I need a new desktop computer for my office. Knowing how cheap and inexperienced I am, I am seeking advice from you knowledgeable folks here.
I am looking at Dell in their "outlet" website. <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.dell.com/content/products/category.aspx/desktops?c=us&cs=22&l=en&s=dfh&~ck=mn">http://www.dell.com/content/products/ca ... dfh&~ck=mn</a><!-- m -->
I need something I can hook 2 monitors up to. Memory of at least 2g, DVD RW would be nice and lots of storage.
Which do you suggest? XPS? Inspiron? Remember, I am frugal.
Thanks guys!
Just buy the cheapest that meets your specs... probably an Inspiron. Look up the specs for the various graphics cards offered to make sure they support dual monitor as not everyone does. For my money, I'd just buy a quad core and be done with it. Probably overkill for you... and I'm sure someone in here will say Dell sucks or is overpriced... but you won't have to upgrade for awhile.
Inspiron 518 (System Identifier: EP91WT8H)
System Price : $619.00
Inspiron Desktop 518: Intel Core 2 Quad processor Q6600 (8MB L2, 2.4GHz, 1066FSB)
Operating System - Genuine Windows Vista Ultimate
Memory - 3 GB DDR2 SDRAM 800MHz (4 DIMMs)
Hard Disk Drive - 640 GB SATA Hard Drive (7200 RPM)
Video - 128MB ATI Radeon HD 2400 PRO
Media Bay - 16X DVD +/- RW w/dbl layer write capability
'76 911S | '14 328xi | '17 GTI | In memoriam: '08 848, '85 944
"Here, at last, is the cure for texting while driving. The millions of deaths which occur every year due to the iPhone’s ability to stream the Kim K/Ray-J video in 4G could all be avoided, every last one of them, if the government issued everyone a Seventies 911 and made sure they always left the house five minutes later than they’d wanted to. It would help if it could be made to rain as well. Full attention on the road. Guaranteed." -Jack Baruth
Keep an eye on slickdeals.net for coupons - plenty of deals for dell, hp, etc come up there.
(09-25-2019, 03:18 PM)V1GiLaNtE Wrote: I think you need to see a mental health professional.
For $70 more, you get twice the memory, video card and more storage. All depends on your price range and how many parts you're going to salvage from other machines.
Studio - 540 (System Identifier: D0VPH2TE)
Studio 540 Mini-Tower: Intel Core 2 Quad processor Q8200 (4MB L2, 2.33GHz, 1333FSB)
System Price : $689.00
Operating System - Genuine Windows Vista Home Premium
Memory - 6 GB DDR2 SDRAM 800MHz (4 DIMMs)
Hard Disk Drive - 750 GB SATA Hard Drive (7200RPM)
Video - 256MB ATI Radeon HD 3450 supporting HDMI
Media Bay - 16X DVD +/- RW w/dbl layer write capability
'76 911S | '14 328xi | '17 GTI | In memoriam: '08 848, '85 944
"Here, at last, is the cure for texting while driving. The millions of deaths which occur every year due to the iPhone’s ability to stream the Kim K/Ray-J video in 4G could all be avoided, every last one of them, if the government issued everyone a Seventies 911 and made sure they always left the house five minutes later than they’d wanted to. It would help if it could be made to rain as well. Full attention on the road. Guaranteed." -Jack Baruth
you have links to those? I can't search for them.
You can't direct link... just use the search parameters to narrow down to them. The model (first line) is most helpful but you can filter on other specs to narrow to them. Unchecking "Scratch & Dent" doesn't hurt.
FWIW, the last two laptops I bought were Dell Outlet and haven't had any issues.
'76 911S | '14 328xi | '17 GTI | In memoriam: '08 848, '85 944
"Here, at last, is the cure for texting while driving. The millions of deaths which occur every year due to the iPhone’s ability to stream the Kim K/Ray-J video in 4G could all be avoided, every last one of them, if the government issued everyone a Seventies 911 and made sure they always left the house five minutes later than they’d wanted to. It would help if it could be made to rain as well. Full attention on the road. Guaranteed." -Jack Baruth
So is this going to be another Alan-asks-for-advice-for-3-pages-and-then-doesnt-buy-anything thread?
but anyway,
Dell sucks.
Ever wonder why they have so many refurbs? After having several Dells, I dont.
