My new pc - pix added

[Golly Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close Golly]

Depending on how PC savy you are mate, I would always say to build your own. If you want it for emails, surfing, the occasional Movie, then yeah Dell are a great brand, if you want it for gaming, graphic design etc, I say build ya own.

Depends on what you want it for mate.. But then again going by these specs of the 730, the only thing you need is another 2gb Ram as Vista is hungry, and 4Gb for vista is saweet! just like I run at the moment.

Processor
Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9770 (3.2GHz @ 3.8GHz,6M L2 Cache,1600MHz FSB)

Operating System
Genuine Windows Vista Home Premium

Memory
2GB Corsair Dominator DDR3 SDRAM 1333MHZ OC to 1600MHz

Graphics Card
Dual 1024MB ATI Radeon HD 3870 X2 (Quad-Crossfire)

Chipset
NVIDIA nforce 790i Ultra SLI
- Supports ATI Radeon HD 3870 X2 in four way Crossfire or NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GX2 in quad SLI
- Standard ATX Form-Factor

Cooling
H2C 2-stage Hybrid Cooled CPU and MCP

Communications
Dual Gigabit Ethernet (10/100/1000Base-T)
Bluetooth

Audio
Creative Xi-Fi XtremeGamer
Integrated 7.1 Audio (disabled by default)

Hard Drive
2x160GB Western Digital Raptor 10,000RPM SATA Hard Drive (programs and OS)
1x1000GB Hitachi 7,200 RPM SATA Hard Drive (data)
Optical Drive
16x CD/DVD Burner (DVD +/- RW) w/ Double Layer Write

Expansion Slots
2 x PCIe x16 Gen2 slot
1 x PCIe x16 slot
2 x PCIe x1 slot
2 x PCI slot

External Ports
8 x USB 2.0 ports (2 front, 4 rear)
2 x 1394a Firewire port (1 front, 1 rear)
2 x RJ45 Ethernet (10/100/1000) port
1 x eSATA
1 x PS/2 Mouse Port
1 x PS/2 Keyboard Port
1 x 19-in-1 card reader (front media-bay)
1 x 1/8" headphone port (front)
1 x 1/8" stereo line-in (microphone) port
1 x S/PDIF Optical
1 x S/PDIF Coaxial
1 x 1/8" surround sound outputs
Chassis
Dell XPS 730 ATX Aluminum Chassis
- ESA Compliant
- 4 x 3.5" Internal Bays
- 2 x 3.5" External Bays
- 4 x 5.25" External Bays

Color Option
Anodized Aluminum in Victory Red

Power Supply
1000W Power Supply
- EPA Compliant
- 80+ Certified

Physical Dimensions
Width: 21.9 cm (8.6 inches) without stand; 35.6 cm
(14.0 inches) with stand
Height: 55.5 cm (21.9 inches) without stand; 57.2 cm
(22.5 inches) with stand
Depth: 59.4 cm (23.4 inches)
Weight: 21.7 kg (47.8 lb) typical configuration, 25.6 kg (56.4 lb) maximum configuration

Included Accessories and Extras
DVI to VGA Adapter
Recovery DVD
Norton™ Internet Security 2007 or McAfee SecurityCenter (15-months)
FREE Turtle Beach Ear Force HPA2 6-channel Headphones
FREE Dell XPS Mouse Pad
FREE Dell XPS Beanie Cap
FREE Dell XPS 2-in-1 Pen & Laser Pointer
FREE Dell XPS Tool Kit
FREE System Recycling (recycle your old system with Dell)

Warranty And Support
1-year In-Home Service (upgradeable to 4 years)
1-year Parts and Labor (upgradeable to 4 years)
1-year 3GB DataSafe Online Backup (capacity upgradeable)
24x7 Online and Phone Support
Optional CompleteCare Accidental Damage Protection


Price: $6,629.00 USD

Great system, the red bits are my fav ! but hey I am a geek, great system mate, Dell have improved over the years for top end rigs. :mrgreen:

[D4D Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close D4D]

Re: ot - DELL Desktops ?

My thoughts, buy a brand name if you want a no hassle waranty, buy a white box if you know what you are doing and don't care about warranty as you can fix it yourself

[mav Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close mav]

Re: ot - DELL Desktops ?

Matt,

For PC tower a dell will be fine, for storage you might want to look at a raid 1 or 5 config for data security plus hard backups of photos etc. Disks are cheap and so are raid controllers, I bought a raid controller on ebay the other month for under AU$15.00 delivered from Hong Kong and it works fine. In case you have not used it the following is a very good search engine for PC and IT related gear. www.staticice.com.au

Laptops - Toshiba make the best. After them I would go with a Compaq Presario ( officially it is a HP Presario as HP now own the Compaq brand name since the merger ) then comes HP Pavillion range.

[D4D Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close D4D]

Re: ot - DELL Desktops ?

Laptops - Toshiba make the best. After them I would go with a Compaq Presario ( officially it is a HP Presario as HP now own the Compaq brand name since the merger ) then comes HP Pavillion range.

Bzzzt Tosh have dropped the ball. my HP rocks but the new Lenovos are the ducks nuts

[mav Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close mav]

Re: ot - DELL Desktops ?

Laptops - Toshiba make the best. After them I would go with a Compaq Presario ( officially it is a HP Presario as HP now own the Compaq brand name since the merger ) then comes HP Pavillion range.

