I am looking to buy a new PC and would appreciate any advice people can give? The PC would be for surfing, burning DVD backups and digital pictures aswell as the other usual PC uses. I have been looking on the Dell Outlet site and have seen 5150 (Dimension 5150 Pentium 4 Processor 630 with HT technology (3.00GHz, 800MHz fsb, 2MB cache, 1gb RAM, 160gb HD and ATI Radeon X300 SE 128MB HyperMemory ), if i add a 17"TFT it comes ot at around £550 does that sound reasonable? I also fancied the Dimension 9100 (similar spec for £580). Any suggestions, comments would be greatlt appreciated please? Thanks Nick
Well im strictly against dell because i build my own computers but the specs on that machine look ok for the price if you want a look at some alternative systems (not dells) heres a link to a cheap site that lets you customize a pc and they build it for you http://www.eclipsecomputers.com/systemlist.aspx?cat=1
Thanks for the prompt reply and link, I'll take a look. What are your opinions on Pentium and Celeron, not sure the best way forward on this. I have alll the bad support reports on dell and this does concern me, am open to suggestions before taking the plunge. Nick
well if your planning on doing any gaming i wouldnt bother with intel at all and id go for an AMD processor like an Athlon 64. Pentiums are better than celerons.. the celeron is the standard intel processor wheras the Pentium is the performance 1. If your not into building computers yourself id say that dell package would be ok for you it would happily handle the tasks you mentioned. im unaware of dells service so i cant comment i would ask any friends or family that have a dell what they think of the service
there are many other sites besides eclispe.com....they dont have much of anything there.im in the us so i go to places like : newegg.com tigerdirect.com zipzoomfly.com mwave.com xpcgear.com there are a million of them.just search the web for the best price and buy.....if you need help with a shopping list,i would be glad to help..... SYPHER WHY DO YOU ONLY POST ECLISPE.COM,JUST WONDERING?that site has nothing
i only post them because theyr the cheapest ones i know of and no body has shown me anywhere cheaper as of yet. they have got a fair whack of stuff... not loads and theyr lacking in the graphics dept but on the whole theyr pretty good
Hey guys , i appreciate all advice. I'd be interested to have your inputs on a shopping list so i could do some proper price coparisons. My budgest is really around £550 including 17" TFT but I would expect to beat my existing system hands down i.e. P2 400mz, 128mb-ram, 32gb-hd, 14" CRT. Cheers again. Nick
Well since this guy used prices in pounds that means most of the listed sites won't do him any good on that side of the pond. Computers and computer parts cost more in Europe than in the good ole' US. For the basic uses the guy has listed the Dell would be a good solution, I've got a Dell 4500 which I use for internet surfing now, but it burned many a dvd in its day and I believe would be the equivalent of the 5150 in the new Dells. For a few bucks more the 9100 might be the way to go, I believe it has more expansion options. The Dells are very quiet, which you don't notice until you have a computer that isn't quiet, my AMD64 system is jam up for video processing and gaming, but sounds like a Dust Buster compared to the Dell. Which is one of the reasons I use the Dell for the internet. To reiterate what others have said, the performance king of cpu's is the Athlon64, not only in gaming, but video processing and most every other way, but they are much more expensive than the Dells. One thing about buying a Dell is that they are ALWAYS put on sale and the prices change weekly (up and down, down and up) just like the stock market. So check out deal sites for coupon codes, etc. Sites that I use to check on Dell coupon codes are these. http://www.techbargains.com/ http://www.bensbargains.net/ I don't know if the coupons work for Dell UK/Europe but I'm sure you can locate sites that would have them if not. Good luck.
The "hardware" problems that people mention for Dell are likely in the past. The problem was one of Dell's Taiwan suppliers used Taiwan capacitors which melted, this often happens with motherboards that use Taiwan capacitors (that's the reason DFI a Taiwan company only uses Japanese capacitors in their motherboards). Since Dell just took a big write off against profits for this problem, I would say you're OK unless you buy a USED Dell. I wouldn't think that they would let their suppliers saddle them with THIS problem in the future. And the Taiwan melting capacitor problem isn't unique to Dell, they just got a lot of bad press because they are so big and so much $$$ was involved.
Here goes guys, I've bitten the bullet and bought a Dell 9100 (P4 3.0ghz, 1gb-Ram, 160gb-Hd, 17"TFT for £525. Hopefully I won't get any problems but will be sure to keep you upto date with how i get on. I really appreciate you taking time out to assist me with this and your advice really did help. Keep up the good work so others can benefit aswell. This site is certainly full of helpful, knowledgeble people. Thanks Nick
Hi, New twist today! The order I placed with Dell Outlet has now been confirmed, however the confirmation quoted Dell 9100 (P4 3.2ghz, 1gb-Ram, 2x160gb-Hd, 17"TFT) for £590. I have agreed to this new spec as it's closer to what I initially wanted. It's just a strange way of doing business when you order something and they choose to send you what they want instead. Obviously I will have some concerns until the lot is delivered next week and I can check exactly what i have, hopefully my call to them today has eliminated the chance of a ightmare scenario happening. Dell customer care was a bit hard work but from my experience so far if you perservere it works, the last indian lady i spoke to was extremely helpful. Post again, once rec'd Nick
