Dell Dimension...

phreak

i've been think about getting one of those Dell Dimension 4300's.(as seen on tv) and i was just wondering if anyone here got one. if so, are they good machines and value for money?

Stephen

My parents bought one when I took my own machine off to college (the eejits). Its a 1.6ghz P4, with a mere 128mb of PC133 SDRAM. The motherboard only has 2 slots for sdram, meaning it can only have a max of 1gb of ram. It has a crappy software modem, a decent DVD rom, no network card, and a crap graphics card (ATI rage 128), as well as a lovely 19inch monitor and decent subwoofer/speakers. Wouldn't be the greatest machine for a gamer I'd say, but fine for normal stuff like MS Office, web browsing, watching DVDs and so on.

phreak

what sort of system would you suggest for gaming thats in the same price range as the Dell?

JustHalf

What price-range are you looking at?

GoneShootin

those AMD machines at TIME seem pretty good last time i checked

JustHalf

Originally posted by Gone Shootin
those AMD machines at TIME seem pretty good last time i checked

Oh man, TIME rock! Get a TIME MACHINE man! lol, etc.

Edit:
Remember, I'm sarcy.

astrofool

not everyone can build their own computer....

Buying an OEM machine, I've heard alot of people using the Dell online system to design their own pc as such, for games, you'd be talking about p4 1.6 upwards, geforce 2 graphics (GTS or greater, not MX, serious processor/gfx mis match otherwise) 256 RAM, RDRAM necesssary for p4, or else you might as well get a pIII, are Dell doing DDR p4 yet with VIA/SiS ??

40 gig drive should be enough, dvd if you want, (is the price worth it?) 17" monitor minimum, 19" if possible, SB Live/Audigy sound card.

MAKE SURE THE BOARD IS SOCKET 478!

if it's not it will be even less upgradable than Dell's usually are.

For a challenge, build your own, Dell/Time/HPetc. can do good deals otherwise, though not alot of them do Athlon machines, important thing is not to rush in, but also decide quickly, computers depreciate very fast. Do a bit of research parts wise, good sites:

www.tomshardware.com
www.anandtech.com
www.viahardware.com
www.hardocp.com

Gerry

The dimension 4300 is much worse than a p4 1.6ghz with rdram, as the pc133 sdram cripples it, bringing down performance by up to roughly 20% . And yes, DO NOT get an mx card if you want to play games. There is no point in splashing out on a fast machine with an mx. I know astrofool has already said this, but it cannot be overstated.

Dells boards are more than likely not 478, thats just guesswork but I'd say intel will knock down the prices on their socket 423 stuff to get rid of it to dell, and the 423 goes right up to 2.0 ghz.

I'd seriously doubt dell will be using SIS anytime soon, when was the last time they did? If they were, they wouldn't be pushing the 845 with sdram. Nobody will be using via much for a while, as almost all motherboard makers are still not adopting it, and via have been forced to market their own brand boards in an effort to sell the chipset.

And a lot of people would do well to read those websites.

SickBoy

Dell are using the socket 478 P4's. They only use Intel chipstes in their notebooks/desktops & workstations(not 100% sure about servers but I think their all Intel chipsets too). Remember you can ask for almost any configuration in a Dell system, just because someones Dimension 4300 has an ATI Rage128 doesn't mean you can't get one with a GeForce 3.

po0k

Originally posted by JustHalf
Oh man, TIME rock! Get a TIME MACHINE man! lol, etc.

Edit:
Remember, I'm sarcy.

LOL, TIME MACHINE
What a Larf!

My neighbour got one, a K62 500, 3 PCi slots, onboards sound (SB64V PCi and ATi RAGE 128 VR 16Meg I think), HSF PCi modem taking up a slot, aswell as a 10MBit lan card now too. 4x4x16x HP CdWriter. Overpriced crud.

