DELL SYSTEMS are my specialty

[DELLINQUENT]

I find it funny when people put down a manufacturer like DELL. I have twelve computers running in my home at this time, eight of them are DELL and four are custom rigs I have built. The only time they are down is when I perform service/upgardes on them.

Is it me....? I have no schooling or real book knowledge. I have learned everything from sitting in front of the pc and learning how to make it work right.
Are you buying those little cheap machines they offer, every company does this. The under $500 computer....til you get it home and try to play a game on it.

Just like a car, a stereo or almost anything you can purchase...you get what you pay for and it doesn't stop there. To keep up with the times can mean constant upgrades and so on.

[zekrahminator]

I see what you mean, but...you can't exactly keep up with latest-and-greatest on a $500 or less budget :p.

[mullered07]

maybe its just me, i dont see the point in your thread. also dell sux imo, do you work for them or somthing lol ? they suck because they are expensive, they are hard/impossible to upgrade and 3 because the first 2 are good enough reasons for me :)

[DELLINQUENT]

No, I don't work for DELL. I also do not upgrade $500, they do not usually have the capability. I do buy their midstream or better and I get alot of them used.
The latest I have on the way is a DELL DIMENSION 8400

P4 3.0ghz HT
512mb DDR2
80GB SATA
128mb PCI-E (Most likely ATI)
Onboard sound

I plan to upgarde it to

P4 3.0ghz HT
2gb DDR2
1tb+ SATA RAID
512mb PCI-E (definitely ATI)
Creative Audigy2

All of theses are simple upgrades if you have the coin.

[DELLINQUENT]

Forgot to mention, I got the 8400 for about 2/3 the price it is worth, It seems there is a boot issue with Windows XP on reinstallation. Lucky for me I have run into this issue before. It should be as simple as disabling the Hyperthreading until XP boots for the first time and then enable it. This is the first pc I will have with pci-e. I will finally get to see if all the hype is true (i.e agp vs pci-e)

[mullered07]

No, I don't work for DELL. I also do not upgrade $500, they do not usually have the capability. I do buy their midstream or better and I get alot of them used.
The latest I have on the way is a DELL DIMENSION 8400

P4 3.0ghz HT
512mb DDR2
80GB SATA
128mb PCI-E (Most likely ATI)
Onboard sound

I plan to upgarde it to

P4 3.0ghz HT
2gb DDR2
1tb+ SATA RAID
512mb PCI-E (definitely ATI)
Creative Audigy2

All of theses are simple upgrades if you have the coin.

whats the point of that ? your gonna void your warranty anyway carrying out all them upgrades your self and to put a tb and another 1.5gb ram in ? why not just build your own it would cost you less and you could buy all that from the start instead of having to upgrade a sub-standard system, what kind of graphics card are you going to be putting in? cause a x1800 and upwards will be bottlenecked by that p4. i dont know of anyone who is capable of building there own rigs and would go with a prebuilt let alone a dell. but thats my opinion. :D

[Sasqui]

Ummm... Dell had it's place, but seems to have lost it. For a computer enthusiast, no deal... no upgrades to high performance memory, no upgrades to motherboard, and part of the time, no upgrades to PSU, but what's the point because the case connections are completely prorietary, so the CASE is even useless when you are done with it... I've spent my share of time listening to my ex complaining about all the CRAP installed, constant pop-ups to buy 30-day expired trial SW (that seeming can't be uninistalled), intel driver issues causing BSOD, and tech support that can only be described as some Indian named "Scott", who is probably job hopping. Nothing against India, I work with a whole bunch of talented people from India, but what if we were providing tech support for them? Is your name now "Raj"?

Ok, so as long as they don't f*uck up Alienware, good for them. But to suppose a Dell is something special is like saying your Cavalier is a sports car... ok - yea, I guess you could upgrade the radio.

[tkpenalty]

When you pull that lock, you basically void the warranty of the dell... something from dell that costs $2500 I can build (with official OS) for $1500 with more powerful specs and upgradeability. In 1998 Dell was good, as it put high-end GPUs into low-end models, in 2000, they sucked.

Today... dells suck, warranty gets voided after upgrades.. wtf?

