Just ordered a new DELL.. Tell me what ya think.. (1 Viewer)

[Chip E]

Scratch the junk Haron Kardon speakers that come with this order. I bought the Logitech Z680 system in the peripherals section on DELL's site

5.1 DD/DTS processor 550watts total


Order detail - order placed 4/19/2003 1:45:52 PM

Pentium® 4 Processor at 2.80GHz w/533MHz front side bus/ 512K L2 Cache Qty:

1 Unit Price: $1,494.00

Floppy Drive and Additional Storage Devices 3.5 in Floppy Drive
Mouse Dell® 2-button scroll mouse
CD or DVD Burner for 2nd bay FREE UPGRADE! New 48x/24x/48x Max CD-RW Drive
Sound Card Sound Blaster Audigy 2™ sound card with DVD Audio
Security Software Norton Antivirus® 2003 12-month subscription upgrade
Limited Warranty, Services and Support Options 1 Year Limited Warranty plus 1 Year At-Home Service
Software Bundles Microsoft® Works Suite 2003 with Money 2003
Operating System Microsoft® Windows® XP Home Edition
Memory SAVE $60! (Savings included in price) 512MB DDR SDRAM at 333MHz
Monitors 19 in (18.0 in viewable) M992 Monitor
Keyboard Dell® Enhanced Multimedia Keyboard
Special Offer $50 Special Offer
Digital Music Dell Jukebox powered by MUSICMATCH
Speakers New Harman Kardon® HK-206 Speakers
Hard Drive 30GB Ultra ATA/100 7200RPM Hard Drive
Network Interface Integrated Intel® PRO 10/100 Ethernet
CD or DVD Drive 16 Max DVD-ROM Drive
Digital Photography Dell Picture Studio, Image Expert Standard
Modem 56K PCI Telephony Modem
Video Cards New 128mb DDR ATI Radeon™ 9700 TX Graphics Card with TV-Out and DVI

 

[Scott L]

Lookin good! I like the graphics card, though I heard to be wary when there's a TX in the name. Can anyone explain?

 

[Todd K]

Well, I can't tell you what a die hard HTPC enthusiast would say, but I can say that it's pretty much identical to the computer I would buy if I were to throw down the cash today.

A very solid machine -- way to go.

 

[Michael*K]

I would have thought $1500 could buy you a hard drive larger than 30GB.

 

[Chip E]

Yeah.. had i not moved some other things around and not upgraded the memory,sound card,video card.monitor & antivirus, yeah, i could've got a bigger hard drive. I have a 17 gig HD in my current computer and never used more than 10 gig. Should suffice

Thanks guys. I'll be moving my Microsoft Intellipoint Explorer optical mouse to this computer too.

 

[Todd K]

edit, double post

 

[Todd K]

You know as I was responding I was thinking that the smaller hard drive probably saved you some money. Whenever I went to price a similar model to yours on the Dell site, the default was always a large hard drive and I always thought I wish I could get a smaller one for less $$. Between the two hard drives I have now, I have 53 gigs of space and I use like 12. The money saved can go to more important resources.

 

[Chip E]

Todd,

The default option was a 60 gig HD. $50.00 more for something i won't use. Spread that 50 bucks elsewhere in the order...ya know? I'll probably have the new mean machine by Monday. Cool!

 

[Isaac K]

Looks like a nice PC. I take it you don't play games because that hard drive would be way too small then.

 

[MikeAlletto]

You can save money when pricing computers at dell by choosing minimum memory (but it from crucial for about half the price) and a smaller HD. But that assumes they aren't offering deals. Sometimes their deals offset the cost of buying memory from crucial, but not always.

Speaking of HD usage, I've got a 30GB and 80GB HD in my pc now that I built. The 30GB is just about full and the 80 has about 20GB free, so I too think 30 is really small, but then again I have a ton of crap on my computer

 

[BrianB]

You can save money when pricing computers at dell by choosing minimum memory (but it from crucial for about half the price) and a smaller HD. But that assumes they aren't offering deals. Sometimes their deals offset the cost of buying memory from crucial, but not always.

Indeed. I just bought a 4550 last week. "Free offer" was a choice between double the HD or $100 off a RAM upgrade. With the cost of RAM from dell, it was much more economical to go with the 60GB HD & go buy a stick of RAM elsewhere.

When it comes to HD space, generally your files always grow to match any increase in space. Certainly in my experience...

Very happy with my 2.6GHz P4 for $460 shipped

 

[jeff peterson]

Ok, Brian...spill, where'd you get that price?

 

[Chip E]

The Z680's are on back order till 5/5.. probably a good thing since there was a hiss issue with the DD decoder unit with this package. All the newer ones shipping are supposed to have a fix. (fingers crossed)
DELL people said i might have the rest of the order by Saturday.

 

[BrianB]

Ok, Brian...spill, where'd you get that price?

From the HTF's deals page (via GotApex!). It was a combination of four deals - $100 off, $100 rebate, free HD upgrade to 60G + free shipping.

It should be noted the graphics card is rubbish -32MB Rage Maxx or something - and it needs a 512MB stick of RAM desperately, but apart from that, it's a nice complete system.

Five of us at work ordered the same machine, on the same day as it was really good value. If you're in the market for a Dell or similiar, it's well worth checking the HTF Deals page each day.

 

[Scott L]

Chip I'm glad you're excited about those speakers but try hooking up your PC to your theater. You'll probably be wanting to put them on Ebay after a listen or two.

 

[Chuck C]

I'll tell you what, I've just become addicted to ripping CDs onto my HD in Windows Media Player 9. Each CD at 192Kbps is about 100-120mb. That could really add up. I'd like to get about 100+ GB on my next computer.

 

[Chip E]

You guys got me thinking... I have 30 days to upgrade anything i want. I just might, for an extra 70 bucks, upgrade to the 120 gig Western Digital Caviar Speciale Edition HD. Has a 8 meg buffer. I'd have to clean the thing up anyway once i got the computer with all the junk software they install. This way, i get a nice big HD and get to install what i want on it. Some of you may be right... just get a bigger hard drive- what the hell