Dell PC €156 support questions (from Bargain Alerts)

Rsaeire

I agree. The best thng to do would be to reinstall Vista with the disc that comes with your PC and start fresh without all the junk.

Zorba

fletch wrote: »

Don't forget to remove all the pre-bundled software that Dell give you.

Yes was thinking of deleting the partitions and doing a clean format.

Probably the wrong place to ask but.....is it possible to have Vista and Xp on a machine and have a dual boot ?

Rsaeire

Zorba wrote: »

Yes was thinking of deleting the partitions and doing a clean format.

Probably the wrong place to ask but.....is it possible to have Vista and Xp on a machine and have a dual boot ?

I found this link which shows you how to do it.

daftdave

heathersonline wrote: »

Anyone know how long it takes 7 day shop to ship? pc has been here ages but still no sign of the ram, ordered same day!!

i ordered some the other day, i then recieved an email to say that they are out of stock, so i mailed them back and cancelled it and ordered it elsewhere

jebuz

Wooh! New PC just arrived in work, ordered it on Tuesday. €170 I think I'm actually impressed with Dell!

maradona10

why is this thread not closed or a new thread started. its so far off topic and has no relevance to the thread title

MunsterCycling

Maybe if you read the posts you'd see they are related to (with a few exceptions) the thread title!

daftdave

maradona10 wrote: »

why is this thread not closed or a new thread started. its so far off topic and has no relevance to the thread title

sure everyone is having a good time chatting about their new pc's, whats the problem ????

NiSmO

This post has been deleted.

partyatmygaff

i ordered a 9600gt and 2 of those adaptors and a 2gb stick of ram
got the video card and adaptors today.
They are a pain in the @ss to install, The Sata cables are so short I had to move the dvd drive down 1 slot and take all the cabling out of the cable ties put in the case, you need to unplug everything before installing the 9600gt.
It just barely fits so dont think of getting anything longer
Runs crysis a treat though! :P

Esel

One for sale here @ €200. Not sold yet, but a poster from Kerry has asked if the seller will post if purchaser pays postage. The seller might prefer a meet-up sale at asking price.

http://www.adverts.ie/showproduct.php?product=61073&cat=all

Firetrap

I'm happy that the thread's still active. I'd like to add a few bits and bobs to it but I'm not the most tech-savvy person in the world. At least when people post links to RAM, for example, I know that if I order some, it'll be the right thing.

Zorba

Rsaeire wrote: »

I found this link which shows you how to do it.

Great Rsaeire, thanks very much for the link

alastair_doom

Zorba wrote: »

Great Rsaeire, thanks very much for the link

Yeah, good link. I gave it a bash, and got it working in no time. For anyone thinking of trying it, theres a link at the end of the article to a forum where theres a bit more info too that you might want to read. If there's a recovery partition (like on these pc's) sometimes vistabootpro puts 3 files on the wrong drive. The article linked by Rsaeirre covers 2, but heres how to create the third (boot.ini) is covered in the forum, and you'll probably need it. I did.

I did it! Finally, after 4 days (now I see why macs are better..lol). I found the boot.ini file in vista and then copied it to the xp drive, but that didn't work. Then I dld vistabootpro on my vista and went under manage entries and clicked on xp and then changed its drive (because some ppl said that the files where there, but in the wrong drive), and that did it! Thanks for the help, now I must update XP.

via link

Apart from that, everything in the article is spot on, and there should be no problems.

mgadget

Great PC's for the price but Dell got cute and put cheaper boards in these so a quad core CPU upgrade is out of the question. You can still install the top dual-core Intel CPU's though. Apart from that, these little Vostro/Inspiron boxes are brilliant. Nice one Dell.

Zorba

alastair_doom wrote: »

Yeah, good link. I gave it a bash, and got it working in no time. For anyone thinking of trying it, theres a link at the end of the article to a forum where theres a bit more info too that you might want to read. If there's a recovery partition (like on these pc's) sometimes vistabootpro puts 3 files on the wrong drive. The article linked by Rsaeirre covers 2, but heres how to create the third (boot.ini) is covered in the forum, and you'll probably need it. I did.

I was thinking of doing a full format first, wiping all partitions then putting vista on it and then doing the dual boot thing with Xp. My firewall is asking permissions for some funny programs i've never heard of and i found adware on the thing after only two days of use so i'm wondering what sorta crap have dell put on these, hence the full format !

mickger

Looks like the original offer is finished but any new codes out there for similar offers?

