[OT] About Dell Computers

[legacy-^vs^Bazza]

Hey all got a quick question bout Dell pre-made computers, am getting one of those Dell Dimensions 2400 PC's cuz they only £300 but this person in a computer shop who suposdely 'knows' about these things is saying they aint all what they supposed to be. . . . now from the site i think you get a celeron 2.6ghz and 256mb ddr ram so i thought with my GeForce 4 ti4200 it wouls make an okish system which should play pretty much any game out atm even if only just ;) but the guy in the shop says it won't :weird:

so anyone know if the celeron really lets it down or what? should it be all ok? wanna order it asap so lemme know plz

oh yeh an incase anyone was worried or anything the reason i aint bin round for the last like 2month is cuz my comp is broke an thats why im gettin the dell but not if its no good :p

[legacy-CH405]

That person was right.
Dont waste your money on a Dell.
If you can, select your own parts and build your PC.

Those specs wont run just about every game WELL :p

Oh and 1GB RAM is recommended if you intend in buying a PC :)

[legacy-Impy]

Both the celeron processor and ram (256mb) ram let that computer down. With that processor and ram (and your gf4200) you will NOT be able to 'play every game out there' - at least not to any sort of respectable frame rate

Impy

[legacy-precmach]

celrons are slooooooooow.my mom has a 2.6 celron and my spare pc thats a p4 1.4 seems faster.i couldnt beleive it myself but its reallly slow i wouldnt recommend celrons to anyone regardless if your playing games or whatever you do

[legacy-^vs^Bazza]

ummm what if i only have £300 to spend? it dont matta if it dont play every game well as long as it plays them im happy ;)

oh yeh and my old PC was a 1.1ghz with 256pc100 ram :p

[T@F]

I would check to see if you get onboard graphics,and can it be disabled in the bios?otherwise you prob wont be able to use your GeForce 4 ti4200..

Also the celeron is not a very good chip imho...

[legacy-EX1LE]

Last time I looked low end Dells had no AGP slot.

[legacy-^vs^Bazza]

Originally posted by EX1LE
Last time I looked low end Dells had no AGP slot.

really? :(

well thats ruined that plan

[legacy-Alpha2003]

dont get a celeron. even if you put a gig in the mobo, it wont run at its intended speed

[legacy-^vs^Bazza]

well then so if the dell aint all that any other places i can get one from for 300-350 inc delivery? on a really tight budget i know but i have to buy a new PC so i dont have much choice really. . . .

[legacy-Narcolepsy]

Originally posted by ^vs^Bazza
really? :(

well thats ruined that plan
Yes, it has no AGP slot. Don't buy it!

There's one thing I've learned: If you're going to buy a computer, buy a computer. Buy something that works, and you can actually be happy with. A computer that cheap will never cut it for games.

EDIT: My guess is that most people will tell you to build your own. :D

[legacy-^vs^Bazza]

hmmm so the dell is now totally outta the question great :(

well so with like a maximum of £350/$600 is there anywhere i can get anything from? :(

[legacy-Narcolepsy]

Not if you want to play games. Well, on second thought, you could "technically" "play" games, but if your definition of "fun" involves fancy things like "interactivity" and framerates more than negative 5, then you might want to build your own. It's the only way you could get anything good for that price.

EDIT: Remember, Dells aren't bad (I have one), but only 4*** series and up would help you out.

[legacy-BeerGut]

I have a Dell, they're nice, but are kind of limited as far as upgrading goes. They use a proprietary motherboard made for them by intel which means you can't just go out and buy a different case if you want to, you have to buy a new board also because the Dell board probably won't fit right in a different case. The cases are the main problem of Dell PC's. They're built so everything runs quietly and not much attention is paid to heating issues. If I play UT2004 for over an hour my room turns into a sauna because of all the heat that is released from the PC. Other than that, it's problem free and runs just fine. Btw, I wouldn't get a Celeron chip, and I would get at least 512 RAM. Put it this way, say some time down the road you want to upgrade to a gig of RAM, if you only have 256, you'll have to buy 2 512 sticks or just one gig stick, if you already have 512, you just have to buy one other 512 stick.

