• A Great friend to the HardForum with a great kid that he is trying to get a scholorship to continue his schooling. Please give hime a vote! Only 24 hours left! Thanks.
    If you have an VOTE FOR KEENAN!

Value of this system?

G

GoodThings

n00b
Joined
Apr 1, 2007
Messages
14
I have two questions for anyone interested in helping me out on this forum.

First question:

-I'm selling my current girlfriend my last computer, and I was going to do about 50% of whatever a fair current value for the machine is. It is a Dell 5150 Pentium 4 2.8Ghz /w hyperthreading, either 2GB or 3GB of memory, 80GB Hard Drive, CD/RW and separate DVD Rom drive. (No DVD RW). Mouse / Keyboard / 19 inch Dell analog LCD. Freshly installed XP Home. I'd like to know in roundabout numbers what the box is worth...



-Second question, I just pieced together a new Dell system which is mostly for business use, no gaming at all. I'm looking to run dual DVI 24" LCD panels with native resolutions, and multitasking applications is key. I went with this setup on Dell.com:

My System Details
Intel® Core™2 Quad Proc Q6600 (2.40GHz,8MB L2Cache,1066FSB)
Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium
4GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM 800MHz - 4DIMMs
160GB Serial ATA Hard Drive (7200RPM) w/DataBurst Cache™
Single Drive: 16X (DVD+/-RW) Burner Drive
256MB NVIDIA® GeForce 8600GTS, 2DVI
Integrated 7.1 Channel Audio


The system without monitors came to a total of $1237. It is a Vostro 400 Mini tower box.

Thanks in advance for anyone's input.
 
I like that the first thing I read was "I am selling my current girlfriend" haha.

My guess looking at your old computer I would say is worth maybe $200 w/lcd, anything without atleast a duel core now days is pretty gimped.


If your running duel 24" monitors I have to think your doing some sort of graphical application. If that's the case I beg you to please build the computer yourself and put in a decent video card. I absolutely hate Dell though so take that as you will.
 
A few months back, I sold my kids Dell 5150, 17" monitor included, for $210 on Craigs List. Hope that helps.
 
GoodThings said:
I have two questions for anyone interested in helping me out on this forum.

First question:

-I'm selling my current girlfriend my last computer, and I was going to do about 50% of whatever a fair current value for the machine is. It is a Dell 5150 Pentium 4 2.8Ghz /w hyperthreading, either 2GB or 3GB of memory, 80GB Hard Drive, CD/RW and separate DVD Rom drive. (No DVD RW). Mouse / Keyboard / 19 inch Dell analog LCD. Freshly installed XP Home. I'd like to know in roundabout numbers what the box is worth...



-Second question, I just pieced together a new Dell system which is mostly for business use, no gaming at all. I'm looking to run dual DVI 24" LCD panels with native resolutions, and multitasking applications is key. I went with this setup on Dell.com:

My System Details
Intel® Core™2 Quad Proc Q6600 (2.40GHz,8MB L2Cache,1066FSB)
Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium
4GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM 800MHz - 4DIMMs
160GB Serial ATA Hard Drive (7200RPM) w/DataBurst Cache™
Single Drive: 16X (DVD+/-RW) Burner Drive
256MB NVIDIA® GeForce 8600GTS, 2DVI
Integrated 7.1 Channel Audio


The system without monitors came to a total of $1237. It is a Vostro 400 Mini tower box.

Thanks in advance for anyone's input.
Click to expand...

Buying through dell you're robbing yourself. You could build that similar system for:
$270 for processor /hsf
$100 for mobo
$50-$75 for 4gb of Ram
$50 for 160gb
$35 for Burner
$150 for ATI 3850
$70 for case
$70 for psu
$?? Windows Vista

If you do the math, $820ish + cost of Vista. And you'd be getting a better mobo, a better video card, psu, and case.
 
Thanks for everyones reply.

Sounds like $200 is about right on the computer, so I'll tell her $100 is appropriate.

On the new computer issue, the reason I thought building was worse than buying is because I don't want to liability of getting the dual video with high resolution for the monitors working correctly in Vista. If I run into any hardware problems with the resolutions running, its on Dell to help me out.

Also, I think the analysis above with costs may be optimistic (ram price?). Though - better case and better psu are a consideration with your budgeted numbers.

I think I'm gunna stay away from building this one, it just wouldn't be worth the trouble.

Any other good system builders out there that might be competitive in price and stronger in components? Or competitive in components and stronger in price?

Also the video card I think is adequate. I will only be running many isntances of web browsers and MS office applications. And music and general media. No photoshop or graphic intensive stuff. The only graphic intensity is going to be the sheer resolutions themsevles across two screens.
 
$1240 for a Vosto400 is expensive, IMO. I'd wait around for a deal on a prebuilt quadcore if you can. There have been some for around $800. PGHammer has a thread around here with nicely priced quad base prebuilts for under $1k. If you can't wait around for a deal, find some other prebuilt aside from Dell.

Theres no need to be concerned about resolution issues with a vidcard and 2x24" LCDs, as long as the vidcard has dual outputs, preferably dual DVI (and it doesnt even need to be dual-link DVI).

If you're not doing any gaming, ditch the 8600GTS if you can and get something lower, like the 8500GT instead (or 8300GS, 2400Pro, 2600XT). I just looked at the Vostro 400, and its only an $80 upgrade for the 8600GTS over the 8300GS... not a bad deal. Where you're getting killed is the RAM. Get whatever RAM comes with the system and just upgrade to a 2x2GB kit for around $85. A-Data is one of the largest memory manufacturers in the world, and they make their products according to JEDEC spec, so rest assured that the kit I listed will work in the Dell.

Oh, and just because someone is using dual 24" LCDs doesnt mean their doing something graphic intensive. I have dual 24's for one of my workstations, and I do nothing 3D related, lol.
 
OP:

I'm confused as to what the second question was.

Also, I as well as 99% of the forum members are going to suggest you build your own system. But then again I do know people too who think that just because they're dropping big bucks means it's going to be all the more better. I guess some people just like to throw their money down the drain.

Secondly, if you were to buy a 8600gts on your own (with your custom system) and run the dual 24" LCD's though dvi you're going to have the same experience as if you had wasted all that money with Dell.

It might just be me though, but I seriously doubt it..
It almost seems like you want to spend that extra chunk of cash on Tech Support.
You're on the [H]
You don't need any stinkin' Dell tech support.
 
For the OP's needs, a prebuilt is fine. He just needs to find a better priced one, lol. The one Abu listed is nice, though its recertified.

Did you try Dell outlet?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top