How's this computer [specs/price]?

D

dtcarson

CAGiversary!
Hey,
I'm looking at getting a new PC [I'm currently using a Celeron 400 with 128 MB ram and a 10GB hd] and of course want to maximize my dollar and get some good stuff.
I don't have the knowledge, tools, or patience to 'build my own' from parts, so that's probably not an option.
I'm looking primarily at Dell because my company gets a discount.
Here's what I've priced so far, this seems to be the 'best' while still being affordable, under their current deals.

intel P4 Processor 520 with HT Technology (2.80 GHz, 800 FSB)
XP Home Edition
512 MB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 400 MHz (2x256M)
15" Analog flat panel monitor
128 MB PCI Express ATI Radeon X300 SE video card
80 GB Hard Drive
Integrated Intel PRO 10/100 Ethernet
16X CD/DVD burner w/ double layer write capability
5.1 channel audio
Dell flat panel stereo speakers
1 Year warranty
ANd comes iwth a free $50 color printer

It came out to be 789 + tax, free shipping, and a 150 MIR, so net 639 excluding tax.
Is that a good configuration at a good price?
The main things that bumped up the price were:
upgrading the video card [from the 'integrated graphics' card]
upgrading the HD from 40 to 80 GB.
upgrading to CD/DVD burner added about 30 bucks from a CDRW/DVD combo drive.
and ten bucks for the speakers.

Are there any other good, 'customize-it-yourself' PC building websites? I visited Gateway, but my last Gateway totally died on me so I'm shying away from them, plus they were more expensive than Dell.

I have always heard that 'integrated video cards' suck--I've been out of PC gaming recently, but would like to dip my toe back into it, is that a good/decent video card upgrade? Would the integrated model, with the 512 MB ram, work as well?

Any advice/suggestions would be appreciated. I don't want to save a little money, and buy something for 500 bucks, that I'll be disappointed with three months down the road.

Would the above specs be considered 'entry level', 'midgrade', or what?
 
if i were you i'd get rid of the lcd and bump up the ram to 1gb or better. course i still prefer crt's to lcd's. adding ram is (usually) the cheapest way to make your pc faster.
 
how much does the video card drop the price? cause you can get a video card later, for prolly cheaper, and a better one at that?
 
The monitor is 'free,' that is, it doesn't give me the option to go "No monitor" and save money [and when it does, it usually only deducts 50 bucks.]
They want 110 bucks to upgrade from 512 to 1GB ram, which sounds high to me--I know I can find ram for much cheaper elsewhere and install it myself, but I don't know off hand what sort of slots this case has.

Going from the video card I listed, back down to "Integrated Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator 900 " would save 60 bucks. Is that vidcard I chose not a good one? I know it's not a 300$ super CAD one, but I don't think I need the 'professional' grade. Plus, I'm really not good at installing things other than RAM, and sometimes I'll pay a little more for the convenience of having someone else do it and know it's in there and works. it looks like that video card goes for 60-80 bucks elsewhere, so if it's decent, I'd rather have Dell go ahead and do it.
But if I could get a better one, cheaper, then that certainly would be good as well.
 
About every other month or so, and definitely once per quarter, dell gives out some amazing deals- at least $300 off in rebates for a system you describe. When I bought a dell a few years ago, I ended up with $540 in rebates for a $800 computer.

Check deal sites like fatwallet.com and eventually dell will be offering a much higher discount than a $150 rebate. A $150 rebate is pretty ho-hum for dell.

I don't know how much PC gaming you'll be doing, but the X300 is an entry-level card. Don't expect smooth frame rates for half-life 2 or doom 3 with it.
 
[quote name='dtcarson']They want 110 bucks to upgrade from 512 to 1GB ram, which sounds high to me--I know I can find ram for much cheaper elsewhere and install it myself, but I don't know off hand what sort of slots this case has.[/QUOTE]

Upgrading your RAM to 1GB by yourself will probably cost you $160-200. You'd have to throw out the RAM that is currently installed most likely to do this. I know when I bought my Dell, they used a larger number of smaller sticks of RAM. For example, if your machine has two slots for RAM and you're ordering the PC to have 512 MB, there will be two 256 MB units installed instead of a single 512 MB stick.
 
Well, the rebate is 150, but the machine itself was in the 'Outrageous Deals' sections of the Small Business, and its alleged original price was 1189, and the 'special' was like 359 off that original price, plus the rebate.
540 back on 800 is quite good.
It's just that we have the money now--I know with computers, no matter what I buy, I could wait a week or so and get more for less somewhere. I'm on a couple of their email lists including the SmallBusiness, but haven't gotten anything relevant recently.
I went to IBuyPower, and built one similar to what I've spec'ed above, it came out to be about the same price [after rebate,], actually a little bit more since shipping wasn't free. Plus I don't really know the difference between a lot of the choices they give for things like motherboard.

thanks for all the advice

alongx--that was another question I had. One of my older computers came with a 32MB stick in one slot, so I could simply buy another 32 mb stick; but another one came with both slots full, so while i could 'upgrade', I would lose the use of what I originally had. I think in my desk somewhere there's still a 16 MB RAM stick floating around....

I'm surprised PC gaming and PCs are as big as they are; I kinda know what I;m talking about, though I'm out of date, but shopping for a new PC is kinda pain in the butt, and not very user-friendly.
 