[legacy-EX1LE]

You could build a pretty decent Athlon 64 PC for that.

[legacy-Alpha2003]

www.cyberpowerinc.com

go there.

[legacy-BeerGut]

Originally posted by ^vs^Bazza
hmmm so the dell is now totally outta the question great :(

well so with like a maximum of £350/$600 is there anywhere i can get anything from? :(

There are better deals at Dell for $600, you just have to mix and match parts yourself and come up with a combo that will suit your needs. You might want to wait a few more months, because once all this new BTX and PCI Express technology comes out, the older ATX stuff will be a lot less expensive.

[legacy-^vs^Bazza]

ok well all i want is a PC around as good as my broke one 1.1ghz and 256mb ram cuz that could handle UT2004 so if i can get one anywhere thats a lil bit better than that for £300-£350 then im more than happy :D

oh and if i was to build my own i would need to buy EVERYTHING cuz i currently have nothing which i could use :(

[legacy-hmishima]

I just built for $700 this PC:

2.8GHz P4 HT
512MB Ram
120GB HD
DVD Burner
DVD ROM
CASE with 400W PS and 8in1 cardreader
Floppy drive
Geforce FX5200 128MB
256MB USB Drive
Gigabyte MB

It can be done for the price you need.

[legacy-^vs^Bazza]

Originally posted by Alpha2003
www.cyberpowerinc.com

go there.

those PC's are amazing and so cheap so where's the catch? also do they deliver to the UK? :D

oh and if i was to end up building my own (which i wont after seeing them) ebuyer best place to go or what?

[legacy-Turbidity]

I personally have a Dimension 8200, and it works flawlessly. I can run 8xAA and 16xAF in H.S. detail levels, and still get 40-50+ fps in medium-sized dm maps. T:V can take ultra high on everything, and run without any noticable drop in framerate. Both are Unreal Engine, so i'm guessing that any other UE2 or UE2.5 games out there are easily handled.

Now for the downside. Its commonly known that upgrading dells is a pain. It uses RDRAM, which is already rare and expensive. To make it better, it has to be PC800 40ns RDRAM to work correctly. A clanmate had some lying around collecting dust and sent it to me...and even then it didn't work.

All in all, i'd avoid dells. The heating is another issue (i often have to open windows when i play games for a long time) as well as the case design. The BIOS is pretty bland too. Overall, Dell just doesn't cater to gamers.

[legacy-Saito]

why don't you just build your own turbidity... it saves allot of cash;)

[legacy-Impy]

Originally posted by ^vs^Bazza

oh and if i was to build my own i would need to buy EVERYTHING cuz i currently have nothing which i could use :(

You say your old computer is broke (but you dont say how). If you can salvage the Harddrive, Optical drives, PSU (perhaps). hell even the floppy drive. You mention you arealdy have a gf4200

You can then get yourself a new case, MOBO (with onboard sound/lan). Pick up 512 Mb ram and a processor cheaply and build your self a nice little system.
Go for a half decent athlon MOBO, a 2500+XP CPU and 512Mb of PC3200, you could get that for <300quid. If your lucky and the winds behind you you'll even be able to overclock that 2500+ to 3200+ speeds

Impy

(you quote prices in pounds - where about in the uk are you just out of interest)

[legacy-coldplasma]

this is dells strategy.....

Make a PC with low spec motherboard, PSU, etc and double memory
Make Advert which say that it has "pentium 4" or "intel celeron" without establishing how much MHz it is
Come up with slogan "It's easy as dell"
Make an overcharged price and throw in a lowgrade printer or 2

The adverts that are made are supposed to attract people who know little to nothing about computers. It means that they wont complain about poor performance. Tbh, i've heard nothing good about Dell, that goes with TIME Computers as well. Only company i trust to make setups is IBM but i prefer to build my own rigs cos then i know what im getting

[legacy-Turbidity]

Originally posted by Saito
why don't you just build your own turbidity... it saves allot of cash;)
My dell was a christmas present. I'm planning on building one when i get the funds.

