Desktop Computer For Christmas

itsakidsworld

Hi all,

I would like to buy a new computer for my son for Christmas who uses one for pretty much everything these days! He plays alot of games on his current one and likes to play music, download, surf and the usual stuff that teenagers do. This is the spec I have from Dell;

1 D125008 £317.57

Inspiron 530 E2140 Pentium Dual Core Processor 1.60GHz 800Mhz FSB, 1MB cache
English - 530 System Docs (UK power cord) & English Adobe
Inspiron 530 Resource DVD (Diagnostics & Drivers)
Memory Dual Channel 2048MB (2x1024) 667MHz DDR2
19-in-1 Media Card Reader
Hard Drive 320GB Serial ATA non Raid (7200 Rpm)
DVD+/-RW (Read/Write) 16X and DVD-ROM (Reader) 16X IDE
Power DVD 7.0 - Vista
ROXIO Software for Vista - Creator / MYDVD 9.0
Not Included 17" 177FP Monitor (No E177FP or SE177FP)
Video Card 256MB nVidia GeForce 8600GT
Audio Integrated HDA 7.1 Dolby Digital capability
UK/Irish Speakers External Zylux Dell A525 Silver/Black spks + Subwoofer

Modem Not Included

Internal PCI 802.11 b/g Wireless Network Card
Dell Black 2 Button USB Scroll Optical Mouse
English Irish Keyboard Dell Quietkey USB (QWERTY) black
English Windows Vista Home Basic
English Microsoft Works 8.0 (Word Processor, Spreadsheet, Outlook Express,
Powerpoint Viewer) (With Recovery CD)
Dell Support Center 2.0
UK Internet Service Provider - Tiscali (w/CD)
English Adobe Reader 8.1 (No Recovery CD)
English McAfee 9.0 Security Centre 30 Day Trial Version (No Recovery CD)
Logitech QuickCam Express Plus - free headset included

No Warranty Upgrade
Base Warranty - 1 Year Collect & Return
To access Online Training or free trial, please go to www.learndell.com/euro to register

Inspiron Desktop Order - UK
1 Dell Photo All-in-One Printer 928 (Order with System) £56.05
December Printer Promotion - 20% discount on Dell All-In-One Inkjet Printer

Dell 928 English Documentation
Dell 928 EFIGS Placemeat
220V Laser Printer Power Cord: UK/Ireland
USB 2.0 3m Black Printer Cable
No Additional Printer Ink Cartridge Selected
Dell 928 Printer Drivers
Base Warranty
1Y NBD (Next Business Day) Exchange

The total price is £499 including £51 delivery which I will try to reduce. Is this a good spec and a good price? We have not included a monitor as he appears to already have a good one.

Please, any advise would be most welcome as I have limited knowledge of this and don't want to get it wrong! Thanks in advance.

wbk666

personally i wouldnt touch dell with a barge poll, over-priced for what they offer. cpu is a bit slow by todays standards.
try local computer shops, ebuyer and novatech.

penrhyn

Nothing wrong with Dell PCs but the processor is to slow, if he is into gaming then the graphics card is very important.
Hopefully someone who knows more about gaming will post.
Have you tried looking at http://www.dmxdimension.com/ for all Dells current offers.

This might be one case where it would be a good idea to discuss this with your son, to avoid making an expensive mistake.

BillScarab

As others have said the processor is fairly slow and the video card is not ideal for games. When choosing the graphics card a lot depends on what games he will be playing and what size monitor he has.

Personally I would ditch the printer and buy this one instead MP210 it costs £45 but until the end of the year you can get £20 cashback from Canon so it comes in at £25. That will give you a few more pounds to put towards the PC.

reviews for the Dell and Canon printers here

Dell 928 Canon MP210

I've just specced a machine up at PC Specialist with the following spec.

Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™2 Duo E4500 (2 X 2.20GHz) 800MHz FSB/2MB L2 Cache
Memory (RAM)
2GB CORSAIR DDR2 667MHz - LIFETIME WARRANTY! (2x1GB)
Motherboard
ASUS® P5VD2-VM: DDR2, S-ATA II, 1 x PCI-E x16, 2 PCI, etc
Operating System
WINDOWS® VISTA Home Premium (inc Genuine CD & License) (£59)
USB Options
6 x USB 2.0 PORTS (4 REAR + 2 FRONT) AS STANDARD
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
250GB SERIAL ATA II HARD DRIVE WITH 8MB CACHE (7200rpm)
2nd Hard Disk
NONE
RAID (HDD 1 & 2)
NONE
1st CD/DVD Drive
16x DVD-ROM WITH 48x CD-ROM
2nd CD/DVD Drive
NONE
Graphics Card
512MB GEFORCE 8600GT PCI Express + DVI + TV-OUT
2nd Graphics Card
NONE
Sound Card
6 Channel SoundMAX High Definition Audio (Standard on P5VD2-VM)
Modem
NONE, I WILL BE USING BROADBAND
Network Facilities
ONBOARD 10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT
Floppy Disk Drive
NONE
Memory Card Reader
INTERNAL 52 IN 1 CARD READER (READS XD, MS, CF, SD, etc)
Case
Stylish Silver/Black Trident case + 2 front USB
Power Supply & Case Cooling
STANDARD 350W (Peak) Dual Rail PSU + 120mm Case Fan
Processor Cooling
STANDARD CPU COOLER
Firewire & Video Editing
NONE
TV Card
NONE
Monitor
NONE
2nd Monitor
NONE
DVI Cable
NONE
Keyboard & Mouse
Logitech® Internet Keyboard + Hotkeys (Black) (£6)
Mouse
Black Logitech® Premium Optical Mouse (£4)
Speakers
NONE
Printer
NONE
Surge Protection
NONE
Webcam & VoIP
NONE
Media Center Kit
NONE
Anti-Virus
NONE
Office Software
NONE
Warranty
1 Year Return-to-Base incl 1st Month Free Collect & Return
Delivery
Standard Insured Delivery to UK Mainland (Mon-Fri 8am-6pm)
Quantity
1


