Calling Computer Experts: Is this a good system

In My Humble Opinion
21

I took the advice to check out the Dell. With the new Radeon 9800 graphics card, an upgrade to 512 SDRAM and a free upgrade to a CD-RW, it comes to $879 with free shipping. Thus, it seems like I am getting the video card, good processor and a CDRW for a real good price. Also, Consumer Reports rates Dell higher than gateway.

Please excuse this next stupid question, but I want to be sure.

We have a cable internet connection which my husband says runs through an ethernet card which comes with this system. Do we still need to buy a modem with this ethernet connection?

Also, wth a CDRW, he says that we don’t need the 3.5 floppy, is this also true?

Thank you all so much for your help.

Lissa

22

New problem.

This deal is for Small Businesses. Does anyone know how Dell deals with this? I could not find much information on their site about this.

Has anyone ever bought a computer from Dell under the small business guise?

Amazingly enough, the same system for home is almost 40-50% more.

Lissa

23

You still need a “cable” modem in addition to the 10/100 card.

24

You probably have an external cable modem, which is a box that sits separate from the computer, takes the signal in from the cable, and then outputs it on a network cable of the type that will go into your network card. So, no, you would not need a standard modem (unless you want it as a backup if the cable goes down, or if you change Internet plans)

There is little need for a floppy drive anymore on modern computers. With a cable connection and a CDRW, I can’t think of much you need floppy disks for.

Both of the above, though, are not likely to cost much. Maybe $10 apiece. And many package systems won’t even let you remove them for a discount.

One thing that concerned me. In earlier posts you spoke of DDR memory, and in this one of “upgrading to 512MB SDRAM.” SDRAM is a downgrade compared to DDR RAM. It goes only half as fast. (And, yes, for those computer buffs out there who will be quick to correct me, I know that DDR RAM is technically SDRAM, but if it’s not listed as DDR, then you’re getting the slow stuff.)

25

Thanks for the points. Yes, we do have a big box that converts the signal and is plugged in to a ethernet connection. i am also sorry but I left out the DDR in front of SDRAM. I did not know there was a difference. Thanks for telling me.

I am still wondering about the Dell part of my last question. Is there anyone who can help with that? You guys have been great and we are close to buying now.

Lissa

26

I have heard that some people “go into business” when faced with this dilema. I do not have first hand knowledge about how much Dell checks on the validity of your “business.”

27

As others have said, if you’re doing anything performance sensitive, you absolutely NEED a Pentium 4 or Athlon XP processor. The only application in which a Celeron is viable is for someone who will use the system only for checking e-mail, surfing the web, and word processing.

3D gaming is simply impossible without a dedicated 3D card. Modern games won’t run at all without one, and those that do run will be exceedingly slow. The videocard really is the most important part of the system where gaming is concerned. The cheapest to consider at this point is a nVidia Geforce4 Ti4200, and equivalent ATI Radeon cards (9500 and higher) can offer even better performance and compatibility for good price.

Overall, I would suggest that you go to a local shop and have them build you a computer based on an AMD Athlon XP Processor with at least an ATI Radeon 9500 videocard. This will give you a powerfull system for gaming and anything else you might need, while still coming in at a very low price.

In regards to the cable internet connection, the cable modem is usually provided by the company with your cable service, and will connect to the computer via your network card. Any network card will do, really.

28

I’ve never had a problem buying from the Small Business section at Dell. Several friends have bought this way, paid with personal credit cards and had delivery to their homes. Dell doesn’t care who or what you are, as long as you can pay.

The difference seems to be the way the machines are configured. Many of the Home computers seem geared to people who just want a computer without having to think about the guts – integrated video and audio, Works instead of Office, etc. The Business machines also have base models, but are more easily customized.

29

What kind of games? Anything remotely similar to Doom 3?

Any digital video editing and compression?

No. It’s either too fast or too slow, depending on the answers to questions above.

Most combo drives are mediocre. There are some exceptions (such as Plextor), but if you don’t know the brand you are better off avoiding a combo drive.

I would recommend anybody to upgrade to the Pro version.

This is pretty useless.

Except for the nForce2 chipset, most intergrated audio sucks. You probably want to upgrade this to a Creative Audigy for playing games.

The modem is quite useless if you are thinking about broadband, If not, avoid it like the plague if it is a winmodem.

No. However, it will be useful if you are going to have a home LAN.

Yes. Depending on the sort of games you want to play, you may want to take a look at the high end graphics cards.

30

I pretty much agree with this, unless Lissa wants to do digital video editing work, in which case the P4 architecture is superior.

31

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The next game my husband wants to get is *Star Wars: Galaxies, * which is an online game.

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No. Mainly snapping digital photographs and burning them onto CDs. The editing I do will mainly extend to rubbing out red-eye.

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Oh. That’s good to know. Thank you.

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It’s not really a necessity for us. (At least I don’t think it is.) We’ll use our current computer for most of our word processing needs.

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Neither of us really care much about the audio. As long as it’s audible and understandable, that’s all we care about. We never play DVDs on our computer.

32

LissaXP Pro is recommended because it was waaayyyy more stable than the home version.

33

Dell doesn’t do anything to look into small businesses, as far as I know. My parents own a little company and my dad got himself a laptop from them. He didn’t have to send in anything to prove he owned a business and they never sent anything asking about it.

Everything I was going to say about the computer itself has already been addressed by other people. If you want an Intel processor, Celeron doesn’t even compare to P4. If you plan on gaming on this machine, definitely get yourself a good video card with plenty of memory.

