Help, don't let Dell get me!!!

Stevio

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I'm off to uni in a few months and my parents have decided to give me a nice sendin off present - A new PC, nice folks they are!!!
Anyway they are intent on filling good old Dell's pockets with their hard earned cash (something I am whole heartedly against.) They are tempted by the offer of a free printer and camera the naive fools.
I am currently in the process of convicing them that £800 could be much better spent on one built by my own bare hands!
What do you recon I could get for this kind of cash I need somethin which can handle gaming, maybe stick a Ti4200 in there? (bit of a UII buff see!)

Any help would be appriciated

If its not broke then fiddle about with it anyway what harm can it do!
 

endyen

Splendid
Ye that's about $1300. You should be able to put together an ok setup with that. It would be better if you already had an os and maybe a monitor. By the way , maybe look at the 4800 ti . Most of the benchmarks Ive seen give you a lot of bang for a few dollars more. Also hang off for as long as you can . These cards are going done in price like a rock.
 

phial

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nooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

*curls up in a ball*

-------

<A HREF="http://www.xgr.com" target="_new">XGR-Game Reviews</A>

<font color=red>120% ATi Fanboy!</font color=red>
 

papasmurf

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dell is the suck! Don't let them buy one for you! Damn I'd rather die than run a dell. I have a dell box here but I cant figure out what the [-peep-] is wrong with it. I think it is either the powersupply or the mainboard or maybe just one of the settings on the mainboard either way I cant find out because of dells nifty rearangement of the psu supply cable pins though it is tempting to plug in a standard psu just to torch the damned thing and send it back to hell... Don't waste your money on a dell!

Treat your body like a $600 car. God didn't intend it to last so use it. Run it into the ground!
 

rcj187

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i priced this up for a friend at work..
athlonxp2400
msi kt400
512mbDDr333
128mb radeon 9000 retail
wd caviar60gb 8mbcache
52x24x52x 16x cd-rw/dvd combo
56k modem
onboard sound
case with 350w psu
round cables
17" monitor
winxp home

£700
all parts are from Watford Electronics in luton www.watford.co.uk. they are very reliable and cheap outlet and they sell pretty much everything
 

Stevio

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That sounds like a pretty good system, by the sounds of other posts on this forum the Athlon XP is the way to go for a system in my price range

How does the 128mb radeon 9000 compare with the 4800 ti?

Thanks for your help

If its not broke then fiddle about with it anyway what harm can it do!
 

Stevio

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The post by PapaSmurf has begun to sway my parents anyway so keep badmouthin Dell and they will lose a customer :)

If its not broke then fiddle about with it anyway what harm can it do!
 

rcj187

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noy sdure how the 128mb radeon 9000 compares with the ti4800 but if your parents are willing to spend £800 it shouldnt be hard to convince them to get the radeon 9500pro instead.
best thing to do is just shop around for the best prices. i live fairly close to luton so watford electronics is the best deal for me. you may find somewhere cheaper.
by the way they got a very cheap ram at the moment 256MB ddr333 for £20.. maybe not the fastest timings but ive used their ram before and its very reliable.
 

hoserb2000

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Badmouth Dell??? oh the injustice of it... just because they use shoddy PSU's(I know, my friends have been "delled"), a totaly unuseable homegrown BIOS, and tech support the leaves somthing to be desired (a gun) doesnt mean you should write them off just like that!

They are tempted by the offer of a free printer and camera the naive fools
so right! there accessories (keyboards, mouse, printers, cameras) are all really cheap(and flimsy) stuff.

Tell us how it goes

p.s, the TI 4800 is basicly a 4200 with agp8x. I would say that the cheapest high-ish end card out there is the 9500 Pro. If you are looking for a good buget card, the Radeon 8500-9500(non pro) are all very nice. You should give Toms VGA charts a look to see how they all stand <A HREF="http://www6.tomshardware.com/graphic/20021218/vgacharts-05.html" target="_new">here</A>

<font color=blue>Let's see, 500 posts a day, each day, for 30 days, and I will have more posts than Crashman!</font color=blue>
 
No No not a Dell, you'll end up in Dell hell, got a problem send the computer back to us, want to upgrade, send the computer back to us, or maybe they'll send a computer tech to your home, at their convenience, Not!

