My Dad is Buying me a New Computer

[Err]

Yes, this is true. I am a *AHEM* 37 year old man and my Father is going to buy me a new computer. This computer will replace my old laptop -which is currently held together with duct tape. He has generously offered me up to 1600 (US) to purchase this and strongly recommended that I buy it through his existing account at Dell.

My goal is to build a computer that won't be completely obsolete in 2 years. Since I am frugal and also want to maximize the value of my computer purchase -I think that buying the most upgradable system of Optiplex would be my best bet. I will upgrade the system over time.

I have a few questions that perhaps you guys might be able to help me with.

#1 I have noticed that Dell is selling: 2GB DDR2 Non-ECC SDRAM,800MHz, (2 DIMM) Memory for about $535. This same memory configuration is selling for about $228 elsewhere.

Is this the same memory? I mean would it make a difference if I bought my DIMMs from Kingston and not Dell?

#2 I am planning on going without a monitor for a little while. Since the video card supports TV-Out -I was thinking about using my television set which allegedly supports this sort of thing. It is a Sony KD-34XBR970 (If my TV doesn't (ie if I can't get it to work) I will buy a new monitor within a few weeks with my own money.)

Has anyone tried this? Is it bad for the TV?

#3 I am planning on upgrading to Vista at some future point. I am selecting the XP Home -the cheapest for present because it is assumed that I don't really need XP Pro or Vista.


What would be the impact of "upgrading" my operating system?

Thanks for any advice.

 

[AtWork]

1) unless there are some specifics you are missing like extra low latency on Dell's brand then you are just basically paying extra for the name. Kingston is what i have been picking up for years in various computers and has always worked just fine for me.

2)I did the same, although i did have a monitor i jsut wanted to use the big 32inch tv, and while yes it will work the resolution and therefore readability of tect relies heavily on the quality of your tv. I personally found that a tube tv didn't have a sharp enough resolution for the apps i used and ended up going back to a monitor until recently when i picked up an HDTV. Since my vid card supports HD out its a crystal clear picture on the TV.

3) sorry no clue on that one.

 

[NateO]

Hello,

My goal is to build a computer that won't be completely obsolete in 2 years. Since I am frugal and also want to maximize the value of my computer purchase -I think that buying the most upgradable system of Optiplex would be my best bet. I will upgrade the system over time.

Well, set your expectations low, and see Moore's Law:

http://www.intel.com/technology/mooreslaw/index.htm

One way, or another, your system will be seriously dated within two years; it's inevitable. It may be on Software side...

I'm not an expert on building hardware, but if you want a machine that can hang for a while, and I'm using a 4 year-old custom-built machine, you need to max it out, ramp up on what you want to use it for.

I.e., if you want a machine for gaming, build it that way, graphics-wise, sound, etc... If you want to crunch data, load up on processing speed and RAM...

I'm not sure about buying XP at this point... Old, and soon to be irrelevant software? I thought the goal was to avoid this sort of scenario? Hardware doesn't drive personal computing, software does. Ask IBM, or Moore.

Hardware today is a commodity, like table salt... And to further exasperate your conundrum, Windows XP is about to fall off the map...

Fortunately, Moore was correct, and all of the above is becoming much more user-friendly, in terms of price-points. I'd go all-in on relevant Hardware and Software, that matters most to your goal sets, and hope it stands the test of time (which it won't, to be honest).

 

[milesUK]

For my penn'orth I'll agree with Nate. I know zilch about Vista but would not hesitate get it if I was buying a pc to last a few years.

However my processing needs are modest most of the time with occasional high demands (for which I just wait a bit longer until the job is done) therefore I would purchase a cheaper, low end PC and change in say 2 years. That way you can stick with XP for now and get Vista in a coule of years when all (!) the bugs have gone.

I have a media PC on a 32" LCD which is not bad but the biggest problems are vertical resolution and the discomfort of sitting on the floor!

 

[ExcelChampion]

I have Vista and I love it! But, it is a memory and CPU hog, so at least 2gb of RAM and I'd say at least a 2.0gHz processor is needed. As far as optical drives, lightscribe is an almost needed feature because laptops are getting thinner and believe it or not, the CD/DVD sticky labels make the CD/DVD too bulky to run in some laptops (I know from first hand experience.) Of course, hard drive space depends on what you do or plan to do with the computer. Windows Media Center has a DVR feature that let's you record television (with a tv tuner card), and if you like that then you will need a large hard drive.

