Computer I might buy - should I or no?

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wyrd

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Might buy this computer for both gaming and working. Should I buy this comp?

Dell Dimension 8300
$1,250 after tax & shipping.

- 2 Year Limited Warranty plus 2 Year On-site Service and CompleteCare
- Pentium® 4 Processor at 2.60GHz w/800MHz front side bus/ HT Technology
- Microsoft® Windows® XP Professional
- 512MB Dual Channel DDR SDRAM at 400MHz (2x256M)
- 40GB Ultra ATA/100 Hard Drive (7200 RPM)
- 48x/24x/48x Max CD-RW Drive
- 17 in (16 in viewable,.27dp) E773c CRT Monitor
- 128MB DDR ATI RADEON™ 9800 Graphics Card with TV-Out and DVI
- SoundBlaster Live! 5.1 Digital Sound Card
- Integrated Intel® PRO 10/100 Ethernet
- Misc. stuff (keyboard, mouse, office software)
 
Sounds like a good, fast machine to me. Might be lacking in some important gaming essentials, if you ask me, but it's your preference. I'd think an upgrade to a 19" or even 21" monitor would be worth it. Also, if you can get the 9800 PRO (or even a 9700 Pro) it would be worth it.

Also, do you already have a DVD drive? Might want to look into an upgrade on that as well. Probably looking at a few hundred more for everything though.

-Ner
 
Well.. this would be more or less a family computer. I didn't want to overkill it and buy a $2k machine. I'm really just looking for some input as to whether this is a good deal or not.

My parents can move all of their business stuff onto it, and it'd definitely be good enough to play future games on it (HL2, Doom3, etc). I figure in a few years, I'd be moved out and looking for a new computer by then anyway, and this one can just stay with my parents and last them until it decides to break.

9700 pro and 9800 are close enough in performance, 9800 pro would be overkill (I mean seriously, what games within the next 2 years would even REQUIRE it just to play?).

17" screen is big enough to me, not really sure what I'd need a bigger one for when my face is right in front of the screen.

What would I do with a DVD drive? We have a 52" wide screen HDTV with dolby surround sound and all that jaz downstairs for watching movies. There is no work that I do or that my parents do that would require a 2 gig backup device.
 
You don't necessarily need a DVD-/+RW drive, but it's a good idea to invest in at least one drive that can read DVDs. Microsoft is starting to distribute larger software (e.g. VS.net 2003) in DVD format; who knows what that will affect. You can purchase a DVD-ROM/CD-RW combo fairly cheaply right now.

The big-screen is great isn't it...I have a 61" with 10 speakers...I love it so much I'm sleeping in the TV room now :)
 
Doesn't sound like a bad deal. Althrough here is something you might want to consider. When it breaks the parts are a lot higher than a clone. Even though you have a good waranty if it breaks you will most likely have to wait for a tech to come and look at it. Sometimes those companies send one just to diagnose the problem "not actually fix it while they are there!"!!!!! The process can be quite frusterating. I know some people that have been through this, altrough not with a dell. But with another propriatory PC manafactur.
Some good advice that I learned the hard way.
Don't get rid off your old Pc untill you replace the new one.
Always keep a spare.
I sure that Dell makes a good computer. But personally I prefer to build my own. That way I know what I am getting. Or have a local reliable store build me one.
 
Wyrd,

I bought a computer 2 weeks ago with 1250 $ after tax and shipping.

It had the following Specs :

1 year warranty + 1 year on site service
DELL Dimesion 4600
P IV 2.4 Ghz 533 Mhz
Microsoft Windows XP Professional
512 DDRAM at 333 Mhz
80 Gb Hard Disk (2 MB cache) 7200rpm
48x/24x/48x CDRW
DVD ROM
17 " Screen .27 dpi
SoundBlaster Live! 5.1 Digital Sound Card
Integrated Intel® PRO 10/100 Ethernet
Optical Mouse, Multimedia Keyboard, Surround System Speakers
128 MB DDRAM Nvidia Geforce 4 FX 5200
TV-Tuner + Radio FM
Xerox Printer M750
I thought you can compare....
 
Just thought I'd update you all and let you know that I decided not to buy it. I'm going to wait until a new computer is absolutely necessary. Right now I don't really need one. Plus, the new Athlon 64s just came out, which will no doubt drive prices down in the near future.
 
I only buy clones!
I rather pick and choose the exact components that I need, none of these nock-offs that Dell, IBM, Compaq, etc decide to install because they go a good deal on it.

Simply my opinion. :)
 
I brought a new computer 3 weeks ago.

It was a HP

P4 2.4Ghz with Hyperthreading (cos the CPU speed doesn't matter too much at the moment, you're not going to notice the difference between a 2.4 and a 2.8)
1 GB Ram (but this is something you'll notice, especially when using VS.NET, you should see it fly!)
80GB HD
128 MB Gforce 4
Windows XP Home
48X speed CD/RW/DVD (decided against a DVD writer until the formats settle down more)
Soundblaster Audiogy.
And a whole bunch of other build-in crap I didn't really need like a modem, ethernet card (ok, so thats a little useful), speakers, etc, etc)

I built this at the Best Buy Creation Station, and it cost $1300. If I'd brought a printer and a monitor at the same time, I would have got a $100 rebate, but at the time I didn't want a printer and couldn't afford a monitor). This was the best deal I could find, and I still have a 'super-computer' (in my eyes).

2 weeks later I picked up a 18" Flat panel Mag monitor for $450 from Best Buy too.
 
I bought my current computer wholesale and put it together myself.

Here's what I bought:

AthlonXP 1800+ processor
256MB RAM
GeForce 3 TI 200 128MB
AOpen AthlonXP Motherboard
Case and 350W Power Supply

Bought that about a year ago, and it all came out to about $750 CAD. If you added a 19" monitor, 60GB HD, and DVD-ROM, it'd probably come to about $1100 CAD, which is only about $810 USD. Mind you, this was wholesale (i.e. straight from a distributor, no profit to be made by a store) so you may not be able to find quite the same deal, but if you can, you should consider doing that.
 
Oh year I forgot to mention too, I had to wait 3 weeks for them to build it in Mexico too. Longest 3 weeks of my life.
 
I would build my own computer, and have, unfortunately I always seem to have bad experiences. It took me 6 months to get my current puter (back when I built it) running rock solid. Although I suppose it was worth it.. it's an 800mhz athlon g2mx 256mb ram machine, and ran games better then a lot of 1.2ghz g2 512mb ram machines I knew of. Unfortunately times change, and this machine will not play any of the games coming out in 2004. Nothing wrong with it for programming though. :)
 
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