New Dell desk-top computer.

[William33 110]

We have been stalling on the purchase, but no more. Here is our proposed system configuration. Please advise any suggested changes.

Intel® Core™2 Duo Processor E4500 (2MB L2 Cache,2.20GHz,800 FSB)

Genuine Windows Vista® Ultimate

22 inch SP2208WFP Wide Flat Panel with Webcam and Mic

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

250GB Serial ATA Hard Drive (7200RPM) w/DataBurst Cache™

16X DVD+/-RW Drive

Integrated Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 3100

Integrated 7.1 Channel Audio

Keyboard included in Dell Bluetooth Package

Dell Media Card Reader included in Dell Bluetooth Package

No Modem Option

My Software & Accessories

Dell AIO 926 - Includes Media Card Reader

Dell All-In-One Printer 926

1Yr Ltd. Warranty, 1 yr HW Warranty Support, 1 yr Advance Exchange

Dell A525 30 Watt 2.1 Stereo Speakers with Subwoofer

No Subscription (only 30-day protection)

Microsoft Works 9.0

My Service

1Yr In-Home Service, Parts + Labor, 24x7 Phone Support

Included 3 GB DataSafe Online Backup for 1Yr

Recycle my old system with Dell (FREE)

Also Includes

Mouse included with Keyboard purchase

Adobe® Acrobat® Reader 8.1

Integrated 10/100 Ethernet

Windows Vista™ Premium

No Entertainment software pre-installedCompatibility Alert

[GaryC 7]

We have been stalling on the purchase, but no more. Here is our proposed system configuration. Please advise any suggested changes.

Intel® Core™2 Duo Processor E4500 (2MB L2 Cache,2.20GHz,800 FSB)

Genuine Windows Vista® Ultimate

22 inch SP2208WFP Wide Flat Panel with Webcam and Mic

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

250GB Serial ATA Hard Drive (7200RPM) w/DataBurst Cache™

16X DVD+/-RW Drive

Integrated Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 3100

Integrated 7.1 Channel Audio

Keyboard included in Dell Bluetooth Package

Dell Media Card Reader included in Dell Bluetooth Package

No Modem Option

My Software & Accessories

Dell AIO 926 - Includes Media Card Reader

Dell All-In-One Printer 926

1Yr Ltd. Warranty, 1 yr HW Warranty Support, 1 yr Advance Exchange

Dell A525 30 Watt 2.1 Stereo Speakers with Subwoofer

No Subscription (only 30-day protection)

Microsoft Works 9.0

My Service

1Yr In-Home Service, Parts + Labor, 24x7 Phone Support

Included 3 GB DataSafe Online Backup for 1Yr

Recycle my old system with Dell (FREE)

Also Includes

Mouse included with Keyboard purchase

Adobe® Acrobat® Reader 8.1

Integrated 10/100 Ethernet

Windows Vista™ Premium

No Entertainment software pre-installedCompatibility Alert

This looks good but when you see "Integrated Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 3100" that means your running your graphics from the mother board. If you plan to do any gaming or video work I would very much suggest getting a dedicated graphics card. The same goes for the sound. It will be running from the mother board. For normal stuff like listening to music it's fine but for gaming with more than a 2.1 speaker system I would get a sound card. Other than that it looks great.

[Dan J 277]

If you want to run Vista Ultimate, upgrade to something better than integrated graphics and a faster processor E6000 series or better.

[PlatyPius 5]

Get XP instead of Vista. Get a video card. Get 4GB of RAM if you can.

Sell your old computer rather than "letting" Dell recycle it for you for "free".

[Heracles 417]

Based on Dell I would look for the following

PROCESSOR: Intel® Core™2 Duo Processor E8200

OPERATING SYSTEM: Windows Vista® Ultimate 64 bit

MONITOR: 19 inch Widescreen Digital Flat Panel Monitor

MEMORY: 4GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz- 4DIMMs

HARD DRIVE :500GB Serial ATA Hard Drive (7200RPM) w/DataBurst Cache

OPTICAL DRIVE: 16X DVD+/-RW Drive

VIDEO CARD: nVidia GeForce 8600GT-DDR3 256MB

WIRELESS: Internal PCI 802.11g/n Wireless Network Card

The system should ideally be around $1100. Anything less will struggle with VISTA or any future apps.

[GaryC 7]

I always liked ATI Radeon video cards, but nVidia also makes very good cards. Get one with at least 512meg of video memory. You would not regret it.

[Heracles 417]

I always liked ATI Radeon video cards, but nVidia also makes very good cards. Get one with at least 512meg of video memory. You would not regret it.

Same with Ram. 4 gig is a good start and you truly get quite a bit of value out of it, especially with Vista..

[William33 110]

Get XP instead of Vista. Get a video card. Get 4GB of RAM if you can.

Sell your old computer rather than "letting" Dell recycle it for you for "free".

All suggested changes help very much and we appreciate it.

Platy: We are still running on a Dell Inspiron 2650 laptop, XP PRO, circa 2000. 1.6 ghz processor, with 512 ram (maxed out), 160 MB HD (3rd one), with a pretty fast connection at 6075 kbps up and 675 kbps down.

No gaming, no heavy video activity, besides You Tube. That runs great with the broadband connection.

This computer is not worth squat to anyone but us.

My Sister visited this weekend with her "hot" new 20.1" Dell laptop and I noted a "minor" appreciable gain in overall performance, versus mine. She does have Vista, with all the new graphics and so forth.

Seems to me that the broadband speed is paramount.