The latest I have on the way is a DELL DIMENSION 8400

Pentium 4s these days aren't godlike anymore. I don't think you know enough about PCs anyway, because you call the GPU a "128MB ATI". Which model? It could be the 128RAGE (man I loved that one).

Trust me man... dells suck, even non-enthusiasts in my whole class know that (the year as well). We are sorta PC enthusiasts but having a dell surely denotes what you have in knowledge. TBH though, the low-end buisiness dells are pretty decent for their price, but their midrage and high-end make it look like a scam. The dell BTX board makes it impossible to swap cases these days as intel has discontinued their BTX boards, manufacturers rarely make them anymore.

EDIT: I have had it with dell.... my cousin purchased a Dell the same time I got this, he paid $1999AUD (lol at the price) for his dell consisting of:

-Pentium D 820 Prescott
-1GB DDRII 553 (single channel T_T)
-250GB SATA HDD
-Nvidia Geforce 7300LE 128MB
-Some crap, barely-made-it-to-the-minimal-requirements-PSU; if you tried installing a X1950XTX the PSU would fail
-Weird L-Shape Dell Motherboard
-Intergrated Audio
+19 Inch Monitor (With dell engraved on it >_>)
+2x Small standard speakers
+Keyboard & Mouse
+Windows XP Media Center Edition.

The PC failed after several weeks and needed a new HDD, upon inspection the HDD was manufactured in 05' O_O.
Its god damn slow... slower than my northwood, in gaming its horribly crap (worse than my good ol' 9550, that can run cool at 400mhz).

Well compare to mine which in total has a value of around $1600, when added with OS around $1700 (just phone-em-up process).

[zekrahminator]

I've spent my share of time listening to my ex complaining about all the CRAP installed, constant pop-ups to buy 30-day expired trial SW (that seeming can't be uninistalled), intel driver issues causing BSOD, and tech support that can only be described as some Indian named "Scott", who is probably job hopping..

I hear ya man, I don't even need to take a laptop off the shelf to see how much garbageware is installed. I think that's why prices are so low...all the free trials serve as advertising, the advertisers are effectively paying for your computer. To put it into scale as to how much crap comes with your average notebook these days... Windows XP uses about 20 processes fresh install, with all services enabled. With AIM, Firefox, Photoshop, Avast, and WMP11 running, I use 34 (on boot it's 26). The laptop I grabbed off the shelf? 68 :shadedshu .

[DELLINQUENT]

Ummm... Dell had it's place, but seems to have lost it. For a computer enthusiast, no deal... no upgrades to high performance memory, no upgrades to motherboard, and part of the time, no upgrades to PSU, but what's the point because the case connections are completely prorietary, so the CASE is even useless when you are done with it... I've spent my share of time listening to my ex complaining about all the CRAP installed, constant pop-ups to buy 30-day expired trial SW (that seeming can't be uninistalled), intel driver issues causing BSOD, and tech support that can only be described as some Indian named "Scott", who is probably job hopping. Nothing against India, I work with a whole bunch of talented people from India, but what if we were providing tech support for them? Is your name now "Raj"?

Ok, so as long as they don't f*uck up Alienware, good for them. But to suppose a Dell is something special is like saying your Cavalier is a sports car... ok - yea, I guess you could upgrade the radio.

People actually still try to run the same software they install at the factory.
Well I was mistaken, I thought you were all computer enthusiasts and knew by now to do a clean sweep/install...if not immediatelty within the first year at least.
Maybe that is why I do not need their warranties (never bought one longer than what was included).
Also, the days of proprietary connector layouts are all but gone. I have a DELL 4300 case loaded with asus/amd rigging and it all works from the factory buttons and lights.
Very little issues figuring out pin layouts when needed.

[mullered07]

Well I was mistaken, I thought you were all computer enthusiasts and knew by now to do a clean sweep/install...if not immediatelty within the first year at least .

computer enthusiasts know not to buy a dell to start with, computer enthusiasts know you dont just register on a tech site to go and tell people how great dell is :slap: :nutkick:


right ppz im going to bed now, just registered today and im already looking like a post whore :shadedshu lol (although all my posts have been answering questions and relevant to topics :p night all )

[tkpenalty]

People actually still try to run the same software they install at the factory.
Well I was mistaken, I thought you were all computer enthusiasts and knew by now to do a clean sweep/install...if not immediatelty within the first year at least.
Maybe that is why I do not need their warranties (never bought one longer than what was included).
Also, the days of proprietary connector layouts are all but gone. I have a DELL 4300 case loaded with asus/amd rigging and it all works from the factory buttons and lights.
Very little issues figuring out pin layouts when needed.