Onikage

NiSmO wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

Seems like a perfectly reasonable reaction!

(Waiting patiently for the next one)

NiSmO

This post has been deleted.

NiSmO

This post has been deleted.

mgadget

Oh you are grand if you order one with a Quad Core chip in it i.e the Q6600 or the Q9300 because they have put in the board to take them. Only available on the Vostro 400 MT and the Inspiron 530.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dell_Inspiron#Inspiron_530

.."Compatibility Note: There are actually two versions of the Inspiron 530 in production, which are not differentiated in their specifications. When ordered with an Intel Q6600 Core 2 Quad processor, the 530 is equipped with a FoxConn G33m03 motherboard and a LiteOn 375W power supply. When ordered in any other configuration, the 530 is typically equipped with a FoxConn G33m02 motherboard and a 300W Bestec power supply. The G33m02 and G33m03 are essentially identical except for the power regulation section of the motherboard. Essentially, the G33m02 is a depopulated (cheaper) version of the board which only has 6 voltage regulator IC's as opposed to the 11 voltage regulators on the G33m03. In practice, this means that the G33m02 version of the motherboard is physically incapable of providing enough current to operate the Intel Q6600 CPU. In essence, if you do not order the Quad Core processor with the system initially, you will NOT be able to upgrade it to one later..."

NiSmO wrote: »

Your not being serious are you... awww had my heart set on a Quad core one... aww well might save me a bit of money then.

ThOnda

I have just formatted and reinstalled mine black beauty. It's faster now! :-)
Just to download everything again.
And memory is already on it's way :pac:

Back in business :-D

partyatmygaff

just for the laugh i ran crysis on very high with my new 9600gt(the 2gb of ram still hasnt arrived so im still on 1gb ram)

Amazingingly i get 20fps and sometimes high teens.
Thats AMAZING for a pc under 300 euro!!!
Res at 1280x1024 btw on all very high and quite obviously no AA or AF(lol not even dual 9800gx2s can manage that )

the 9600gt is a noisy f*ck though, silent when its not in game but when its in game its f*cking loud and i mean LOUD as in something you would hear in your car

Rsaeire

After my clean Vista install everything is running great, I have been working away tweaking the display options, in the end I took off Aero, making small changes in the background to make things run faster and I must say I am so happy with my PC!

I have even, through some work, got HD-DVD movies playing with hardware acceleration in MPC-HC with low CPU usage, between 5-15%, as opposed to 20-35% without. x264 encodes are also working great in MPC-HC and MPC using CoreAVC. I will be trying to get Media Portal setup tonight so I can manage everything through one interface including my TV tuner setup, as Beyond TV is causing an issue with regard to recording quality settings.

heathersonline

Hi Folks, I accidently bought the below laptop version, I assume its no good for the Vostros? Kicking myself I'm after waiting 2 weeks for it, any way it'd fit?

http://www.7dayshop.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=777_11&products_id=103275

tw0nk

Installed this today : http://cgi.ebay.ie/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=380037604945&ssPageName=STRK:MEWN:IT&ih=025

Works perfect and adds bluetooth and lots of memory card readers, fits perfect behind sliding door.

daftdave

heathersonline wrote: »

Hi Folks, I accidently bought the below laptop version, I assume its no good for the Vostros? Kicking myself I'm after waiting 2 weeks for it, any way it'd fit?

http://www.7dayshop.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=777_11&products_id=103275

nah that wont fit buddy, sodimm's are for laptops , stick it up on ebay or adverts.ie and you might get rid of it,

daftdave

just ordered this for my own machine, cheap as chips for 2g of memory, 19.98 euros delivered.
http://cgi.ebay.ie/2GB-DDR2-240Pin-PC5300-PC2-5300-667MHz-2-x-1-GB-667-RAM_W0QQitemZ310062009661QQihZ021QQcategoryZ136357QQcmdZViewItem

Rsaeire

Are people mostly buying 667 or 800 Mhz ram for their Vostro 200s? I know the mobo supports both speeds so was wondering which speeds the majority are buying.

ThOnda

800MHZ is already on it's way. So my 1GB 667 will be available soon.
The memory is as slow as the slowest module you have.

Rsaeire

Cool, good to hear. Which 800 MHz ram did you buy?