[legacy-Impy]

Originally posted by coldplasma
this is dells strategy.....

Make a PC with low spec motherboard, PSU, etc and double memory
Make Advert which say that it has "pentium 4" or "intel celeron" without establishing how much MHz it is
Come up with slogan "It's easy as dell"
Make an overcharged price and throw in a lowgrade printer or 2


That not quite dells or time strategy (or pcworld for that matter).
They will quote clock speeds but what they do is not mention if its a Celeron or P4, they will shoehorn the faster processor into the crappest MOBO they can do and sell that with all the other components being crap.
You can still see the 'old' northwood 3.06Ghz P4 being sold as a top of the range processor at PCworld etc despite it having only a 533Mhz FSB and usign slower PC2700Ram, simply beause it breaks that magical 3Ghz processor speed that your average newbie PC buyer is interested in. Will be worse if they ever release a 3.oGhz Celeron....


Impy

[legacy-Early_bath]

Originally posted by Impy
You say your old computer is broke (but you dont say how). If you can salvage the Harddrive, Optical drives, PSU (perhaps). hell even the floppy drive. You mention you arealdy have a gf4200

You can then get yourself a new case, MOBO (with onboard sound/lan). Pick up 512 Mb ram and a processor cheaply and build your self a nice little system.
Go for a half decent athlon MOBO, a 2500+XP CPU and 512Mb of PC3200, you could get that for <300quid. If your lucky and the winds behind you you'll even be able to overclock that 2500+ to 3200+ speeds

Impy

(you quote prices in pounds - where about in the uk are you just out of interest)

I did just that, upgraded my comp from athlon 2100+ with 256Mb SDRAM, to Athlon 2500+ with 512MB DDR on an ASUS A7N8X-X for < £150.

Haven't bothered to overclock it, cos UT2004 already runs sweetly (then again I do have a raddy 9800pro, which helps ;)).

[legacy-^vs^Bazza]

ok so the Dell idea is completely out of the question. . . . parts i can salvage from my old computer are the GeForce4 a 20gb harddrive (maybe) and thats it, i've had my old comp looked at and its had a really bad case of dust :rolleyes: - apparantly the dust has burned onto all the parts so badly that there now totally unusable except the g/card and im hoping the h/drive oh yeh and the cd drives etc.

building my own could be a struggle there's no real computer shops round near me well no cheap one's atleast so im gunna have to buy everything online so the p&p will prolly run up to quite a bit right? oh and i have to get a new moniotr cuz my other one is like 15years old and the colours have pretty much gone :bulb:

i'll take a look on ebuyer an see what i can get for cheap oh an im still looking at those cyberpower ones ;)

[legacy-Impy]

A decent size harddrive can be had for less than 50-60quid these day. Postage and package only become expensive is you order from different suppliers and have to pay their minimum charge for small items.

I have ordered getting on for a couple of thousand pounds worth off stuff from ebuyer in the past 2-3 years. I have found them to be very reliable and competive on price.

Impy

[legacy-^vs^Bazza]

ok so ebuyer will be my best bet now then? hope i can get one together for £300 - thxz for the info Impy :)

[legacy-coldplasma]

you can also salvage monitor, keyboard, printer, mouse etc, all that stuff would add a good £100 or so on top if you bought them new

[legacy-SJAndrew]

The machine at which you're looking is not a gaming machine. It's an internet browsing, word processing, e-mailing machine that would be perfect for my mother.

With Dell, like other companies, you get what you pay for.

The $300 machine you're looking at will perform exactly on par with its price point. Their gaming rigs are also on par with their exorbitant price.

If you already have an OS, Monitor, case and other components, you can build a great Athlon system (motherboard, RAM, HDD, Processor) for about the same price as the cheap complete Dell system.

To say that Dell makes bad computers is wrong. They make a wide variety of systems. Their low end systems are just that: low end. Their high end systems are pretty decent (albeit expensive).

I've had two Dells. Both were fine machines. But, when I grew more comfortable with opening the case, I built my first system about 5 years ago.

