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good deal on a dell?

corey_rideDC

Turbo Monkey
Sep 1, 2004
1,368
0
DCmetro
hey puter monkeys,

looking to upgrade my home system and i was wondering if this is as good a deal as i think it is...

Dimension 9150
Pentium® D Processor 930 with Dual Core Technology (3GHz, 800FSB), Genuine Windows® XP Home Edition

Memory
1GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz - 2 DIMMs

Hard Drives
160GB Serial ATA Hard Drive (7200RPM) w/DataBurst Cache™

Dual Drives: 16x DVD-ROM Drive + 48x CD-RW Drive

Monitors
19 inch Ultrasharp™ 1905FP Digital Flat Panel

Video Cards
256MB PCI Express™ x16 (DVI/VGA/TV-out) nVidia GeForce 6800

Sound
Integrated 7.1 Channel Audio

$1,109 after $100 mail-in rebate
i'm a graphic/web designer and do a lot of multimedia. my home machine needs to be fast and reliable.

any suggestions/opinions?
 

narlus

Eastcoast Softcore
Staff member
Nov 7, 2001
24,658
63
behind the viewfinder
are there two monitors included?

H8R spec'd me a killer machine for about $1K in total, which i assembled (w/ BV). if you go the same route, you could save some $, esp if you have a copy of xp you can install. however, my build reused some existing stuff (monitor, keyboard, mouse, optical drives), and it was hard drive-heavy.
 

corey_rideDC

Turbo Monkey
Sep 1, 2004
1,368
0
DCmetro
just one 19" digital LCD included.

i've been looking at a lot of those 'custom' online vendors and i can't get a comparable machine with a monitor for under $1500. i plan on reusing my keyboard, mouse, 250Gb drive & 80Gb external drive.

no way i'd trust myself to build my own machine. you should see the damage i can do with a hub and a few cone wrenches...
 

binary visions

The voice of reason
Jun 13, 2002
22,111
1,166
NC
That's a very decent deal. Not screaming, but not bad either.

If you need something quickly, that's as good as any deal going right now. If you don't need something quickly, you can wait it out and look at sites like bensbargains.net and fatwallet.com who post bargain setups from time to time and every once in a while you'll get a super hot deal. There was an $1100 setup that was similar (though a little downgraded) from yours that came with the 24" widescreen UltraSharp LCD, which has never sold for less than $800 even on sale.

The other thing to consider is look carefully at the price of the upgrades and look at what you could get a piece of hardware from NewEgg or another vendor from. For instance, Dell wants to charge you $150 for an upgrade to a GeForce 6800. If you bought the stock video card, you can get a GeForce 6600GT from NewEgg for $120 which will probably outperform the 6800, and you could sell the stock card on eBay. Probably end up netting you a savings of $60.

All depends on how hard you want to work. I think it's silly that you aren't including a DVD burner, though, especially if you do multimedia work. Just MHO :)

Good computer, good price. Go for it if you need one!
 

corey_rideDC

Turbo Monkey
Sep 1, 2004
1,368
0
DCmetro
many thanks for the input. regarding the DVD writer, i have a NEC DVD-RW drive that i planned on swapping in.

this deal came from watching fatwallet.com ... thanks for the heads up on bensbargains.

excellent point about the gfx card. i'll check out newegg for a cost comparison.

i have a copy of XP home and plenty of HDs ... doesn't seem like that's going to save me much though.
 

binary visions

The voice of reason
Jun 13, 2002
22,111
1,166
NC
I have a 20% off $999+ desktops and laptops that's going to expire today. PM me if you jump on this deal and want it. I don't know how much it'll realistically save you since the coupon codes often kill some other built-in discount but you're welcome to try it.

FatWallet usually posts deals before Ben's gets to them, I just like the clean, simple and informative layout that Ben's gives you.
 

narlus

Eastcoast Softcore
Staff member
Nov 7, 2001
24,658
63
behind the viewfinder
corey_dcstreet said:
i have a copy of XP home and plenty of HDs ... doesn't seem like that's going to save me much though.
well xp home is ~$200 retail, and my hard drives (10K SATA western digital) came to almost $500 of my total 1K build. :D
 

corey_rideDC

Turbo Monkey
Sep 1, 2004
1,368
0
DCmetro
BV, that $1100 24" lcd package deal is back... i might jump on that, with a 3.0Ghz Pentium D, & 1Gb 667Mhz ram, tax + shipping my total is $1473 ... tempting...

whatch'all think?
 
D

d-sop

Guest
let me just warn you now, that dell absolutely blows. they are the worst make of computers out there. i have no problem with myne now, but thats because i've learned to cope with it, meaning replacing all parts except the mobo and the processor. dells are absolute ****boxes. but the specs look good, so its up to you. one thing, though, i HIGHLY recommend xp pro. i know its a home system, but pro just has such more to offer. im on a home comp, and i wont use anything else except pro.
 

binary visions

The voice of reason
Jun 13, 2002
22,111
1,166
NC
d-sop said:
let me just warn you now, that dell absolutely blows. they are the worst make of computers out there. i have no problem with myne now, but thats because i've learned to cope with it, meaning replacing all parts except the mobo and the processor. dells are absolute ****boxes.
:rolleyes:

I've seen hundreds and hundreds of Dells go through the offices I've worked at, both working in I.T. and other departments, and Dell's computers are fine.

Some people have positive experiences with Dell, some have negative experiences, but stating that they are the "worst make [SIC] of computers out there" is a little extreme.