is this pc any good?

[daytona]

http://www1.euro.dell.com/content/products/features.aspx/dotw_desktops?c=uk&cs=ukdhs1&l=en&s=dhs


second one in from left.

have to buy for my ex as her pc has died(never really had a pulse in the first place).this means little daytona cant do his homework.ineed to upgrade it slightly as he needs to do powerpoint presentations regular and
he has an art studio toy that needs a 64 meg minimum of video memory.
all this now weighs it in at 550 quid.

does this sound reasonable or can i get more for my money elsewhere.

all i want it to do is surf the net play, that toy and do the powerpoint/word stuff.dont care about the rest.

thanks in advance people,i know nothing about pcs!


ps would rather it came with xp

 

[Softus]

PC at £379 + MS Office at £90 = £469 - how do you arrive at a total of £550?

 

[Trazor]

PC at £379 + MS Office at £90 = £469 - how do you arrive at a total of £550?

Perhaps he's added a decent graphics card...?
Which he should do, never, just have onboard graphics.

 

[Softus]

Perhaps he's added a decent graphics card...?

I see. So which of the following would account for the extra £81?

128MB NVIDIA® GeForce® 8300GS Turbocache graphics card [add £50.00 or £2/month]

128MB ATI® Radeon™ HD 2400 Pro graphics card [add £60.00 or £2/month]

256MB ATI® Radeon™ HD 2600 XT graphics card [add £130.00 or £4/month]

Faites vos jours, Mesdames et Monsieurs.

 

[eyeofthebeholder]

This is quite a good price considering you are getting a 19" TFT included in the price.

I partly agree with the above RE graphics cards. If you are wishing to play games on the PC, then it is very good idea to purchase a graphics card. If you are just using Office and surfing etc, you do not need one!

Couple of bits of advice:
1. Do not get a graphics card from Dell as they are generally more expensive then you can get from other suppliers eg: www.dabs.co.uk, www.novatech.co.uk etc.
2. This PC comes with Vista which is quite memory hungry to say the least (uses about 400MB out of the box). Upgrade to at least 2GB (max of 4GB supported by Vista). Again do not get from Dell. Look at other suppliers as above and www.crucial.com/uk.
3. And this goes for everyone with Vista. Make sure you upgrade to SP1 when it comes out shortly - mid March?? There are alot of major issues with Vista currently and MS says they have fixed them all

Hope this 'elps!

Ad.

 

[daytona]

PC at £379 + MS Office at £90 = £469 - how do you arrive at a total of £550?

well i did round it up a little,also arranged a new graphics card to run the art studio toy.would have sounded a little silly saying 525quid a 25 pence including vat and standard delivery,terms and conditions apply!



thanks everyone else for the usefull input

 

[Trazor]

Faites vos jours, Mesdames et Monsieurs.

well i did round it up a little,also arranged a new graphics card to run the art studio toy.would have sounded a little silly saying 525quid a 25 pence including vat and standard delivery,terms and conditions apply!

Tee Hee...............

 

[Softus]

...also arranged a new graphics card...

And which one?

 

[daytona]

i think it was an ati radeon 128 meg.cant remember the exact price,about 60notes i think?

is it better to get the basic model and shop around for the other gear?

 

[oeeeeeeg]

i think it was an ati radeon 128 meg.cant remember the exact price,about 60notes i think?

is it better to get the basic model and shop around for the other gear?

if you add to the PC with third party upgrades doesn`t that invalidate the warranty?

 

[Felix66]

'oeeeeeeg' please get in touch, look at my posts regarding Fiesta, am desperate to get hold of you, hope you read this.