Whats this new machine worth

[NeoMagic33]

Hi peeps

Im from the Uk and looking at this system from DELL

was wondering if its worth the money, £1090 delivered

Components

PROCESSOR
Intel® Core™ i7 Processor 920 (2.66GHz, 8MB cache, 4.8GT/sec)

OPERATING SYSTEM
Genuine Windows Vista® Ultimate SP1 64Bit - English

HARDWARE SUPPORT 1Yr XPS Premium Warranty Support - Priority Call In and Onsite Support

MICROSOFT APPLICATION SOFTWARE Microsoft® Works 9 - English edit
MONITOR Display Not Included edit

MEMORY 8192MB (4x1024,2x2048) 1067MHz DDR3 Tri Channel

HARD DRIVE 1 TB (2x 500 GB) Serial ATA (7200 Rpm) Dual HDD Config Raid 0 Stripe

GRAPHICS CARD 512MB ATI® Radeon® 4850 Graphics card

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

KEYBOARD Dell Multimedia USB Keyboard Black - UK edit

MOUSE Dell Laser Mouse USB (6 buttons scroll) Black edit

Accessories


SOUND SOFTWARE Integrated HDA 7.1 Dolby Digital Audio edit
SPEAKERS External Dell AX210 Black USB Speakers edit
FLOPPY/MEDIA DRIVES 19-in-1 Media Card reader with Bluetooth edit

WIRELESS NETWORKING I
nternal Enhanced Wireless 802.11n PCIe Card

 

[Hefemeister]

One of the UK guys who know prices there can better answer you but a couple off odd things I see. That is a very strange RAM configuration. You would be better off with 3 x 2gb for a total of 6gb. I would be cautious with a 1tb raid0 set up.

 

[kmote]

Other than the unusual things that hef pointed out as well as vista ultimate (get home premium) it's not a bad price although you could save a bit of money and get better kit by building yourself. CPU+mobo+RAM+GPU ~ £675. Case+PSU ~ £100-£150. Drives ~ £160. OS ~ £90. That would make a better build (eg case and PSU would be miles better, HDD config would be better) at about the same price. £1025 before peripherals.

 

[Tenenbaum]

The dell, you won't be able to upgrade it, dell is very strict about that.
The dell, will have a horrible PSU.
The dell, will have horrible memory.
The dell, will have a horrible case.
The dell, will have stock heatsink.
The dell, will have a horrible motherboard.
The dell, will have horrible support.
The dell, will ruin your life and make it a living ****.
The dell, isn't your own computer. You won't know it back to front.
The dell, will explode on you and they will say you did it. No refund.
The dell, will run worse then your own built.
The dell, will most likely come with a 32 bit OS.


Just build your own, you'll get more performance and you'll get to enjoy building it.
If you'd like for me to post a build, just let me know

 

[NightSurge]

Well for starters, they are using some pretty slow DDR3 RAM. Most i7 builds come with at least DDR3 1333 or 1600.

Next up, as Hef said, 6GB in 3x2GB configuration would be much better. Also, to further stress what Tenenbaum said, notice how Dell did not mention the brand of memory, motherboard, hard drive, or optical drive? That is because they use the absolute cheapest generic products that only barely get the job done. You also will never be overclocking with that CPU as Dell will use a proprietary BIOS that will lock you out of doing major fine tuning to your FSB. Also, I do not know why Dell insists on using 16x DVD drives when everyone is using 20x or higher these days.

Trust us, you would be much better off building your own, especially on a higher end Core i7 build.

 

[NeoMagic33]

cheers for the info guys

i self-bulit a pc back in june however i thought for the money and the parts i got the machine just wasnt performing as i would have liked, so i was comtemplaiting buying from dell.

But in the near future when i do decide to upgrade i will contact you guys as theres some great advice above

thanks

all the best
NeoMagic33

 

[hikaricloud]

Dude, never buy from Dell. Ever. I work in a computer shop, and most of the computers that come through due to hardware failures are Dells. Let's just say fixing them is our bread and butter.

Trust me, for the money, you could build an i7 rig yourself much cheaper, and you won't be disappointed in the speed. i7 builds blow minds.

 

[Hefemeister]

I agree that you should avoid buying from Dell. With that said hikaricloud keep in mind how many Dell's have been sold and how many of those people have no idea how to fix a hardware problem. Any of us who would never buy a dell would also never take a computer to a repair shop.

I bet you have not seen too many custom built water cooled systems come in with hardware failure.

 

[hikaricloud]

^^ Of course I haven't. But I think you are misunderstanding me a bit...I meant out of all prebuilt machines. Dell takes the cake at first place, then it goes to HP, Compaq, eMachines, then Gateway. All popular brands, but Dell is the worst built with the worst parts out of all of them.

 

[Hefemeister]

Market Share:

Dell 32%
HP 25%

Based solely on Market Share 1 in 3 computers into your store should be Dells with 1 in 4 being HP. With the remaining 42% from other companies with 6% of that number from apple.

Now it is possible that more than 32% of your computers to be fixed are dells which could be due to randomness and not statistically significant.

I am in no way defending Dell I just like hard facts and statistical tests (preferably a chi-squared) to prove a statement like Dell's break down more than other brands.