New Dell Hybrid Desktop

[MrM3]

I'm thinking about buying this. I'm not very computer savvy so some advice would be great. More or less all I want to know is the components in it good. I plan on basically using it for the internet and maybe some light gaming.


My Components
SYSTEM COLOR Bamboo edit
PROCESSOR Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T8100 (2.1GHz/800Mhz FSB/3MB cache) edit
OPERATING SYSTEM Genuine Windows Vista® Home Basic Service Pack 1 edit
MONITOR Dell E248WFP 24 inch Widescreen Flat Panel Monitor edit
MEMORY 4GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 at 667MHz (2 DIMM) edit
HARD DRIVE 250GB SATA Hard Drive (5400RPM) edit
OPTICAL DRIVE 8X Slot Load CD / DVD Burner (Dual Layer DVD+/-RW Drive) edit
VIDEO CARD Intel® Integrated Graphics Media Accelerator X3100 edit
SOUND Integrated Stereo Audio with 5.1ch digital output (S/P DIF) edit
KEYBOARD & MOUSE Dell Wireless Desktop Keyboard & Mouse edit
EXTERNAL MODEM No Modem Included edit
My Software & Accessories
SPEAKERS No Speakers (Speakers are required to hear audio from your system) edit
ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE No Security edit
OFFICE SOFTWARE Microsoft Works 9.0 edit
My Service
WARRANTY AND SERVICE 1Yr Ltd HW WRTY, InHome Service after Remote Diagnosis, 24x7 Phone Support edit
DATASAFE ONLINE BACKUP Included 3 GB DataSafe Online Backup for 1Yr edit
ENVIRONMENTAL OPTIONS Recycle my old system with Dell (FREE) edit
ALSO INCLUDED WITH YOUR SYSTEM
FLOPPY & MEDIA READER Dell 8 in 1 Media Card Reader
Network Card Integrated 10/100/1000 Ethernet
Labels Windows Vista™ Premium Tablet

[Blk03G35]

Processor sucks. Core 2 Quad or nothing

[MrM3]

Its not an option. The best one they have is this: Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T9500 (2.6GHz/800Mhz FSB/6MB cache)

[Wired 24/7]

you absolutely do not need a quad core, but your experience will be more zippy with a core2duo with some guts.

your FSB has a huge effect on your system speed, and 800Mhz FSB is 2 generations old.

Core2duo with 1066 or 1333 MHz FSB is the way to go. you can keep the DDR2-667, that will be fine.

the 5400RPM hard drive is going to be slow. vista + slow hard drive = murder

the best kind of hard drive to get right now is a high density 7200RPM version.

without a dedicated video card of SOME SORT the graphical interface is going to be sluggish, and you can forget about even "light" gaming.

some kind of basic nvidia card with 256mb of ram would be a huge improvement.

basically what you have there looks like a bare-bones budget system that should be running windows XP, prepare for lackluster if you run Vista on that thing.

[SpeedRcr]

Originally Posted by Blk03G35

Processor sucks. Core 2 Quad or nothing

you show me any software that takes full advantage of the the chipset...

[Wired 24/7]

Originally Posted by SpeedRcr

you show me any software that takes full advantage of the the chipset...

there certainly are many softwares that do use 1, 2, 4, 8, or however many cores you have available for parallel processing.

but most "internet browsing" and "light gaming" certainly doesn't require 4 cores... even if you are a self proclaimed heavy multitasker

[i8acobra]

Originally Posted by Wired 24/7

the 5400RPM hard drive is going to be slow. vista + slow hard drive = murder

the best kind of hard drive to get right now is a high density 7200RPM version.

without a dedicated video card of SOME SORT the graphical interface is going to be sluggish, and you can forget about even "light" gaming.

some kind of basic nvidia card with 256mb of ram would be a huge improvement.

+1. These are the only two real problems I see. You need at least a 7200rpm HD and some kind of video card for gaming.

[Peteman]

I think you guys missed the fact that the comp he is listing is basically a repackaged laptop. Hence, all the slow "last-gen" parts.

[MrM3]

Originally Posted by Peteman

I think you guys missed the fact that the comp he is listing is basically a repackaged laptop. Hence, all the slow "last-gen" parts.

Yeah it more or less is. I like the idea of the size but I don't know if I really want to sacrifice performance for it. I don't have a ton of money for it but I want something decent.

[SOLO-350Z]

Originally Posted by Blk03G35

Processor sucks. Core 2 Quad or nothing

For Gaming, Core 2 Duo > Quad Cores.

[MrM3]

Or what about this one? Its around $100 more.

