OK, I think we're about fed up with this POS dinosaur enough to finally break down and buy a new computer. I'm looking at Dell mainly because they are a good computer and because they offer free shipping to Alaska!! We don't need much, we don't play games on the computer or do a lot of word processing or office stuff. Mostly its used for Internet, photo editing, minor word processing and burning CD's. So with that in mind what do you think of this system?? BTW, if I include numbers that you don't really need its because I have no earthly idea what they mean!! I'm still very new at the whole technology thing.

Starting with the Dimension 4600 base we add the...

Intel Pentium 4 Processor (2.80 GHz, 800 FSB)
Microsoft Windows XP Professional
1 GB Dual Channel DDR SDRAM at 400MHz (2x512M)
40 GB Ultra ATA/100 Hard Drive (7200 RPM)
3.5 Floppy Drive
Dual Drives: 48x CD-ROM Drive + 16X DVD+RW/+R w/ double layer write capable
Microsoft Office Basic - Includes Outlook, Word, Excel
Norton Internet Security 2004 15 - mth
Dell 922 Printer/Copier/Scanner
19 in M993 CRT Monitor
Integrated Intel Extreme Graphics 2
Integrated 5.1 Channel Audio
Dell Enhanced Multimedia Keyboard
Dell 2-button scroll mouse (because I have to get a mouse but I'll be using my track-ball.)
Dell A215 Speakers
Adobe Acrobat Reader 6.0
Integrated Intel Pro 10/100 Ethernet
And then a bunch of garbage that you have no choice about...
Dell Media Experience, Dell Jukebox, Paint Shop Pro Trial, 6 months of AOL or Earthlink etc...

That's it I think. I know its not as big and souped-up as some of you have but we just don't need big and souped-up. Mostly what I'm looking for is opinions like...is one graphics card way better and I'd be way happier...That sort of thing. Your opinions are appreciated, thanks.

 

You have a decent system there. Two things I would suggest, if it will save you any money drop the 48X CD-rom. The DVD drive will read CDs, and if you are burning CDs or DVDs, you want to do this from your hard drive, not from CD to CD. If it does not save any money just take it. If you are planning on making movies on DVD, I would suggest an 80gb hard drive.You will not need it most of the time, but it gives you hard drive space for those times you are creating and burning DVDs.
Also, I am assuming you are not into games and a lot of music played on your PC. If you are you may want to go with a seperate video and sound card.

 

Karen,
For your intended use, thats way more than you need.
You only need a souped up graphics card if you are into video gaming "big time" and want ultimate performance for that.
The spec on that machine is really good but the only things you might want to consider are disc size , which at 40 gig is pretty big but you can never have too much especially if you work with video and the CRT monitor which is not as snazzy as the latest LCD flat screens.

Best of luck with your new purchase.

 

Sounds similar to what I have at home just bought it one year ago. I have always thought that Dells were good PCs and for what it is worth Consumer Reports agrees, rated them the best of the PCs. Dell customer service is decnt too, I have had to deal with them at work but have not had any problems with my Dell at home. If you buy at the right time from Dell you can get a bunch of free upgrades too!

 

Not bad. Upgrade the HD & video card. Two very important things. If you plan on keeping this awhile, that will help in a couple years when programs are even more bloated and power-hungry. Rule of thumb with PCs is buy the most PC you can afford. Don't sell yourself short and next year have to upgrade already...

 

80-GB hard drive at least. Get two 40’s and stripe them in 0 raid

 

No need to mirror the drives. Just backup your data to DVDs every now and again... Your crackin' me up JP!

 

I would agree with a better graphic card. oh, and drop the speakers (if they arn't 5.1 with power'd sub) and pick up a 5.1 surround sound set with the powered sub (they sound great for like $60 at Sams) I kinda like having the fast CD reader and another to burn with (makes copying much faster) I went with a 120gig HD and dropped the floppy disk. brought the price up some but its nice with the digital camera to have plenty of room for pics.

I think the radion (spelling?) 9600 is awesome. With the FM tuner you can record songs off the radio straight to your computer and the graphic proccessing is awesome! And you can run dual and tripple monitor setups! Speaking of monitor, the CRT is ok but a Flat Screen LCD or Plasma would be cool, but they are pricey. Just stick with the CRT and pick up a flat screen when they go on sale at Staples or Best buy and that way have 2 monitors.

Shipping is a great deal, I say go for it. I have a Dell also.

 

The 0 (zero) stripe doesn’t mirror, it doubles the speed of the hard drive by writing separate bits to each drive. An example would be if you had a program with 100 bits, the 1, 3, 5, 7, etc. (all odd # bits) would be on one hard drive. The 2, 4, 6, 8, etc. (all even # bits) would be on the other hard drive. The computer would read this as only one hard drive. This is a hardware application, not software. The 1 (one) stripe mirrors.

