Help me choose PC

DJW

DJW

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After a complete PC system to perform the following :-

- Photoshop work, so widescreen decent LCD
- Media Centre / TV
- Video Editing (rarely)
- No gaming reqmts (have XBOX & PS2 for the kids)
- General surfing

Ideally would like to buy something off the shelf.....built too many PC's in past that took up too much of my time ;)

What do you think of following deal :-

SYSTEM COMPONENTS

Dell Dimension 3100 (D04316)
Intel® Pentium® 4 Processor 521 with HT technology (2.80GHz, 800MHz fsb, 1MB cache), Genuine Windows® XP Media Center Edition 2005 Unit Price Incl. VAT £621.12

Base Intel® Pentium® 4 Processor 521 with HT technology (2.80GHz, 800MHz fsb, 1MB cache)
Microsoft Operating System Genuine Windows® XP Media Center Edition 2005
Memory 1024MB Dual Channel DDR2 400MHz (2x512) Memory
Monitor Dell 20" UltraSharp™ Wide Aspect Flat Panel with Height Adj Stand (2005FPW)
Video Card Integrated Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator 900
Hard Drive 160GB 7200rpm SATA Hard Drive #1
CD/DVD Drives 16X IDE DVD ROM + DVD 5.1 Power Software
Sound Cards Integrated 2.0 Channel High Definition Audio
Speakers Dell A215 speakers

Standard Warranty 1-Year Collect and Return service
Video Editing IEEE 1394 PCI Adapter card
Imaging Promotion - FREE Dell Colour Printer 725
TOTAL Incl. VAT:£621.12

Full link here

I already have DVD writer & wifi USB, so can add to above, plus can buy USB DV3 tuner.

As I'm not into Gaming or serious Video Editing the power of the machine is not that important. 1GB of memory is ideal for PS work. Ideally I would like to spend less, but realise decent LCDs cost.

Let me have your thoughts/advice please
 
1st thing, get an onsite warrenty. Dells are fairly solid but loosing the PC for 2 weeks while they faf around is not much fun. It's when you find out how much you actually use it.

Second thing, that vid card is truly appauling - even for 2D work. You're quicker with pen and paper. Spend another £15-30 and get a basic nvidia or ati. Anything except those intel onboard jobbies.
 
DJW said:
.....built too many PC's in past that took up too much of my time ;)
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I know exactly what you mean. Which is why I've just bought another imac to run XP on. Have you considered an imac?
 
I won't comment on the main parts of the system but the amount of memory will have a big effect on the speed and response of the system especially when doing your picture editing. 1mb is the absolute min you should be looking at for serious work in this area but it will almost certainly be cheaper to add in extra third party memory afterwards. Try it and see may be good advice but also make a few enquiries before you buy in case it does work out cheaper to buy direct from Dell.

The 2005FPW monitor was one of the few that were on my short list. In the end (due to cost restraints mainly) I opted for something different. However it is a well regarded monitor that is capable of showing good colours for picture editing. If you have not used a 20" widescreen before you will love the extra space for the toolbars and it won't be long before you are wondering how you ever managed with anything less. One word of warning though, there has been complaints of backlight bleed on that monitor. Obviously you need to balance the reports with common sense and understand that many are quick to complain and few will write with praise. The good points are that Dell have not had any qualms with doing next day swap out/replacements so if you do fall unlucky and get a bad one it is easy to get an exchange. :)

HTH
 
I think Steve means 1Gb rather than 1Mb, but I would agree with him.

Also avoid Windows Media Centre Edition and get a full version of XP Professional. You can always add in a Pinnacle TV card and software etc at a later date.
 
I've just spent the last two weeks trying to get na ATI card to run dual heded and basically its flippin' painful. Swapped for an nvidia and bosh, it worked out of the box.
 
SammyC said:
I've just spent the last two weeks trying to get na ATI card to run dual heded and basically its flippin' painful. Swapped for an nvidia and bosh, it worked out of the box.
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really? Was easy peasy here. Running ATi dual + a old pci matrox giving me a total of 3 screens. Easy as... erm... something really easy.
 