<b><font color=purple>Details, Details, Its all in the Details, If you need help, Don't leave out the Details.</font color=purple></b>
 
you forgot office XP either small business or professional. not to mention a printer.

"Bread makes me poop!" - Special Ed

<A HREF="http://www.anandtech.com/mysystemrig.html?id=9933" target="_new"> My Rig </A>
 
have you ever had a Dell ever in your entire life!? I have set up about 20 of them. Every single one of them worked. Out of 20 i had one that had a problem. That was an easy fix though because it was a bad ribbon cable. That isn't dells fault thats the manufactorer that made the ribbon cable.

Dells are nice they work, they are stable and thats that.

"Bread makes me poop!" - Special Ed

<A HREF="http://www.anandtech.com/mysystemrig.html?id=9933" target="_new"> My Rig </A>
 
I like dells. I would never buy a PC from them because i'm smart enough to build my own. Even though it DOES cost more to build your own. You forget the software and warranty that comes with your PC. That costs extra money. ANd you have no software or warranty with your computer. So if it breaks down you have to call every single manufactorer and hope they will let you RMA that one part. If you're smart enough to know what part is bad. Otherwise you're dead in the water so to speak.

With a dell, if it crashes or dies, you just call up dell to fix it. If it's serious enough and you got "at home" service they will send a technician to YOUR house to fix it. This is nice for any user! THIS is what your paying for! and if you go look up how much Office XP Small business is, it's about 200 bucks at least. i think it's more but i'm not sure. so add another 200 bucks ontop of frustrations if your computer doesn't work becuase you got NOONE to call!

You don't seem like a computer profesional. I can only recommend building a PC if you wanna learn or you're a profesional. professional i mean has been building PC's for a long time and if something goes wrong you can look for it and fix it yourself.

so ya you can go ahead and build your own PC "Cheaper" but be aware a decent printer costs a 100 bucks, you will have NO warranty other than the individual parts, and NO software. Windows XP home costs a 100 bucks and professional costs 200. Office XP is in the range of 200 to 500 dollars.

The Dell is looking nice isn't it? not to mention you don't have to put it together YOURSELF.

But hey like one of the posts said here, how much do you know about computers?

Dells are nice though. I think you'll be overly impressed by it as i was. It's so easy to setup and it works. I plan on buying a laptop from them. Don't be sucked into this extremism. find out for yourself. experience it yourself. don't listen to people here including myself. TRUST ME!

"Bread makes me poop!" - Special Ed

<A HREF="http://www.anandtech.com/mysystemrig.html?id=9933" target="_new"> My Rig </A>
 
have you EVER experienced this ever? or are you just spewing out crap?

"Bread makes me poop!" - Special Ed

<A HREF="http://www.anandtech.com/mysystemrig.html?id=9933" target="_new"> My Rig </A>
 

FyKnight

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I've experienced Dell's before. They are great. I just got a:

P4 2.53Ghz
80GB HD
Radeon 9700tx 128mb (Bit slower than the standard 9700)
48X CD Burner
128 MB PC2700 RAM (Put in 512mb more from cheaper place)
XP Home
Free digital camera
Warranty
Other standard prefab computer junk

for $580 shipped. I've built 30-40 machines for myself, friends, and work and I don't think i ever will again. You can get insane deals on Dell's about once a month by stacking their discounts.

Oh, and BTW you can upgrade your Dell all you want, it doesn't void the warranty. I think people say that cause they are pissed they wasted $1400 getting the same thing you could get from (crappy useless) Dell for $600. Is it 10% slower than a custom system? Sure, but so what if it costs so much less and you don't have to deal with it if it breaks.

I also got a 2Ghz Xeon server with 2X 73Gb U320 SCSI drives and a bunch of other stuff for my work for $640 with shipping.

You will not beat Dell with price/performance, not even close actually, if you get a good deal from them. Just keep an eye on Techbargains.com or any of the other sites that list crazy deals.
 

Stevio

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Grrr I just don't know what to do!! I would need a printer and new OS.
Iv'e got a good CD-RW an MS Office XP Pro in my home comp so that ain't to important!
Its just a case of where is better to buy a reasonably good speed processor/motherboard/memory and that all important decent graphics card for gaming!
I think I know enough about computers to build one myself, my qualifications say I can anyway :)

If its not broke then fiddle about with it anyway what harm can it do!
 
if you wanna learn go right ahead. If your expecting a stable running system by tomarrow guess again. You will have problems. Usually at first. After you figure them out it usually is fine until something breaks. Like a bad ribbon cable.

