Dell system for £185 incl. VAT

zeke

Ordered one yesterday around 2pm, no confirmation yet...

Trow

Anyone else reckon that instead of upgrading this machine they would just wait for he next dell deal

biglugs

This graphics card is NOT going to let you play Doom 3, and it's very unlikely that any other PCI card available will let you play it either.
Doom3 is supposedly one of the most graphics intensive games around and this machine even with an FX5200 card isn't going to be up to scratch for serious gamers.

Trow - this machine can take a few upgrades - I intend to put in an FX5200 graphics card (c. £45) and may throw in a cheap 256Mb memory chip. Other than that there isn't really a lot you can do with it. If you find in a couple of years that you want a faster machine I think it would be best to sell this one and buy another one.

martint123

Trow wrote:

Anyone else reckon that instead of upgrading this machine they would just wait for he next dell deal

Thats what I have to end up doing anyway!.
New faster CPU won't fit in motherboard socket. Need new board
New board won't take old memory. Need new memory.
Old power supply won't support new board. Need new PSU.
New CPU won't fit in case. Need new case.

The 'upgradeability' is a myth - so if you see a bargain for what you want at the time - get it.

peat

Fraid I must disagree, I play doom3 on a PC with a 2.66 celeron with intel extreme integrated graphics. The dell one would require more ram though as doom3 minimum requirement is 384mb

Trow

martint123 wrote:

Thats what I have to end up doing anyway!.
New faster CPU won't fit in motherboard socket. Need new board
New board won't take old memory. Need new memory.
Old power supply won't support new board. Need new PSU.
New CPU won't fit in case. Need new case.

The 'upgradeability' is a myth - so if you see a bargain for what you want at the time - get it.

Hmmm - I really should think before I type - I meant get this system and upgrade by buying the next deal when you need it, rather than buying a more expensive machine and upgrading it.

Trow

peat wrote:

Fraid I must disagree, I play doom3 on a PC with a 2.66 celeron with intel extreme integrated graphics. The dell one would require more ram though as doom3 minimum requirement is 384mb

How does it perform? And how much Ram do you have?

peat

Seems to perform OK. I bought the machine with 256mb and got another 256 from crucial.

biglugs

What settings are you running Doom3 on? I didn't buy the game because it didn't get fantastic reviews, and because most magazines say this requires a serious graphics card.
I assume you're running it on a lower resolution without anti-aliasing?
I bought one of the Dell 3000s with 256Mb for a friend before Xmas and loaded Return to Castle Wolfenstein on it using the integrated graphics. It worked fine at lower settings but was a bit stuttery when you tried increasing the resolution or putting the option settings up to the max.

martint123

Trow wrote:

Hmmm - I really should think before I type - I meant get this system and upgrade by buying the next deal when you need it, rather than buying a more expensive machine and upgrading it.

Thats what I meant as well. Sort of. The fact that an "upgradeable" machine may end up only being upgradeable by replacing the whole lot anyway - when the time comes.