Bzzzt Tosh have dropped the ball. my HP rocks but the new Lenovos are the ducks nuts

Toshiba business models are still the best out there imo. I work for HP so I will say no more about them and that is saying enough.

[Snaga Wishing I was lost Find all posts View Profile Close Snaga]

Re: ot - DELL Desktops ?

Received my new (well, it's the missus' office puda ) last week and it's going great so far. It's the Dell XPS 420, does what I needed and suited the budget for what is primararly a home office computer. Still getting used to Vista though :? (coming from Win 2000 )

[D4D Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close D4D]

Re: ot - DELL Desktops ?

Laptops - Toshiba make the best. After them I would go with a Compaq Presario ( officially it is a HP Presario as HP now own the Compaq brand name since the merger ) then comes HP Pavillion range.

Bzzzt Tosh have dropped the ball. my HP rocks but the new Lenovos are the ducks nuts

Toshiba business models are still the best out there imo. I work for HP so I will say no more about them and that is saying enough.

My HP 8530 blue screens every time on battery, great for a latpop :lol:

Toshys still lag the new Lenovos

[photoprado Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close photoprado]

Re: ot - DELL Desktops ?

Requirements will be :

1. Web surfing - Pradopoint ect, ebay, share websites, banking, downloading movie torrents ect.. usually all at the same time

2. Photo storage - Will be using 2TB external hard drives, one for the photos and a second as the main pc hard drive back up..

3. Movie downloading, converting and movie burning..

4. Bugger all game crap, that's what the new PS3 will be for :P

iMac 23"

[jcas24 Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close jcas24]

Re: ot - DELL Desktops ?

I love my toshi, however the battery lets it down. not a problem when its run off mains 95% of the time.

The Dell unit sounds pretty good. Personally I think the plastics are a bit cheap (kia, hyundai plastic) but cant fault them otherwise.

[Crammy Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close Crammy]

Re: ot - DELL Desktops ?

Requirements will be :

1. Web surfing - Pradopoint ect, ebay, share websites, banking, downloading movie torrents ect.. usually all at the same time

2. Photo storage - Will be using 2TB external hard drives, one for the photos and a second as the main pc hard drive back up..

3. Movie downloading, converting and movie burning..

4. Bugger all game crap, that's what the new PS3 will be for :P

iMac 23"

As a long time PC nut I bought a mac about 4 weeks ago... Gotta say they're an awesome machine, very easy to use with great software and will do the above with ease. The PC rarely gets turned on now!

[ntp Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close ntp]

Re: ot - DELL Desktops ?

As a long time PC nut I bought a mac about 4 weeks ago... Gotta say they're an awesome machine, very easy to use with great software and will do the above with ease. The PC rarely gets turned on now!

Ssshhh... don't let the secret out!

[Spurio Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Spurio]

Re: ot - DELL Desktops ?

This topic will no doubt have a different perspective from everyone. This is my take on it from a data hungry, technology desperate perspective

All my data hungry computers are turned over every 12 months, office ones - accounts etc every 24months. I run a couple of makes, but depends on the task required and they are all pre-built as I don't pay geologists to be IT staff or to play around fixing stuff that should work.

A couple of years ago I went the almost complete laptop - wireless setup aside from the wireless feeling (bit of a wank factor) the ergonomic feedback was very clear that most of the laptops were terrible for long term use at a desk, even with a heat exchnage cradle the screens are too low and are generally of a lesser quality, but in the field they are really the only option. Most of the time people were using their computers at the desk anyway.

For most of the office computers I run Dell Business models as they have limited bloatware and are completely customisable. Depending on the task but I use either the Vostro, OptiPlex or Precision. The business support is great, no smart ass questions like did you turn it on ??

Screens - Again depends on the job, most are the new version Dell Ultrasharps seem to keep their colour well. With the graphics side I use Eizo (http://www.eizo.com.au/) which are all callibrated and profiled.

HDD - I have had a few issues with quality and over heating of HDDs and now just run LACIE. All computers run at least 2 internal drives. 1st everyting is backed up internally (reduces the real HDD by half) then overnight depending on the site data requirements, I run at least one Lacie 5 big Network HDD (http://www.lacie.com/au/products/product.htm?pid=11118) it has 5 hot swapable drives. Drives are removed in the morning for off site storage.

At home, which my wife and kids use more than me, I run a Vostro 410 in XP, Q4 Q9450, 4GB RAM, 2TB HDD, 2x24" Ultrasharp Monitors.

Depends on how tech savy you are, if your wife and kids wilby using it and how deep your pockets or tax right off applicable it will be.

Best of luck with it.

[FlyingBushPig Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close FlyingBushPig]

Re: ot - DELL Desktops ?

Yes, we all have opinions as to what suits us...

And I'll just let you misguided PC users squabble while I enjoy my 23" Imac too!
:lol:

[Golly Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close Golly]

Re: ot - DELL Desktops ?

for a bit of fund the other day, i hooked up my rig to our 47" Full HD LCD for a COD4 session. WOW! haha surprised my rig handled it well

[Snaga Wishing I was lost Find all posts View Profile Close Snaga]

Re: ot - DELL Desktops ?

And I'll just let you misguided PC users squabble while I enjoy my 23" Imac too!
:lol:

Best of both worlds :mrgreen: MacBook Pro for work... and PC's for home.