[CLOSED] -Dell 2.6ghz 512MB Base unit £151.57

escapee

Had my PC for a week now but just decided to set it up, I ordered my baseunit with a 15in tft monitor and i must say its excellent, the picture is pin sharp much more refined than my ageing 15in crt monitor. It is set up at 1024x768 at 32 bit. And I only used add/remove to get rid of unused software and its still very fast (although I admit a reinstall would be better to rid unwanted junk).

I have nothing but praise for my little pc at present and the fan is almost silent compared to my amd 500. Wish I had paid the extra £15 for the dvdrom drive cos then I wouldnt have to take out this cdrom drive. I did notice however that the drives are set up on cable select, so i changed them around to run as primary and secondary master/slave drives.

escapee

biglugs

You won't find many PCI graphics cards around.

If you do want one though PC World have a PNY Verto FX 5200 128Mb on their website as a special for about £44 plus delivery, or their component website has a 256Mb one for about £60+del.

I think you'll struggle to find a PCI card more powerful than these in the current market. They should however be good enough for basic games (My Athlon 2000 had one of these in and it played Return to Castle Wolfenstein and Halflife fine). Got FX5200s in two of my kids Pentium IIIs and they play games all the time, and my daughters DVDs play superbly on her machine.

Ian_2-3

Guess what? Dell just tried to deliver the system I hadn't ordered.
Declined delivery and have spent an hour talking to Dell and cc company.
Really annoyed. Expect better from Dell especially as I emailed them to say don't send this computer I have not ordered and spoke to them direct. The mega-annoying bit is they debited my account.
Now regard Dell in a different light.
I await my refund.
Very shocked and surprised with Dell. They have gone on my 'wary' list.

mhuk

To the user with video problems: you need to install the drivers fro your card otherwise it runs in the basic VGA mode.

fdisk because 2003 writes to the boot sector...

jazzy

Question for you guys!
How do you remove the case covers off the tower? It looks like they are rivited on, I was hoping to fit a cdrw drive unit thats if I can open it!
Thanks

escapee

Re: Removing case cover.

Read the manual that came with your computer it clearly shows how to open the case, if you cant be bothered then basically there is an L shaped plastic release trigger on the back, push this DOWN and it will release the side panel, you also need to remove the front fascia which is also straightforward, it just clips out. There is no need for screwdrivers to get into the base unit.

escapee

uncle_buck_3

Hi,
If you were to format the hard drive to get rid of the hidden partition etc, how would you guys in the know recommend you set it up when reinstalling?

Cheers.

Wolfylee

Hi,
If you were to format the hard drive to get rid of the hidden partition etc, how would you guys in the know recommend you set it up when reinstalling?

Cheers.

I would set it up with two partitions, one for your OS, being about 10 - 20 gig, the other being for your saved work and stuff. If you wont be installing many programs then 10 gig will be fine, if you will be installing lots of proggies, then probably go for 15-20 gig partition for your OS. This way you can re-install your OS (in case of problems) till your hearts content and you won't lose anything.

As this is NOT a games machine I would say though, for the vast majority of people, 15 Gig for your OS and 25 Gig for your saved data/pictures/music etc should be fine.

ptpeetee

I would set it up with two partitions, one for your OS, being about 10 - 20 gig, the other being for your saved work and stuff. If you wont be installing many programs then 10 gig will be fine, if you will be installing lots of proggies, then probably go for 15-20 gig partition for your OS. This way you can re-install your OS (in case of problems) till your hearts content and you won't lose anything.

As this is NOT a games machine I would say though, for the vast majority of people, 15 Gig for your OS and 25 Gig for your saved data/pictures/music etc should be fine.

Yeah - that way you can have 2 partitions running out of space instead of 1, and no way of re-sizing them

Doesn't sound like a great benefit to me.

Wolfylee

2 partitions running out of space instead of 1? No way of re-sizing them?

What ARE u on about, my dear fellow?

Short of buying a new hard drive, there isnt much anyone can do about running out of disk space.

You CAN resize partitions, that simply isn't true.

What I'm suggesting is keeping the OS on a seperate partition than your valuable data, in case you run into stability problems and need a fresh install of the OS (which will completely wipe a disk, unless partitioned) - are you suggesting this is a bad idea 'cos you might run out of disk space? ??? ??? What's one thing got to do with the other?