Must buy pre-built PC

[bloodandsoil]

I'm stationed in South Korea and my wife is in California. She needs a new computer at home and unfortunately I'm not there to build one (like I normally would). So I'm stuck with the option of ordering her a pre-built PC. What do you guys think of the following offering from Dell for $1009? Here are the base stats that I am starting from (see farther below for optional upgrades):

PROCESSOR Intel® Core™2 Duo Processor E6300 (2MB L2 Cache,1.86GHz,1066 FSB)
MEMORY 1GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz - 2 DIMMs
HARD DRIVE 250GB Serial ATA 3Gb/s Hard Drive (7200RPM) w/DataBurst Cache™
MONITORS 20 inch E207WFP Widescreen Digital Flat Panel
VIDEO CARD 256MB nVidia Geforce 7300LE TurboCache


I was thinking of possibly upgrading a few things, as follows:

Intel® Core™2 Duo Processor E6600 (4MB L2 Cache,2.4GHz,1066 FSB) [add $150]. That's an increase of 540Mhz, plus getting twice the amount of L2 cache.

2GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz - 2 DIMMs [add $130]. Twice the memory, which might make a difference considering that the system will be running Vista Home Premium.

256MB nVidia GeForce 7900 GS [add $200]. All these upgrades are starting to jack up the price. Not sure if this is worth it.

After upgrading these 3 parts--CPU, memory, video card--the price jumps up to $1489. That's $480 more than the base system I picked out.


My wife is not a hardcore gamer but does play some games. Which parts would be a good deal?

 

[Poxal]

I would defiantly get the ram upgrade. Then take one upgrade off for price reduction. I would get the cpu upgrade over the video. Neither card is DX10 capable so your going to upgrade that soon anyways. Hope to have helped.

 

[RJ]

I'm stationed in South Korea and my wife is in California. She needs a new computer at home and unfortunately I'm not there to build one (like I normally would). So I'm stuck with the option of ordering her a pre-built PC. What do you guys think of the following offering from Dell for $1009? Here are the base stats that I am starting from (see farther below for optional upgrades):

PROCESSOR Intel® Core™2 Duo Processor E6300 (2MB L2 Cache,1.86GHz,1066 FSB)
MEMORY 1GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz - 2 DIMMs
HARD DRIVE 250GB Serial ATA 3Gb/s Hard Drive (7200RPM) w/DataBurst Cache™
MONITORS 20 inch E207WFP Widescreen Digital Flat Panel
VIDEO CARD 256MB nVidia Geforce 7300LE TurboCache


I was thinking of possibly upgrading a few things, as follows:

Intel® Core™2 Duo Processor E6600 (4MB L2 Cache,2.4GHz,1066 FSB) [add $150]. That's an increase of 540Mhz, plus getting twice the amount of L2 cache.

2GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz - 2 DIMMs [add $130]. Twice the memory, which might make a difference considering that the system will be running Vista Home Premium.

256MB nVidia GeForce 7900 GS [add $200]. All these upgrades are starting to jack up the price. Not sure if this is worth it.

After upgrading these 3 parts--CPU, memory, video card--the price jumps up to $1489. That's $480 more than the base system I picked out.


My wife is not a hardcore gamer but does play some games. Which parts would be a good deal?

What about this and adding a monitor? It's in Oceanside, CA......San Diego County.

Stay the hell away from Vista for a few months. I'm waiting for service pack 1 to come out before it gets loaded on any of my comps. It'll also give hardware/software Cos. a chance to catch up.