FWIW, I have an nVidia GeForce4 TI4600 with 128mb RAM, and I’ve yet to encounter any problems with some of the newest games out right now. I tend to play everything on maximum graphics also. I don’t know how graphics-intensive the new Star Wars game is, but you might not need the best card out right now and you could save yourself a little bit of money.

34

Okay, something similar to what Alereon suggests will be good.

As peri, the Pro version is more stable. It’s also easier to admin, and better for building a home LAN.

Would there be a chance that you play MP3 or MIDI music on the computer? Then again, you can add the audio card in later if there’s a need for it. Still, having better audio adds to the gaming experience.

35

You need to make a choice… is this more of an internet access rig… or is this more of a gaming rig… Because you will not be saving money if you want a good gaming rig.

The most important things for a gaming rig is number one, your video card… and number two your quality if ram and the quantity of ram…

You will want to buy at least a cheap DX9 video card… all new video cards are DX9, but DX8 cards are still out there so beware…

Integrated Intel® Extreme Graphics with up to 64MB dynamic video memory? LOL no!!! do you know what 64MB of dynamic video memory means? It means that 64MB of your slow system ram is allocated for your video processing chip…in other words, your video card has no memory of it’s own!!! If you only buy 64MB’s worth of memory for your rig, then it uses whatever it can… and believe me you will see the difference in almost any game you play besides maybe tetris.

ATI currently has the fastest card out the 9800Pro… it’s $400plus dollars but will last forever, is DX9 compatible and comes with 356MB of ram… If you must go cheap, go with the nVidia GeForce FX 5200 Ultra… only $100 and DX9 compatible… very nice… you’ll at least want this when it’s said and done. nVidia’s top dog is the GeForce FX 5900 Ultra… 256MB of on card ram and $400+ also… but again, worth every penny. No offense, but we need to talk to get everything straight on this… if you want I’ll email you my phone number… I make gaming rigs for friends all the time…

Next up, the memory… you need fast memory… more importantly, you need memory with a low “CAS” latency… when you buy your memory, whatever the speed, make sure you buy a CAS2 stick(s)… I recommend 512MB on one stick of ram if you can stomache it… more than one stick sometimes actually causes some little system latency… so one stick is best. Get Corsair gaming memory for the best memory.

That’s the most important thing’s… where to save money? The CPU and the harddrive… I know, you’re saying the CPU? are you crazy? Well, right now you can buy a good P4 on the cheap… a 2.4Ghz P4 for about $150! that’s badass for that cheap… why a P4? Because not all video games are written correctly… what I mean is some don’t utilize your video card correctly and P4 chips have shown to perform better in these situation… yes I have benchmark proof for any non-believers… I do my homework!

The motherboard… just make sure that it has Hyperthreading as an option… what does this mean? It means when P4 chip prices get even lower, you can go buy a P4 with HT (HT P4 chips cost a lot right now… it’s a technology brought down from intel’s server chips)

Sound card? Get a soundblaster or something better… just make sure the one you buy does all the processing on the card itself.

If you just need a rig to surf the net… I’ll sell you my old iMac!:stuck_out_tongue:

36

Also try visiting Circuit City & talk to the sales persons. They often have some nice deals. I prefer Staples custom order PCs, $550 got a pretty nice one for my brother this year.

I hear that CC is clearing out 2.2ghz emachines for about $200. No agp slot & I don’t fancy that manf but might be a nice second machine.

37

Thaidog, while I agree with most of what you said, I don’t think you are doing a correct price/performance assessment.

The original setup was $738. The Dell was about $100 more, and was a more capable system for gaming. Certainly, none of them will be running Half-Life 2 at 1600*1200, but we should try to stay in budget (thus far <$900).

I’m guessing that you are looking at a Dell 4600 w/ a 2.4 P4 processor and upgrading to the Radeon 9800 card. I would suggest buying another 256k stick of memory separate from Dell and installing it yourself. Integrated audio isn’t nearly as bad as it used to be, so I wouldn’t worry about that. (Actually, upon review, Lissa is looking at small business, which has different product lines). Still, look at the 4600, add the Radeon 9800 card and a CD-RW and it’s $909. Buy more memory and upgrade speakers separately. You should still be able to keep it sub-$1000. Lastly, before you buy, check refurbished machines for a possible bargain.

XP Pro may be better, but XP Home is fine. I’ve no stability problems on my home network running 3 XP Home machines.

38

Thanks everybody. The last poster was correct, we are trying to stay within a budget. Absolutely, positively, below 1,000. Although I realize we may have to make some sacrifices, we wanted to make surew e did not make a fatal error.

You have all helped out so much. We are getting a Pentium IV, instead of the celeron. We will get the Radeon 9800 card for graphics. We are debating going from 512k Ram to 700+ (not sure yet).

Anyways, thanks all so much. I apprciate the offers for help that have been given and I am happy you all took the time to respond.

Lissa

39

You wont need the extra RAM, stay with the 512. You can always upgrade a year from now for half the price.

40

Lissa: The Radeon 9800 Pro is the best gaming card available. As such, it costs about $400 for the card alone. This will almost certainly blow your budget. You can probably get a system with a Radeon 9700 Pro for about $100 less without seriously sacrificing performance, and you can go down to a Radeon 9500 Pro to save another $200 and still have a quite fast gaming rig. As for the RAM, 512MB should be plenty for you.