Can I build better for less?

[Vimeous]

Don't be afraid to ring them up and ask all the nitty gritty details if you're unsure.
With regards that specific machine.

It is already PCI-Express.
It WILL work first time out of the box and could saves hours of frustration setting up your own PC.
It will take a minimum of a 3.6GHz in the future.
Dell build is usually good to very good and accessibility usually excellant.
The 17" TFT is the Dell E173FP. Can be seen on Dell and Aria's website for sale separately. We have some here and for windows use they proved far better than we expected. Not games tested by me however.
The 3yrs NBD warranty is on offer. True any components you buy should have at least 1yr but that means striping the machine if it fails. Dell will come to your house!

In other words it's reasonably future-proof (PCI-Express etc).
Good value.
Easy.

Building is more fun and for someone upgrading is probably a better option. However in basic spec that Dell is very hard to beat!

[wedge22]

Thanks I thought that it seemed a good deal really. I will tell my mate to buy it.

[nvening]

Thanks I thought that it seemed a good deal really. I will tell my mate to buy it.

Can i just say that the dell monitors are no good for gaming, they are very spooky, if u no wat i mean. Also they retail at £130 compared to the £250 im spending and they are quite ugly if u care.

[speedy_s]

I bought AMD64 3000+, 512 RAM, Chaintech VNF3-250, 120GB HDD,ATI 9250 128MB, 12x DVD RW -/+, 17" Flat Panel, Wireless KB+Mouse in a super QUIET ANTEC SONATA for only £550 ! system overclocks to 3400+ speed too; really sweet!

[wedge22]

How does this system compare to the dell one.

Shopping Cart (Prices in British Pounds) DESCRIPTION QUANTITY PRICE COST REMOVE
Asus Vintage Barebones System - Intel P4 (FS-022-AS)
£54.00 £54.00
Intel Pentium 4 "Prescott" 3.0GHz (800FSB) with HT Technology - OEM (CP-053-IN)
£94.95 £94.95
GeIL 512MB PC3200 Value CAS2.5 (GE5123200B) (MY-003-GL)
£42.95 £42.95
Connect3D ATI Radeon 9550 256MB DDR TV-Out/DVI (AGP) - Lite Retail (GX-026-CO)
£44.95 £44.95
Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 Plus NCQ 120GB ST3120827AS SATA 8MB Cache - OEM (HD-004-SE)
£48.75 £48.75
NEC ND3520 16x 16 DVD±RW Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM (CD-014-NE)
£34.95 £34.95
OcUK Value V7 L17PS 17" TFT Monitor (MO-001-OK)
£131.50 £131.50
Logitech Cordless Internet Desktop Pro Black - OEM (KB-052-LG)
£18.95 £18.95
Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition - OEM (OS-001-MS)
£48.65 £48.65
Subtotal £519.65
VAT £90.94
Total £610.59

[aidanjt]

Generally custom build computers will cost more than OEMs (especially an oem like dell because of the huge bulk they purchase) in terms if same spec.

But at the same time custom build computer owners enjoy more freedom with their computers, because it really is *theirs*.. and not Dell's. and you get exactly what you want/need... imo thats worth a bit extra cash.

[speedy_s]

plus dell only do intel and they suck for general progarms+games and also do not overclock!

[wedge22]

Well I was more tempted to tell my mate to buy an AMD but I am not sure which games he really wants to play on it.

[skuzgib]

plus dell only do intel and they suck for general progarms+games and also do not overclock!

Err... no.

They don't "suck" - they are not as good as AMD at games or FPU intensive activities. They are perfectly fine for everyday use, and they do overclock!!

[aidanjt]

well, Intel do tend to be better at very intensive desktop operations, (especially with programs that have multipule threads, which most do these days).. they definatly hold the cards when it comes to media encoding. But AMD definatly holds the cards for games, until game engine developers put a real effort into utilising threads more effiently, which they will have no choice in doing this year due to dual-core. So we'll see how the pendulim sways soon hopefully.