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Computer Spec

  • Thread starter Thread starter darrenwis
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darrenwis

Hi All,

Hope you had a good christmas and that you have an even better new year!

Im currently running a small educational business and I am just looking to buy a pc for internet browsing and some processing etc.

I saw this one from Dell and i am just wondering your views. Spec is below:

Intel® Celeron® 420 Processor (1.6GHz,800MHz,512k cache)

Genuine Windows Vista® Home Basic - English

Dell™ 17" Silver Wide Flat Panel (SE178WFP) - UK/Irish

Integrated Intel® Graphic Media Accelerator 3100

1024MB 667MHz Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM [2x512]

250GB (7200rpm) Serial ATA Hard Drive with 8MB DataBurst™ cache

16x DVD +/- RW Drive

1 Year Base Warranty - Collect & Return

Integrated 7.1 Channel High Definition Audio

£299 inc VAT & Delivery

Also, i have just found this one which seems a tad better for the same price?

Full specification

Processor TypeINTEL PENTIUM D 925 DUAL CORE

Operating-SystemWindows Vista Home Basic

RAM Memory512 MB

Hard Disk Capacity

160 Gb Optical Drive 1DL DVD-RW with Lightscribe Plug In Removable Hard Drive

INTEL GRAPHICS MEDIA 950 Soundcard included

Look forward to your views.

Darren
 
It all depends on what you want to use it for, so if its is just for internet browsing & word processing, then the spec looks sufficient to me and looks like good value for money. Do ring them and check that there is no hidden extra (costs). I have been using Dell laptop for couple of years and have no complaint. Hope this helps.
 
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Forgot to state, for internet surfing, you may wish to consider a laptop instead with WiFi built in - extremely helpful to be mobile.
 
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There are serious drawbacks to using a laptop if this is what the Dell is.

Otherwise you are buying a low spec computer,sure you could do better for the money.

Earl
 
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Its a very basic spec and should be suitable for general use and browsing.

However I would try to stretch the budget up slightly to get a minimum of a Dual core processor. Probably just an extra £30 to £50.
 
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Calibre Designs said:
Its a very basic spec and should be suitable for general use and browsing.

However I would try to stretch the budget up slightly to get a minimum of a Dual core processor. Probably just an extra £30 to £50.
Click to expand...

The second computer i listed in the ofginal post is a dual core one, that is from pc world.
 
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Calibre Designs said:
Its a very basic spec and should be suitable for general use and browsing.

However I would try to stretch the budget up slightly to get a minimum of a Dual core processor. Probably just an extra £30 to £50.
Click to expand...

The second computer i listed in the orginal post is a dual core one, that is from pc world.
 
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the only thing I notice really is that they are coming with vista but microsoft recommends to have 2gb of Ram with vista but Dell is only supplying 1gb and the other 1/2 gb.

Try novatech, they have some good deals on
http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?PC-1103

Go for the one with the basic Vista as you have enough RAM and you have a newer process then the older Pentium D and the less speced Celeron

AMD Dual Core 4200 AM2
250Gb Hdd
2048Mb DDR667 PC4200 Memory
DVDRW
Vista Basic
£292.57 inc vat inc free next day delivery
(doesnt come with monitor)
 
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Don't buy it, it's a major rip-off

I'm a system builder as a hobby,

get a Novatech system for the same price

give me 5 mins and i'll show you a good pc ;)
 
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tommy said:
the only thing I notice really is that they are coming with vista but microsoft recommends to have 2gb of Ram with vista but Dell is only supplying 1gb and the other 1/2 gb.

Try novatech, they have some good deals on
http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?PC-1103

Go for the one with the basic Vista as you have enough RAM and you have a newer process then the older Pentium D and the less speced Celeron

AMD Dual Core 4200 AM2
250Gb Hdd
2048Mb DDR667 PC4200 Memory
DVDRW
Vista Basic
£292.57 inc vat inc free next day delivery
(doesnt come with monitor)
Click to expand...

I soooo did not see this,

that's exactly the pc i was gonna show
 
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Any other ideas?

What do everyone think of this for £299 inc VAT from PC World?

Full specification

Processor TypeINTEL PENTIUM D 925 DUAL CORE

Operating-SystemWindows Vista Home Basic

RAM Memory512 MB

Hard Disk Capacity

160 Gb Optical Drive 1DL DVD-RW with Lightscribe Plug In Removable Hard Drive

INTEL GRAPHICS MEDIA 950 Soundcard included
 
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darrenwis said:
Any other ideas?

What do everyone think of this for £299 inc VAT from PC World?

