB Cache)
Microsoft Operating System Genuine Windows® XP Home Edition, SP2
Memory 1024MB Dual Channel DDR2 533MHz (2x512) Memory
Keyboard Dell Wireless Keyboard and Optical Mouse - UK/Ire (QWERTY)
Monitor Dell E176FP 17" Midnight Grey (TCO99) Flat Panel Monitor
Video Card 256MB nVidia GeForce 6800 (DVI/VGA/TV-out)
Hard Drive 160GB (7200rpm) Serial ATA Hard Drive with 8MB DataBurst™ cache
Floppy Drives Internal 13-in-1 Media Card Reader
Mouse Mouse Included in Wireless Keyboard and Mouse option
Modem No Modem
CD/DVD Drives 16x DVD+/-RW & 16x DVD Drives
Sound Cards Integrated Sound Blaster Audigy ADVANCED HD Audi
Speakers No Speakers
Shipping Documents Documentation with UK Power Cord
Gedis Bundle Reference List D02915 Dimension 9150
Microsoft Application Software Microsoft® Works 7.0 - English
Standard Warranty 1-Year Collect and Return service
Cover It with Dell Support Services 1-Year Collect and Return service
AntiVirus & Security Software Free 15 month McAfee Security SW upgrade
Dell Photo Album Corel® Photo Album™ SE Basic
Paint Shop Corel® Paint Shop Pro™ X Standard Edition English
Order Information Dimension Order - Ireland
Dell System Media Kit No Resource CD
Dell Media Experience Dell Media Experience 3.1 Basic
Adobe Reader Adobe Reader 6.0 - English
Promotions Hidden Option Class Reporting -512MB RAM FREE - Double Memory Promo
Dell Internet Order Dell Internet Order.

Dell Colour Printer 720 Qty 1
FREE Dell Colour Printer 720 Unit Price Incl. VAT € 18.91
Catalog Number: 5102
Module Description Show Details
Base FREE Dell Colour Printer 720
Cables Dell USB 2.0 Printer Cable - 3m Black Cable
Standard Warranty 1Yr Next Business Day Exchange
Printer Driver 720 FI Printer Driver for Dimension
Engineering/Informational Dell Imaging Printer order - Ireland
Order Information Included : 1 x 720 Black Ink Cartridge + 1 x 720 Colour Ink Cartridge
ACCESSORIES
No Additional Printer Ink Cartridge Selected Qty 1
Unit Price Incl. VAT € 0.00
TOTAL Incl. VAT:€ 1,186.48


My budget could stretch another €400-€500 if needed.

Any opinions/suggestions would be greatly appreciated.:)

TerrorFirmer

Surprisingly good price for a DELL pc. Decent spec, will play anything recent quite well. If it was me though I'd check out how much it would be to change the 3.0 for a 3.4.....also, I'd throw an extra gig in there too for good measure - although not from DELL, they rip you off on most upgrade/addition prices. Get it yourself online.

adox

HavoK wrote:

Surprisingly good price for a DELL pc. Decent spec, will play anything recent quite well. If it was me though I'd check out how much it would be to change the 3.0 for a 3.4.....also, I'd throw an extra gig in there too for good measure - although not from DELL, they rip you off on most upgrade/addition prices. Get it yourself online.

Thanks for the reply Havok.

Upgrading to 3.4 and memory to 2048MB Dual Channel DDR2 533MHz (4x512) Memory brings it in at just under 1500 notes which is still withing my budget.

SeanW

ordering from Dell

Normally I would say that's your first mistake

But that machine looks pretty good. Speaking from experience, I'm surprised they didn't charge you an arm and a leg for the upgrades you want.

adox

Just looking for options on the high street too and like the look of a compaq desktop in pc world.

It has a AMD processor on board though and I am not familiar with them at all I`m afraid.