Also have a chat with your local computer shops, we may or may not be a little more expensive initially but it can help in the long run a) if you have trouble they are easy to get hold of and b) they are normally much more upgradable in the future. The amount of people we see who have dells and are now screwed cos they can't upgrade and wished they had come to us in the first place.
I would recommend, more ram (2Gb), bigger drive to store your pics on (250Gb) or a second hard drive for pic storage, definitely not onboard video and would say that the Athon64 chip would be better, certainly runs cooler and quieter than the P4 (the P4 quoted in that spec is the oldest model available as well!)
 
I also had no issues at all getting my old ATI Radion 9700pro running dual head, I used Ultra Mon to control it though, even so it was very easy??
 
Weird how some people swear by certain kit isn't it.

I won't ever touch anything by ATI, AMD or Netgear ever again due to the serious failures, flaws, instability and utterly rubbish drivers I've experienced from a corporate point of view of the last 9 years I've been in the business.

Give me an Intel CPU, Intel chipset and Nvidia graphics card any day of the week.
 
Nowt wrong with Intel, just that latest chips wise AMD seem to run cooler and quieter and just as fast. Equally like ATI and NVIDIA and i like Netgear's stuff but not had any problems with it, having said that i wouldn't not use anyone's networking stuff, most of it these days is the same kit with different badges.
 
Thats what I'm trying to say though, I'll never know if the latest AMD chips run well because I will never spend my money on them again - since I got "burned" (pardon the pun) with an old 1800+ and VIA chipset motherboard that used to crash several times daily and the CPU ran at 60c idle despite having a £45 heatsink/fan on it and running in an alu case with plenty of circulation.

Likewise at work we've recalled all the naff Netgear wireless routers due to them all overheating & locking up and given everyone Belkin's instead. But my hatred of Netgear goes way beyond that - I've hated them and their naff drivers since approx 1996/7.

Once bitten, twice shy as they say.
 
It can be a pain, but you can't beat a self built system imo. I was reading a review on Vista, and they say you’re going to need at least a 3.0GHz chip to run it, and at least 1GB of ram. Go down the self build route is my advice.
 
I'm a gamer so the ONLY thing that counts is performance. For those criteria it has to be AMD. There is no other option until the intel Conroe chips are released and they finally consign the Netburst (P4) family to the dustbin of history. I'm sorry but those are truly appauling performing chips.

At the time I got my 9700pro, ATi was the performance king. Thats why I bought it. However I found their crappy drivers so bad and this card soo succeptible to heat that it'll be the last ATi I ever buy. BTW, the only reason ATi drivers are so bad is because they have really terrible version control. They fix bugs in one version only for it to reappear a few releases later. Their software development lead needs spanked tbh.

As for the AMD stability FUD (Fear Uncertainty Doubt), I'm afraid that got buried with the K5. There are 7 pc's in this house. 4 intel, 2 amd and 1 VIA. As far as stability is concerned, I couldn't tell the difference between any of them.
 
orangepeel said:
At the time I got my 9700pro, ATi was the performance king. Thats why I bought it. However I found their crappy drivers so bad and this card soo succeptible to heat that it'll be the last ATi I ever buy. BTW, the only reason ATi drivers are so bad is because they have really terrible version control. They fix bugs in one version only for it to reappear a few releases later. Their software development lead needs spanked tbh.
Click to expand...

that seems to be the problem, I have no doubt that the hardware is probably brilliant but the drivers were kak and unstable it seemed. For the sake of a £200 gfx card its cost me a week of my time which is a lot more expensive. So we didn't bother to find out the real problem and just switched to nvidia. Worked first time and is still going a week later.

As Evilowl said, once bitten etc.
 
WOW...lots of replies. Thanks guys, will have a read. WIll have a look at self build, but I thought package PC prices were so low these days, it didn't seem worth it.

Will have a read of all comments in more detail later.
 
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