I'm planning on using the existing 2x512MB sticks in another PC and buying 2x1GB 800 MHz sticks to put in my Vostro 200, so I won't need to worry about a slower module slowing everything down. I'm only using Vista 32bit too so I have no need for anymore ram as I plan on using the Vostro as a HTPC

ThOnda

Well, bought. It was a present for me :-)
A-Data from Komplett.

Rsaeire

lol Nice present so

I was looking at these myself after reading a good review about them.

ROS123

RSAEIRE I know I aasked this before, but there have been so many inputs and variations on what is reccomended, would it be possible to put up links for what the final parts are needed to adapt this to a HTPC please.

GerardKeating

ThOnda wrote: »

Well, bought. It was a present for me :-)
A-Data from Komplett.

These work well with the Vostro??

Rsaeire

ROS123 wrote: »

RSAEIRE I know I aasked this before, but there have been so many inputs and variations on what is reccomended, would it be possible to put up links for what the final parts are needed to adapt this to a HTPC please.

No problem at all ROS123. I will link to what I have bought, and plan on buying, to turn my Vostro into a fully functional HTPC. Please note that these are only my suggestions; other users may have different opinions.


Hardware

- Sapphire Radeon HD 3650 512 MB GDDR3 - €65

- Corsair TWINX DRR2 800 MHz (2x1024 MB) - €47


Software

- Media Player Classic - Home Cinema - MPC - HC has its own decoder that will allow you to use hardware acceleration for HD-DVD and Blu-ray content; great with the above graphics card. - €FREE

- CoreAVC - Excellent software that offers the fastest software decoding of H.264 files, including x264 files in an mkv container. - $14.95

- FFDShow - Takes care of practically every other audio and video codec. - €FREE

- Haali Media Splitter - Helps with subtitles on mkv files and offers other mkv functionality. - €FREE



I did recommend PowerDVD to you before in the other thread, but since I found MPC - HC I've found no need for PowerDVD.

daftdave

Rsaeire wrote: »

No problem at all ROS123. I will link to what I have bought, and plan on buying, to turn my Vostro into a fully functional HTPC. Please note that these are only my suggestions; other users may have different opinions.


Hardware

- Sapphire Radeon HD 3650 512 MB GDDR3 - €65

- Corsair TWINX DRR2 800 MHz (2x1024 MB) - €47


Software

- Media Player Classic - Home Cinema - MPC - HC has its own decoder that will allow you to use hardware acceleration for HD-DVD and Blu-ray content; great with the above graphics card. - €FREE

- CoreAVC - Excellent software that offers the fastest software decoding of H.264 files, including x264 files in an mkv container. - $14.95

- FFDShow - Takes care of practically every other audio and video codec. - €FREE

- Haali Media Splitter - Helps with subtitles on mkv files and offers other mkv functionality. - €FREE



I did recommend PowerDVD to you before in the other thread, but since I found MPC - HC I've found no need for PowerDVD.

im in the market for a new graphics card for my vostro, would the one above be up to scratch for the latest games or should i go for a more expensive one/higher spec ???
i also have an extra 2g of memory on the way.

Rsaeire

daftdave wrote: »

im in the market for a new graphics card for my vostro, would the one above be up to scratch for the latest games or should i go for a more expensive one/higher spec ???
i also have an extra 2g of memory on the way.

The 3650 is entry level graphics card so it doesnt have the best gaming performance, but it does perform admirably on lower resolutions. If your main focus is gaming I would recommend the ATI 3850 or 4850 for €123 and €175 respectively, or even the Nvidia 9600 GT for €136.

positron

Rsaeire, all of those cards seems to have own fan to assist cooling. Does that not make the system louder for HTPC? Is the fan noise noticeable from the 3650?

thanks!

partyatmygaff

brilliant stuff, got my 1gb of ram today

crysis runs all high at 20-25 fps(unbelieveably)

Going to overclock my 9600gt and the cpu to atleast 2.66 or higher and would expect the game to average 30fps or so on ultra high no AA

By the way the cpu is locked and cant be overclocked from bios, you have to physically mod the chip by doing a pin mod with conductive ink and insulative tape(I dont recommend this to people without experience in computer modification)

Runs bf2 on 8xAA and 16xAF and all high at 100+ fps so im grand
Medal of honor:airborne runs great too on all high with AA
getting Call of Duty 4 so will check that out later

Rsaeire

positron wrote: »

Rsaeire, all of those cards seems to have own fan to assist cooling. Does that not make the system louder for HTPC? Is the fan noise noticeable from the 3650?

thanks!

