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

AJP558

I see that the revised 5150 gdh82 is now looking at is only the single core 6-series CPU. Personally I'd go for a dual core these days unless I was after an almost dedicated gaming machine. The 17" monitor is also a downside as you have stated. Horses for Courses though. Both machines are great and pretty upgradeable, but if it was me I'd go for a dual cpu with MCE o/s and then after delivery I'd upgrade to a large, quiet hard disk, a DVD burner and keep my eyes out for a good but quiet (passively cooled) PCI Express graphics card.

gdh82

Thanks for the further advice, AJP558. This'll sound dumb but what's the difference between a dual-core processor and single-core and how does it affect pc performance ?

Whirly

I'm sorry to say I don't think it's anywhere near as good in all honesty.

Single core processor (the *most* difficult upgrade possible) and a bog-standard 17" monitor.

Yes, you get a bigger HDD, extra mem, and a (pretty bad) video card but those are all the cheapest and easiest upgrades to do yourself.

With the original deal you can continue to use the 80gb hdd in you PC when you upgrade to an extra 250Gb for £60. You can continue to use the 512Mb of supplied memory and grab an upgrade when mem is cheap. And you can buy the exact video card you want (and video is very important) without throwing anything away. And as for the monitor, 19" is a damn good size for the desktop and is likely to be useable for many years (even through your next 2 base units).

With the new deal you are paying extra for the cheap and useless bits - memory, HDD (both cheap and getting cheaper by the day), the video card (no good for games and if you are using it for office work then what's wrong with the on-board video?), and the 17" TFT which is going to look pretty darn small within a couple of years.

And as for the processor....the old deal you got two 2.8ghz P4's. The new deal you get one 3ghz processor. Seems like you pay more, get less.

Remember though, this is just a personal opinion based on whaty *I* think is important, but I wouldn't buy the current offer...I wouldn't even be tempted.

fox2319

<sigh>

I'd go for one of these but need to lighten the financial burden a bit. Anybody want to buy a PSP?

Ho-hum

Jeff

Whirly

By the way, if you use this link:

http://configure.euro.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?cs=ukdhs1&kc=318&oc=d04516a&x=7&y=9

You should be able to get the old offer with 1gb memory for £440.

Hillfly

Link is broken.

sidtec

Just ordered one of these. It seems like a great spec. Hope it's as quiet as my current Dimension 4550

Whirly

Hillfly wrote:

Link is broken.

Really? Seems to work for me. *shrugs* I can't replicate your error Hillfly so I can't fix it - sorry.

gdh82

Thanks again, Whirly, for your detailed advice. I think I've got myself all mixed up over this and not sure if I should have cancelled now!

This all goes to show what little I know and what a minefield it all is. I don't think I could spot a good pc deal if it kicked me up the backside!

Will try the suggested link again as at present it gives the message: "We're sorry but the Online Store is temporarily inaccessible. The Store is undergoing routine maintenance or may be experiencing unexpected technical problems. We apologize for the inconvenience and ask for your patience as we work to correct the situation. Check back with us shortly. "

Thanks again for your's and the help of others.

xueta

Hillfly wrote:

Link is broken.

Try typing d-d04516a into the e-value code box instead.