Other Features Included As Standard...
Software
CD/DVD authoring software and Power DVD software is included with all DVD Writers.
Ports
Each computer comes with 1 x PS/2 keyboard port and either 1 x PS/2 mouse port or 2 extra USB ports.
Fans
Where necessary your computer will come with extra case fans fitted.
Memory
Our memory comes with a 100% tested lifetime warranty!
Bezels
All our drives come in either silver, black or beige and are all of a
high quality & matched brand.
Support
We offer lifetime hardware technical support during normal office hours.
Cables & Manuals
A power cable, all drivers, manuals, and a heatsink & fan are included with every order.
Service
Our computers come fully assembled & thoroughly tested. We are so confident
in the quality of our computers that we offer a free collection and re-delivery service* should you ever have a problem with your computer.
Installation
If you order an operating system it will come fully installed with the CD and licence key.
And Finally
If you are lucky enough to have seen a cheaper quote, click here.

That come sin at £433 all in, plus £25 for the printer, so £458 in total. It's not a great gaming machine but slightly better than the Dell.

itsakidsworld

Thanks for your comments they are most appreciated. I have had a word with my son as suggested and trying to keep it a little bit of a secret from him!!

I really am lost in this game and wish it was January!!!

spakkker

Hi it's easy to get lost in this game! For example how come dell charge £120 to 'upgrade' to a e6750 cpu, which you can buy for less than £116?
Also, the great improvement in Intel's new Core architecture over the old netburst isn't understood by many at all - the e2140 is as fast as the old dual core pentium 3000 , see - http://www23.tomshardware.com/cpu_2007.html?modelx=33&model1=946&model2=882&chart=424
tho' it is the slowest Conroe based cpu.

itsakidsworld

I called into a computer shop yesterday and ask about information about the latest computers, as you do when you know nothing about the stuff!! The guy was great and started talking to me about various bits we needed but to be honest he may as well have been talking in Chinese!! I did listen and wrote some stuff down and this is the basics of the four points he told me;

2.33 ghz
4mb
320gb
2068 ?

Is this of any help to anyone and is it good or bad?

Thanks again and sorry if it does not make sense.

IAKW

penrhyn

Shop assistants generally know !!!!!! all about what they are selling, they probably know all about the margins on what they are trying to push at the moment though.
Any gamers out there bought a Dell lately and would care to recommend at spec?

Regarding the points you mention:
2.33 ghz Processor speed, he probably said Dual core as well.
4mb No idea, could have been video ram
320gb Hard Disk capacity, pretty well the minimum spec these days.
2068 ? Not sure, 2048 Mb would be the minimum memory you need to run Vista Home Premium

BillScarab

In my opinion you don't need a 2.33 ghz processor but it's a reasonable speed. Personally I prefer to buy a slower, cheaper processor and overclock it.

$mb, no idea, did he mean 4Gb? If os that could be referring to RAM. I don't think you need 4Gb though, 2Gb should suffice.

320 Gb hard drive, you don't need this size, it all depends on what you want to do with the PC. Hard drives are cheap though so you may as well go for this but if money is tight you could put a 250Gb or 160 Gb disc in and upgrade later if you wanted.

2068, as Penrhyn said no idea unless he actually said 2048 and was talking about RAM. Nowadays 2Gb of RAM is pretty much the minimum.

Sencerd

I think it should be said that a gaming system is not a cheap system, if you're buying a computer to use for gaming you should probably be looking to spend an absolute rock bottom minimum of £700.

That's not to say you can't play games on a cheaper system, but to play the latest games with reasonable performance you really do need to spend a lot.

Most pre built systems (Dell, HP etc) are not designed for gaming, and the models that are designed for gaming are shamelessly over priced. I would suggest you consider finding a local or online supplier that does custom built computers - or even asking around friends to see if they know anyone that can put a system together for you, 9 times out of 10 you will get a better, cheaper system if it is custom made than if you go for an off the shelf model.