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Author Topic: Are these good specs? Thinking buying a new pc.  (Read 6658 times)

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Offline Teen Wolf Blitzer

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Are these good specs? Thinking buying a new pc.
« on: June 10, 2009, 12:57:19 AM »

It's a Dell.  Cost is $399

Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium Edition SP1, 64-Bit
Intel® Pentium® dual-core E5300 (2MB L2, 2.6GHz, 800FSB)
3GB DDR2 SDRAM at 800MHz- 2 DIMMs
320GB Serial ATA Hard Drive (7200RPM) w/DataBurst Cache™
No Monitor
16X DVD+/-RW Drive
Integrated Intel® GMA x4500 Graphics
Dell Consumer Entry USB Keyboard and Mouse
Integrated 5.1 Channel Audio

And then my next question is if I should go for XP instead of Vista.  Will Vista work with Samplitude, Soundforge, CDwav and TLH?  And Photoshop CS?  Those are really the only programs I use ever.

Offline crazifyngers

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Re: Are these good specs? Thinking buying a new pc.
« Reply #1 on: June 10, 2009, 03:54:08 PM »
the computer looks pretty run of the mill.  pretty decent but nothing amazing.  what you want to check is that your other equipment has 64bit drivers if you are going to have a 64bit OS.  software should not be a problem because it can emulate the 32bit infrastructure.  as far as vista and xp go it really depends on you preference.  if you get vista business edition or enterprise then you can legally downgrade to xp even if you did not buy th cd from dell.  at my work we just use the volume key that we have even though the sticker is a vista oem key.  this is perfectly legal.  vista is ok i guess not my cup o tea but it works.  for 64bit computing i stick with linux, or mac.  sorry not trying to sidetrack.  one thing i would look at is getting either their gold or pro support, i can't remember what they call it now.  if you aren't very good with pcs then this is a great idea.  they send a tech to your house with the parts next day if you have a problem.  also if you are getting a 64bit os you may want to look into more ram depending on what you are doing.  this is the main advantage to 64bit computing that it can handle more than 4gb of ram.  now really there is 768mb on 32bit machines that are reserved for hardware but if you have 64bit machine you should look into getting at least 2x2gb ram or if it has the new tri-channel setup then look into getting 3x2gb setup.  and like everything else.  it may not be the best but if it gets the job done and you are happy with it then it is good enough  :)
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Offline Teen Wolf Blitzer

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Re: Are these good specs? Thinking buying a new pc.
« Reply #2 on: June 10, 2009, 05:25:45 PM »
Thanks man.  I took some advice my my IP expert friend and went with the

quad core 
4 GB of ram with
Vista 32 business edition. 
and a 1 TB drive.

Bumped my cost up to 750 but what the hell.
 ;D

Should last me awhile.
« Last Edit: June 10, 2009, 05:43:41 PM by Mark Burgin™ »

Offline phanophish

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Re: Are these good specs? Thinking buying a new pc.
« Reply #3 on: June 10, 2009, 05:36:06 PM »
Thanks man.  I took some advice my my IP expert friend and went with the

quad core 
6 GB of ram with
Vista 32 business edition. 
and a 1 TB drive.

Bumped my cost up to 750 but what the hell.
 ;D

Should last me awhile.

If you are running 6GB of RAM you need to go to the 64 Bit OS.  32 Bit operating systems can't address more than 3GB of memory.

Found this for $499 with no monitor....

http://dealnews.com/Dell-Inspiron-530-Core-2-Quad-2-33-GHz-Desktop-PC-for-499-39-s-h/301532.html
« Last Edit: June 10, 2009, 05:40:48 PM by phanophish »
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Offline Teen Wolf Blitzer

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Re: Are these good specs? Thinking buying a new pc.
« Reply #4 on: June 10, 2009, 05:43:28 PM »
That was a typo. Sorry it's 4 of ram but still that's interesting.  ???    I really don't want to deal with all the driver issues with 64.  Isn't that a huge problem?  Here's what my IT buddy told me...

Most people I know
who have used 64bit Vista have had massive driver problems. If you
plan on plugging on of your old peripherals into it (sound card,
printers, web cam, etc.) then you will likely have issues. There is a
lot of software that still doesn't run in 64bit, let alone Vista
64bit. So I would recommend you steer clear of 64bit unless you know
it will work for certain. (A friend of mine who is really, really good
with computers had a 64bit Vista laptop and eventually ended up wiping
it and installing 32bit Vista on it because of software & driver
incompatibility issues. He knew what he was doing and couldn't get it
to work because the software support just isn't there.)


I still haven't ordered yet.  Tommorrow AM the Dell guy is calling me to work out the details.  Any input from folks is appreciated.
« Last Edit: June 10, 2009, 06:09:48 PM by Mark Burgin™ »

Offline phanophish

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Re: Are these good specs? Thinking buying a new pc.
« Reply #5 on: June 10, 2009, 06:56:32 PM »
That was a typo. Sorry it's 4 of ram but still that's interesting.  ???    I really don't want to deal with all the driver issues with 64.  Isn't that a huge problem?  Here's what my IT buddy told me...

Most people I know
who have used 64bit Vista have had massive driver problems. If you
plan on plugging on of your old peripherals into it (sound card,
printers, web cam, etc.) then you will likely have issues. There is a
lot of software that still doesn't run in 64bit, let alone Vista
64bit. So I would recommend you steer clear of 64bit unless you know
it will work for certain. (A friend of mine who is really, really good
with computers had a 64bit Vista laptop and eventually ended up wiping
it and installing 32bit Vista on it because of software & driver
incompatibility issues. He knew what he was doing and couldn't get it
to work because the software support just isn't there.)


I still haven't ordered yet.  Tommorrow AM the Dell guy is calling me to work out the details.  Any input from folks is appreciated.


You won't have any issues with the drivers for anything that comes with the PC Dell will have that covered.  Older devices (printers, scanners, etc) could be an issue, but anything new will have 64 bit support.  Go check out the manufacturers site for any devices you have.  I made the jump and had no problems at all. 
______________________________________________
Audio: MBHO 603/KA200N or AKG C2000B>Edirol R44
http://www.archive.org/bookmarks/phanophish

Photo:  Nikon D300, D200, 35mm f/1.8,  50mm f/1.4, 85mm f/1.8, Nikon 17-55 f/2.8, Sigma 18-50/2.8 Macro, 18-70 f/4.5-5.6, 24-120 f/3.5-5.6 VR, Sigma 10-20 f4-5.6, Nikon 70-200 f/2.8VR, SB-800

Jake: What's this?
Elwood: What?
Jake: This car. This stupid car. Where's the Cadillac? The Caddy? Where's the Caddy?
Elwood: The what?
Jake: The Cadillac we used to have. The Blues Mobile!
Elwood: I traded it.
Jake: You traded the Blues Mobile for this?
Elwood: No. For a microphone.
Jake: A microphone? Okay I can see that.

Offline Teen Wolf Blitzer

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Re: Are these good specs? Thinking buying a new pc.
« Reply #6 on: June 10, 2009, 06:58:41 PM »
Well my printer and scanner are old and I really don't want to have to buy new ones as I use them rarely.

Offline Belexes

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Re: Are these good specs? Thinking buying a new pc.
« Reply #7 on: June 10, 2009, 07:34:30 PM »
I bought a Vista Dell Inspiron 530 last year and made sure to get the actual discs of Vista from Dell.  Dell machines come with a lot of preloaded software (crap) on them.  I reformatted the hard drive when I received it, took my XP disc and loaded XP on it. Runs like a champ. 

If I ever need to go to Vista, I have the discs to do it.

I imagine I may jump to Windows 7 sooner or later since XP is no longer being supported.

I too was worried about compatibility with Vista at the time of my purchase.  The Dell that I purchased didn't have XP as an option for the OS, so what I did above was a work-around and it took all the junk Dell puts on their machines off of it.
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Offline phanophish

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Re: Are these good specs? Thinking buying a new pc.
« Reply #8 on: June 11, 2009, 09:50:20 AM »
Well my printer and scanner are old and I really don't want to have to buy new ones as I use them rarely.

I'd still take a look you may find drivers for Win64 that work fine.
______________________________________________
Audio: MBHO 603/KA200N or AKG C2000B>Edirol R44
http://www.archive.org/bookmarks/phanophish

Photo:  Nikon D300, D200, 35mm f/1.8,  50mm f/1.4, 85mm f/1.8, Nikon 17-55 f/2.8, Sigma 18-50/2.8 Macro, 18-70 f/4.5-5.6, 24-120 f/3.5-5.6 VR, Sigma 10-20 f4-5.6, Nikon 70-200 f/2.8VR, SB-800

Jake: What's this?
Elwood: What?
Jake: This car. This stupid car. Where's the Cadillac? The Caddy? Where's the Caddy?
Elwood: The what?
Jake: The Cadillac we used to have. The Blues Mobile!
Elwood: I traded it.
Jake: You traded the Blues Mobile for this?
Elwood: No. For a microphone.
Jake: A microphone? Okay I can see that.

Offline mmadd29

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Re: Are these good specs? Thinking buying a new pc.
« Reply #9 on: June 11, 2009, 01:17:40 PM »
I imagine I may jump to Windows 7 sooner or later since XP is no longer being supported.

I'm waiting for Windows 7 to move to 64bit.  I have a demo of Windows 7 running on a Pentium 4, 512MB machine.  It runs ok, in fact way faster than I ever would have thought.  I had a Vista machine with 3GB RAM, and much faster processors, and it ran like crap.  Windows 7 appears to be the real deal. 

It will be great to max my board at 8GB, although my machine doesn't run bad with the 3GB XP uses.
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Offline flipp

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Re: Are these good specs? Thinking buying a new pc.
« Reply #10 on: June 11, 2009, 07:50:04 PM »
I imagine I may jump to Windows 7 sooner or later since XP is no longer being supported.

