Don't Laugh, Need Advice!

[Counter-Strike]

Ok, well my friend has an old Dell Dimension 4400 here are the specs:

250W PSU
1.6 Ghz P4 400Mhz FSB 256K L2 Cache
768MB PC2100 RAM
ATI Radeon 9550

Now he hates building computers, he either wants to get a whole new one or upgrade the parts to this:

2.4 Ghz P4 400Mhz FSB 512K L2 Cache
1GB PC2100 RAM
ATI Radeon 9600XT 256MB 4x/8x AGP

Should he buy one from Dell or would it be cheaper to just upgrade the parts?

 

[damasta55r]

He should build his own. Brand new machine. No dells.

Roger

 

[Dark_Sniper*]

If he has the money to buy a a dell then he has the money to build one. As you can build it forr him unless your not that good of a friend to help him out i dont know.

 

[waynejkruse10]

dont buy from dell, build one yourself or buy a custon (whitebox) from a 'round the corner PC store and tell them what components you want (ask for help on TF) and get them to build it.

 

[unanimous]

no way to DELL,, its better for him to upgrade,, lols most DELLS have built in pc parts... you might not able to upgrade some parts afterwards.

 

[Apokalipse]

he wants PC2100 RAM and a P4 2.4?
he should at least get PC3200 and about an AMD 2800+/P4 2.8. they don't cost all that much.

 

[thebrettman]

As far as I can see upgrading that system is just putting off the certainty that you have to buy/build a new machine in the very near future.

I would chose the latter option and build

 

[Apokalipse]

^^ you spelled Nvidia wrong in your sig.
personally I tink it's definately worth it to upgrade sometimes. for example I have an Athlon XP 2800+ and a Geforce FX-5200. while the XP 2800+ will suffice for 99% of things (even though it's not the fastest) the video card will not run a lot of the newer games, so a video card like the 6600 GT or 6800 will give it a real boost

 

[thebrettman]

ooooooops! I will adjust my signature now lol