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chaucer

Differences shown in blue

Dell Inspiron 531 DT - £559.10 (inc VAT)

AMD Live Technology - Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 5000+
Vista Home Premium
2048MB 667MHz Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM [2x1024]
Dell Wireless Bluetooth Keyboard and Optical Mouse
Dell 19" Silver Wide Flat Panel (SE198WFP)
256MB NVIIDA GeForce 8300GS Turbocache graphics card
320GB (7200rpm) Serial ATA Hard Drive with 16MB DataBurst cache
19-in-1 Media Card Reader
16x DVD +/- RW Drive & 16x DVD Drives
Integrated 7.1 Channel High Definition Audio
Internal PCI 802.11b/g Wireless Network Card
Microsoft Works 8.0
Integrated Hybrid (Analogue/Digital) TV tuner PCIe x1 card and Dell remote control

Dell Inspiron 530 DT -- £639.09 (inc VAT)

Intel Viiv™ Core™ 2 Duo E4400 Processor (2.0GHz,800MHz,2MB cache)
Vista Home Premium
2048MB 667MHz Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM [2x1024]
Dell Wireless Bluetooth Keyboard and Optical Mouse
Dell 19" Silver Wide Flat Panel (SE198WFP)
256MB NVIIDA GeForce 8600GT graphics card
320GB (7200rpm) Serial ATA/100 Hard Drive with 16MB DataBurst cache
19-in-1 Media Card Reader
16x DVD +/- RW Drive & 16x DVD Drives
Integrated 7.1 Channel High Definition Audio
Internal PCI 802.11b/g Wireless Network Card
Integrated Hybrid (Analogue/Digital) TV tuner PCIe x1 card and Dell remote control

chaucer

In reply to my own thread

these offers expire today and can't see the wood for the trees...please point out the pros and cons...

chaucer wrote: »

Differences shown in blue

Dell Inspiron 531 DT - £559.10 (inc VAT)

AMD Live Technology - Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 5000+
Vista Home Premium
2048MB 667MHz Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM [2x1024]
Dell Wireless Bluetooth Keyboard and Optical Mouse
Dell 19" Silver Wide Flat Panel (SE198WFP)
256MB NVIIDA GeForce 8300GS Turbocache graphics card
320GB (7200rpm) Serial ATA Hard Drive with 16MB DataBurst cache
19-in-1 Media Card Reader
16x DVD +/- RW Drive & 16x DVD Drives
Integrated 7.1 Channel High Definition Audio
Internal PCI 802.11b/g Wireless Network Card
Microsoft Works 8.0
Integrated Hybrid (Analogue/Digital) TV tuner PCIe x1 card and Dell remote control

Dell Inspiron 530 DT -- £639.09 (inc VAT)

Intel Viiv™ Core™ 2 Duo E4400 Processor (2.0GHz,800MHz,2MB cache)
Vista Home Premium
2048MB 667MHz Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM [2x1024]
Dell Wireless Bluetooth Keyboard and Optical Mouse
Dell 19" Silver Wide Flat Panel (SE198WFP)
256MB NVIIDA GeForce 8600GT graphics card
320GB (7200rpm) Serial ATA/100 Hard Drive with 16MB DataBurst cache
19-in-1 Media Card Reader
16x DVD +/- RW Drive & 16x DVD Drives
Integrated 7.1 Channel High Definition Audio
Internal PCI 802.11b/g Wireless Network Card
Integrated Hybrid (Analogue/Digital) TV tuner PCIe x1 card and Dell remote control

or this one (no TV card)

Dell VostroTM 400 DT - £601.33 (inc VAT & delivery)

Intel Core2 Duo E6550 processor (2.33GHz, 1333MHz, 4MB cache)
Windows Vista Ultimate
2048MB 667MHz Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM [2x1024]
Dell Wireless Bluetooth Keyboard and Optical Mouse
Dell 19" Value Wide Flat Panel (E198WFP)
Video Card 256MB nVidia GeForce 8600GT Graphics Card
320GB (7200rpm) Serial ATA Hard Drive with 8MB DataBurst™ cache
19-in-1 Media Card Reader
Integrated 7.1 Channel High Definition Audio
16x DVD+/-RW & 16x DVD Drives
Internal Wireless PCI Card
Microsoft® Works 8.0 - English

f1charlie

CPU benchmarks charts here:

http://www23.tomshardware.com/cpu_2007.html?modelx=33&model1=928&model2=874&chart=435

I believe that in terms of processing power (most powerful first):

E6550 > 5000+ > E4400

And for the graphics card, 8600GT beats the 8300GS.

Depends what you want to do with your system, but I would have said the Vostro represents the best value.

chaucer

the vostro does look good value - delivery on the other 2 is £60

take the vostro back out for a moment

with regard to the 2 inspirons, you suggest the 530 has better graphics card, 531 has better cpu

which is the better buy (not necessarily value)?

used for usual home PC stuff - office, web, music, digital photos editing etc...
but, I am thinking of using it as a spare TV in the house (hence the TV cards)

BillScarab

The Vostro unless you want a TV tuner in your PC.

What do you want ot do with the PC?

chaucer

thanks for responses so far

should add ......

I want to ensure decent future-proofing (enough for 5+ years) and have the possibility of upgrading to make use of the new integrated techologies that are becoming available (hence the TV card question)

I don't play games but do have grandchildren that are reaching an age where they do and so may want my PC to have a reasonable facility for them

I also want reliability and quality of build and a quiet machine

cheers

ABH_3

Encoding\Decoding media is CPU intensive as opposed to graphics card intensive work.

If that's any help to you in making your decision or not I don't know.

chaucer

ABH wrote: »

Encoding\Decoding media is CPU intensive as opposed to graphics card intensive work.

thanks for comments...are you suggesting vostro due to higher spec CPU?

what sort of applications / PC use involves encoding/decoding?

f1charlie

And just to confuse things, for 3D games, the more powerful the graphics card the better!

But it is easier to replace a graphics card than a CPU, if you needed to upgrade at a later date.

If you've got to add £60 on top of the 530 and 531, then I would say that the Vostro definitely wins!

BillScarab

The Vostro has the best CPU and Graphics Card. It may be worth looking carefully at the monitor though as it is a different one to the others and is described as being a "value" one so may not be such a good spec.

chaucer

thanks Bill, I noticed that and wondered ... another 'minor' difference is that the Vostro does not specify the type of wireless card - just says internal wirelss card and the inspirons state "Internal PCI 802.11b/g Wireless Network Card" - will they be different do you think?