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

Whirly

biglugs wrote:

Take all the Dell crap off, put in a new graphics card, load up some games and enjoy

*sighs* I wish.

It's for working at home - no games allowed mainly to ensure stability.

Still I can now sell my old workstation and build a nice little games machine with the proceeds.

biglugs

work<>home - mutually exclusive words I'm afraid!

gdh82

I've took the plunge yesterday and ordered this deal (with ram and dvd writer upgrade). I don't want it for the latest games but instead a family pc, some dvd back-ups, net use including streaming of tv/radio clips, and running emulator games (speccy, amiga, atari 2600).

I've some nagging doubts (!) about this now so tell me, Whirly, can you give me some words of encouragement that I've made the right decision in going for this deal ?

Thanks in advance (am suffering post pc purchase anxiety :embarasse )

biglugs

I have a 5100 single core (a 3GHz Pentium 630) together with the E196FP screen and I'm chuffed to bits with it! It's VERY quiet compared to all the Athlon PCs I've built and quality is superb (although the cowling round the processor fan can sometimes rattle a little bit).
I have put a 6600GT video card in because we play a lot of games, but even without it I think you'd be hard pressed to buy a better machine from the likes of PC World.
I also use it for watching DVDs and video files (thank God for Lost on Bittorrent) and for backing up my photo collection and it is very fast.
I think you'll enjoy it.
Cheers

Whirly

gdh82 wrote:

I've took the plunge yesterday and ordered this deal (with ram and dvd writer upgrade). I don't want it for the latest games but instead a family pc, some dvd back-ups, net use including streaming of tv/radio clips, and running emulator games (speccy, amiga, atari 2600).

I've some nagging doubts (!) about this now so tell me, Whirly, can you give me some words of encouragement that I've made the right decision in going for this deal ?

Thanks in advance (am suffering post pc purchase anxiety :embarasse )

OK, how's this for encouragement...

I have built my own PCs since 1997 for 2 reasons: Price & getting exactly what I want.

Normally I would have self-built my new PC because getting exactly what I want is very important to me. But I can't be blind to price and the truth is that I could not have built this base unit for £400 never mind buying a TFT.

As for specs my ideal would have been Dual-processor @ 2.8Ghz+, 1gb+ memory, 300Gb+ HDD, DVD-RW, and crystal clear 2d video at resolutions of 1600x1200. 21"+ TFT to replace my old 21" Sony CRT.

Well this Dell may not be exactly to my specs but look at how close it is. Adding another 512Mb of memory is easy & cheap (just bought 2x256Mb DDR2 matched pair off eBay for £10) and adding a 250Gb HDD will cost me around £62 for the drive and £2 for the cable. As for the monitor, well I have to admit my eyesight isn't quite what it used to be and there are times (late at night) when blurry eyes find reading at the current resolution less than easy....but now, with pretty much a free 19" TFT I can invest in a dual-head capable video card and spread my work over 2 screens set at a lower resolution.

Um...got off the point here a little I think.

You wanted a little encouragement....I haven't seen a better deal on a USEABLE & (reasonably) UPGRADEABLE computer in a very, very long time. Not even on the misprices (which are almost always very basic PCs). So if you want a PC that, with a little upgrading, can do almost anything you want for an unbelievable price then be glad you took the plunge.

How's that?

biglugs

My last PC was a home-built Athlon XP3200 upgraded from an XP2000, on a DFI Lan Party Mobo. I bought my Dell 5100 cos it was a misprice, but once I'd got it I realised it outclassed my own PC by miles. Now my daughter has my Athlon machine and I'm perfectly happy with my Dell which is of excellent quality and very robust and quiet! (Fan on my old 3200 just screams in comparison).
TFT runs at 1280x1024 native which is fine for what I want, although I still get beaten at Day of Defeat: Source

planetf1

Has anyone experience of the dell wireless keyboards (+£22) . A little searching suggests that a logitech may be far better option - perhaps the 300/500 rather than the 700 (dells price at 50 is actually good for this as it retails around 55). Ebuyer are advertizing a MS one for around £25. Probably will stay basic & look around.

And anyone managed to negotiate a larger HDD at lower cost? Prob not worth the bother as would loose quidco cashback (20) and a new 250 HDD is only 60 or so anyway.

I think I'll order...

mpazza

I've gone for one of these too but with the 20" wide aspect monitor for an extra £150, couldnt resist!
I wany a wireless keyboard with built in mouse so I can lounge on the sofa, at ebuyer they have this seems good value £27
Itron RF 2.4Ghz USB Media Center Keyboard with Mouse stick anyone know about these? cant find much on the web.
http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/products/index.html?rb=17980365970&action=c2hvd19wcm9kdWN0X292ZXJ2aWV3&product_uid=108078

Whirly

In case anyone is interested I found the best option on a HDD upgrade was the 250Gb Samsung Spinpoint (SP2504C) at just under £59.

Reviews make it fast for office work, quiet, and low power consumption.

gdh82

Whirly wrote:

OK, how's this for encouragement...

I have built my own PCs since 1997 for 2 reasons: Price & getting exactly what I want.

Normally I would have self-built my new PC because getting exactly what I want is very important to me. But I can't be blind to price and the truth is that I could not have built this base unit for £400 never mind buying a TFT.

Thanks, Whirly, for taking the time out to give me those words of encouragement - it is much appreciated. :T

I think I'm alot like you in terms of it being important that I get what I want. After my requested upgrades (ram and dvdwriter) it lifted the price to £520 and today I saw a new version of the Dell 5150 for £539 which not already included these upgrades but seems to have a better processor, graphics card, hard disk storage (but only a 17" monitor).

I had wanted to swap deals but as the original salesperson wasn't there today to amend the original order I felt I had to cancel! Would you agree that the revised Dell 5150 is also a good deal ?