If anyone could have a look at the specs and give an opinion then I`d be very grateful:

http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/ie/en/ho/WF06b/35123-35527-187917-187917-187917-12254200-64386785.html

Dooom

adox wrote:

Just looking for options on the high street too and like the look of a compaq desktop in pc world.

It has a AMD processor on board though and I am not familiar with them at all I`m afraid.

If anyone could have a look at the specs and give an opinion then I`d be very grateful:

http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/ie/en/ho/WF06b/35123-35527-187917-187917-187917-12254200-64386785.html

Doesn't look that bad, but the graphics card is a load of crap.
Plus it's Pc World..

WexCan

adox wrote:

Just looking for options on the high street too and like the look of a compaq desktop in pc world.

It has a AMD processor on board though and I am not familiar with them at all I`m afraid.

If anyone could have a look at the specs and give an opinion then I`d be very grateful:

http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/ie/en/ho/WF06b/35123-35527-187917-187917-187917-12254200-64386785.html

Depends what side of the fence you pick, but most would go for AMD for gaming and the like.

adox

Spike wrote:

Doesn't look that bad, but the graphics card is a load of crap.
Plus it's Pc World..

Ok thanks for the reply.Where would you suggest to buy in Dublin and what sort of graphics card should I be looking for?

Dooom

Well if you're gaming, I'd say go for something between a 6600/6800/7800GT or an ATI equivalent.

Tbh, buy online. It'll be cheaper, you'll have more options in terms of customisation and it'll be easier (depending).
The likes of Komplett.ie have a "Choose and we'll build it" section, which is quite good.
Plus it's not Dell.

WexCan

Spike wrote:

Well if you're gaming, I'd say go for something between a 6600/6800/7800GT or an ATI equivalent.

Tbh, buy online. It'll be cheaper, you'll have more options in terms of customisation and it'll be easier (depending).
The likes of Komplett.ie have a "Choose and we'll build it" section, which is quite good.
Plus it's not Dell.

All the Dellbashing.

Skipe's right though, buying online is going to be a lot cheaper. Komplett is generally the best bet here. Have a friend who got a prebuilt system from them and loves it. as I say to everyone though, check out the warranty etc etc.

TerrorFirmer

The compaq is prob better actually. All you need to do is take out that piece of crap 6200 and replace with a better pci-e card.

So it kinda boils down to the price between the dell, which is good as is, or the compaq, which'll need upgrading straight away for gaming.

If the compaq works out cheaper including the upgrade taken into account I might go down that route if I were you, the amd will be better for gaming then the p4, although since they are both top end processors I doubt you'd notice much gaming difference if you had a decent card.

ps - those komplett self build pcs are absolute sh!te! 1,200 for a Pc with a fupping 6200 (for all those who love their games on 800x600 options on low) and 512mb ram? No way. Not even DELL would fcuk you over with those specs for that price

For 1,200 with Dell you'd easily pick up a PC with an x800 and 1 gig ram. Although I just noticed the komplett ones come with monitor. But still. Rubbish pcs.

pauldave

adox wrote:

I`m looking to upgrade my 2 year old laptop and since it never really leaves home,it seems better value to opt for a PC.

I`m quite a novice on the hardware side of things,so am looking for peoples informed opinion on the PC I`m considering ordering from Dell.


Any opinions/suggestions would be greatly appreciated.:)

There's a guy in Meath that builds computers to your specs and will come and install it 4 u in your home, I am on my second machine from him and I've sent most of my friends to him no one has ever had any complaints about him.
PM me if you want his Number
As I am not sure if I am allowed to post it here. ???
You can give him the info on what you are getting from dell and see what price he can do it for and any improvements / upgrades you want.
Stay away from PISSIE WORLD. and wouldn't be too keen on Dell
The nice thing about this chap is his personal touch and you are dealing with the actual guy who built your machine .