You should realise how much bloatware is installed on a dell once it arrives at your home. Do you realise that normal computer stores still thrive? Thats because after buying dells many people find out how bad they actually are, bang-for-buck medal would go to non-monopolist brandless PC stores. They are dirt cheap when compared to dell and don't fill the PC with bloatware and so called Anti-Virus (Norton).

[ghost101]

Who is this guy? Dell are good for one thing only. Super cheap low end computers which include lcd monitors. These pcs are near impossible to build for cheaper.

Anything above you can build cheaper. Secondly, you say that you dont mind voiding the warranty? Wtf? What if something breaks? Why not just buy the components yourself and have the manufacturers warranty while also be able to do whatever you want. Thirdly, no overclocking capability. Finally, you dont hand pick the components so they memory is usually rubbish and so is the motherboard. Dell PSUs are actually very good though.

[Namslas90]

The truth of the matter is that more people buy OEM systems than non-OEM. I see a benifit to members like DELIQUENT here at TPU. Many members here want TPU to be THE BEST TECH FORUM on the net, as it is and will be in ther future. TPU has a lot of members that have OEM systems, and many visitors do also. Visitors only become members if they feel welcome, and can find the answers they need. Any OEM system can be Tweeked, Modded, or convinced to operate properly. Want proof, look at my system specs, IT"S A GATEWAY and my 3DMark 06 score is up tp 5824. Not a great score but better than many scores here at TPU. Sure I sank some $'s into it, but I learned a lot, and had FUN doing it. Comming soon will be my custom build, not OEM, but I'm not getting rid of my Gateway!

[ghost101]

No but you'd be the first to admit that in hindsight, a custom built pc is better everytime. This guy comes along and claims that "you get what you pay". I suggest people pick a midrange pc from Dell and look at the costs of getting a faster processor or more RAM. You certainly do not get what you pay for im afraid.

If you can build a pc yourself, unless you have a complete disregard for money, it is always better to self build.

[amd64skater]

dells suck simple as that

[Random Murderer]

guys, leave dellinquent alone. i dont like dells, never have, but if we are to be the best computer site on the webternet, we need people like him. his specialty is something that honestly, most of us would never bother with, therefore, if someone comes here and asks about dells, who's gonna be able to help? he is. the rest of you would probably reply "dell's suck, build your own" or something of the sort, and not post anything constructive.

[Namslas90]

No but you'd be the first to admit that in hindsight, a custom built pc is better everytime. This guy comes along and claims that "you get what you pay". I suggest people pick a midrange pc from Dell and look at the costs of getting a faster processor or more RAM. You certainly do not get what you pay for im afraid.

If you can build a pc yourself, unless you have a complete disregard for money, it is always better to self build.

I agree its better to BUILD. Not everybody has the ability, knowledge, or time to build their own.

People believe what they see in advertisements, who advertises the most? OEM's.

You do GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR, when you but an OEM you get all the OEM PARTNERS software, and it's not cheap (usuless, but not cheap).

[amd64skater]

I agree its better to BUILD. Not everybody has the ability, knowlesge, or time to build their own.

People believe what they see in advertisements, who advertises the most? OEM's.

You do GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR, when you but an OEM you get all the OEM PARTNERS software, and it's not cheap (usuless, but not cheap).

i have a gateway 827gm oem machine that i modded as soon as i bought it for the price they were selling it for at the time which was in april of 2005 was not bad at all and they dont void the warranty if u open it or upgrade it which is awesome and i still have about a year on my warranty left so not all oem's are that bad but i will never by a dell

[stevorob]

Dell's are good machines. I've had my 2 dells for 4+ years and guess what, they're still running to this day. They're out of warranty now, so I have done some upgrades to them.

They're great for people who don't need a super expensive custom PC. For OEM, they're the best you can get. The only thing they need from the box is a reformat/reinstall of windows to get rid of the garbage that comes with it, and I did that to both of mine as soon as I got them.