The bottom line is that if you're serious about your gaming system, you need to build it yourself. You won't be stuck with a proprietary PSU, proprietary case, and FSB/Voltage locked motherboard.

[legacy-^vs^Bazza]

right ebuyer has some real nice prices so thxz\ for the help all ima go with building my own (i knew you all would convince me) hope i can set it all up right lol :p ;)

[legacy-SJAndrew]

Originally posted by ^vs^Bazza
right ebuyer has some real nice prices so thxz\ for the help all ima go with building my own (i knew you all would convince me) hope i can set it all up right lol :p ;)

A couple words of advice for the new builder:

1) Pay special attention to the mounting feet in your case. Typically, your case will have some screw-in brass risers to which the MOBO attaches. Most cases are universal ATX form factors meaning it's possible you might have these risers where there is no mounting hole on your particular board. If there is a riser and no corresponding mounting hole, remove the riser. If you don't. you will short out your motherboard as the backing plate is grounded.

2) If you can't get it to POST (beep, spin up and start), remove it from your case and try testing it on a non-conductive surface.

3) Don't do ANYTHING without your Heat Sink installed in your processor. The new procs make enough heat to be damaged very quickly.

4) Read the manual all the way through before starting.

Building is actually very simple. Take your time. Take your time. Take your time!!

[legacy-The_Smurf]

www.overclockers.co.uk has some good prices too. Couple of mates of mine have got parts from there before now and they've all been ok - got good advice from em too.

[legacy-^vs^Bazza]

hehe thxz for the tips :D

[legacy-Impy]

Originally posted by SJAndrew
To say that Dell makes bad computers is wrong. They make a wide variety of systems. Their low end systems are just that: low end. Their high end systems are pretty decent (albeit expensive).


I agree with this, I have had neighbours and work colleagues ask me to recommend a system. I have no hesitation recommending dell as a prebuilt system that will be mainly used for basic tasks etc.

The built quality and support are second to none for the PC newbie. Obviously now I can build my own I do, but for someone less confident who needs the warranty/ telephone support dell are a good choice.

Build your own is getting easier these days (pretty much follow instructions and it will work - unlike the real old days of motherboard jumpers, editing configs and autoexecs to get the pc up and running) so Build your own is the way to go if you have a bit of PC knowledge.

The first build is always the scariest, but the sense of satifaction and achievement is so good when you put together your first system is worth it (I hope other self builders can relate to this, and offer the original poster some encouragement - as that first build is always a bit nerve wracking :D )

Impy

[legacy-EX1LE]

Read the motherboard manual very carefully make sure you know what goes where before you try something.

[legacy-Diehard]

Bazza

IF you have some friends who "KNOWS" about PC hardware and let him watch in the background ,when you have read the instructions.

So if you where about to something WRONG :cry: , he or she could stop it.

[legacy-^vs^Bazza]

ok thanks all i think i got a system sorted for a total of £326

Nforce2 mobo
AMD XP 2500+
512 DDR Ram
80gb H/Drive
17" Monitor
Keyboard n Mouse
Case/Psu

should be ok for now, i know how to put all the parts together etc but not sure what i need to do in the bios an that but i should be ok if not i know so,me ppl who can help :)

[legacy-SJAndrew]

Originally posted by ^vs^Bazza
Nforce2 mobo
AMD XP 2500+
512 DDR Ram

Good mid-level system. A profound improvement over the Celeron.

[legacy-Mohlraax]

I have that, just a AMD XP 2600+... and not Nforce2 mobo. I have a underpowered Radeon 9800 pro... it is sayd to be waay belove the normal 9800 pros, and I still run UT2004 at holy sht settings... in DM... ONS I need to lower it a bit...! I'm sure thats 326 well spendt quids... aspecially over the celeron crap! :up:

[legacy-[SGC]-Dominion]

