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 My New Family PC
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Good Bang For The Buck?
(No ending time set)
Hell Yea...
10%
 10%  [ 1 ]
Yea...
10%
 10%  [ 1 ]
Meh...
10%
 10%  [ 1 ]
No...
20%
 20%  [ 2 ]
Hell No... i can get a better deal at Rip You Off Shack ;) (Radioshack)
50%
 50%  [ 5 ]
Total Votes : 10

Author Message
the_short1




PostPosted: Thu Jul 15, 2004 11:29 am   Post subject: My New Family PC

Heres The Stats.....

Dimension 2400 Series <started at $499, but i customized (more ram and dvd burner) + some extras....

-Intel® Celeron® Processor at 2.4GHz with 400MHz front side bus

-Microsoft® Windows® XP Home Edition

-256MB Shared DDR SDRAM at 333MHz

-Dellâ„¢ Enhanced Multimedia Keyboard

-17 in (16.0 in v.i.s., .27dp) E773 Monitor <their monitors 'burn in' easy dont they? (well all dells at school did, but they leave them on a long time... ) (screensaver?) stupid ADSB... all the ACER monitors didn't burn in tho... and they were left on all the time too...(this monitor was with package already so that was a plus:))

-Integrated Intel® 3D Extreme Graphics <this is gona let me play CS rite?

-40GB Ultra ATA/100 7200RPM Hard Drive

-3.5 in Floppy Drive

-Dell Optical USB Mouse

-Integrated 10/100 Ethernet

-56K PCI Telephony Modem <cant remove this either.. Sad

-8x DVD+R/+RW Drive with CD-RW including Sonic RecordNow and MyDVD LE

-Integrated Audio

-Altec Lansing® ADA215 Speakers

-WordPerfect Productivity Pack < NASTY! cant remove from package... Sad

-Norton Internet Securityâ„¢, 90 day trial < yay! thats the second 90day trial i have... so i can use them back to back ! 6months! (i dont have HD space for it rite now on shit comp so i kept CD tho..)

-Dell Jukebox powered by MUSICMATCH < doesn't lower price to remove it.. so why not...

-Dell Picture Studio, Paint Shop Pro 60-day trial, Photo Album Starter Edition < doesn't lower price to remove this.. so why not...

-1 Yr Ltd. Warranty, 1 Yr In-Home/On-Site Service, 24x7 Phone Tech Dell

-Dell Media Experienceâ„¢

-FREE Dell 720 Color Inkjet Printer <anyone wana buy it? ahha lexmark better Smile or at least.. we gona stick with ours... (refilling lexmark cartridge till they dont work... then buying the newest lexmark printer that comes with cartridges for the same price as 1 black and white and 1 colors cartridge Razz) were on our fourth lexmark printer... z22,z32,z45,1200 or something.. Razz

TOTAL: $869.00 or $1010 with tax and shipping, $26 month / 48 month @ 9.99% interest...


sound like a good deal? i dont like dell... really i wanted a acer.. or compaq.. but dell has good package / customization / support / delivery... so i guess u gota go with that ... right? (well its for family comp and parents when i leave..2 years later.... ) plus this is buying online...



what you guys think?

i get to buy the computer.. parents gave me 1k $ limit.. (and i think that means before the taxes... so i think i did good)

do u think i can get better comp for the money?

*that dvd RW + CD RW combo drive was like $250 extra to add on... but its needed Smile downloading DVD's HErE i come! Smile... now to get parents to buy a DVD player for living room.... isntead of using my ps2 Rolling Eyes Razz... then i can just download a DVD burn on a DVD-RW watch it upstairs... and erase and start again Smile

please vote and post any comments....
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Martin




PostPosted: Thu Jul 15, 2004 12:12 pm   Post subject: (No subject)

No. That computer is two things:
a) Junk
b) Overpriced.

First off, if you order a packaged computer, you are immediately getting ripped off. They think that 100 buck markup for their 20 min assembly is reasonable. Then they charge you $150-$250 for Windows XP. Then they have to pay their employees extra for being as useless as possible. So, out of that 1100 or so dollars, only maybe half is actual hardware, if you're lucky.

Also, the software bundle that comes with it is crap.