[i_am_mustang_man]

i'm so confused by this thread

whaaAAt? wHYy?

dells are good cheap machines for computer labs or for a secretary. and..... now that they are starting to include pci-e (about a year after emachines btw), you can upgrade the video.

but they are difficult to work on. for a reason, btw. they use their buying power to request proprietary hardware, so replacements are hard to find. they don't do this as ubiquitously as they used to, but the usb connects, ie, and many psu connections are unique. they could save more money on manufacturing by just getting a lot of standard parts, but then they would lose a ton of money on warranties and replacements all being bought through them (or most actually)

but they are cheap. which is nice.


and btw random, i work in a computer lab with 150+ dells' and 75+ macs, and i know i'm not the only one who works in a lab here. but welcome dellinquet, always nice to have new members

[pt]

great thread
a dell isn't a enthusiast putter, a enthusiast builds his own :)
but guys like delliquent are need to help the thousands of noobs wandering around with a dell that don't know how to make it work right, is pretty much god to these guys, to us, is just a normal folk saying dells aren't so bad

Final point is: HP SUCKS ASS BIG TIME :nutkick:

[zekrahminator]

guys, leave dellinquent alone. i dont like dells, never have, but if we are to be the best computer site on the webternet, we need people like him. his specialty is something that honestly, most of us would never bother with, therefore, if someone comes here and asks about dells, who's gonna be able to help? he is. the rest of you would probably reply "dell's suck, build your own" or something of the sort, and not post anything constructive.

Dude, that's like the smartest post you've made...ever :toast: (not trying to insult you, but...that "POST" spree and your sigpic don't exactly do justice to your image).

[Random Murderer]

Dude, that's like the smartest post you've made...ever :toast: (not trying to insult you, but...that "POST" spree and your sigpic don't exactly do justice to your image).

just cause i act like an idiot doesnt mean i am one. ;)

[Namslas90]

just cause i act like an idiot doesnt mean i am one. ;)

Touche Random, I agree Zek, and random; maybe you could act more your IQ instead of your age LOL.:roll: :toast:

[Solaris17]

so this isnt a bashing thread and i really hope it doesnt turn into one as the mods would kinda have to fix that.

Their have been alot of good things said here. Lets face it Dells to an enthusiest suck, minimul upgrade ability and so on. True however their are some that can be modded and upgraded, case in point the one in the first post. He is right proprietary stuff is really on its way out. So what do we have on dell? the bios? yup thats about what its coming to. If you think about it sure a 3Ghz prescott is on its way out but it would bash my rig. I built mine ground up im proud of it, but it would get wasted by the DELL he is making. It really comes back to the bios. Which is all we really have on dell anymore. I mean no ocing options or IO tweaks just simple date and time, and i think only like 1 program works on some dell mobos for ocing. Really to a regular avg joe that doesnt know jack about comps are they really going to care? nope, not a chance. They dont even know what overclocking is, and with a system a DELL proposed in the first thread imagine that in the hands of your avg joe. It would smoke my system, but thats all i have on joe my bios and my pride. I sure dont have the numbers or the benchies but to an enthusiast who cares? I know my rig is no were near some here, but its taking WHAT YOU HAVE and making that hardware do all it can. Its the fact that I know my rig cant get any better for what it is. That makes me smile. Sure its cool to get a higher score but even if it didnt i know that my rig cant get anybetter so im happy. It is all it can be. and i dont whanna hear any rawr thats why those joes dont deserve it because they beat your rig. Well i dont care and neither do they. Their not in it for the score, because they have a dell they prolly just want to play a game or 2 and surf the web. their not really after the pride. So why would our pride be hurt? Were competing against someone who didnt know their was a compitition. kinda dumb to me. So lets stop bashing dell and tweak our rigs because do we own a dell? no. do we care that they do? no. their not us if an 8400 makes um happy go for it im happy with 2.3Ghz

[Namslas90]

so this isnt a bashing thread and i really hope it doesnt turn into one as the mods would kinda have to fix that.