I'm gonna be upfront and i your face about it. AMD's are a pain. It's harder to get the processor on and off. The experts that have done it a 100 times will tell you it's easy but it isn't. You need two small flat head screw drivers and you gotta jimmy it to make it fit at the same time trying not to crush the cpu and scratch the motherboard to [-peep-]. I personally haven't done that and it should be rather hard to do so anyway. AMD's have gottin stable with the introduction of nforce2 chipset as well. AMD is NOT the fastest CPU around either! AMD's do not have internal thermal protection. So if you put the heatsink on wrong you're relying on a good quality motherboard to prevent your cpu from going meltdown.

Intel on the otherhand the P4 is actually very easy to put on with their mechanism they have. You still need a flat head screw driver though but it's actually quite easy though. Pretty stable and usually boots right up with exceptions. the p4 does infact have internal thermal protection and if you screw up the intel setup is pretty dummy proof.

AMD vs Intel - *shrugs* just a matter of preference. I like Intel better. Be very careful of these extremist nut cases that are gonna say "get AMD it's faster" or "Get Intel it's faster" these people never got laid or had a gf lol. just get what YOU want they both do exactly the samething. But take note to what i said above. Watch out for the hype! read benchmarks and reviews from many review sites! not just THG!! This is what you SHOULD do before buying any part. Make a list of what you need and go on review sites and see how each part is and how stable they are and what not. Both CPU's need thermal grease such as artic silver 3 seems to be the popular one. You can go to their website and they tell you how to put it on.

Just so you're aware it's no cake walk to put together a computer but it is one hell of a learning experience!!! It would definitly be good for you in many ways. Especially if computers is your field of research for what you wanna do.

Research before you buy to make sure it does what you want it to do! You might not be giving money to dell but you sure are giving money to all these other manufactorers including the vendors! Research Vendors too! It's a lot of work! Definitly easier to just call up dell and say "i want this this and this" and they build it for you! AND they test it for you! SO you're guanteed a working computer. Building one, sometimes you'll get "Dead On Arrival" devices and you gotta go through the hassel of RMA'ing it. That depends on your vendor where you bought it from. It's a pain in the butt! Buying a dell sounds easier huh?

"Bread makes me poop!" - Special Ed

<A HREF="http://www.anandtech.com/mysystemrig.html?id=9933" target="_new"> My Rig </A>
 

papasmurf

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yeah untill you try to upgrade them they are great. I have a dell (NOT my main rig) and I have friends with them and I must say they suck.

Treat your body like a $600 car. God didn't intend it to last so use it. Run it into the ground!
 

papasmurf

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Reasons dells suck:

1. The mainboards can not be replaced unless you buy a dell one or a new powersupply as dell has changed the pin outs on the power connector.

2. They can not be overclocked

3. The newer ones get very hot because dell would rather have quiet systems than stable systems.

4. They are slow, dell makes some very crappy mainboards which drag the systems down.

5. Their technical support is a joke, I've called them up many times and I always get some indian man with an accent I could never understand. After waiting on the phone for damn near an hour each call your ear begins to turn blue.

6. The dude you're getting a dell guy was arrested for possesion of marijuana if he had not been stoned he wouldn't have been so quick to reccomend dell.

7. The new dell cases are fragile they are made almost entirely out of plastic. A friend dropped his two feet at a lan party and the whole side cracked and the very thin aluminum interior bent every which way.

My suggestion:
Build your own system, it's cheap, it'll be fast, upgradable, and a learning experiance. It's a great feeling to complete a system and to know it inside out. This community is the best tech support you will ever need and we'll be here for you.

