After all your advice, I've bought a Dell! Sorry!

[simsim]

Thank you all for the great advice I've had recently. My shopping cart was all stocked up on Scan, ready to build my new conroe system - I've spent hours reviewing all the different options, discovered more about PSUs than I ever thought there was to know - but it's all for nowt. I made the 'mistake' of popping into Dell Outlet.

There I found a Dimension 9200 (also called the XPS 410 for some reason):

Intel P965 motherboard (a Dell build BTX model)
Core 2 Duo E6400
2GB 533 RAM
Nvidia 7900GS
2 x 250GB SATAII drives
DVDRW 16X
XP Media Centre
Plus all the usual keyboard

for £495 ex VAT!

'Blimey, that's good value' I thought. And it's all built for me, available in five days, and a couple of years next day support for £50 (it's for business use).

And then, the decider was the accessories - they were offering the Ultrasharp 2007WFP (20" widescreen) with it for £218 (ex VAT).

I was sold (after about three hours of deliberating!)

I know I won't be able to overclock at all, and upgradeability is reduced. But, I think I've made the right decision.

What do you think?

[kalniel]

I think you've made a great purchase

[MSIC]

After all your advice, I've bought a Dell! Sorry!

You will be!

LOL, not really.

I think Dell's can be ok actually, you usually just need to mess around for a bit removing all the pre-installed cr@p. Get rid of all norton '3-month free' rubbish and put AVG free edition on, and you will be sorted.

I also still think that BTX is basically a good idea, provided you have no plans on upgrading the motherboard in the future. It'll be quiet, and that spec will be quick.
Nice one.

PS 20 widescreen is luuuuverley!!! You really wont regret it.

[dangel]

Price and spec looks - good. Weird Well done

[simsim]

Thanks! I just kept comparing it to my scan basket, which was about £200 more, with a worse graphics card and the E6300 rather than 6400.

Then the 20" monitor was only £50 more than the 19" 1907, which has had some mixed reviews. Whereas everyone seems to rave about the 20". And as it usually sells for £339 ex VAT it made the decision for me!

I also got a APC BackUPS 500 for £44, which is again about £20 less than retail.

[magneticman]

another vote for the monitor, it's brilliant

[chrisg22]

You will be!

LOL, not really.

I think Dell's can be ok actually, you usually just need to mess around for a bit removing all the pre-installed cr@p. Get rid of all norton '3-month free' rubbish and put AVG free edition on, and you will be sorted.

TBH total fresh install would be quicker.

[dave87]

Thats certainly what I did with my CoreDuo Inspiron - it runs soo much better as a result.

I did however take a ghost image of the drive before I did that, so if necessary I can change it back

Dave

[Lee`]

Wow, I never noticed you could get the 20" screen for so cheap with a machine from dell outlet, looks like I'll be buying my next machine from there. Thanks.

[TheVoice]

Thats certainly what I did with my CoreDuo Inspiron - it runs soo much better as a result.

I did however take a ghost image of the drive before I did that, so if necessary I can change it back

Dave

Doesn't yours have the restore partition anyway? I paid the extra fiver for the Windows CD with my 630m, going to wipe it clean with that very soon and free up the space consumed by the restore partition. Also means it doesn't re-instlal all the trial crap, which the partition does.

[fishboy25uk]

You git simsim. All decided like you, and now I'm gonna have to have a look at Dell offers. Humph!

[simsim]

I know, I know, and remember you can't overclock these at all, the BIOSes are all locked down. But the great value on the extras is very convincing!

Part of the trick with the 9200's (and good deals on the XPS 700s too) is that they aren't labeling the processors correctly, so make sure you go through them all and see what the spec is. Most are labeled pentiums in the table, but you find about half are the core 2 duos. And make sure you tick the £50 rebate in the extras page, or you don't get it! (Although postage is £50, so it's effectively giving you that free).

[rob_z3_man]

It was good value indeed. No wonder you could not resist.

[baka]

For anyone that is interested i just saw a similar on there now... be quick:

Dimension 9200 (System Identifier. EJ8VF7AL)
Dimension 9200 Dual Core E6300 (1.86Ghz, 1066Mhz
Genuine Windows® XP Professional SP2


System Price £424.01
Dell recommends Microsoft® Windows® XP Professional


Operating System: Genuine Windows® XP Professional SP2
Genuine Windows® XP Professional SP2
Memory: 2048MB DDR2 667 [2*1024
Hard Disk Drive: 250GB 7200rpm SATA Hard Drive
Video: 256MB nVidia GeForce 7900GS graphics card
Modem: V.92 Modem Data/Fax/Voice PCI UK
DVD Drive: DVD+/-RW Reader 16x Dual Drive
DVD-ROM Reader 16x max (1 Drive)
Software: AOL, Dellnet + Tiscali UK ISP Combo
Image Restore Utility
English - Microsoft Works 8
MISC: Dell Quietkey Black Keyboard
Additional 250GB (7200rpm) SATAII Hard
Mouse Dell Wheel USB 2 Button Scroll Black
Photo Shop Photo Album (5.22) - trial version

[simsim]

Blimey, that's even cheaper! If it's in your basket btw, others can't see it.

[this_is_gav]

That doesn't come with a screen, does it (none listed)... it's a stupidly cracking offer mind... some really insane SKU deals out there at the moment.