Desktop PC @ £246 (15"TFT/512MB/80GB/CELERON D 2.66GHz/DVD+CDRW) [CLOSED]

welshblob

bhushanvaidya wrote:

I was just about to order one of these but the sales person told me that unless you ask for a modem from Dell at the time of ordering (for £25), you wont be able to add one later as they won't include a free PCI slot.

Does this sound right?

As its been said before, no it doesn't sound right. Even if it was **which it isn't** you could easily plug a £15 USB modem into one of the 6 USB ports.

Rob

amancalledchip

or possibly an external serial modem.

b44rch

amancalledchip wrote:

or possibly an external serial modem.

Umm, I think you'll find they're pretty rare these days - unless you've got one lying around ofcourse, but then you might have a problem finding a driver to work with XP...

tonyg_2

Probably be able to get an external serial modem on ebay for a fiver? Should be able to use a "Generic" driver for most serial modems? Tony

Flimber

And some of those 'old' serial external modems are some of the best modems ever (even containing answering systems in some cases). So long as there's at least a Windows NT *.inf file XP should work one just fine.

Mike.

b44rch

Yeah, might be OK, but I've always had major problem with obscure modems, trying to get them to work with any OS...

redfox

Flimber wrote:

those 'old' serial external modems are some of the best modems ever

I've still got a US Robotics Courier external modem (circa 1995) here in a cupboard - one of the best modems ever IMO! Worked like a trojan for a good few years before broadband came along and on the few occasions when broadband goes down, out it comes from peaceful retirement and still works flawlessly every time...:dance:

biglugs

The Dell Dimension 3000 with the Celeron 330 processor has 3 spare PCI slots if you get it delivered without a modem already. So there should be no problem - just get a £10 modem from PCWorld and stick it in.

I think if you search the Dell site that somewhere there is a spec for these machines which lists the number of free PCI slots.

amancalledchip

diamond extrenal modems are good, cheap on ebay too.Seen in windows xp without problems. My old 56 pro was one of the best modems i ever used.

TechSaver_2

As welshblob suggested, an external USB modem is an easy option - you don't need to open the PC case, powered from the USB port, and an easy install in XP. I bought one of these and haven't had any problems. It's quite compact - about the same size as a mouse.