This is a general layout of a nice cheap system you could build:

Chieftec case (same as antec sx1030) $57 dollars which includes shipping from here http://www.buyxtremegear.com/blacturcasch1.html

Epox 8rda motherboard with a barton xp2500 cpu only $229 here: http://www.bzboyz.com/store/product3426.html

Enermax 430 watt power supply, never buy a generic power supply your system stability is at stake. $79 here:
http://www.ocsystem.com/en45peak462f.html

120gb western digital WD1200JB with 8mb of cache at 7200rpm for $128 here:
http://www.cnetpc.com/productinfo.asp?item=HD-WD1200JG

ATI RADEON 9500 PRO $160 here:
http://www.gameve.com/store/gameve_viewitem.asp?idproduct=1006&showit=1

oc system pc3200 ddr get 2 256mb sticks to run in dual channel mode, I have two sticks of this stuff and it is great memory mine actually runs as pc 3200 at cas 2 which is above its spec. $58 total here:
http://www.ocsystem.com/oc25pc40ddrs.html

I'd use the onboard sound on the nforce 2, it doesnt get much better than that and its already there. you could get a nice kds 17in monitor down at walmart for 150 and save on shipping with a keyboard and mouse at about 30 dollars each plus a good cdrom (I like the pioneer slot dvd roms) at about $50-$60 you are looking at a grand total of around $990 which is actually cheaper than the dell system and is a lot faster. The money you'll save leaves you room to get a better video card or a nice set of logitech z-540 speakers.


Treat your body like a $600 car. God didn't intend it to last so use it. Run it into the ground!
 
Can you elaborate more there? what did you try to upgrade and what happend?

"Bread makes me poop!" - Special Ed

<A HREF="http://www.anandtech.com/mysystemrig.html?id=9933" target="_new"> My Rig </A>
 

papasmurf

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many people destroy brand new motherboards by plugging a dell powersupply into them because they do not know that dell changed the pinout on their power supplies and motherboards. In order to put in a new motherboard in a dell you must also put in a new powersupply because if you don't you will see some fireworks.

Treat your body like a $600 car. God didn't intend it to last so use it. Run it into the ground!
 

rcj187

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you do not need 2 screwdrivers. you need 1! admittedly some hsf are more of a pain than others but its actually quite difficult to crack the core.. and yes i have actually tried!
intel are the higer performers but the overall system price especailly at midrange is more expensive for not much performance difference between the two. amd are stable. its the via chipsets which historically caused problems but they are much better now.
if you want convenience and you arent overly concerned about the best performance then get a dell.
if you want to learn and do it yourself then build your own. if you already have windows and office then even better as they will be 2 of the more expensive parts of your system. if you build your own you can get EXACTLY the system you want and you can upgrade and fix minor probs that you wouldnt really want to call tech support for. if you buy prebuilt chances are you will need to make a compromise somewhere. but like skater said be your own man and make your own choice. prebuilt or homemade. amd or intel. ati or nvidia. YOU decide
 

hoserb2000

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For somone starting new, with no parts/software, Dell might be a pretty good idea for you. But this guy has a OS, office package, and some hardware.

Fresh from the box, dell's are "ok". I say ok because many Dell motherboards have a USB power problem, and the only fix is to buy a USB hub. They have great deals too, because they get there stuff so cheap.

"Cheap" is the keyword, if you look through the fourms a bit, a dell tech support made a post saying how somthing like 80% of his calls came from people with the 2200's (the econo system) 19% from the 4400's (midrange) and almost none from 8800's (high end. As you start going to the 44-8800's, you will start to see that it is cheaper just to do it yourself.

AMD vs Intel... nooooooooooooooooooooo, lets not start that, if you realy want to read it there are LOTS of posts to look at.

<font color=blue>Let's see, 500 posts a day, each day, for 30 days, and I will have more posts than Crashman!</font color=blue>
 
*blinks*

Dell should put a label on there, if you sue i'm sure that would happen. You definitly got a case though. I will admit that.

I myself was going to do the samething. Then somehere on here told me about it. Glad they did! That doesn't mean dell's suck though. If anything you could have called them up, but Dell is still at fault.

you know WHY Dell stays away from the standards don't ya? if it dies you gotta buy their brand name for 200 bucks instead of going to a store and getting one that is far better for a 80 bucks. Every single company does that though. Use non-standard parts. HP, compaq, and gateway are worst!

overall though, Dells are pretty nice. You can't reuse their power supply, motherboard, and case though.

"Bread makes me poop!" - Special Ed

<A HREF="http://www.anandtech.com/mysystemrig.html?id=9933" target="_new"> My Rig </A>