but their have been alot of good things said here lets face it Dells to an enthusiest suck minimul upgrade ability and so on true however their are some that can be modded and upgraded case in point the one in the first post and he is right proprietary stuff is really on its way out so what do we have on dell? the bios? yup thats about what its coming to if you think about it sure a 3Ghz prescott is on its way out but it would bash my rig i built mine ground up im proud of it but it would get wasted by the DELL he is making. but it really comes back to the bios which is all we really have on dell anymore i mean no ocing options or io tweaks just simple date and time and i think only like 1 program works on some dell mobos for ocing but really to a regular avg jo that doesnt know jack about comps are they really going to care? nope not achance they dont even know what overclocking is and with a system a DELL proposed in the first thread imagine that in the hands of your avg joe it would smoke my system but thats all i have on joe my bios and my pride i sure dont have the numbers or the benchies but to an enthusiast who cares? i know my rig is no wer near some here but its taking WHAT YOU HAVE and making that hardwere do all it can its the fact that i know my rig cant get anybetter for what it is that makes me smile sure its cool to get a higher score but even if it didnt i know that my rig cant get anybetter so im happy it is all it can be. and i dont whanna hear any rawr thats why those joes dont deserve it because they beat your rig well isc and neither do they their not in it for the score because they have a dell they prolly just want to play a game or 2 and surf the web tgheir not really after the pride so why would ours be hurt were competing against someone who didnt know their was a compitition kinda dumb to me so lets stop bashing dell and tweak our rigs because do we own a dell no do we care that they do no their not us if an 8400 makes um happy go for it im happy with 2.3Ghz

I'am sorry but thats a rough read. Maybe slow down your typing and add some puncuation or something; I'm not sure I understand your point(s)?!!!:toast:

[Solaris17]

my bad i have problems like that let me edit it i just type kinda fast.

[Namslas90]

so this isnt a bashing thread and i really hope it doesnt turn into one as the mods would kinda have to fix that.

Their have been alot of good things said here. Lets face it Dells to an enthusiest suck, minimul upgrade ability and so on. True however their are some that can be modded and upgraded, case in point the one in the first post. He is right proprietary stuff is really on its way out. So what do we have on dell? the bios? yup thats about what its coming to. If you think about it sure a 3Ghz prescott is on its way out but it would bash my rig. I built mine ground up im proud of it, but it would get wasted by the DELL he is making. It really comes back to the bios. Which is all we really have on dell anymore. I mean no ocing options or IO tweaks just simple date and time, and i think only like 1 program works on some dell mobos for ocing. Really to a regular avg joe that doesnt know jack about comps are they really going to care? nope, not a chance. They dont even know what overclocking is, and with a system a DELL proposed in the first thread imagine that in the hands of your avg joe. It would smoke my system, but thats all i have on joe my bios and my pride. I sure dont have the numbers or the benchies but to an enthusiast who cares? I know my rig is no were near some here, but its taking WHAT YOU HAVE and making that hardware do all it can. Its the fact that I know my rig cant get any better for what it is. That makes me smile. Sure its cool to get a higher score but even if it didnt i know that my rig cant get anybetter so im happy. It is all it can be. and i dont whanna hear any rawr thats why those joes dont deserve it because they beat your rig. Well i dont care and neither do they. Their not in it for the score, because they have a dell they prolly just want to play a game or 2 and surf the web. their not really after the pride. So why would our pride be hurt? Were competing against someone who didnt know their was a compitition. kinda dumb to me. So lets stop bashing dell and tweak our rigs because do we own a dell? no. do we care that they do? no. their not us if an 8400 makes um happy go for it im happy with 2.3Ghz

Now thats a reply I can get behind, I guess I should talk about my Gateway being able to play all the games my kids want in best mode/highest settings available, and that rocks. I realy don't give a fly about the benchmark score either, but some here use it as a way to compare two 'same' rigs!!:toast:

[Solaris17]

glad a couple periods please you so much ill remember that for the future.;)

[Sasqui]

I just don't get where they fit in now:

For the amature user, the price point is great, but the pre-installed SW and tech support make it a tough reccomendation.

For the high-end user, the price is great, but you have a throw-away machine with mediocre performance given the parts.

Med-end user who doesn't want to spend a lot, is a casual gamer and can re-load clean XP, then I guess it's a semi-green light.

Thier LCD panels are very nice (I have THREE at work and one at home :))

[Thermopylae_480]

glad a couple periods please you so much ill remember that for the future.;)

Lol, oooh oooh, could we have commas too? :) Or capitalization and apostrophes :p . Lol, you're great, even if you sometimes lack punctuation.