PD:cool:

themole

just noticed something weird about the dell spec:

Speakers No Speakers

WexCan

themole wrote:

just noticed something weird about the dell spec:

Speakers No Speakers

Maybe he wants a headset?

adox

themole wrote:

just noticed something weird about the dell spec:

Speakers No Speakers

Yeah I`m probably going to get speakers seperately.I have a pair already so they arent a major priority yet unless I decide to go 5.1

adox

pauldave wrote:

There's a guy in Meath that builds computers to your specs and will come and install it 4 u in your home, I am on my second machine from him and I've sent most of my friends to him no one has ever had any complaints about him.
PM me if you want his Number
As I am not sure if I am allowed to post it here. ???
You can give him the info on what you are getting from dell and see what price he can do it for and any improvements / upgrades you want.
Stay away from PISSIE WORLD. and wouldn't be too keen on Dell
The nice thing about this chap is his personal touch and you are dealing with the actual guy who built your machine .

PD:cool:

Hi PaulDave.

Yeah I`d like that guys details if you can give them to me.
I can understand where you are coming from saying stay away from PC World,but being something of a hardware novice my best option seems to buy a pre-built machine and they were one of the few places I could think of to look at pre-builts.

I`m trying to stick to a budget of between €1000 - €1500.
If I did buy the Compaq from PC World I was going to buy a better graphics card at the same time,although which one I`m not too sure as I am unfamiliar with them too.:rolleyes:

adox

adox wrote:

Yeah I`m probably going to get speakers seperately.I have a pair already so they arent a major priority yet unless I decide to go 5.1

Also the Dell option is looking less likely as I`ve had alot of negative feedback from people who I have spoken to about Dell,mainly their after sales customer support.

WexCan

adox wrote:

Also the Dell option is looking less likely as I`ve had alot of negative feedback from people who I have spoken to about Dell,mainly their after sales customer support.

We're lovely really

TerrorFirmer

If you decide to go for the compaq, don't buy the new gfx card in store at the same time. They charge outrageous prices. I've seen prices like 100 for a Geforce 4 (costs about 10 second hand), 250 for a 9600 (I got one recently for 60 second hand) and worse. :eek:

Get it online. Or even on boards. 150 on boards should get you a nice pci-e card like a 6600 or a regular x800 - both grand for new games. Komplett have an x800rx new for 163 for example. Whereas for that price in Pc World, you'd end up with a piece of crap that wouldn't run any new games past 800x600

timeout

If you are going dell drop that free printer in favour of free ram boost or anything else. They are not the best and you got to ge the cartridge of them the whole time.

WexCan

timeout wrote:

If you are going dell drop that free printer in favour of free ram boost or anything else. They are not the best and you got to ge the cartridge of them the whole time.

Agreed, not a huge fan of Dell inkjets myself.

Alkers

If you're going to be using the pc for general use just as much as for gaming you might appreciate a dual core system. Not too up to date on intels offerings but if that pentium is a dual core that would surely hand the advantage to Dell again? If your looking for someone to build a pc for you (you should really give it a go yourself) you should be able to find one very handy on boards to do it cheap for you as a nixer.

adox

Simona1986 wrote:

If you're going to be using the pc for general use just as much as for gaming you might appreciate a dual core system. Not too up to date on intels offerings but if that pentium is a dual core that would surely hand the advantage to Dell again? If your looking for someone to build a pc for you (you should really give it a go yourself) you should be able to find one very handy on boards to do it cheap for you as a nixer.

Just found a UK site that do some good looking deals such as this dual core system:

http://www.meshcomputers.com/Default.aspx?PAGE=PRODUCTVIEWPAGE&USG=PRODUCT&ENT=PRODUCT&KEY=56284


Anyone used them before?

Dooom

adox wrote:

Just found a UK site that do some good looking deals such as this dual core system:

http://www.meshcomputers.com/Default.aspx?PAGE=PRODUCTVIEWPAGE&USG=PRODUCT&ENT=PRODUCT&KEY=56284


Anyone used them before?

Mesh are pretty good. I know one person (off the top of my head) who bought a system from them and is very happy with it.
Their systems are of good spec, and the prices aren't half bad either.