 

This might explain it better, it’s from Tom’s Hardware

RAID 0 is using a mechanism called 'data striping'. It maps data across a number of different hard drives to create one large drive. The data is stored onto the physical drives in consecutive 'stripes', which are of defined size. This means that a file that is larger than the actual stripe size is distributed over the hard drives in the array, so that the different stripes of that file can be read in parallel. In this case the data transfer rate of the RAID 0 Array or 'Stripe Set' is the product of the data transfer rate of the slowest drive in the array times the number of drives that are in the array. If identical hard drives are used, the data transfer bandwidth is simply multiplied by the number of drives. A stripe set of four drives with a data transfer speed of 20 MB/s can therefore reach speeds of 80 MB/s, because data is read or written to or from the four drives in parallel.

 

Thanks for the replies! Wow JP, you kinda lost me there with the stripes and raids and such, total fly by!! I'd love to get a 20" flat panel monitor but its just not in the budget right this moment. I'll probably take the suggestions for a larger HD and better graphics card. What D says makes sense, why be behind before you even start! I do some CD to CD copying so the dual drives will be nice and my digital camera takes pictures on floppy discs so I definitely need the floppy drive.

How about this for a graphics card??
128MB DDR NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200 Graphics Card with TV-Out and DVI

Now can somebody tell me what all that means?!! Will that one let me hook up our turntable and put our LP's on disc? (OMG LP's!! yep we still have some!) We don't play games on the computer and I don't listen to music on it either so I think I'll stick with the simple speakers. I really don't think a sub-woofer is necessary for what I do.

Another question while I'm at it. Will my programs that I have on this computer with Windows 98 work with Windows XP? Most of them are older programs and don't list anything past 98 in their installation specs. I have a couple that I really don't want to loose and would be disappointed if I couldn't install them on a new computer.

Thanks again guys! I knew I could count on ya'll!!

 

Dell makes good PC's, but I'd buy a stripper configuration and add the upgrades later. You'll find memory, larger hard drives, graphics, and optical drives significantly cheaper from other sources.

For your uses (like most people that do not game) those specs are way overkill. You need a $500 (or less) PC. Your ugrades put you at $1000. Spend $500 now, and $500 in 3 years intead of $1000 now and $1000 in 6 years.

Use the integrated video (which is just fine for the internet and MS Office products. I'd only upgrade if you wanted an LCD with DVI input.

512MB is fine. If you really find yourself needing more, buy another 512MB for $50 or less.

You can buy a CD-RW for $10-20 after rebates almost any day of the week. DVD burners are in the $50-80 range. No need to spend twice that at Dell.

Not sure why one whould use hard drive to CD copying. Takes 15 minutes instead of 3min.

Spend the money on a quality monitor becuase that technology does not change as quickly as the box parts and software that forces us to upgrade. I'm using a 10 year old 21" Trinitron at work for example. And remember that LCD's are true size vs. CRT's which are about 1" less visible. If you think you wnat a 19" CRT, you may be surprised using a 17" LCD for example.

 

Reason being is that in the past, not sure if it still holds true, when using two drives on the same strap, master and slave, you ended up with a lot of burn failures. It is usually better to burn from an image on the hard drive. I wouldn't be surprised if the software nowadays does this with out you realizing it.

 

RAID 0, 1, same difference... 0 is even more silly than 1 since you've made a huge jump in potential data loss. Speed is not the issue with WMR, I would think data availability is paramount. However, even RAID 1 is a waste for a home user & you'll only get via software, and that's bad mmmmm K?

WMR - Your "128MB DDR NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200 Graphics Card with TV-Out and DVI" is a solid card. It basicly means its fast, and you can plug it directly to your TV for large-screen viewing. The 'DVI' connection is a connection that is gaining popularity due to the fact it can flow a huge amount of data and support high resolutions... basically, it's good to have. Make sure either A. your monitor your getting has a DVI connection or B. the PC comes with a DVI-to-VGA (15pin) connector.

Your sound card can import tunes from your LPs, assuming your LP unit can put sound out via some RCA outputs. Then you just need the right software to get an easy recording. Piece of cake.

Most 98 programs run fine under XP as long as your have administrator privledges.... you'll have these by default. One area you may have issues with is installing Service Pack 2 for XP... that seems to crush alot of older problems due to tighter security. It's hit-and-miss. If a program doesn't work, time to upgrade!

 

Whatever you say; you know more about it than I do.