Processor http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/products/index.html?rb=1593097040&action=c2hvd19wcm9kdWN0X292ZXJ2aWV3&product_uid=47843
Motherboard http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/products/index.html?rb=1593112053&action=c2hvd19wcm9kdWN0X292ZXJ2aWV3&product_uid=58198 with onboard sound
Memory http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/products/index.html?rb=1593129819&action=c2hvd19wcm9kdWN0X292ZXJ2aWV3&product_uid=42149
GFX Card http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/products/index.html?rb=1593154376&action=c2hvd19wcm9kdWN0X292ZXJ2aWV3&product_uid=55190
Cooler http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/products/index.html?rb=1593176308&action=c2hvd19wcm9kdWN0X292ZXJ2aWV3&product_uid=63314
Case http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/products/index.html?action=c2hvd19wcm9kdWN0X292ZXJ2aWV3&product_uid=60385

Total cost £307.07

This assumes you can salvage the rest from your old PC and put up with the old monitor for now. If you ditch the graphics card shown above you could get an extra stick of memory and have some change. I have not included a 56k modem as most gamers are on broadband.

Hope this helps.

[Edit]
Beat me to it :D

[legacy-Sailor_Saturn]

Originally posted by ^vs^Bazza
hmmm so the dell is now totally outta the question great :(

well so with like a maximum of £350/$600 is there anywhere i can get anything from? :(

i saw a post a while back with someone who bought an emachines, I believe it was they're current high model: http://www.emachines.com/products/products.html?prod=eMachines_T3092#

now heres what you do, grab that, slap in your ti4200, and youll be able to run most games decently, in this case the card will be the bottleneck, and in ut2004's case, the ram too a bit, but you can add another 512 for really cheap. If you want my advice, I say (provided you dont wanna build ur own, which would be a better choise, but possably more expensive) get the emachines (atleast is has an ag8xslot, more ram then the dell, and a decent processor) and then grab a 9800pro for $200-$250 or so on newegg (http://newegg.com/) and slap that card in there, youll get great performance in games and youll be spending under a grand - with no pc building required, just slap in the video card.

Good luck.

[jefe]

Don't buy a low-end Dell for gaming. You'll be verry disappointed. As mentioned, the 2x00 series lacks AGP slots, and in addition have little or no expansion room, which essentially rules out any upgrades.

The midrange 4x00 series tend to be a better value, at least when I worked there they did, and had the lowest markup, so salespeople will do the best to steer you away from it, just so it doesn't affect their stats and therefore their paycheck :).

8x00 and the 'xtreme gaming' models have better performance, but are also EXTREMELY overpriced.


Best thing to do, research things, and build your own.

[legacy-A2597]

Originally posted by EX1LE
Last time I looked low end Dells had no AGP slot.

I didn't know ANY dells had an AGP slot. LOL

Here. just buy a new mobo/CPU/Ram and slap it into your current case (I'm assuming ATX standard form?):

Mobo: $54
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=13-130-438&depa=0

Proessor: (Athlon XP 2600+ Barton 512K Cache) $84
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=19-103-417&depa=0

Heatsink: (Thermaltake SilentBoost, the best available IMHO) $21
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=35-106-037&depa=0

Artic Silver thermal compound: $4 (IMPORTANT FOR ALL CPUs!!!
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=35-100-009&depa=0

RAM: (Kingston 256 DDR 3200, yes you'll be underclocking it, but it will save you later. $44 each, get two for 512megs, so $88)
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=20-141-425&depa=0

Total: $251.00 USD

If, and that is IF you have a VERY crappy power supply, get that too:
Thermaltake 480watt silentpower: $55
http://www.newegg.com/app/viewproductdesc.asp?description=17-153-007&DEPA=0


There you go, a kickass system that beats the crud out of dell, for less. When you need to upgrade, well, you appear to lag behind a few graphics generations (Very wise actually) So going for a 9800 Pro in a year or two, it will handle it fine, and the CPU will not be a bottleneck, or get a new CPU and the RAM will not be a bottleneck.


Edit: Dang, just relized your in the UK....ummm...well, dunno, I know newegg doesn't ship over there, find a frined in the US... LOL I don't know UK venders that well I'm afraid...but 300US would be like, 160 pounds, soooo...yea.