Anyone got a Dell? (1100 style desktop)

smcicr

Hi,

Mum and Dad are looking to do a relatively cheap upgrade on the pc front. The Dell deals look pretty good (1100 model w/ 15" tft, 80GB, 512MB, reasonable cpu, XP Home etc for around £350) and will easily cover what they want it for: some light surfing, emails, some word processing and some light image work - mainly transferring from cam to pc and printing.

Looking through the specs though it states that the system only comes with a 250W PSU - while this may be enough for what comes in the system I expect it pretty much puts a stop to adding extra HDD's / optical drives / pci cards etc?

Has anyone got one of these and if so what are they like running off that PSU? Has anyone added extra's such as the above and found any problems? I seem to recall hearing that the Dell boxes are a little bit specific inside - ie: not simple to switch to a more powerful PSU and so on?

Appreciate any thoughts on this. Ta.

gizmoleeds

If they are only using it for "some light surfing, emails, some word processing and some light image work - mainly transferring from cam to pc and printing" then why would it ever need upgrading?

You can buy a power supply for next to nothing:

http://www.dabs.com/productview.aspx?Quicklinx=39N9&CategorySelectedId=11259&PageMode=1&NavigationKey=11259,41292

This is a 480w for £17, so if you are that worried just upgrade it.

smcicr

thanks, but how exactly has that helped me ?

allow me to be more specific:

"and will easily cover what they want it for at the moment"

perhaps I'm wrong but I see a computer as something that can be added to and improved as time goes by and as the people using it learn more and want to do more with it. I don't think that's an exactly outrageous point of view. I'm not talking about a cheap base model suddenly becoming an all singing all dancing media centre or games machine but the ability to grow with the user's wants within reason is something I feel is inherent in pc culture.


furthermore, as they are upgrading - they have components in the old pc that could potentially be transferred but I have concerns about the PSU - I think that bit was probably clear. provided of course it actually got read.

Amazingly I am already aware that replacement PSU's can be bought - the question I actually asked was related to what the inside of the Dell case looks like. I asked this because I thought I remembered that the cases were not generic and thus it was not a simple 'buy a new PSU and slot it in' job.

If you know the answer to the question I actually asked then please feel free to contribute it - that is, after all, why I asked the question in the first place.