Now to rip it apart even further:

Celeron processors are the worst in the world. Cheaper than Pentium processors, sure, but vastly outpreformed. A quick benchmark:
P4 1.6 GHz vs. Celeron 2.6GHz overclocked to 3.2GHz.
Otherwise, the systems were identical. Guess which processor won? The P4.

And $250 for a DVD burner? Are you kidding me? You could get them for cheaper than that when they came out. You can get a DVD burner for as little as $60 today, $150 for the top models. And knowing dell, they aren't giving you a top of the line one. So that's a $150 installation fee?

So avoid celeron with your life. Go for an amd system. Here's what my system, which I bought and built a year ago, contains:
AMD XP 2000+ (this performs about as well as a 2GHz pentium, or a 500GHz celeron processor)
512MB PC2700 DDR333 Ram. (The bare minimum for a computer running windows xp, or else everything will feel beyond belief slow)
ATI Radeon 9000 pro, 128mb video. (note that your system doesn't have a video card. So gaming on that = no.)
40GB 7200 rpm HD. (Yeah, same thing as yours)
24x10x40 CD-R/RW drive.
19" KDS Xtreme flat monitor (flatscreen CRT monitor)

Guess what the total was, with shipping, tax, and a 1 year warrenty?
Just under $1250 canadian. And that was a year ago. Everything (except for the ram) has gone down in price substantially since then.
Martin




PostPosted: Thu Jul 15, 2004 12:19 pm   Post subject: (No subject)

So now I imagine that you want an alternative.

Here, you have two choices:
a) You can buy parts online, build the computer yourself (this is way easier than it sounds).
b) Buy a prebuilt computer online (usually costs about the same as buying parts, but you don't get as much customizability).

In either case, you are saving yourself a lot of money. And if you get a blank hard drive, you can find a copy of windows somewhere Twisted Evil and use that, saving yourself $250.

Also, you get pretty much the same warrenties on it as well.

If you want help making a system, I can build one for you and just send you the link. If I was dell, I'd charge you $300 for that. Fortunately, I'm unemployed.

Posted Image, might have been reduced in size. Click Image to view fullscreen.
Paul




PostPosted: Thu Jul 15, 2004 4:04 pm   Post subject: (No subject)

Um... do they all sell your PC to you with operating system on? or do they still let you choose if you want to install it yourself? cause it'd be huge rip off if I let them install windows for me for $150... Mad
wtd




PostPosted: Thu Jul 15, 2004 5:07 pm   Post subject: (No subject)

Paul Bian wrote:
Um... do they all sell your PC to you with operating system on? or do they still let you choose if you want to install it yourself? cause it'd be huge rip off if I let them install windows for me for $150... Mad


You can order some Dell computers without an OS (I believe they include a boxed copy of FreeDOS to get around Micrsoft's requirement that they include an OS). However, I've recently spoken with someone who did just this, and the hardware used in that machine is absolute junk.

So... avoid Dell like the plague. Build it yourself.
Andy




PostPosted: Thu Jul 15, 2004 5:10 pm   Post subject: (No subject)

the only good thing dell has is the laptops... the passed the three story window test...
Cervantes




PostPosted: Thu Jul 15, 2004 5:14 pm   Post subject: Re: My New Family PC

the_short1 wrote:

do u think i can get better comp for the money?

yes.

my computer, which I bought a full two years ago for the same price, is better than that.
as everyone says, build it yourself. If you can't, go to a store called Summit Direct. If you can't find one, I guess MDG is the next best thing. I dislike MDG, but it's better than dell.

and darkness, he does have a video card, it's just that it's integrated. so, it sucks. Laughing
Martin




PostPosted: Thu Jul 15, 2004 5:26 pm   Post subject: (No subject)

www.tigerdirect.ca
www.hltechnology.com
www.pccanada.com

All prices in Canadian dollars.
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the_short1




PostPosted: Thu Jul 15, 2004 7:38 pm   Post subject: (No subject)

thanks... i thought it was a little expensive.... and i was gona see if acer (they sell them at algoma business computers)
could match that package for better deal... cuz as i said before..

Quote:

i dont like dell... really i wanted a acer.. or compaq


yea... i dont like dell.. ive used them... and thoguht they were slow as hell (even thought they had same speed as acer';s in class..).. the Verizon model of ACer is pretty good from my use.... i used them in Computer Science for half a year... fast.. let me run a lot of shit..(winamp musik, turing (running progams)...visualization (winamp)..norton anivirus/firewall... plus whatever else is running in background that i dont know about... and it was still goiong smooth..