Full specification

Processor TypeINTEL PENTIUM D 925 DUAL CORE

Operating-SystemWindows Vista Home Basic

RAM Memory512 MB

Hard Disk Capacity

160 Gb Optical Drive 1DL DVD-RW with Lightscribe Plug In Removable Hard Drive

INTEL GRAPHICS MEDIA 950 Soundcard included
Click to expand...

it would be cool for just internet browsing
 
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Dwebs-Ltd said:
You need at least 1Gb memory for vista unless you disable most of the fancy graphics but even then it will be slow!
Click to expand...

you can enable the 98 interface and disable some unnescessary stuff

it's not that bad, but get XP if you can,

or even a distro of ubuntu if you're up for it ;)

Edit, maybe a second hand pc would be better,
you could get a midrange gamers second hand pc for about £300

that would smoke the pc you're looking at,
I'll browse the ebay for one for you
 
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Dwebs-Ltd said:
Don't think its got a windows COA or Office COA from the description!

Need to replace my box soon, dual athlon mp 2800+ had it since 2004 :) Runs vista business without any major issues!
Click to expand...

what does COA mean?

is it a variant of oem?
edit, i realised it's Certificate of Authentication

but you don't need it legally though, right?
because the original user sold the OS second hand and didn't copy it?
 
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Dwebs-Ltd said:
Certificate of Authenticity basically the windows license sticker!
Click to expand...

I didn't get one with my retail Vista Ultimate,

I used the 30 day trial disc and bought the License from microsoft
maybe he had similar circumstances with xp?
 
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Dwebs-Ltd said:
No it does not apply to XP

If it does not have a COA with the machine the XP install is not legal.
Click to expand...

true, but microsoft had the genuine advantage scheme where people with pirated XP could pay to make it genuine and get a registry file from the net

even so ....it probably is pirated,

but that PC and a copy of vista basic or XP pro would be around £300 anyway

and I prefer open office to the microsoft one, it could be used to save more cost
 
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Jowy Atreides said:
true, but microsoft had the genuine advantage scheme where people with pirated XP could pay to make it genuine and get a registry file from the net

even so ....it probably is pirated,

but that PC and a copy of vista basic or XP pro would be around £300 anyway

and I prefer open office to the microsoft one, it could be used to save more cost
Click to expand...

Indeed XP Home OEM is around £55-60, Vista Home Basic is the same price near enough.

WGA is ok to a certain extent it can depend on exactly what dodgy copy of windows has been installed, some of very heavily modified and cause more issues than their worth

The amount of people that ask me to reinstall PC’s with dodgy XP copies, the usual sorry mate try someone else applies
 
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Personally I wouldn't touch Vista Home Basic with a barge-pole. It has nothing to offer really, and all the 'nice-looking features' are not included with it.

Also the spec of the OP's PC would be more suited to XP, as Vista is a slow beast and would get it tight on that low a spec.

Have a look at our Vista Article HERE

Whilst the article was written a few months ago, most of it still applies.
 
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Useful article Comspec.

Is it true that new computers being purchased today only offers Vista? Even DELL was forced to sell their systems with Vista but they say that the majority of users still prefer XP.

Not many places will give you the XP or Vista options right?


To the OP of this thread - 512mb RAM is far to low for anything so if you do plan to buy that system from PC World, make sure that you can buy an upgrade to 1G min.


Thanks
 
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The majority of PC dealers now offer the option of Vista or XP - although it is getting increasingly hard to get a decent laptop with XP on it.

Dell backtracked quite early on and offer most systems with either OS - smart move on their part.

We still find that 75% of our customers want new builds to have XP rather than Vista, although more seem to be moving towards Vista lately.

A lot of the problems with Vista and incompatibility with equipment seems to be getting sorted, but the performance issue is still there. Personally I will not put Vista onto a PC unless it has 2Gb of RAM - that way it can operate the way it should.
 
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Thanks for everyone thats posted so far. I love threads like this that can really start debates.

Not sure what to do now tho!

Have a great new years tonight all.

Darren
 
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Carl-CSNM said:
I used Vista for the first time a few days ago, I really hated it. :(
Click to expand...

vista is only really good for gamers really,
well as more dx10 games are coded

all the vista features except directx 10 are available on xp

check out some of these programs:
windowblinds, thoosje sidebar, toy'd

and an AMAZING program is Rocketdock,
rocketdock has seriously improved how quickly I can use my pc productively
 
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Carl-CSNM said:
I used Vista for the first time a few days ago, I really hated it. :(
Click to expand...

Under the hood its not bad but you need the pc to power it. I still will not install it in the office until SP1 is out.

We have one vista machine in the office
AMD Athlon XP 3200+
1Gb DDR 3200
80Gb SATA1
128Mb Geforce FX 5200

Takes around 30-40secs to boot, even with fancy graphics enabled but its only used as an office machine windows mail, office 2007 etc.

Works quite well :)

No idea how many vista machines i've worked on since its release, must be over 100 :)

All though I have spent most of Christmas testing Windows Server 2008 RC1, nice piece of software!
 
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