Just think it through. Microsoft just changed operating systems and the Microsoft Office suite, so those should be good for at least a few years.

 

[guyborchers]

Err:

Here is my recommendation for you.

I would mention to your father, that while it may be convenient to put it on his small business account, that the 'savings' perceived in doing so are null, and that the following offer may be the best alternative.


This following offer is NOT a gaming system, at least not one that any gamer would say is as much (in today's current terms), however it will do everything else, and for a good while to come.


this is well below your 1600 $ limit which leaves room for future upgrades such as:

• 
  'third party ram' (I think there will be 2 'free' slots which allows you to put in a pair of 1 gig sticks upgrading to 3gb of total ram)
  A new monitor (though the 220$ widescreen 20" from dell is quite nice, alternates such as samsung are equally advised)
  Possible 110$ tv-tuner (from dell?) includes DVR / remote capability
  Possible 90$ Roxio Media Creator 9 (Cd/DVD Burning Suite)

While you are posting this on an Excel Help forum, I assume you want Excel, so this includes Microsoft Office Home/student 2007 (excel,word,powerpoint,oneNote)

this includes 3 years of 'COMPLETE CARE warranty' + 3 years of antivirus (mccaffe probably).


If you prefer an Athlon system, it is quite easy to do the same system with such, coupon included, just give me a ring.


Coupon Info:

$350 off Select Dimension Desktops $999+ (Excludes XPS)
Dell Coupon Code: L9VCG0J5C0$LBG Exp 6/14/07 6am CT or after 4000 uses

I did forget to mention, but if you PLAN to join this computer to a domain, you might consider Vista Business over Vista Home premium

E520
Intel® Core™ 2 E6420 Duo Processor(4MB L2 cache,2.13GHZ,1066FSB), Genuine Windows Vista™ Home Premium
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Sub-total $1,036.95

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# E520


Date 5/31/2007 8:26:18 AM Central Standard Time
Catalog Number 29 Retail 19
Catalog Number / Description Product Code SKU Id
Dimension E520:
Intel® Core™ 2 E6420 Duo Processor(4MB L2 cache,2.13GHZ,1066FSB) SSE642H [222-8901] 1
Operating System:
Genuine Windows Vista™ Home Premium VHP3E [313-4911][420-5769][420-5924][420-6436][420-6481][420-6540][463-2282] 11
Monitor:
No Monitor NMPDC2 [320-5176] 5
Memory:
1GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz- 2DIMMs 1GB62 [311-6461] 3
Hard Drives:
250GB Serial ATA Hard Drive (7200RPM) w/DataBurst Cache™ 250S [341-4211] 8
CD or DVD Drive:
Dual Drives: 16x DVD-ROM Drive + 16x DVD+/-RW DV16DVR [313-4583][420-6464] 16
Video Cards:
256MB ATI Radeon X1300 Pro X13PRO [320-5089] 6
Sound Cards:
Integrated 7.1 Channel Audio IS [313-2758] 17
Mouse:
Mouse included in Wireless, Laser or Bluetooth Package N [310-1966] 12
Adobe Software:
Adobe® Acrobat® Reader 7.0 AAREAD [412-0914] 15
Network Interface:
Integrated 10/100 Ethernet IN [430-0441] 13
Miscellaneous:
Award Winning Service and Support E52004 [465-7681] 82
Labels:
Windows Vista™ Premium VPD [310-8626] 750
Speakers:
No speakers (Speakers are required to hear audio from your system) N [313-2198] 18
Keyboard:
Dell USB Keyboard and Dell Optical USB Mouse EKOM [310-7966][310-8164] 4
Floppy Drive and Media Reader:
No Floppy Drive Included NFD [341-4028] 10
Modem:
56K PCI Data Fax Modem DFAX [313-4427] 14
Bundle:
Microsoft® Office Home and Student 2007 DVHS [420-6585] 22
Security Software:
I chose Security with Value, Plus,or Premium Warranty Bundle NOSEC [462-3905] 25
Dell Digital Entertainment:
No Entertainment software pre-installed NODE [464-9572] 399
Warranty and Service:
PC-Care Plus Bundle DHS3PP [412-0358][412-0359][420-6592][950-3339][950-5462][960-0019][960-2800][970-6542][980-3040][985-1148][985-1149][986-2649] 29
Internet Access Service:
6 Months of America Online Membership Included AOLDHS [412-0933][412-0934][412-0935] 37
Environmental Options:
Recycle my old system with Dell (FREE) RECYCL [310-5408] 129
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sn CFG9

