New Dell Vostro 460 - buy now, or wait?

[noonin]

I need to pick up a system for work in the next month or so max. I do basic Internet, Quick Books, photo editing/graphic art (Photoshop/Coreldraw). I might try a little video encoding/editing, but not my primary work. No Games. I just saw Dell had upgraded the Vostro 430 to the 460 with Sandybridge processors and wondered what you guys think of this config, and should I be even considering a new Business model until the bugs are worked out, or are they tested enough? Heard shaky things about the Studio XPS 8000 when it first came out a couple years ago, though that was a "Home" system. Right now they're running a 30% off coupon I'd like to use for around total $450 off.

Windows 7 Pro 64 bit
Processor - Intel 2500
HD - 320GB
RAM - 4GB
GPU - NVIDIA GT420
Optical drive - single DVD burner
Monitor - Ultrasharp U2311H
Dell 19 in 1 media card reader
2 years Pro Support

Cost - just under $1000

 

[sadams04]

That is a decent price for that combo. Think about upgrading the HD if you can. A 1TB had drive should be a low cost upgrade.

 

[noonin1]

I'll add a second HD for files later. Just going to use the primary HD for OS and programs mainly. What do you think about buying a Dell Business system when the CPU and MoBo are a new design, as far as being stable? Any thoughts on the NVIDIA GPU? I am toying with getting no card for now, to see how the Sandy bridge onboard graphics work, and adding one later if need be.

I don't think this price will last long though, so gotta decide soon ;-)

 

[sadams04]

The GPU will be fine, or the onboard will work fine for what you are doing. Adding a GPU would be better, but not 100% necessary.

Is Sandy Bridge stable? I WOULD have told you yes until I just read this article about a design flaw with the chipset. It seems to be related to the SATA ports..
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1001_3-20030048-92.html

 

[noonin1]

The GPU will be fine, or the onboard will work fine for what you are doing. Adding a GPU would be better, but not 100% necessary.

Is Sandy Bridge stable? I WOULD have told you yes until I just read this article about a design flaw with the chipset. It seems to be related to the SATA ports..
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1001_3-20030048-92.html

Oh, freaking wunderful...I emailed the link to the salesperson at Dell to see what he thinks. Hopefully Dell is on top of it ;-)

 

[dg27]

I'll add a second HD for files later. Just going to use the primary HD for OS and programs mainly.

I agree with this advice, particularly since you are using Photoshop. It's always best to set up an internal HD as your scratch disk, where the temp files are stored while you're working on a piece. And I am not a fan of storing data files of any kind on the boot drive. I have a 1TB boot on my Dell 9100 and it's total waste of space (I'm using about 60 GBs for the OS + apps). I keep my graphics files on an internal 1 TB drive and have that as well a 2nd internal as my two scratch disks.

dg