Dell 5150 Dual Core 2.8GHz inc 19" LCD Monitor & Free Printer £429 (merged)

stephentheshark

Very tempted by this offer. Could anyone offer an opinion whether it would be :

better to pay the extra for the 3.2GHz processor as dual core doesn't seem to be very well supported

and upgrade the monitor to one of the UltraSharp ones

Regards

Stephen

biglugs

Not sure about the processor upgrade - I have a 3.0GHz single core and it's fine for everything I need. I also have the 19" E196FP monitor and it is great - I would only upgrade to the ultrasharp one if you really really want to spend more money.

honestDave_2

stephentheshark wrote:

Very tempted by this offer. Could anyone offer an opinion whether it would be :

better to pay the extra for the 3.2GHz processor as dual core doesn't seem to be very well supported

and upgrade the monitor to one of the UltraSharp ones

Regards

Stephen

Dual core is definitely the way forward. I'm suprised you have to pay to go single core, albeit slightly faster.

I'd stick with the Intel® Pentium® D Processor 820 with DualCore over paying to go with the 640 or 650.

balt

This one might suit some people 5150 D045C1 at £529 it has

830 dual core
1024 mem
8x dvd +-rw
wireless keyboard and mouse
the rest as per the one above except printers are more expensive

As far as I know dual core is better at multi tasking and 640/650 is faster for gaming so 830 dc should be pretty good at 3ghz. Looks like dell are using up the 8xx series processors for the 9xx series.

The 19in ultra sharp is better with DVI input so a graphics card would be needed although it will run in analogue.

Make sure everything is as you expect before ordering as dell have a habit of changing things at a moments notice

gdh82

Thanks for highlighting this deal, folks.

Could anyone tell why the Dell site, with deals other than this too, always seems to bump up the original price by £100+ ?

The above link initially takes me to a page with a £399 price and then I click customise and buy and its suddenly £540 without changing the spec at all

Any advice much appreciated

Daniel_B

GDH - it's cos they automatically spec a 'recommended' 3 year warranty - just change to the standard one year for original price.

"1-Year Collect and Return service [subtract £141.00]"

Dan

gdh82

Got it! Thanks very much, Dan, for putting me right there. Cheers!! :beer:

Whirly

After much searching today I've tracked down the specs for the video card upgrade options listed and I thought I'd better post them as a warning for anyone thinking of taking them...

X300 128Mb Hypermemory - ACTUAL on-board memory = 32Mb
X600 256Mb Hypermemory - ACTUAL on-board memory = 128Mb

The fact that the memory on these cards is way less than is implied is not mentioned anywhere when buying and there is not even a link to the true specs so people can discover the truth easily. Personally I think that is very misleading and very naughty of Dell - after all, how many of their customers are going to have intimate knowledge of ATI's Hypermemory system and track down the truth?

Anyway, it's a simple job to stick your own card in and you can easily get better for your money.

jase_uk_2

AAARRRGGGHHH!!! I wanna buy this system but keep reading things that put me off, i want it to watch n burn dvds on, what kind of price should i pay for a decent dvd writer + tv card, i already have a graphics card in my other pc Nvidia GeForce4 Ti 4200 with AGPx8, will this be any good for the Dell system

Whirly

jase_uk wrote:

AAARRRGGGHHH!!! I wanna buy this system but keep reading things that put me off, i want it to watch n burn dvds on, what kind of price should i pay for a decent dvd writer + tv card, i already have a graphics card in my other pc Nvidia GeForce4 Ti 4200 with AGPx8, will this be any good for the Dell system

It's still a great bargain!

To watch and burn DVDs....

The intergrated graphics should be ok for watching DVD's.

A DVD burner costs as little as £20 (http://svp.co.uk/products-solo.php?pid=963) and SVP are one of the best out there for customer services.

TV Card - depends what you want, Analogue or Digital.

Video card: This is a PCI-Express machine so AGP won't fit. You'll need a new card.

If you want everything in one card (good vid card + TV Card) maybe think about the ATI All-In-Wonder X800GT (https://www.ebuyer.com - Quickfind code: 98417) for £135.