4 months later I get my machine for about £200 less.

toloola

i have got one of those machine. My one has got a pem733mHz with inter pem3 processor. It had 64mB of ram at 15GH.
It is a good machine as i play many of the top games on it with no bother, but i had to install a better graphic cards to make them more smoothly.
I would advice onone to get one as the have a good machine and an excitant cusmoster service.

toloola

i have got one of those machine. My one has got a pem733mHz with inter pem3 processor. It had 64mB of ram at 15GH.
It is a good machine as i play many of the top games on it with no bother, but i had to install a better graphic cards to make them more smoothly.
I would advice onone to get one as the have a good machine and an excitant cusmoster service.

GoneShootin

we heard u the first time mr i cant spell

JustHalf

Come on, we've all double-posted by accident before.

GoneShootin

well i aint yet

but i was only messin, nice to see you defending tho

WhiteWashMan

Originally posted by Gone Shootin
we heard u the first time mr i cant spell

i suspect you mean 'mr foreign'
dont be such a meanie....

logic1

Neither have I. Ever.

.logic.

Bitch[LuDo]

Heya,

Well i have a dimension 8100 and its the bee's knees! I have never had such a problem free computer. I got it last christmas and there was one thing wrong with it. The drive wasnt partitioned but thats done now and im extremly happy with it Cutomer support is a bit crappy but i havnt been happy with any customer support ever! :mad:

I would completly recommend dell because you can go to their website and customize any computer. So basically you get what you pay for. And dells prices are the best around too i think unless you make your own computer. But for me myself buying a dell was the best step i made and id be happy to answer any of your questions about one before you buy anything if you like

Bitch[LuDo]

kaimera

A m8 o mine bought a Dell recently off da tellie.

No modem.
No speakers.

But it's black and oozes class.

Just beware.

phreak

they didn't give him a modem or speakers????
are you serious?

Bitch[LuDo]

Thas wierd, thas why if i was ordering again off them if you order off the website its better then phoning because the people on the phone can make errors (and mostly do!) and if you do it from the website you can make sure you have everything you want to. Tis stupid he didnt get speakers or a modem in it though!

Bitch[LuDo] :cool:

kaimera

Swear.

No speakers.
No modem.

Cúnts.

Stephen

Originally posted by Kaimera
No speakers.
No modem

Sounds like your friend bought a business system... since most business systems wouldn't require speakers, and would normally come with a network card instead of a modem.

kaimera

Sounds like your friend bought a business system

A possibility.

However, in one of the Sunday papers, there is a Dell supplement.

If you have read it, you will notice NONE of the PCs in it mention a modem of ne description.
None have speakers.
None have DVD's

These PC's are trying to be sold to the average home user.

So I dunno....worth the $$$????

Bitch[LuDo]

Yeah i would believe that alright. But its just like anything in a 'sale' as such. I mean if you need a good computer your going to want to know exactly what you want before you but a bundled package. I mean if you want the best for games you going to want to know you need an above average graphics card and make sure you have it in the one you want. The one good thing like ive mentioned is the dell website allows you to fully customize your own machine which i think is great rather then buying one thats ready made you know? Coz no matter what a ready made one will prob be missing something you want anyway

Phew heheh Thats my other few cents

Bitch[LuDo]

JustHalf

Unfortunately, Dell are under no obligation to offer you high quality parts. They don't need to guarantee high quality RAM, they don't need to guarantee high quality hard disk drives, and they don't need to guarantee a high quality motherboard.

I'm actually working of a Dell system now, an OptiPlex GX200... and though it is very stable and quite fast (it has a nice SCSI hard disk), I can't tweak it at all. No changing of memory settings or PCI timings; and you can forget overclocking. It's also a pain in the ass to upgrade... this PIII 800 is crippled for gaming with a Riva TNT2... and no AGP port.

This is why, if you can, you should build your own. And do not get a P4 with SDRAM... it's a phenomenal waste of money, buying a good chip (if it's 1.8GHz or faster) and just crippling it.

leeroybrown

How the hell can dell charge the prices shown on the website for RAM upgrades.

