Which Processor?

webitha

dells are designed for business workstation use generally, they are quite a basic machine. since you are going to spend lots of hundreds of pounds i suggest you do you're homework try buying computer shopper magazine its got mind boggling information for you to peruse, plus it'll inform you of recommended machines

cheepsk8

wolfman wrote: »

Yeah ignore as in don't worry about if you have it or not. If you do have to have it because of the selection, that's fine.

And no. Barely any difference. You're probably looking at it being 5% slower (and this is at full load). Depends, £30 isn't too bad an upgrade cost, but do you really need the extra 5%.
I don't know if you can overclock with Dell's, but both are great overclockers. The E4300 I believe is the better of the two. I've got an E6300, and can overclock it by 20% without it even breaking sweat. It's as simple as changing one setting in the BIOS. But as I said I don't know if you can do this with the hardware in a Dell.

I'd go for the E6300 as it has more cache and a higher FSB (See:http://indigo.intel.com/compare_cpu/showchart.aspx?mmID=884355,885034,870806&familyID=1&culture=en-US) Should be able to overclock too, like wolfman says, by about 20% - though I personally don't like Dells due to their limited potential user customisation. Why not look at other sites for ready built PC's? I hear Mesh are quite good value.

bristol_pilot

I am also replacing my ancient PC (a Dell) and ended up choosing a new machine with much the same spec as discussed on this thread. But after reading the forums on various sites and asking around at work I decided against Dell. The issue appears to be around customer service, which matters if you are a bit of a novice or out of date with your knowledge of PCs. Years ago Dell were a mid-to-upper range brand but now seem to be more mid-to lower.

Having been all round the houses on this, I decided that if I were to buy a PC off the shelf it would be from John Lewis - not the cheapest perhaps, but there is a 2 year guarantee compared with the usual one. And somewhere to go to complain if it all goes wrong. I ended up ordering a custom-built machine from https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk but had quite a bit of help from friends in defining the spec. I don't do gaming, video or a lot of demanding work, but am cautious about ordering a minimum spec machine with a new operating system.

I too remember word processing on a BBC micro, but my machine had only 32K memory. 64k ? - luxury !

Lakeuk

Maybe wise to give Mesh a miss for the moment - it seems that they've got customer service issues at the moment

http://forums.hexus.net/forumdisplay.php?f=109

superscaper

Lakeuk wrote: »

Maybe wise to give Mesh a miss for the moment - it seems that they've got customer service issues at the moment

http://forums.hexus.net/forumdisplay.php?f=109

I can vouch for that, currently having problems. My parents' Mesh's graphics card stopped working back in Nov/Dec. Simply a case of replacing the graphics card you'd think. But no they won't replace AGP cards so over a month later it came back with replaced motherboard, card, psu and processor. But it then had even more obscure problems with BSOD randomly occurring, tried everything. Engineer came out and he was stumped and said the "new" graphics card at least was far too dusty to be new. So it's currently back at Mesh. So original problem, graphics card goes bust and still don't have a working pc 3-4 months later even with onsite warranty. You can probably read my problems with Mesh in more detail on Hexus as well.

BillScarab

cheepsk8 wrote: »

I'd go for the E6300 as it has more cache and a higher FSB (See:http://indigo.intel.com/compare_cpu/showchart.aspx?mmID=884355,885034,870806&familyID=1&culture=en-US) Should be able to overclock too, like wolfman says, by about 20% - though I personally don't like Dells due to their limited potential user customisation. Why not look at other sites for ready built PC's? I hear Mesh are quite good value.

The E4300 has the same cache as the E6300, the FSB is not really that relevant for most people. The lower FSB of the E4300 actually makes it a better overclocker if that's something your interested in. I was going to get an E6300 but got the E4300 in the end and it's been great.

Personally I wouldn't buy a Dell though. I don't like the proprietary motherboards they use.

wolfman

cheepsk8 wrote: »

I'd go for the E6300 as it has more cache and a higher FSB (See:http://indigo.intel.com/compare_cpu/showchart.aspx?mmID=884355,885034,870806&familyID=1&culture=en-US) Should be able to overclock too, like wolfman says, by about 20% - though I personally don't like Dells due to their limited potential user customisation. Why not look at other sites for ready built PC's? I hear Mesh are quite good value.

The E6300 can overclock much higher. I've actually got mine at 2.8Ghz, so around 35%. The E6300 is restricted by its multiplier though. The cpu could go higher, but my memory can't due to the low multipier.

The E4300 is arguably a better overclocker because of the low fsb

But yeah, as mentioned, I don't know if you can do this with Dell hardware. To the OP the difference between the E6300 and E4300 won't be noticeable at all, so you may as well save £30 and get the E4300.

MORPH3US

OP, what do you use your PC for?!? You say you are trying to future proof.... does that mean you play a lot of new games?!?!

M

vetfred

bristol_pilot wrote: »

I ended up ordering a custom-built machine from https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk but had quite a bit of help from friends in defining the spec.

Have you got your PC from here yet or is it being built?

I got my PC from them, it arrived in a warped case, took them days to collect and had to chase them several times to do so, and then had to wait ages for them to rebuild it. Wasn't best pleased. Not meaning to scare you if you've not got it, but just curious in case you have and to ask if you had a good experience with them or not. I've since seen a few good reviews of them and plenty of bad ones too.

nullogik

Lakeuk wrote: »

Maybe wise to give Mesh a miss for the moment - it seems that they've got customer service issues at the moment

http://forums.hexus.net/forumdisplay.php?f=109

Yes, but we all know that the people most compelled to post on the Mesh forum are those with complains. People who have had no problems whatsoever won't be bothered to post, therefore the forum looks one-sided.