PROCESSOR Intel® Core™ 2 Quad Processor Q9300 (6MB Cache,2.50GHz,1333FSB) edit
OPERATING SYSTEM Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium Service Pack 1 edit
MEMORY 4GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 800MHz - 4 DIMMs edit
HARD DRIVE 750GB - 7200RPM, SATA 3.0Gb/s, 16MB Cache edit
OPTICAL DRIVE Single Drive: 16X CD/DVD burner (DVD+/-RW) w/double layer write capability edit
MONITORS 24 inch E248WFP Entry Widescreen Digital Flat Panel Monitor edit
VIDEO CARD ATI Radeon HD3650 256MB edit
SOUND CARD Integrated Sound Blaster®Audigy™ HD Software Edition edit
SPEAKERS Dell A525 30 Watt 2.1 Stereo Speakers with Subwoofer edit
KEYBOARD Keyboard included in Dell Bluetooth Package edit
MOUSE Mouse included in Dell Bluetooth Package edit
BLUETOOTH AND MEDIA READER Dell Bluetooth Wireless Media Hub + Bluetooth Keyboard/Mouse edit
FLOPPY & MEDIA READER Dell Media Card Reader included in Dell Bluetooth Package edit
MODEM No Modem Requested edit
My Software & Accessories

[lightemup99]

Originally Posted by MrM3

Or what about this one? Its around $100 more.

PROCESSOR Intel® Core™ 2 Quad Processor Q9300 (6MB Cache,2.50GHz,1333FSB) edit
OPERATING SYSTEM Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium Service Pack 1 edit
MEMORY 4GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 800MHz - 4 DIMMs edit
HARD DRIVE 750GB - 7200RPM, SATA 3.0Gb/s, 16MB Cache edit
OPTICAL DRIVE Single Drive: 16X CD/DVD burner (DVD+/-RW) w/double layer write capability edit
MONITORS 24 inch E248WFP Entry Widescreen Digital Flat Panel Monitor edit
VIDEO CARD ATI Radeon HD3650 256MB edit
SOUND CARD Integrated Sound Blaster®Audigy™ HD Software Edition edit
SPEAKERS Dell A525 30 Watt 2.1 Stereo Speakers with Subwoofer edit
KEYBOARD Keyboard included in Dell Bluetooth Package edit
MOUSE Mouse included in Dell Bluetooth Package edit
BLUETOOTH AND MEDIA READER Dell Bluetooth Wireless Media Hub + Bluetooth Keyboard/Mouse edit
FLOPPY & MEDIA READER Dell Media Card Reader included in Dell Bluetooth Package edit
MODEM No Modem Requested edit
My Software & Accessories

Yes definitely worth the extra $100.

[Wired 24/7]

Looks great, do it

well worth the extra $100, and should have no trouble with vista.

If you can, get vista 64 bit. Otherwise with 32-bit version, you'll be short changed on your RAM, and there is no possibility of "fixing" that (not Microsoft's fault, this is a limitation of all 32 bit OS)

Vista 32-bit has been patched to make it look like you're getting all 4GB, but this isn't actually the case. It shows the amount of RAM installed, not the amount of RAM available.

[silvrhand]

Wired,

It's not the OS it's the chipset, and I do believe the latest chipsets can assign the memory reservations above the 4G barrier.

- John

Originally Posted by Wired 24/7

Looks great, do it

well worth the extra $100, and should have no trouble with vista.

If you can, get vista 64 bit. Otherwise with 32-bit version, you'll be short changed on your RAM, and there is no possibility of "fixing" that (not Microsoft's fault, this is a limitation of all 32 bit OS)

Vista 32-bit has been patched to make it look like you're getting all 4GB, but this isn't actually the case. It shows the amount of RAM installed, not the amount of RAM available.

[Wired 24/7]

Originally Posted by silvrhand

Wired,

It's not the OS it's the chipset, and I do believe the latest chipsets can assign the memory reservations above the 4G barrier.

- John

that's the first I've heard on this front... in any case 64 bit vista is still the way to go, no reason not to IMO, unless you know you have some strange legacy hardware that definitely won't be supported.

[plumpzz]

Originally Posted by silvrhand

Wired,

It's not the OS it's the chipset, and I do believe the latest chipsets can assign the memory reservations above the 4G barrier.

- John

First i've heard of this. Some chipsets better manage their addressing and 'allow' for 4 gigs to be recognized by the OS, but I havnt heard of one for the C2D platform.

[MrM3]

Ok I think I will be getting the second one. Thanks for the help.

[Divergent13]

Any news on your DELL decision?

[Scipher21]

Originally Posted by MrM3

Yeah it more or less is. I like the idea of the size but I don't know if I really want to sacrifice performance for it. I don't have a ton of money for it but I want something decent.

the T8100 is by no means slow