Ok, investigating options for a mate who wants a basic system for web and office apps. Obviously, being an enthusiast, i'd like to do the build myself, and have done so many times before, but not really sure if its worth it.
Here's what you get for £349 from dell:
DELL Dimension C521
AMD® Athlon™ 64 Processor 3800+
Genuine Windows Vista™ Home Basic - English
Dell™ 19" Value Flat Panel (SE197FP) - UK/Irish
512MB DDR2 533MHz Memory
250GB (7200rpm) Serial ATA Hard Drive with 8MB DataBurst™ cache
16 X DVD +/- RW Drive
Integrated nVidia® GeForce® 6150 LE graphics
Now the cheapest I could spec a comparable system from scan was £375, with the following components:
AMD Athlon 64 3200+ S939 OEM £37
Asus A8V-VM-SE VIA K8M890 £29
250 Gb Western Digital WD2500JS Caviar SE £43
512MB Elixir Major DDR PC3200 (400) £21
17" LG 1780Q Silver/BlackTFT £99
Arctic Cooling Alpine 64 £7
Antec NSK4400 ATX £46
Samsung SH-S183A/BEBN £19
Logitech S100 2.0 Speakers £5
Microsoft Optical Value Pack V2 £12
Microsoft Windows Vista Home Basic 32Bit £54
A couple of BIOS tweaks and I could get it running at 3800+ speeds quite easily, so performance should be very similar.
The pros for the dell system is that its quiet, looks good, well made and good value. Main con is that upgrades are limited.
I think it wouldn't be easy making the self-build as quiet as the dell, and its not gonna look as pretty.
Anyone have any suggestions on improving my build so that I can convince myself its worth doing?