[zekrahminator]

Lol, oooh oooh, could we have commas too? :) Or capitalization and apostrophes :p . Lol, you're great, even if you sometimes lack punctuation.

Your choo choo train avatar kicks so much ass :).

[Jimmy 2004]

Dell are better than a lot of the pre-manufactured machines out there, and they're not bad for budget systems. But for performance systems, I just prefere to build my own because you know exactly what you're getting and you're in total control of it. When I bought my PC two years ago I saved a fair amount building it myself, plus Dell didn't even offer AMD.

[Random Murderer]

Your choo choo train avatar kicks so much ass :).

WOOOOOOOOOOO WOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

[Random Murderer]

Dell are better than a lot of the pre-manufactured machines out there, and they're not bad for budget systems. But for performance systems, I just prefere to build my own because you know exactly what you're getting and you're in total control of it. When I bought my PC two years ago I saved a fair amount building it myself, plus Dell didn't even offer AMD.

no offense, but dell has offered amd since at least 2001, when we(my family and i) went to buy a computer.
maybe they werent available near you, but my dad insisted that we got an amd system(he's still on it, its aged well) and dell and hp were the only oem's that we could find that offered amd.

i hafta hand it to hp, the damn thing still kicks ass after 5 and a half years, with only a ram upgrade.

[Jimmy 2004]

no offense, but dell has offered amd since at least 2001, when we(my family and i) went to buy a computer.
maybe they werent available near you, but my dad insisted that we got an amd system(he's still on it, its aged well) and dell and hp were the only oem's that we could find that offered amd.

i hafta hand it to hp, the damn thing still kicks ass after 5 and a half years, with only a ram upgrade.

:wtf: Dell only started offering AMD at the very end of 2005 at the earliest.

http://news.zdnet.co.uk/hardware/0,1000000091,39236234,00.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dell

Edit: and even in 2005, they were only selling the CPUs by themselves, not in PCs. It wasn't until last year you could actually buy a Dell with an AMD CPU pre-built.

[Random Murderer]

thats weird... maybe someone ordered a dell with an amd custom in it and then returned it to the store...

[Grings]

i actually quite like the new dell xps (but no, i wouldnt buy it!), they were very out of touch for a while though, hence the alienware purchase

[tkpenalty]

Ew... XPS Is super overpriced man... please don't say "custom built".... say Non-OEM. I have to hand the low end system gold medal to dell though... There is no way I can build a system with Athalon 64, and some other stuff, like OS etc for under 500 AUD but... for mid-to-high end... they totally are profit whores. XPS is like nearly 50% profit.

EDIT: Um recalculating I actually can LOL. As solaris said... you can't Overclock properly with a dell, you also can't use PCI-E 16x on low-end models anyway. Like watercooling is nearly impossible with a dell because its btx.

With non-OEM you can negotiate what motherboard you would like and know what you are getting... but with dell you wouldn't! 2GB DDRII 553, what type? Value RAM? ECC?, what HDD are you getting with the system? Seagate? Western Digital? Maxtor? I haven't ever seen a Dell dubbed as a High-end gaming rig (In australian catalogues) have a High-end GPU installed. On one rare occasion a 7900GS.. but thats about it!

[Urlyin]

Wow! ... good thing I got an HP ... :p

[kwchang007]

dell isn't as bad as everyone says it is. my laptop is a dell and the cpu itself runs laps around other pcs, and no it hasn't exploaded yet. i agree that building a computer defiantly will give you a faster pc but certian computers you can't build, like laptops. yes you can buy a barebones and upgrade but that would be way to much money no matter which parts you stuck in there. if you want a fast desktop and you have money go build your own you'll be much more satisfied, me on the other hand? for 1000 i got a laptop that kills alot of amd desktops and will run faster than all intel's but c2d. i don't want to do a clean install b/c vista's coming soon and two clean installs in like a month....really annoying. btw clean install is not recommanded for anyone who doesn't have about 3 hours to spare as long as you don't have a billion programs you want...i've done it a few times and once i've had to wait till the next day to get any apps on it. yes dell hdds do suck, i had one die on my laptop, however it was a samsung :shadedshu they then sent me a replacement and said replacing it myself wouldn't void the warentee and sent me a 120 GB fujitsu (up 40 GBs)....that rocks:rockout:. anyone who is looking for a dell, wait for a 30% off coupon....they're the best; that kind of price can't be beat. btw, if a computer doesn't break in it's first year it's usually pretty well off so standard warentiees are long enough.