On a 4300 Series P1.7 with PC133 SDRAM (standard 128 Mb):

192 Mb +IR£75
256 Mb +IR£99
368 Mb +IR£249
512 Mb +IR£348

I've just bought some RAM from scan.co.uk and compare the prices:

256 Mb PC2100 DDR £28.79 Stg (IR£36.85)

512 Mb PC133 SDRAM £50.53 Stg (IR£64.67)


Now, unless my maths has disimprived considerably in the last few minutes, there does appear to be a considerable bit of a price difference. How much does it cost to get somene to stick an extra stick of RAM or two into a machine, and I doubt their RAM is any higher in quality than the stuff I bought.


And, why the hell are they packaging PC133 with a P4 system. It will drag the performance down a lot. I suppose all their customers see is a big HDD and lots of processor Mhz.

leeroybrown

Not to mention their RDRAM prices:

I know the stuff is more expensive than PC133 or PC2100 but ...

Upgrade to (128 Mb as standard)

259 Mb RDRAM IR£225
348 Mb RDRAM IR£450
512 Mb RDRAM IR£675
768 Mb RDRAM IR£1125
1024 Mb RDRAM IR£1575
2048 Mb RDRAM IR£3375

Prices from overclockers.co.uk:

256MB RDRAM (2 x NEC 128MB RIMM PC-800) £85.54 Stg (IR£109.50)

512MB RDRAM (2x Samsung 256MB RIMM PC-800) £ 165.91 Stg (IR£212.37)

At prices like these maybe you should either stuff the warranty and upograde it your self when you get the machine, or better still buy the parts and build your own!

Bitch[LuDo]

I agree those prices suck. But then again how many people can actually build their own computer? Coz i dont know anyone of my friends that could, or id love to see them try Im just saying that out of the companies selling computers at the moment in ireland and the ones with good reps, dell do have the best value machines in my opinion, maybe its coz i got a kick ass one from them and in a year it hasnt given me one problem and trust me when i say ive been using computers for the past 10 years and never have i had one run so smooth :eek: And no i dont work for dell

Bitch[LuDo] :cool:

leeroybrown

Dell's base systems do provide good value to users without the skills or time to build their own and some of their upgrades are quite reasonably priced.

Those RAM prices are just about the most rediculous I've ever seen.



Oh, and if you cancel an order they can be a bit slow giving your money back. A friend had given credit card details over and suddenly saw an offer in a paper of the same PC from Dell minus about £50 of stuff, for about £200 less.

He cancelled his order, as he was entitled to do, and it took over a month for them to refund the money which had been taken from the card. He has ordered another machine from them recently, and had planned to do so at the time. It was just very annoying that they wouldn't refund his money promptly, leaving him nearly £1500 out of pocket for the duration.

Goodshape

The machine im using at the moment is an "old" P2 300mhz DELL Deimension... dont think it has ever seriously f***ed up.

Ordered a new ÚBER-COMPUTER from dell on the 9th (october)... would love to tell you how its working out... but twenty days later and the thing still hasint arrived!! Rang them up and they told me it was still in production... heh!

anyway, the machine...
P4 1.7ghz
about 1gb of ram (bought sepretly)
100gb H/D (60 with / 40 sepret)
64MB GeForce 3 (bought with)
19" monitor
Soundblaster Live (with 4.1 surround sound speakers)

nice, no?... the rams SDRAM PC133... after reading a few of the posts here I'm thinking I should have gone for the RDRAM.... but TBH, I wouldint of had the £££ anyway!

phreak

how much did all that set you back if you don't mind me asking??

and yeah, you probably should have got RDRAM

Gerry

You would have been better off getting 256 megs of rdram, and another 256 in a while if you need it. PC133 reduces the performance of the p4 by around 20%. Of course dell aren't going to tell you that, which is why you should do your research first.

