A Dell PC I've Customised on Dell.ie - Thoughts and Opinions?

therokerroar

I've just customised a Dell PC on their website and have to say I'm very happy with the look and price, but I'm no expert on PC's at all so I'm just wondering if you could have a look at it and see what you think?

PROCESSOR StudioXPS 8100 - Intel Core i5 Processor 650 (3.20GHz, 4MB)

OPERATING SYSTEM Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium 64bit- English

OFFICE SOFTWARE Microsoft® Works 9 - English

HARDWARE SUPPORT 1 year of coverage included with your PC

PROTECT YOUR NEW PC McAfee® Security Centre 15 Month Protection

ACCIDENTAL DAMAGE SUPPORT No Accidental Damage Support

MONITOR DELL™ 20”W HD MONITOR ST2010 - BLACK - UK

MEMORY 6144MB (2x2GB) (2x1GB)1067MHz DDR3 Dual Channel Memory

HARD DRIVE 1.2TB Dual Hard Drive Raid 0 "Stripe" (2x640GB - 7200rpm)

GRAPHICS CARD Graphics Card - Single 1GB Nvidia GeForce GTS 240

OPTICAL DRIVE 16X DVD+/- RW Optical Drive (DVD & CD read and write) & DVD ROM (Win 7 Only)

KEYBOARD Dell™ USB Entry Keyboard - UK/Irish (QWERTY)

MOUSE Dell 2 Button USB Optical Mouse

SOUND SOFTWARE Integrated HDA 7.1 Dolby Digital Audio

Accessories
SPEAKERS No Speakers (Speakers are required to hear audio from your system)

Services & Software
PROTECT YOUR DATA DataSafe Online Backup 2GB 1 year

Also included with your system
Shipping Documents English - Documentation with UK/Ire Power cord

Gedis Bundle Reference D02X8103

Order Information Studio XPS 8100 DT Order - Ireland

DataSafe Datasafe Local 2.0 Basic

Standard Warranty 1 year of coverage included with your PC

Thermal Cooling 65W Processor Heatsink

Call Dell Experts One free Dell Expert call to help with your PC queries within 60 days of purchase

DELL SYSTEM MEDIA KIT Studio XPS 8100 Resource DVD


The price is €850 before VAT and Delivery, total around €930-€950.

therokerroar

Anyone please?

lmimmfn

you have not stated what you will use this for? its good pc but not good for games as the gfx card is very weak - http://www.guru3d.com/article/msi-geforce-gt-240-review-test/7

The monitor is very small( considering you will be looking at it for the next few years ), change the raid stripe config also as there is no need for it and if 1 drive goes down you lose everything.

I also think its expensive.

mehmeh12

lmimmfn wrote: »

you have not stated what you will use this for? its good pc but not good for games as the gfx card is very weak - http://www.guru3d.com/article/msi-geforce-gt-240-review-test/7

The monitor is very small( considering you will be looking at it for the next few years ), change the raid stripe config also as there is no need for it and if 1 drive goes down you lose everything.

I also think its expensive.

Its a dual drive so if the OP uses a dual boot with two different Operating systems (one on each drive)-how will this cause one drive to kill all the data on the other?

old_aussie

Hi,

Not a bad choice, better video card if you are a serious gamer.

Drop microsoft works(kiddy stuff) and get microsoft office

Use RAID 1 so you don't lose all data if a drive fails

Maybe a 22/24" screen, as lmimmfn says the 20" is small.

mehmeh12, do a bit of reading about RAID 0 and RAID 1, RAID 0, if one drive fails all is lost, you cannot have a different OS on each drive as the 2 drives are seen as 1 big drive.

therokerroar

Thanks very much for all replies lads, much appreciated.

In relation to what I will be using it for, it will be mainly for home use i.e Internet and Downloading Music, other than that, abit of Football Manager 2010 but nothing more to be honest.

I have Microsoft Office already at home (I can use the product key of a previous purchase one more time) so that's why I haven't included that and thanks for the advice about the monitor, I'll upgrade that to the 23" HD option.

Anything else I could do with it lads? Or is it grand with the couple of improvements you have already suggested?

therokerroar

Bump

dxhound2005

You would probably get more responses on Building & Upgrading.

php-fox

Definetelly go away from Raid 0. Increases your chances of loosing data by 50%!
If you're buying 2 hard drives, set them up in raid 1 (data is mirrored between them, in case of 1 drive failure, you data will be safe).

The graphics card is fine is you are not going to play the latest games at the highest settings.

I would also get a bigger screen ("22?).

Other than that, it looks good.

therokerroar

Thanks lads, got it all ordered today via Wire Transfer, just waiting for payment to go through.

Half an hour on the phone to them though :pac:

Biggins

lmimmfn wrote: »

you have not stated what you will use this for? its good pc but not good for games as the gfx card is very weak - http://www.guru3d.com/article/msi-geforce-gt-240-review-test/7

The monitor is very small( considering you will be looking at it for the next few years ), change the raid stripe config also as there is no need for it and if 1 drive goes down you lose everything.

I also think its expensive.

Well summed up and agree with the words on expensive price for what the person is getting, especially the graphics card.

therokerroar

Has anyone had any good/bad experiences that they would like to share on Dell's delivery service?

As I posted around a week-10 days ago, I ordered the PC and was told it would arrive in 10 days.

I was sent an email shortly after my payment went through telling me it would more than likely be the 13th of March before my product arrives.

So, 10 days turns into 4 weeks, thanks Dell :rolleyes: