Dell Dimension E520

Hi,

Looking to buy a new computer and found this deal on the Dell website change
support option to 1yr CAR) and wondered if this was a good deal or whether
there was anything any better either elsewhere or on the Dell site itself.

Any suggestions please?

Many thanks.

Ian Edmont.

PS: Deal is -

Intel® ViivT CoreT 2 Duo E6400 Processor (2.13GHz, 1066MHz, 2MB)
Genuine Windows® XP Media Center Edition 2005 (Incl Operating System
Re-installation CD) - English
MCE to Vista Premium Upgrade on: www.dellvistaupgrade.productorder.com
before 03/31/07
Collect & Return, 1 Year Service only
DellT 19" Value Flat Panel (E197FP) - UK/Irish
2048MB Dual Channel DDR2 533MHz [2x1024] Memory
320GB (7200rpm) Serial ATA Hard Drive with 8MB DataBurstT cache
16x DVD +/- RW Drive
256MB ATI® Radeon® X1300 Pro graphics card
Integrated Sound Blaster® AudigyT ADVANCED HD software
No Speakers
DellT Black Entry Quietkey USB Keyboard - UK/Ire (QWERTY)
Dell 2 Button USB Scroll Optical Mouse - Black
Internal 13-in-1 Media Card Reader
No Modem
Microsoft® Works 8 - English

TOTAL PRICE £639.00

"IE" <iedmont@googlemail.com> wrote in message
news:emv139$ncs$1@news.freedom2surf.net...
> Hi,
>
> Looking to buy a new computer and found this deal on the Dell website
> change
> support option to 1yr CAR) and wondered if this was a good deal or whether
> there was anything any better either elsewhere or on the Dell site itself.
>
> Any suggestions please?
>
> Many thanks.
>
> Ian Edmont.
>
> PS: Deal is -
>
> Intel® ViivT CoreT 2 Duo E6400 Processor (2.13GHz, 1066MHz, 2MB)
> Genuine Windows® XP Media Center Edition 2005 (Incl Operating System
> Re-installation CD) - English
> MCE to Vista Premium Upgrade on: www.dellvistaupgrade.productorder.com
> before 03/31/07
> Collect & Return, 1 Year Service only
> DellT 19" Value Flat Panel (E197FP) - UK/Irish
> 2048MB Dual Channel DDR2 533MHz [2x1024] Memory
> 320GB (7200rpm) Serial ATA Hard Drive with 8MB DataBurstT cache
> 16x DVD +/- RW Drive
> 256MB ATI® Radeon® X1300 Pro graphics card
> Integrated Sound Blaster® AudigyT ADVANCED HD software
> No Speakers
> DellT Black Entry Quietkey USB Keyboard - UK/Ire (QWERTY)
> Dell 2 Button USB Scroll Optical Mouse - Black
> Internal 13-in-1 Media Card Reader
> No Modem
> Microsoft® Works 8 - English
>
> TOTAL PRICE £639.00
>

That looks pretty good value, actually. If you can, remove the crappy X1300
card and buy a decent one elsewhere.

You could start with e-value code D01E07A and see whether that shaves a few
Pounds off the price and/or gives you greater flexibility over the
components.

"GB" <NotSomeone@microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:zrWdnTerM43SkQ7YRVnytQA@bt.com...
>
> "IE" <iedmont@googlemail.com> wrote in message
> news:emv139$ncs$1@news.freedom2surf.net...
>> Hi,
>>
>> Looking to buy a new computer and found this deal on the Dell website
>> change
>> support option to 1yr CAR) and wondered if this was a good deal or
>> whether
>> there was anything any better either elsewhere or on the Dell site
>> itself.
>>
>> Any suggestions please?
>>
>> Many thanks.
>>
>> Ian Edmont.
>>
>> PS: Deal is -
>>
>> Intel® ViivT CoreT 2 Duo E6400 Processor (2.13GHz, 1066MHz, 2MB)
>> Genuine Windows® XP Media Center Edition 2005 (Incl Operating System
>> Re-installation CD) - English
>> MCE to Vista Premium Upgrade on: www.dellvistaupgrade.productorder.com
>> before 03/31/07
>> Collect & Return, 1 Year Service only
>> DellT 19" Value Flat Panel (E197FP) - UK/Irish
>> 2048MB Dual Channel DDR2 533MHz [2x1024] Memory
>> 320GB (7200rpm) Serial ATA Hard Drive with 8MB DataBurstT cache
>> 16x DVD +/- RW Drive
>> 256MB ATI® Radeon® X1300 Pro graphics card
>> Integrated Sound Blaster® AudigyT ADVANCED HD software
>> No Speakers
>> DellT Black Entry Quietkey USB Keyboard - UK/Ire (QWERTY)
>> Dell 2 Button USB Scroll Optical Mouse - Black
>> Internal 13-in-1 Media Card Reader
>> No Modem
>> Microsoft® Works 8 - English
>>
>> TOTAL PRICE £639.00
>>
>
> That looks pretty good value, actually. If you can, remove the crappy
> X1300 card and buy a decent one elsewhere.
>
> You could start with e-value code D01E07A and see whether that shaves a
> few Pounds off the price and/or gives you greater flexibility over the
> components.
>
Wait until they are shipping them with MS Vista in a few months if you can.
It will save you paying £40 for the "free" upgrade! Insist on a FULL
Windows CD/DVD as you will have problems when the HD fails. How are you
going to reinstall it?
It's not a brilliant deal, you can get similar with a load of extras thrown
in from highstreet shops if you look around. Use price comparison sites and
discount code sites to save money. It depends what you want the PC for, but
you can a better one for less. Shop around, don't buy extended warranties
until the manufacturers warranty has expired too. No point having two in
parallel.

"Mike" <mdicken@ts1nospam.co.uk> wrote in message
news:45931749$1_1@mk-nntp-2.news.uk.tiscali.com...
>
snip
>>
> Wait until they are shipping them with MS Vista in a few months if you
> can. It will save you paying £40 for the "free" upgrade! Insist on a FULL
> Windows CD/DVD as you will have problems when the HD fails. How are you
> going to reinstall it?
> It's not a brilliant deal, you can get similar with a load of extras
> thrown in from highstreet shops if you look around. Use price comparison
> sites and discount code sites to save money. It depends what you want the
> PC for, but you can a better one for less. Shop around, don't buy
> extended warranties until the manufacturers warranty has expired too. No
> point having two in parallel.
>
Ignore mike - he says the same sh*te every time. Unless he can tell you
where you can get "similar with a load of extras thrown
in from highstreet shops " stick with the Dell. The spec looks very good -
you could try looking through some pc mags for review systems -
manufacturers often increase spec but not cost to get an 'award'.

> >
> Ignore mike - he says the same sh*te every time. Unless he can tell you
> where you can get "similar with a load of extras thrown
> in from highstreet shops " stick with the Dell. The spec looks very good -
> you could try looking through some pc mags for review systems -
> manufacturers often increase spec but not cost to get an 'award'.
>

I will go with you on this one 'me'. I have searched high and low for a
better spec machine for that price and couldn't find one so ordered the Dell
machine today. Can't wait. I am running a 7 yr old P3 450 with 128 RAM so
should notice a massive difference!

Thanks a lot.

Ian.

"IE" <iedmont@googlemail.com> wrote in message
news:en1klh$97o$1@news.freedom2surf.net...

>Can't wait. I am running a 7 yr old P3 450 with 128 RAM so
> should notice a massive difference!

I suspect that the difference will be a bit less massive than you are
expecting, as you'll be loading more bloated software on the new machine,
but it depends what you do with it.

On Fri, 29 Dec 2006 01:22:41 -0000, "GB"
<NOTsomeone@microsoft.com> wrote:

>
>"IE" <iedmont@googlemail.com> wrote in message
>news:en1klh$97o$1@news.freedom2surf.net...
>
>>Can't wait. I am running a 7 yr old P3 450 with 128 RAM so
>> should notice a massive difference!
>
>I suspect that the difference will be a bit less massive than you are
>expecting, as you'll be loading more bloated software on the new machine,
>but it depends what you do with it.
>
>


If all the extra Dell bundled crap is disabled or
uninstalled it should run quite a bit faster... but those
waiting for Vista will find it the slowest and most costly
alternative.

IE wrote:
>
> Hi,
>
> Looking to buy a new computer and found this deal on the Dell website change
> support option to 1yr CAR) and wondered if this was a good deal or whether
> there was anything any better either elsewhere or on the Dell site itself.
>
> Any suggestions please?
>
> Many thanks.
>
> Ian Edmont.
>
> PS: Deal is -
>
> Intel® ViivT CoreT 2 Duo E6400 Processor (2.13GHz, 1066MHz, 2MB)
> Genuine Windows® XP Media Center Edition 2005 (Incl Operating System
> Re-installation CD) - English
> MCE to Vista Premium Upgrade on: www.dellvistaupgrade.productorder.com
> before 03/31/07
> Collect & Return, 1 Year Service only
> DellT 19" Value Flat Panel (E197FP) - UK/Irish
> 2048MB Dual Channel DDR2 533MHz [2x1024] Memory
> 320GB (7200rpm) Serial ATA Hard Drive with 8MB DataBurstT cache
> 16x DVD +/- RW Drive
> 256MB ATI® Radeon® X1300 Pro graphics card
> Integrated Sound Blaster® AudigyT ADVANCED HD software
> No Speakers
> DellT Black Entry Quietkey USB Keyboard - UK/Ire (QWERTY)
> Dell 2 Button USB Scroll Optical Mouse - Black
> Internal 13-in-1 Media Card Reader
> No Modem
> Microsoft® Works 8 - English
>
> TOTAL PRICE £639.00

But why only 533MHz DDR2 memory?

> But why only 533MHz DDR2 memory?

There was a thread on memory speeds on alt.sys.pc-clone.dell recently
that went into this in depth - in short, the difference was likely to be
negligible without a large hike in processor speed on what was already a
fast system.

Colin Wilson wrote:
>
> > But why only 533MHz DDR2 memory?
>
> There was a thread on memory speeds on alt.sys.pc-clone.dell recently
> that went into this in depth - in short, the difference was likely to be
> negligible without a large hike in processor speed on what was already a
> fast system.

This may be true because of the larger cache sizes, 2MB or 4MB. But 533MHz
DDR2 is actually slower than 400MHz DDR memory. 667MHZ DDR2 will be out of
sync with fsb. Maybe you need 1066MHz memory for an improvement?

"Mike" <mdicken@ts1nospam.co.uk> wrote in message
news:45931749$1_1@mk-nntp-2.news.uk.tiscali.com...
> >
> Wait until they are shipping them with MS Vista in a few months if you
can.
> It will save you paying £40 for the "free" upgrade!

It costs £ 11 for shipping costs for the upgrade from Media Centre Edition
(MCE) to Vista Home Premium it is £ 25 + £ 11 if your upgrading from XP
Home. The machine that OP is interested is running MCE.