If you don't mind Lit up Ram, nor Mail-in rebates, you might consider this ram for your upgrade:

Crucial Ballistix Tracer 2GB (2 X 1GB) PC2-8000 Memory Kit $104.99 Free Shipping, May. 31 8 AM

$15 drop. Buy.com has the Crucial Ballistix Tracer 2GB (2 X 1GB) PC2-8000 1000MHz 240-pin DDR2 Memory w/ LED Lights for a low $104.99 after rebate. Free shipping. Tax in CA, MA, MD, TN. Review.
http://techbargains.com/jump.cfm?id=75&afsrc=1&arg=retail/product.asp?sku=204538864
$55 rebate Exp 6/14/07

Lowest price search Email Deal Similar Deals More from Vendor

 

[SydneyGeek]

2c from Oz...

I recently bought the following --
Core 2 Duo E6300
2 Gb Kingston RAM
250 Gb HD
128 Mb graphics card

Vista Business
Office 2007

...and it's great! What would I change?

Upgrade my existing 17" monitor to 19 or 20 widescreen
Install Office 2003 Pro as my default, purely for compatibility with my clients (although the new Excel worksheet area is awesome to behold...)

I'm not a gamer so I went for a low-end card, but definitely get a card and don't rely on the integrated graphics. You don't want to lose your RAM for pixel-pushing.

Things to watch with Vista:

Some of your software may not run on it (but that is less of an issue as time goes on). If you run anything critical, check whether it (or an upgrade) is Vista-compatible.

Denis

 

[Err]

Thanks everyone so far.

Ordering from Dell was not negotiable... to say otherwise would be to "look a gift horse in the mouth". Or in this case -I know the guy well enough not to tell him how I want my horse delivered... He know's that it's a horse and he has a delivery guy that he goes to.

I am very aware of moore's law notice that I said "Completely obsolete"... of course there are huge changes in computing coming and we may be at the cusp of some very new and unique machines. Perhaps, in the future we won't be looking at monitors but actually have our spreadsheets projected into our optic nerves.

My issue with Vista so far is that it doesn't support 1394 standards -and I want to download videos onto my very large hard disk. I suppose that I could play around with disk partitioning and run some other operating system on one part... but for right now XP will work just fine.

Thanks for the input everyone!

 

[NateO]

If you're thinking you might be upgrading XP to Vista at some point, you might want to double-check what Soundcard and Audio Driver your PC will be shipping with.

Here's my experience with upgrading my PC from XP to Vista:

Even better? Check if there's a driver that supports your card that's compatible with Vista!

http://winqual.microsoft.com/HCL/ProductList.aspx?m=v&g=d&cid=110&f=86p

Vista couldn't even recognize my card/driver (not even the vendor? I had to dig up the receipt...), and the hardware vendor's site informed me my sound card is no longer supported! I figured out a workaround, 3 hours later... Fortunately, by tweaking a specific sound driver, on a number of different levels, that was never intended for my sound card, I get the desired result: Quality Audio Output!

I suppose it's my fault, but that's not optimal. Nothing like messing around with your sound driver, at midnight, on a Friday night!

It looks like Vista drastically changed the way sound drivers interact with the Operating System:

http://blogs.msdn.com/larryosterman/archive/2005/09/19/471346.aspx

So as of right now, there's only a short-list of sound drivers that actually work with Vista... Guess I figured this one out the hard way!

Some food for thought...

 

[SydneyGeek]

It looks like Vista drastically changed the way sound drivers interact with the Operating System

I found something similar. No problem with the new PC playing sound, but I use Skype and it kept telling me I had no recording device for Skype. Got the same error message the first time I plugged in the headphones, but they worked anyway. The messages are gone now, and it keeps working, so I don't know what that was about...

Denis