If you are going to get a Dell, checkout the Dell Outlet http://www1.us.dell.com/content/default.aspx?c=us&cs=22&l=en&s=dfh&DGVCode=IR.

That is where we get our computers. I have purchased five over the last six years. Only had a problem with one and Dell took care of it right away. Super deals, just can't customize them. Recommend finding the fastest processor in your price range and buy a video card elsewhere if needed. If you are into gaming, get an 8400 or 4700 model so you can use a PCI-e video card.
 
If you've gone this long with that old pc... This current one is probably more than you'd ever use.
 
I recently bought a new computer and I looked at dell. They were a HUGE ripoff, specifically in how much they charge for upgrading the RAM and the video card. They don't really believe in making their systems cost-effective or easy to upgrade, since they can rely on their current good rep. All of their upgrades are overpriced by more than 50%. They charge $200 for a 128 video card and $400 for a 256, when you can buy each for almost half that (and the latest models, at that). Dell's whole strategy is to sell you a comp you'll have to replace in a year or 2. I would definitely look elsewhere at places that offer bare-bones systems that have good upgrade value (i.e. expandable to at least 3gb of ram and plenty of usb ports, etc). The hard drive, cd/dvd drives, ram, and video card are all easy for anyone to install, and you can usually double the worth/life of your comp since you can take advantage of sales and such.
 
Are the Dell Outlet models refurbished? I saw some great prices on some 'refurbished' units, but am somewhat wary of them. Not even sure what 'refurbished' means, especially as compared to 'returned' or 'used.' Also, what would be a good processor speed to aim for? I've browsed a few PC software etailers, but complete Required and Recommended specs are hard to find.

Actually, I've gone back a step. I had a 'better' computer [better at the time-Celeron 900, 256 MB ram, 20 GB hd] from Gateway. When it was 2.5-3 [and waaaay out of warranty], something went wonky with the power supply, so that if it was turned off, it sometimes wouldn't turn back on. And eventually it was turned off, and never came back on. It's up in my attic now--I didn't know how to fix it, and the Gateway store [before it closed] would have charged me a hundred bucks just to look at it. So I went back to my wife's older computer, the one I'm using now, since she got the new one last time. I've actually only been using this PC for basic stuff, email, web, a couple oldass games, simply because it was too painful to do anything else on it.
The DVD burner I was interested in because we've got a bunch of digital video tapes of my boy, that we've never done anything with--I would like to edit the DV and at least archive them, if not make actual movies.

Regarding Dell upgrade costs: That's very true. I don't really want to get into the cycle of upgrading every year, because I don't have to stay 'cutting edge'. The upgrades I added were reasonably priced [30 bucks for 80GB HD, and the ram up to 512 for free], but I would like to get me something that would last a couple years; it seems like the growth rate is just slightly slowing down, so that's good. Most of the growth I've seen has been in processor speed [and is there really 150 bucks worth of difference between a 2.8 gHZ and a 3.0 gHZ], and RAm and HD size [of course the bigger the better.]

Atreyu--what did you get, and where did you get it? I'm not real handy with my, er, hands, so buying the various pieces and putting them all together isn't a good option for me.

Has anyone got any experience with the brands at Best Buy or Circuit City, either Emachines or that In-whatever that BB has?
 
Since you say you'll be doing some digital video editing work, I'd suggest you bump up to 1GB of RAM and get at least a 120GB hard drive if you can. Though you can probably just go with the 80GB one in there and add another since you'll likely find a deal for one somewhere.

And if you're not into major gaming, look into getting an AMD processor.
 
Stick to 3rd party vcards; the integrated vcard won't deliver performance as well as that x300se and even then that will only give you a baseline performance - no high end graphics but not crappy either. You could always opt to get the integrated card now and get a pci-X card later and it's not that hard to install yourself - not much different from installing RAM. Most everything is plug and play nowadays so it shouldn't be that hard to put in.
 
I ended up going with an hp mediacenter to handle all my video and gaming needs, just cause my wife wouldn't let me build one myself. The easiest way for you to see if you're getting ripped off is to open up separate windows for the major online dealers, find the their versions of what you want, and do a real-time comparison so you can see the diffences in what they are charging you for your components and the components that they offer. Gateway may have a system that is expandable to 4 GB of RAM with only 2 slots. As others have already mentioned, that means you're gonna be throwing away money when it comes time to upgrade. Also, since you're considering video editing, I suggest you do some serious surfing to get a handle on exactly what you want to do, what you might want to do in the future, what can be done right now, and what's just hype. Otherwise, you may find that your comp doesn't fit your needs as well as you thought it would.

Emachines are fine for what they are: budget machines. If they can handle what you want to do, they're usually a good buy.

If you have a trustworthy, computer-savvy friend or child, you might want to consider asking them to install the hardware for you. You'll really save a ton.
 
THis is what a got from dell about 2 months ago. The total price with shipping and tax was 1842

dell 8400
3.2 GHz
1 gig of ram at 533Mhz
250 hard driver
19 ultra sharp lcd screen
256 mb 800 pro ati video card
sorround sound speakers from dell
wireless mouse and keyboard
4 years of accidental care and warranty
windows media center

the whole deal came out to about a little more than 3k but i had a coupon for 25 % discount plus the guy at the kiosk hook me up with another 10% discount and also a 200 dollars off for buying at the kyosk. You should really check dealcatcher.com and go under the dell store sometimes they have really good deals. Check about every 3 days. trust me right now its not the time to buy a dell
 
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