My work computer is another story altogether...

[Heracles 417]

XP is an average operating system and being canned June. The biggest complaints about Vista are because of people trying to use 5 year old hardware with a new operating system designed for the latest hardware. My Vista ultimate 64-bit machine kicks ### over my XP PC. Using it for over a year now..

[PlatyPius 5]

Get XP instead of Vista. Get a video card. Get 4GB of RAM if you can.

Sell your old computer rather than "letting" Dell recycle it for you for "free".

All suggested changes help very much and we appreciate it.

Platy: We are still running on a Dell Inspiron 2650 laptop, XP PRO, circa 2000. 1.6 ghz processor, with 512 ram (maxed out), 160 MB HD (3rd one), with a pretty fast connection at 6075 kbps up and 675 kbps down.

No gaming, no heavy video activity, besides You Tube. That runs great with the broadband connection.

This computer is not worth squat to anyone but us.

You'd be surprised. I'd guess 200-400 on eBay. Hell, *I'd* buy it for "the kid".

[PlatyPius 5]

XP is an average operating system and being canned June. The biggest complaints about Vista are because of people trying to use 5 year old hardware with a new operating system designed for the latest hardware. My Vista ultimate 64-bit machine kicks ### over my XP PC. Using it for over a year now..

No, the biggest complaints about Vista are about how much it sucks; which it does. I told Microsoft that while I was doing their Beta testing (I'm a Microsoft OEM Partner). It's like Windows Meets Fisher-Price. They tried to make it like Mac OS-X, but only got the graphics close; not the functionality. It's a total cluster-f##k.

[William33 110]

XP is an average operating system and being canned June. The biggest complaints about Vista are because of people trying to use 5 year old hardware with a new operating system designed for the latest hardware. My Vista ultimate 64-bit machine kicks ### over my XP PC. Using it for over a year now..

No, the biggest complaints about Vista are about how much it sucks; which it does. I told Microsoft that while I was doing their Beta testing (I'm a Microsoft OEM Partner). It's like Windows Meets Fisher-Price. They tried to make it like Mac OS-X, but only got the graphics close; not the functionality. It's a total cluster-f##k.

I have the option of XP Pro on this purchase, but it seems to cost more than the "standard" Vista install....

I have had great success with XP, long after the service packs. Thoughts?

[Dan J 277]

XP is an average operating system and being canned June. The biggest complaints about Vista are because of people trying to use 5 year old hardware with a new operating system designed for the latest hardware. My Vista ultimate 64-bit machine kicks ### over my XP PC. Using it for over a year now..

No, the biggest complaints about Vista are about how much it sucks; which it does. I told Microsoft that while I was doing their Beta testing (I'm a Microsoft OEM Partner). It's like Windows Meets Fisher-Price. They tried to make it like Mac OS-X, but only got the graphics close; not the functionality. It's a total cluster-f##k.

I have the option of XP Pro on this purchase, but it seems to cost more than the "standard" Vista install....

I have had great success with XP, long after the service packs. Thoughts?

Vista needs good hardware to run well, but beyond that, there really is no good reason to buy Vista, and a few reasons to avoid it.

Im sticking with XP, until I can't anymore. For whatever reason.

[PlatyPius 5]

XP is an average operating system and being canned June. The biggest complaints about Vista are because of people trying to use 5 year old hardware with a new operating system designed for the latest hardware. My Vista ultimate 64-bit machine kicks ### over my XP PC. Using it for over a year now..

No, the biggest complaints about Vista are about how much it sucks; which it does. I told Microsoft that while I was doing their Beta testing (I'm a Microsoft OEM Partner). It's like Windows Meets Fisher-Price. They tried to make it like Mac OS-X, but only got the graphics close; not the functionality. It's a total cluster-f##k.

I have the option of XP Pro on this purchase, but it seems to cost more than the "standard" Vista install....

I have had great success with XP, long after the service packs. Thoughts?

Vista needs good hardware to run well, but beyond that, there really is no good reason to buy Vista, and a few reasons to avoid it.

Im sticking with XP, until I can't anymore. For whatever reason.

Aye. People who say "My new computer with Vista is SOOOO much faster than my old one with XP!!!!11" neglect to think about the fact that the hardware is twice as fast. Of course, if they ran that same hardware with XP, it would beat the ####### out of the same computer with Vista. XP is bad enough, but Vista is a TOTAL resource hog. You really SHOULDN'T need 2GB of RAM just to let your Operating System run. Piece of #######.

Once I can't update XP any longer, I'm going to Linux full-time. I'll just use Wine so I can use all of the Windows programs that I need.... I'm tired of this forced change/upgrade #######. I can run Linux on a damn Pentium 1 with 64MB of ram.

[ready4ONE 5,400]

Hey there William,

We just got a Dell XPS 420, not sure what model you are looking in to, but gotta say you should go with an XPS system. Off the bat, you get two years in home total service on the system.

Intel Core 2 Quad CPU 2.4 Ghz

4 gigbites RAM

Windows Vista Home Premium

22 inch monitor

We had some hiccups at first, Vista apparently takes a week or so to figure out what the hell it is doing [2 Blue Screens of Death in a week!] But after that, no problems at all. In fact, I planned to dual boot with Windows XP Pro, but now am not sure I will bother. Also, the system was set to conserve power, which slowed Vista down, turn that off and Vista runs well.

We have XP Home on my old XPS Inspiron laptop.

Your system build should be able to handle Vista no problem, but I would recommend an XPS Desktop, as opposed to other Dell products for the superior support.