I'm waiting for Windows 7 to move to 64bit.  I have a demo of Windows 7 running on a Pentium 4, 512MB machine.  It runs ok, in fact way faster than I ever would have thought.  I had a Vista machine with 3GB RAM, and much faster processors, and it ran like crap.  Windows 7 appears to be the real deal. 

It will be great to max my board at 8GB, although my machine doesn't run bad with the 3GB XP uses.

There is a 64 bit version available for download. I put it on an empty hard drive and was impressed, esp for an OS from MS. Toyed with it some but since Samplitude wouldn't run on it, I've gone back to my 64bit Ubuntu as my everyday OS and boot into W2K when I work with audio files.

Offline jbw

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Re: Are these good specs? Thinking buying a new pc.
« Reply #11 on: June 11, 2009, 10:03:48 PM »
If I were building a new PC, I would seriously look at the new i7 processors. That will give you some serious computing power.

Also buying the parts and assembling the computer yourself, could save you some dough and get a more powerful/less bloated machine opposed to what Dell gives you. I usually tend to avoid Dell at all costs.

It all matter what your intentions are going to be with the computer.
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Offline jerryfreak

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Re: Are these good specs? Thinking buying a new pc.
« Reply #12 on: June 12, 2009, 01:22:56 AM »


I imagine I may jump to Windows 7 sooner or later since XP is no longer being supported.


actually vista was  such a disater, and ms is afraid 7 might have similar flak tha tthey are extending the window of support and acceptabl use of os for xp for another year or so. use it to your advantage. almost any modern computer will fly if you replace the os with xp. im actually a big fan of w2k, but modern hardware just doesnt support it
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Offline OFOTD

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Re: Are these good specs? Thinking buying a new pc.
« Reply #13 on: June 12, 2009, 02:20:32 AM »
If I were building a new PC, I would seriously look at the new i7 processors. That will give you some serious computing power.

In January my main computer at home finally died and I went the i7 route.  Bought the 920 which ships at 2.67GHz but have it OC'd to 3.2GHz  and this sucker smokes.   Big thumbs up on the i7's

Quote
Also buying the parts and assembling the computer yourself, could save you some dough and get a more powerful/less bloated machine opposed to what Dell gives you. I usually tend to avoid Dell at all costs.

I'm going to strongly disagree here.  The only time you will really save money building your own as opposed to going with Dell is when you have a specific purpose in mind for a machine and are looking to use specific hardware.  Otherwise the prices of most Dell's are damn cheap.  The only bloated part of them is the OS add-ons but that's easy to fix and all of the other PC manufacturers are doing it too.

im actually a big fan of w2k, but modern hardware just doesnt support it
   
Man you've really just been missing out then if you're stuck with w2k still.  Uggh.   Just from massively better memory management, memory capacity and networking alone is a reason to go from XP > 7 let alone from a 12 year old OS.  Windows 7 is going to blow them all out of the water.   Better driver support than Vista plus hopefully a big push towards 64 bit machines.  Vendors I believe will be more on top of having 7 drivers for their new and legacy products than they were for Vista or XP.   I think Windows 7 is great and have been running the x64 edition for a few months now.   Fast as hell.  Works with all of my hardware.  With XP-Mode all of my software now works.     Get out of the dark ages man and look at moving to 7 when it ships in October.


To the OP, Mark it looks like you got a real nice deal on the machine from Dell.   Specs are really good for what you paid.   Congrats.   You should check with Dell because if your new computer shipped with Vista you may be eligible for the free Windows 7 upgrade.

Offline nbasila

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Re: Are these good specs? Thinking buying a new pc.
« Reply #14 on: June 12, 2009, 04:02:56 AM »
You could always spend $4k and go with Windows 2003 Server Enterprise @32bits. It would let you use more than 4GB...  :-P

I hope no Protools users are talking about vista bloat here... that would be hypocritical.


Offline mmadd29

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Re: Are these good specs? Thinking buying a new pc.
« Reply #15 on: June 12, 2009, 08:01:35 AM »


I'm going to strongly disagree here.  The only time you will really save money building your own as opposed to going with Dell is when you have a specific purpose in mind for a machine and are looking to use specific hardware.  Otherwise the prices of most Dell's are damn cheap.  The only bloated part of them is the OS add-ons but that's easy to fix and all of the other PC manufacturers are doing it too.

I think there are points in favor of both.  I build my own machines because I want specfic specs and hardware.  It probably would be cheaper to buy a Dell, but I would not have the specific hardware I'm looking for.  I'd have to believe the exact same machine, (if Dell had access to that hardware), would be more expensive.  If your not comfortable building, or don't want to spend the time then Dell would be the way to go.  I buy Dell machines for all my users at work because of this, and haven't had any real issue with them.  I would make a suggestion that if you get a Dell, buy it as a business.  You can just make up a business name.  The support, is much, much better with business accounts.
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