. integrated intel extreme 3d graphcis = total junk.... okz... i keep note of that.... cuz i want to play CS and Wc3.. (dont need to go extreme like 1000 for a dam video card..) but i want to be able to PLAY it...


i know i looked at www.mdg.com ... they didn';t have monitors with package... so it was a bit more then 1K (without the tax) so i couldn't get..
i also tried compaq.ca and www.compusmart.com ... no luck.. too expensive.. no cutom (well not on compusmart)... so i was again.. out of luck...

i talked to parents.. they woulda bought that comp (if i said i was done shopping).. so im good on the 1K deal Smile

btw... that Dvd drive is a DVD-+r/RW and cd-RW COMBO drive... so yes.. it is way more expensive... their was other cd drives and they were 100-170 $..(like u said). but they weren't the combo... they were DVD rewrite only and (seperate drive) cd-rw only... or w/e..... meh... still that is something i really needed... will get a better price..

ill phone around and see if they can match that package... yea i know them making the computer is a rip off... but i dotn want to make myself.. warrenty out the window then...


at least i was able to get custom PC on a list...(by using their website)
(with all the parts and stuff)

are u saying i need 512 MB ram just to run XP? (further shows why i hate XP) ... man that would be crzy on win98 (the ram) Smile

yea.. i forgot to ask in first post about celeron... thx for info.. i didn't really know the diff...


I will run from dell as much as i can... parents want the 48 month payment plan tho.. Sad... or ill have to wait month or two ..for 1k to save up... (good thing we have a 3 floor house) we rent 3rd floor out.. so we get 550 a month from that Smile

thanks peeps..
Martin




PostPosted: Thu Jul 15, 2004 7:44 pm   Post subject: (No subject)

A nice thing about futureshop and integrated graphics cards.

64mb Integrated Intel Extreme Graphics Controller. Woah, that's got a long word, and it says extreme in it (extreme jello anyone?) so it must be good.

A few facts. The Integrated Graphics Controller uses shared ram. What does that mean? If you have 256mb of ram, actually 192mb of ram is used as memory, the other 64 is used as video memory. Sucks, eh? It gets worse.

Take your average $100 motherboard with the Intel Extreme Integrated Graphics.

Futureshop: Okay, we have to charge them $100 for the motherboard.
Futureshop: Alright, since it's from futureshop, we should add another $50 to that.
Futureshop: 64mb Extreme graphics? That's worth $75 more at least!
Futureshop: Okay, that comes to $225. Do you want the extended warrenty with that?

Really. Don't buy a packaged computer. They all rip you off. Honestly, I'll make you the computer and send you the link. And you'll love it, or no money back!
wtd




PostPosted: Thu Jul 15, 2004 7:53 pm   Post subject: (No subject)

And whatever you do, don't make payments on a frickin' computer. Save up for a bit longer if you can't afford what you want right now. The banks Dell and other resellers work through can be very nasty.
Raugrist




PostPosted: Thu Jul 15, 2004 7:57 pm   Post subject: (No subject)

And by the time it's paid off it will have been too long for you to say "my computer is less obsolete than yours!"
Paul




PostPosted: Thu Jul 15, 2004 8:18 pm   Post subject: (No subject)

so how would one go about "building" one without any knowledge for it?
wtd




PostPosted: Thu Jul 15, 2004 8:27 pm   Post subject: (No subject)

Paul Bian wrote:
so how would one go about "building" one without any knowledge for it?


Google is your friend.

As is ArsTechnica.
the_short1




PostPosted: Thu Jul 15, 2004 8:34 pm   Post subject: (No subject)

buildign a comp aint that hard...



its all just pluging it into the MB..


the hard part is doing it without fucking up the components..... (static ... or just being rough)

... that and jumpers... i have no knowledge on jumper settings... i dont mess with them.... but its not hard to install ram... Hd.. all ur cards... pwersupply aint hard..


like i say... dam jumpers.. and worring about scrweing it up... specially an expensive pc.. then u also dont get warenty..

sokz... i will exchange the celeron for a non celeron.... nah.. dont want AMD... and then i will submit tl other companies saying BEAT THAT PRICE!
\



how are ACERS in ur opinions?
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