Goodshape

hmm.. well, 20% down on performence will probobly still look amazing to me, compared with the p2 300mhz I'm on now. I'll buy some RDRAM when I can, and I'll put the SD into this mechine when that happins.

as for the cost.. heres the full spec of what I ordered from dell...

P4 - 1.7Ghz
128MB SDRAM
60GB HD
19" Monitor
64MB GeForce3
Sound Blaster Live 1028 (or what ever its called)
basic speakers
56k modem
3Com Network card

...I think thats mainly it, and it cost IR£1,905.60 incl. delivery / vat.

I also bought a DV Capture card, another harddrive (40GB) and a set of 4.1 surround speakers from peats. The extra ram came from shop4memory.com (3x 256mb SDRAM).

Still waiting for that damn Dell though. How long do these bias usualy take?

<edit>
dell just called, said the delay was with the monitor and I should have it by next monday / tuesday.
</edit>

Bitch[LuDo]

Yeah mine was delayed a bit when i got it too but in the end it was worth it

My spec was:

P4 1.5ghz
256 Ram
80 Gig Hard Drive
32mg Ge-force 2 ultra
19" Monitor
Harmon Kandron Speakers
Cd-Rw 12:10:32
Creative Sounblaster Live Platnium
Windows 98se
Modem and Network card

All of the above i got from dell when ordering apart from the cd-rw. I also bought a pinnacle capture card but due to my own stupidity ive lost the damn installation disk Stuoopid i know but when i first installed it it wouldnt work properly and then i let a good while go by then i got the card to work and the disk was gone what capture card did you get goodshape? let me know how it goes as im dying to capture my dv videos onto computer!

One thing to remember is that the drive dosnt come partitioned so if you want to do that do it before you put everything on! Coz stupidly again! I waitied and then course it took me so long to organise everything to wipe the computer i only got it partitioned a few weeks ago and ive had my comp for 9 months! Let me know how it all goes Im sure youll be pretty pleased!

Bitch[LuDo] :cool:

Goodshape

the DV card is a Pyro. I hope to christ it works... will let you know when I get the PC.

NeoSlicerZ

Originally posted by Goodshape
hmm.. well, 20% down on performence will probobly still look amazing to me, compared with the p2 300mhz I'm on now. I'll buy some RDRAM when I can, and I'll put the SD into this mechine when that happins.

as for the cost.. heres the full spec of what I ordered from dell...

P4 - 1.7Ghz
128MB SDRAM
60GB HD
19" Monitor
64MB GeForce3
Sound Blaster Live 1028 (or what ever its called)
basic speakers
56k modem
3Com Network card

...I think thats mainly it, and it cost IR£1,905.60 incl. delivery / vat.

I also bought a DV Capture card, another harddrive (40GB) and a set of 4.1 surround speakers from peats. The extra ram came from shop4memory.com (3x 256mb SDRAM).

Still waiting for that damn Dell though. How long do these bias usualy take?

<edit>
dell just called, said the delay was with the monitor and I should have it by next monday / tuesday.
</edit>

I have a:
1.4ghz tbird rapes the 1.7p4
Iwill KA266-Raid DDR
256mb Crucial DDR ram
Geforce 3
sblive 5.1
8*4*32x Cd-RW
surround sound Headphones
2*60Gb IBM Hds
ISDN TA
3com network card
15' monitor upgrading soon
Thermoengine wid a 60mm delta
4 Ys-tech 80mm fans and respective fan grills.

Total IR£ 1265
:p
Way cheaper and probably beats the snot outta yer system.. no offence loike Even wid a 19' monitor and a dvd drive it'd only be around £IR1635

Goodshape

agh! ye wee bastid!

Thats earned you a place on me list of enemys!

Goodshapes List of Bastids
1. NeoSlicers
2. Neoslicers' PC
3. Neoslicers Mother (erm.. bored :rolleyes: )