Hmmm is buying a Dell a good iea?

Ghoest9 · 2003-05-10, 10:31 AM

Im upgrading my old 800 P3. I considered building a system and buying one. The only stuff I want to carry over is my moniter, vid card(GeF Ti 4200 - I figure Ill use this for another 6 months or so), keyboard aand speakers.

I can get
P4 2.66
1 gig of ddr sdram(333 bus)
2 cd drives
120 gig hard drive
56k modem
winXP(I dont have a copy so I have buy one if I build it.)

I can get this for about $1280 from Dell. This is way cheaper than comprable system from Alien ware and it doesnt seem to be much more than I would pay if I built it.

What Im wondring is am I looking at this right? It wouldnt be the first time I missed something rather obvious

powdahound · 2003-05-10, 12:53 PM

Should be decent. A better graphics card would really help you out though.

And remember the game isn't so sweet on 56k.

Jimbo · 2003-05-10, 12:59 PM

Two CD drives? Hope one is a burner or at least a DVD drive. Oh, and P4 is a good choice.

Sounds like a decent deal though and I agree with powdahound on the 56K thing.

Sentrosi · 2003-05-10, 07:11 PM

I'm not having a lot of trouble with my vid card right now. I just set the settings down to Medium and it got rid of most of my problems. Where going to the Highest settings yeilds great eye candy, the fact of the matter is that you're there to kill, not become a biologist.

$1280....hmmmmm....what you're getting from dell could be built for way cheaper. Let me do some hunting around tonight and I'll post what I've found. I hate ppl getting Dells/Gateways/Compaqs for gaming because I know what POS components they put in them.

Hunter83 · 2003-05-10, 09:21 PM

Seems ok.

But never expect to take that HDD out of the Dell and into something else. Dell uses proprietary hardware that won't let u take out various components and put them in other PC's.
That's why they make you(usually) upgrade through them.
I know b/c I took a 27GB SeaGate Barracuda out of my Dell and no matter what I tried I couldn't get it to work in my PC I built myself.
And I know that the HDD was still working because when I put it back in the Dell it worked.

I'm not sure if they still pull that kind of crap, but it's Dell. I doubt they changed their practices.
But maybe some other techie here knows more about what Dell is doing recently.

But I would hope your vid card would still work in the Dell system. Unless they're still using those stupid mobo's that don't even have an AGP slot.

Sentrosi · 2003-05-10, 11:13 PM

Motherboard: MSI 865PE NEO-FIS2R for $170.00 w/ free 3day shipping
Processor: P4 2.66Ghz (533Mhz FSB) with fan kit for $259.00 (could go with the OEM ($188.00), but then you only get a 60 day warranty and no fan kit)
Memory: Corsair CMX512-3200C2 512MB DDR SDRAM for $135.00 x 2 = $270
Case: 4336SL Q Window : Silver Aluminum - Skyhawk for $40.00
Power Supply: Enermax 450W Power Supply for$79.00
DVD Rom Drive: Silver 16X DVD DRIVE! W/ SOFTWARE for $60.00
CD-RW Drive: LITE ON! SILVER! 52X24X52 CDRW & SOFTWARE for $70.00
Hard Drive: 120GB Western Digital 7200 RPM 8Mb Cache for $123.00

Grand total: $1071
You could go with AMD. Total price would be $980.00 if you went this route.

Motherboard: MSI K7N2G-ILSR nForce2 for $140.00
Processor: AMD XP 2700+ (2.16Ghz) 333 FSB for $198.00

Doobz · 2003-05-11, 02:44 PM

that system seems ok, but the price is a complete ripoff

you can just buy most of that stuff independently for under 1000
they're probably way overcharging you for that RAM which is SDRAM, which completely blows

if i were you, i'd just buy the stuff independently

Ghoest9 · 2003-05-11, 03:16 PM

Sentro
If you add in the ~ $200 for the OS(which I need) the price is the same.

I know some of the components are better but the price is surprisingly close.

Zumthor · 2003-05-11, 04:21 PM

go to http://www.cyberpowersystem.com/home.htm
build what you need there, much cheaper.

OmnipotentKiwi · 2003-05-11, 04:30 PM

Also try Falcon Northwest. I haven't looked into them but they have gotten a shitload of good reviews.

Sentrosi · 2003-05-11, 07:30 PM

$200 for the OS? No way. $82 for OEM full version of XP on pricewatch.com.

Anyway, the components you'd be getting are top-of-the-line, all with great reviews and a greater range of expandability. Unlike Dells. I could quote you a nice system for now that would probably work great for you, just without most of the other tweeks involved. I mean, I rebuilt my system for $500 and it's great. Just doesn't have a RAID or built in Serial ATA ports. If you went to pricewatch.com and got quoted on my current system, the price would be $600. What I have is listed in my Sig.

What I was trying to demonstrate is that for $1200, if that is your budget, you can get top-of-the-line items if you purchased everything seperately. If you went with Dell, most likely you'd get crap for parts and have to uninstall most of the stuff that came with it.

OmnipotentKiwi · 2003-05-11, 07:35 PM

Yeah, if you really don't want to build a comp, atleast shop around for locations to buy it and read up on reviews. Dells are not gamer friendly.

CDL Full Otto · 2003-05-12, 12:26 PM

Dell has recently launched their gamer machines:

http://www.dell.com/us/en/dhs/produc...XPS.htm#tabtop

if you look at the machine it is pretty heavy:
P4 3g 800FSB
1 gig of ram
200 gig drive
19" monitor
ATI 9800 Pro 128

Not cheap but seem to have all the right stuff.

Mani from CDL runs a Dell. He bought a model that had the stuff he wanted and we swapped in a Gforce 4 card. But his has been stable.

We run Dell here at work and they are good machines. The key is the model you buy. You have to make sure your getting one that allows you to do what you want with it (I really considered buying an 8300 series when I went to get my new one, but since I can build them, I decided I could get a bit more if I did it myself)

The thing you do get with Dell is support, so if your not a Techy or know someone who is, you may still lean that way.

Otto

Daleon · 2003-05-12, 03:39 PM

Yes, be VERY careful about the model numbers. Many of the low end cheaper dimensions have some CRAPtasitc mb's. Many do not have AGP slots. This will really PISS you off believe me. So be sure to check that. B/c even if it says agp video, if its onboard, it may not have a slot.

The only reason I can see you buying a dell is if your gonna buy another dell or some other prebuilt in a year or two. Otherwise buying the better components individually for cheaper is the better way to go. For $1200 you could build a system with a smoking video card and totally trash that Dell's performance.

Only +'s Dell has is the support, if you spend extra on extended warranty. Which really if something went bad and wasn't covered anymore in something you built yourself, it would prolly cost less than this to replace with something better. They also generally have some fancy cooling duct fan setups, etc.

Falcon NW makes Alienware look cheap. Also the new Dell gamer series, anything only upgrade through Dell rip off.