adventures in Dell land - sorry to ask for more advice but here goes

[jæd]

Most cheap cases come with a PSU, normally its posher ones that don't have them so you can choose you own. Here is an example of what £17 can buy.

Whats the build quality of that...? I once got an el cheapo case and the build quality was awful... And I wouldn't rate the quality of the psu...

 

[UnderOpenSky]

Can't speak for the first one, it was the cheapest e-buyer had in stock. However if you don't move around much or plan to fiddle round in the case much, it should be fine. Second one is a good case, but over twice the price!

 

[mhendo]

Mate of mine just bought a Dull, it's a piece of shit, won't even run Reason 3, without anything else running - he could have bought a Mini Mac for the same money.

It may be that there's something wrong with your friend's particular computer, because i have a hard time believing that any new computer wouldn't run that program comfortably. According to the manufacturers, the PC system requirements for Reason 3 are:

* Intel Pentium III 600 MHz or better
* 256 MB RAM
* 2 GB free hard disk space
* CD-ROM drive
* Windows XP/2000 or later
* Monitor with 800x600 pixels resolution or better
* 16-bit windows compatible audio card, preferably with DirectX or ASIO drivers
* Recommended: MIDI keyboard with built-in MIDI interface, or MIDI keyboard and MIDI interface

Now, i know that some software providers underestimate the minimum system requirements in oprder to get more people to buy their program, but if a relatively new Dell can't run that program then there's something up with the installation or with particular pieces of hardware in the computer.My Dell could run Reason 3 standing on its head.

Why anyone apart from total luddites who just need to send the occassional email would buy a Dull is well beyond me, it's hardly more than a toy.

Well, i'm no luddite, and i do considerably more than send email. And my computer has been a pretty powerful and useful tool for me.

My Dell is a Dimension P4, 3.0GHz, 800MHz FSB with 1Gig of RAM. It can comfortably run a large batch processing operation in Photoshop or encode a large mpeg2 file in TMpegEnc, and allow me to run a word processor with Endnote, browse the internet, and have Adobe Acrobat Pro open at the same time. It's almost 2 years old, and the only problem i've had (touch wood) was when the fan died and had to be replaced ($20).

I said earlier in this thread that i won't buy another Dell, because their proprietary fittings make it harder and more expensive to upgrade. Next time around, i'll buy the parts and put the computer together myself.

But when i bought the Dell, i had never even looked inside a computer. I wanted a system that would do what i needed and, as a grad student, i didn't want to spend more money than i had to. I tried the local geek shop, where i had bought my previous computer, because i like to support local businesses and i also like the idea of being able to take it back to the people who built it.

But, for a system with similar specs to the Dell, i would have had to pay about 50% more than for the Dell, and on my limited income that just wasn't an option. When you don't have much money, it's hard to justify spending an extra $500+ for the principle of supporting your local computer store.

I admit i've been lucky so far. I've heard stories of people who have had troubles with their Dells, and who have had a really bad time trying to get any help from Dell support. But, then again, i've heard similar tales from people who own HPs, Toshibas, Sonys, Gateways, and, yes, even Apples.

With big box companies like Dell, it's something of a crapshoot. If nothing major ever goes wrong with your particular computer, then you will probably end up a happy customer. But if something does go wrong, you might end up getting the runaround and vowing never to deal the fuckers again. As jæd suggests, if you're an office with a support contract you can expect decent service; but if you're a home user and you have a problem, you're more likely to get shunted from one service assistant to the next, usually in India, and not be able to do anything about it.

 

[Elvis Parsley]

Why anyone apart from total luddites who just need to send the occassional email would buy a Dull is well beyond me, it's hardly more than a toy.

beyond you, really? it seem pretty obvious to me

most people aren't obsessed about what kind of computer they own. all they want is something reasonably cheap, from a manufacturer whose name they are familiar with, comes with all they right sales bumph (pentium 4 etc) and looks looks fairly modern. they do this because they know bugger all about computers and believe it or not that is ok.

god bless the average computer user! they keep me in business

you may want to review your definition of luddite too.

 

[TeeJay]

Any advice very much appreciated

My advice is to forget about Dell and Dell parts...

Just take everything you have, list it here, keep the best bits and get any missing bits you need to make up a new system - we can advise on this.

The idea of buying a motherboard to fit a case is frankly bizarre - especially a Dell case - seeing as you can get cases very cheaply and a decent mobo is far more important. You are far better off moving over to standard 'ATX' sized stuff IMO. You cpu, ram and graphics card should fit into one fine as they will all be standard.

The things to avoid from Dell are their cases, power supplies and motherboards - as Dell use non-standard sizes and connections. You can take everything else apart from these three things out of a Dell and use them with standard cases, power supplies and motherboards. Many cases come with a bulit in power supply btw.

 

[WWWeed]

Most cheap cases come with a PSU, normally its posher ones that don't have them so you can choose you own. Here is an example of what £17 can buy. If your willing to spend a bit more, I put together a new PC for a mate using one of these which was nice to work on and acts as additional lighting for the room.

Give the OP a break, they got given the machine, who turns down a free computer?

You seemed to have missed my point, I said that dell might have an specific ATX connector, meaning that you cant use a standard ATX power supply that you can get in any pc shop for less than a score. This is beacuse there completly diffrent connectors, however you might be able to track an adapter down but I've never seen them.
And I'm not slateing the machine, Of corse a free pc is better than none, I was just saying there shit if you never need to upgrade/replace parts.

Yep... They're fine for the office where one has a support contract, but generally a bit iffy when you're on your own...

tottaly agree they make decent office machines, but I still wouldnt let them stock my company out with 'em. support contract or not.

 

[TeeJay]

Transfer the cpu, graphics card, hdd and ram and optical drives over or are they dell only as well?

Just to clarify this (I had similar problems when trying to upgrade and modify a Dell system) ... Dell systems have the following:

Dell case
Dell power supply
Dell motherboard

Everything else is "standard" ... cpu, ram, fans, hdd, cdrom, pci cards etc...*

The difference is the arrangement of the wires and connectors from the Dell power supply to the Dell mobo and the Dell case. It is technically possible to rewire these to mix Dell and non-Dell - you will find webpages by people who have - but I would advise against it unless you already are experienced at diy electronics/electrical stuff and have all the tools etc. New cases are very cheap...

...for example here is a 350W case from eBuyer for £17.62 inc VAT
http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/prod...2hvd19wcm9kdWN0X292ZXJ2aWV3&product_uid=88470 Edit: aha! I see someone else has linked to this already!

Louloubelle - list the parts you have here and tell us your maximum budget and we can suggest what you could get to make a new system.

*edit: except maybe anything that is powered off the motherboard - eg some fans.

 

[Louloubelle]

you lot are great!
Thanks so much
I'm going to try to get by with the one PC for the next couple of weeks, I also need to declutter and sell a lot of stuff on ebay which should raise a decent amount of money

then I'll post up what I've got and would very much appreciate some help re what to buy

I've seen some cases at the computer fair, glass fronts and see thu sides.

It'll be like pimp my ride only with a PC

 

[UnderOpenSky]

You seemed to have missed my point, I said that dell might have an specific ATX connector, meaning that you cant use a standard ATX power supply that you can get in any pc shop for less than a score. This is beacuse there completly diffrent connectors, however you might be able to track an adapter down but I've never seen them.

I think we may be misunderstanding each other. If you are replacing the motherboard and case, why is the power supply an issue?