Dude, you got a dell...

[Nox]

I don't believe it, I have just bought a dell computer for a friend. After spending hours trying to find a good deal for her, dell got my attention. no where else came close to 813 quid for this lot:

p4 3.0 800 fsb,
512mb ddr400 memory
80 gb HD,
128mb geforce fx5200
dvd reader, seperate cd writer
upgraded speaders
upgraded 25ms 15" tft
windows xp, works + standard dell crap

i'm shocked... that processor alone is 1/4 the whole price from scan (£213 infact) and if i hadn't of just bought a load of bits for my pc i would have been tempted too!

Nox

[Lexeus]

What XP ? Pro or Home ? and only works ?
That aint the greatest deal ..
Maybe if it had an ATI card and a DVD writer, but its missing the little trimmings like a 120gigs HDD.
I suppose its ok if you got money and want to do some word processing, but then you got to go and buy MS Word

EDIT: Look at this quick shopping spree in ebuyer, just picked the equivalent quickly

Intel Pentium 4 3.0ghz 800FSB SKT478 512kb Cache Retail Box
'Priority Service' delivery unavailable for this item 047547 *10 days £193.99 £193.99
Kingston 256 DDR400 PC3200 Cl3 Memory Module 049292 5 £32.76 £65.52
Western Digital Caviar 80Gb 7200rpm EIDE Hard Drive - OEM 023275 671 £42.99 £42.99
Optorite 52x24x52x IDE DRIVE - Retail Box 051258 154 £19.91 £19.91
LG 16x48 IDE DVD-ROM Drive - OEM 043327 144 £19.34 £19.34
Samtron 52V 15ins TFT Beige with 3year onsite Warranty
'Priority Service' delivery unavailable for this item 054254 *21 days £189.99 £189.99
Hercules XPS 510 Classic 5.1 Speakers 052553 261 £31.56 £31.56
P4pe-x/se Skt478 I845pe Atx - Snd Lan Ub2 Fsb800 Ata100 1a/6 In 054264 120 £46.97 £46.97
XFX Geforce FX5200 128MB DDR AGP8x TV-Out Low Profile Retail Box 054889 58 £42.45 £42.45
King Case K2-516-CB Super Midi ATX 300 Watt P4 Ready Crystal Blue 032018 51 £14.72 £14.72
- remove item Cart Total: £667.44
Order usually ships in 21 days
Deliver my Order by: Wed 12th Nov 2003 (Priority Service)Fri 14th Nov 2003 (Standard Service)Tue 18th Nov 2003 (Super Saver)Sat 15th Nov 2003 (Saturday Delivery)
Shipping Band: *£4.79
Approx Cart Weight: 26.47Kg
Shipping Surcharge: £2.03
SubTotal: £674.26
VAT: £118.04
Total: £792.30

I know the case aint great and there isnt the XP and Works, but they don't use the tiptop PSU's most people here do, and whats works worth anyway ?

[Nox]

so where is the greatest deal? should asked an hour ago i guess!! oh, the pc had to be black and/or silver too. was xp home, and only works, which for that amount of money i was impressed with. I could only find similar deals from places like novatech/scan etc that were 533 fsb machines for that amount of cash or had 2.6c's.

Nox

[dgr]

well its not such a bad deal. if i were buying a pc (and believe, i wouldn't any more), i would make it a dell.

btw thuogh, on the note of psus, the girl upstairs (halls) has a dell and the psu just blew. they took 4 days to get someone out to fix (replace) it.

dgr

[Nox]

nice list, needs mouse+keyboard adding which is prolly an extra tenner or so for some black ones though. I know she wouldn't have liked that case, but for the 30 quid difference theres plenty of 'upgrade' space i guess she was also 'keen' to have a legit copy of win xp as she was a teacher and works was a bit of a bonus tbh. Where was that from, ebuyer?

Nox

[chrisf6969]

thats a decent deal. Factor in a 2.4C (overclocked to 3Ghz) and you could have probably done it for the same price (or less).... but then you're responsible for tech support and that can be a pain in the ass.... unless the girl is one that you want to hook up with.... then its a good excuse for her to call you over often.

[[GSV]Trig]

You have to remember that Dell buy loads of Intel CPU's and get them at a massive discount....

[5cupa]

I just bought 3 dell units for the office. one was a dual Xeon/Scsi. out of all the companies left out there in the pre-built market, i would defo choose Dell over all the others

[Ant]

We have a few Dell machines at work, quite good imo.

[steve threlfall]

Dell are certainly good with the aesthetics side of things as well- increasingly important these days.

Note to packard bell etc sticking a blue piece of plastic on the front a beige case doesnt make it a style system

[Nox]

pb do have some nice white cases now though, kinda remind me of a cheap looking mac

Nox

[quarryman]

whatever people have to say abot Dell, they make good systems at good prices. My first computer was a Dell XPS T500. It was the best purchase I ever made. It was the computer equivalent of a tank, i threw everything at it and it ran like a dream. Sure you are limited on upgrading down the road but a lot of the bits can be taken out and matched up with a new mobo, chip and case.

[Galant]

Erm 800 quid?

For 480 quid ($800) I'm throwing a PC together:

Athlon XP 2500+
WD 80Gig SE 7200Rpm 8 cache
Abit NF7-S or MSI K7N2 Delta-ILSR or Asus A78X (or something!)Deluxe (Take your pick!)
Radeon 9600Pro
Corsair 2x256 PC3200
Volcano 11 HSF
Antec SX630II Case
Speakers - $30
Monitor - $90
Keyboard, mouse
Floppy
CD-Rom/RW
Win XP Home

(Did I miss anything?)

Buying online/building your own, beats buying any pre-made PC.
At least as far as I can tell - and I've been trying!
Hopefully within the next week or two I'll have ordered everything and will be putting it together.

[Trickle]

Originally posted by Galant
For 480 quid ($800) I'm throwing a PC together:

Thats like TomWilko buying a Ford Ka for £5.5k and someone coming along and saying "Nooo, I could have got you a 1 year old Fiat Tipo for £3.5K"

>(Did I miss anything?)

The vat off your £480?
Phone and technical support?
Manufacturer and shocking online vendor messabout warranties?

Yes, I know I'ed still prefer to build a PC from individual components myself, but the gap isnt as wide as you make out.

[TooNice]

Well... Personally, I am not building my own PC because its cheaper.
I am building it so that I can pick exactly what I want in my PC.

System builders buy their component in bulk (cheaper). Dell in particular get a nice discount from Intel.
So no matter where you shop, you wont be able to get the same Pentium for less.

On the other hand, that doesnt matter too much if you plan to overclock.

[Nox]

computer $ stuff in the US is so much cheaper than in the UK, you may as well just convert the $ sign to a £ one :/ trouble is buying it you get hit for import duty so it works out roughly the same. I very briefly considered getting a case shipped over from the US with a $50 shipping charge as it would have been a comparable price to similar cases in the UK :/

and yes, you missed the case off Though i would agree, builiding your own is better in the long run, something breaks, you have a clue what it is, you also know how to upgrade, and get good quality bits instead of cheap nonbranded stuff. <cough> in theory

Nox