[Namslas90]

Everyone says you can't build your own laptop. YES you can, I have read many articles in different computer magazines about it. One that comes to mind is the Summer 2006 issue of Maximum PC's, "Build the Perfect PC". Parts are available online but to get the instructions from Maximim PC you got to be a subscriber.

[bhaskar15]

hm, nice thread. Dell has given very nice desktops in our country. It was the first to give out C2D based desktops, if I had to buy a ready-made pc i would surely go 4 a dell Pc imo.
(But personally would go for Alienware, :( i had to order it from Australia, their cases look the best :D)

[Random Murderer]

hm, nice thread. Dell has given very nice desktops in our country. It was the first to give out C2D based desktops, if I had to buy a ready-made pc i would surely go 4 a dell Pc imo.
(But personally would go for Alienware, :( i had to order it from Australia, their cases look the best :D)

alien ware is owned by dell m8! ;)

[kwchang007]

Everyone says you can't build your own laptop. YES you can, I have read many articles in different computer magazines about it. One that comes to mind is the Summer 2006 issue of Maximum PC's, "Build the Perfect PC". Parts are available online but to get the instructions from Maximim PC you got to be a subscriber.

really? that makes alot of a difference then. i just have to wonder how do you know which vid cards put out how much energy, heat and how your case can handle it. if each part is rated, along with the case, that'd be really amazing. my cpu on ebay is 329, idk if this is used or not. so i can see a laptop running below $1500 easily but under $1000? if the cpu is $329 and say the case is around $300 including a mobo without a batt/power supply. then add in a batt/power supply...im going to guess $75 since it won't need alot of power. say about $100 for my vid card, that was the upgrade price from dell. 2 gigs of laptop ram at 533 mhz...$95 times 2= $190. dvd burner for $30 (just looked at cheapest desktop verison) and 80 gb hdd $68, and a wifi card for like $19. 329+300+75+100+190+30+68=1111 plus s+h and taxes. my laptop with the same stuff was a little under $1000 after taxes (5%) and free s+h. almost same exact stuff at some very cheap guesses. $111 difference. that may not sound like alot but the time and effort put into your own machine plus the cost of windows makes buying a laptops seem like alot better deal than building escpially when vid cards for laptops are extremly hard to find.

[Namslas90]

In the Max PC mag, they used an Aopen 1559 starter kit. It included a dvd/cd-rw for $590. From there you can add all kinds of selected components. The kit is available @ Chemusa.com and Jetta.com as a barebook. Yes, you must consider heat and battery life. At the time of build only 2 GPU's were available. They don't reccomend this build for noob's. The cost was about $1500, but was a good deal better than most laptops.

[kwchang007]

In the Max PC mag, they used an Aopen 1559 starter kit. It included a dvd/cd-rw for $590. From there you can add all kinds of selected components. The kit is available @ Chemusa.com and Jetta.com as a barebook. Yes, you must consider heat and battery life. At the time of build only 2 GPU's were available. They don't reccomend this build for noob's. The cost was about $1500, but was a good deal better than most laptops.

oh wow a kit sounds nice to use...it would make life alot easier. im really curious, what gpu's did they offer?

[Namslas90]

There are more than 1 starter kits available. In this build they used a Pentium M770, 1GB DDR2, 100gb SATA 7,200, mini PCI Wi-Fi A/G/B. AMD's were available , they didn't say what kind. The GPU's were PCI-E nVidea MXM and ATI"s Axiom.

[Fleekar]

Dell for Desktop pc's nAhhh
But Laptop for college next year? Sure!

The Inspirons are getting better and better and still remain at 650-800$. Plus they have huge screens!

Bro got his 1505 in August with Core duo @ 1.6, 60 gb, 512mb ram + free printer

A few weeks later the same deal offered 1.8, 80gb, 1024mb . He doesnt know anything at all about computers other than the drive size, but the bigger numbers in the other components sure made him sad.

Now they are on Core 2 Duos for the same price so by the time I get mine its gonna be sure to step all over his, internally :P

Besides all the Junk software I had to help cleanse, the notebook is pretty nice. the other 2 usb ports in the back we didn't notice for at least a month, pleasant surprise.