To be honest, I can hear that the PC is on, but I can't say it is the graphics card fan I am hearing. I have my Nintendo Wii sitting on my computer desk and that is a lot louder, due to the disc drive, than my PC.

If you are interested in the passive cooling, or even active cooling, cards then there are quite a few choices on Elara that should suit your needs.

Shulgin

I have a problem with the new sticks of ram I bought for the bargain vostro 200. Can anyone give us a clue?
Look here

Ruu_Old

Moving part of this to Tech forum as it is no longer relevant to BA, any further questions should be asked there. Thanks.

daftdave

Rsaeire wrote: »

The 3650 is entry level graphics card so it doesnt have the best gaming performance, but it does perform admirably on lower resolutions. If your main focus is gaming I would recommend the ATI 3850 or 4850 for €123 and €175 respectively, or even the Nvidia 9600 GT for €136.

im gonna purchase my card this week, of the 3 listed here which would would you buy firstly of the three and why, thanks again.

Rsaeire

daftdave wrote: »

im gonna purchase my card this week, of the 3 listed here which would would you buy firstly of the three and why, thanks again.

It would depend on your budget, but as you wish to play games I would recommend the 4850 as it not only offers full HD decoding and great graphics performance, it's also great value too. If you don't want to spend that much then the 3850 would be the next bet.

I myself bought the 3650 but I don't plan on gaming so it's fine for me. It does offer good gaming performance but not as good as the 3850 and 4850.

daftdave

Rsaeire wrote: »

It would depend on your budget, but as you wish to play games I would recommend the 4850 as it not only offers full HD decoding and great graphics performance, it's also great value too. If you don't want to spend that much then the 3850 would be the next bet.

I myself bought the 3650 but I don't plan on gaming so it's fine for me. It does offer good gaming performance but not as good as the 3850 and 4850.

is the psu that comes with the vostro powerful enough for these graphics card ??

sorry for all the questions ?

Rsaeire

daftdave wrote: »

is the psu that comes with the vostro powerful enough for these graphics card ??

sorry for all the questions ?

Not at all! If I didn't want to answer questions I wouldn't be recommending things to you hehe

The 4850 will be fine with the PSU; provided you don't intend to overclock or add a lot of additional components.

I've read on this thread, before it was split, that Dell are quite conservative when quoting the wattage on their PSUs, so 300W might be underestimating its performance. In saying that, your system, with a 4850, will still fit below 300W at load, especially since the most power hungry component will be the graphics card.

I would also recommend going to this link so you can see the different power requirements of components.

bmaxi

I got 2x1gb sticks of RAM and fitted them today. After about 10 mins Vista started to bluescreen so I took them out and refitted them in adjacent slots, moving one of the 512mb. I thought this had solved the problem but after about an hour I got bluescreen again. Is there any way to find out if the RAM (it's generic) is incompatible, I had ordered what was specified.

norbert64

bmaxi wrote: »

I got 2x1gb sticks of RAM and fitted them today. After about 10 mins Vista started to bluescreen so I took them out and refitted them in adjacent slots, moving one of the 512mb. I thought this had solved the problem but after about an hour I got bluescreen again. Is there any way to find out if the RAM (it's generic) is incompatible, I had ordered what was specified.

seems strange if you ordered the specified ram, maybe she's faulty?

did you try just one of the sticks together with the 512's?





on the memory front, would this stuf be kosher?
http://elara.ie/products/detailsfullop.asp?productcode=ECE1054920

tis the best value I can find (besides ebay, which considering this thread would seem to be a bad idear, anyho).

daftdave

daftdave wrote: »

just ordered this for my own machine, cheap as chips for 2g of memory, 19.98 euros delivered.
http://cgi.ebay.ie/2GB-DDR2-240Pin-PC5300-PC2-5300-667MHz-2-x-1-GB-667-RAM_W0QQitemZ310062009661QQihZ021QQcategoryZ136357QQcmdZViewItem

these arrived last friday, i installed them today, working perfectly, i have a new graphics card ready to go in next and then im off to pc world to purchase a new joypad and start gaming...woo hooo !!:D:D:D

Rsaeire

I bought an extra 2x1GB Corsair 6400 ram and installed them last night. I easily noticed the difference when opening applications and in general use so I am very happy with my 3GB ram in total now.