Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (
More info?)
Darren Yatadooet <googlegroup@cowcope.com> coughed up the following:
> I'm looking to replace my 4 year old desktop Dell.(which is slowly
> dying a blue screen death) with another. I own two dells (the other a
> laptop, about 2 1/2 years old) and I have been pleased. A few
> questions.
>
> 1) What's the Dell experience like these days.
Hardware: Lots of bang for buck
Service: Horrible
> 2) What is the minimum I need to be able to edit digital video and
> possibly play some decent games? I need an idea of what to look for.
> Do I need two DVD drives? Two hard drives? What?
For gaming alone, avoid the 2400: it has no AGP port and thus you will not
be able to add a higher-end AGP card down the road. And games these days
that are 3D action (ALL of the good ones in IMO
) live and die by the
power of the video card.
> 3) Any recommendations on which processor to choose or Dell model to
> pick?
Too vague. I /can/ tell you the following:
0. I spent a looonnnnnggg time researching and ended up with a
Dim8300/3.0GHz/800fsb/512MB/80GB HD for $938 (without monitor).
1. IMO, in /general/ unless you want to get absurdly serious, don't stray
too far from the Dimension series. They are the cheapest $/horsepower as
near as I can tell.
2. There are two ways to go here: Go cheap and assume that you'll just be
upgrading soon and continually (really not that bad a way to go). Or go
more expensive with the idea of staying around for a while (this is my
strategy---mostly because I'm far too lazy to keep changing out systems).
3. In /general/ chose the pentium over the celeron, unless money is a huge
object. For what you suggested you want, stay clear of the xeon.
4. WHATEVER you do, make sure that you have a BARE FREAKING MINIMUM of 256MB
of memory since XP (and win2k to a lesser extent) eat memory like candy.
5. You probably don't want the Dell DVD burner since that is DVD+RW only and
not DVD-RW, which /might/ cause you trouble if you really are interested in
making movies compatible for all DVD systems out there. Buy a dual mode DVD
aftermarket.
6. Avoid the "value hard drive", as that is a 5400 rpm drive. Stay with at
least 7200 rpm. Furthermore, go with SATA if you can, but be warned that it
isn't really worth paying much for since it's bandwidth is comparable to ATA
currently. That'll change big-time in the future, but don't fret about it
now.
7. (I repeat this until I'm blue in the face): investigate BOTH the home
side and business side of dell. You can get to both from the main dell.com
site. Also, when you get well versed in their web site, you will learn how
to flip through the options and configurations with ease.
Good luck, and report back with a configuration you're considering, and
someone here will most assuredly let you know if you are making a mistake.
Thomas
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