[kwchang007]

Dell for Desktop pc's nAhhh
But Laptop for college next year? Sure!

The Inspirons are getting better and better and still remain at 650-800$. Plus they have huge screens!

Bro got his 1505 in August with Core duo @ 1.6, 60 gb, 512mb ram + free printer

A few weeks later the same deal offered 1.8, 80gb, 1024mb . He doesnt know anything at all about computers other than the drive size, but the bigger numbers in the other components sure made him sad.

Now they are on Core 2 Duos for the same price so by the time I get mine its gonna be sure to step all over his, internally :P

Besides all the Junk software I had to help cleanse, the notebook is pretty nice. the other 2 usb ports in the back we didn't notice for at least a month, pleasant surprise.

yeah, the only problem with the 1505 getting better is the vid card doesn't, anything 3D intensive that's defiantly the bottleneck. it's not like it's slow or anything i run css at 1280x720 i think....anyways it still gets around 35 fps, not the best but it's alot more playable then the integrated stuff:eek: oh and the 2 GBs of ram...defiantly worth the money same with the 2ghz c2d, 4 MBs of cache makes a difference

[bhaskar15]

alien ware is owned by dell m8! ;)

Wow, really ?! that explains it, the reason y they're so gd. so dimension and alienware are diff. models/products but same companny ? and actually i was talking about the dimensions, that they're a gd buy than ready-made's :toast:

[Slater]

No, I don't work for DELL. I also do not upgrade $500, they do not usually have the capability. I do buy their midstream or better and I get alot of them used.
The latest I have on the way is a DELL DIMENSION 8400

P4 3.0ghz HT
512mb DDR2
80GB SATA
128mb PCI-E (Most likely ATI)
Onboard sound

I plan to upgarde it to

P4 3.0ghz HT
2gb DDR2
1tb+ SATA RAID
512mb PCI-E (definitely ATI)
Creative Audigy2

All of theses are simple upgrades if you have the coin.

Why 512 Mb for the graphics card? If your going to use it as a server then there is no point in doing that. Also a good rule of thumb is the maximum vram you should have on your card is 2xmemory interface (the bit bandwidth or whatever its called (running on no sleep) like a 256-bit bus = 512 vram max (to save money... no point in having more if you only have a 256-bit bus) )

[AshenSugar]

ok read the first page, the ram dell uses most times isnt great but its decent stuff, samsung or micron, good brand name modules.

they use seagate hdd's(good thing to me) thus are good for parting out :P

if anybody wants a cheap starter dell p4 630 gime a holler, i got one that just needs an hdd to be fully functional again( hdd sceased )
its nothing grand but would be a good basick work system :)

[AshenSugar]

ps the only decent dells IMHO are the laptops, that is once you wipe off that pathetic windowz they come with and install something that isnt full of crap!!!

stuck windows 2kpro on my buddys he about craped, his 2gz pentium-m went from slow to fast in a matter of a couple hours(installed windows and some other stuff) also you can get away with installing ram if you keep the original stuff incase the lappy dies(never sell/toss out upgraded del parts if you want to beable to ask for warr service)

[kwchang007]

ps the only decent dells IMHO are the laptops, that is once you wipe off that pathetic windowz they come with and install something that isnt full of crap!!!

stuck windows 2kpro on my buddys he about craped, his 2gz pentium-m went from slow to fast in a matter of a couple hours(installed windows and some other stuff) also you can get away with installing ram if you keep the original stuff incase the lappy dies(never sell/toss out upgraded del parts if you want to beable to ask for warr service)

haha i like the thought about keeping any standard parts for the warentee if i ever upgrade i'll keep that in mind. did the computer really go that much faster? i mean boot up time maybe but on both of the dells in my house we've wiped them and reinstalled...it doesn't seem like there's any perforamnce gain except in boot up, which didn't take that long in the first place

[AshenSugar]

xp is bloated to start with alot of useless services running that eat memory.

dell/gateway/ext come with even more crap running on startup, once thats removed there are more resorces for other things.

remmber if u use the cleaner/crap remover program that is floated around the net for dell and gateway boxes that you need to defrag after.

oh and 2k dosnt have all that excess crap running very clean os on install!!!!