I wouldnt buy a Core2Duo right now, the new Core i7 chips just came out and kick some serious ass. (read: will last longer before you need to upgrade again) but if you're stingy you wont get an i7 box for under $800 right now.
anyway, Id just watch slickdeals for a good deal on machine and go from there. You missed a bunch of deals today 'black friday' but there may be some more coming. HP had a 40% off sale today but its over.
If you're looking to spend ~$500 the brand doesnt matter all that much, just get whatever is a good deal and plan to replace it with another $500 machine every 2 years.
personally i build all of mine, but thats not always the most economical if youre just looking for something basic.
Evan Wrote:Dell sucks.
Ever wonder why they have so many refurbs? After having several Dells, I dont.
I knew you wouldn't disappoint. 
I've purchased 13 for me and my family and haven't had any issues. Yay anecdotal evidence!
'76 911S | '14 328xi | '17 GTI | In memoriam: '08 848, '85 944
"Here, at last, is the cure for texting while driving. The millions of deaths which occur every year due to the iPhone’s ability to stream the Kim K/Ray-J video in 4G could all be avoided, every last one of them, if the government issued everyone a Seventies 911 and made sure they always left the house five minutes later than they’d wanted to. It would help if it could be made to rain as well. Full attention on the road. Guaranteed." -Jack Baruth
I've had my Dell for close to 7 years and the only problems I've had with it are the Western Digital hard drive crashed (not surprising since I essentially never turned the computer off so it spun constantly for almost 7 years) and the cdrom drive from some unknown company stopped working (see my other post in the WTB forum) which isnt that critical unless you want to burn CDs. Both of those are not really Dell problems but third party component problems. I suppose you could argue that its Dell's fault but it could've been any manufacturer really.
1994 Ford Ranger
2004 Honda S2000
2007 BMW X3
i've also never had an issue with even a budget dell. i've had ~25 or so that i could call "mine" over the years.
I Am Mike
4 wheels: '01 RAV4 (Formerly '93 Civic CX, '01 S2000, '10 GTI, '09 A4 Avant)
2 wheels: '12 Surly Cross-Check Custom | '14 Trek Madone 2.1 105 | '17 Norco Threshold SL Force 1 | '17 Norco Revolver 9.2 FS | '18 BMC Roadmachine 02 Two | '19 Norco Search XR Steel (Formerly '97 Honda VFR750F, '05 Giant TCR 2, '15 WeThePeople Atlas 24, '10 Scott Scale 29er XT, '11 Cervelo R3 Rival, '12 Ridley X-Fire Red)
No longer onyachin.
Apoc Wrote:I've purchased 13 for me and my family and haven't had any issues. Yay anecdotal evidence!
Never had a Dell break either, and had about the same number in our family.
My work laptop did die out in Denver a few weeks ago - its several years old now - and Dell sent someone out the next day and replaced the Motherboard, so I cant complain.
My sister bought a Mac that was DOA though so :dunno:
Apoc Wrote:Evan Wrote:Dell sucks.
Ever wonder why they have so many refurbs? After having several Dells, I dont.
I knew you wouldn't disappoint.
I've purchased 13 for me and my family and haven't had any issues. Yay anecdotal evidence!
and the dell fanboi parade is right on time! 
ill see your 12 family members and raise you a 4,000 employee IT consulting firm that switched from Dell to HP due to reliability, and then a 800 employee software company that switched from Dell to IBM for reliability. I out-anecdotaled you!
wrong. we're all speaking of machines we had our hands on. you're relying on data from typical retard users... they can break anything.
I Am Mike
4 wheels: '01 RAV4 (Formerly '93 Civic CX, '01 S2000, '10 GTI, '09 A4 Avant)
2 wheels: '12 Surly Cross-Check Custom | '14 Trek Madone 2.1 105 | '17 Norco Threshold SL Force 1 | '17 Norco Revolver 9.2 FS | '18 BMC Roadmachine 02 Two | '19 Norco Search XR Steel (Formerly '97 Honda VFR750F, '05 Giant TCR 2, '15 WeThePeople Atlas 24, '10 Scott Scale 29er XT, '11 Cervelo R3 Rival, '12 Ridley X-Fire Red)
No longer onyachin.
Evan Wrote:ill see your 12 family members and raise you a 4,000 employee IT consulting firm that switched from Dell to HP due to reliability, and then a 800 employee software company that switched from Dell to IBM for reliability. I out-anecdotaled you!
I'll raise you a 7000 employee company that's using Dells and has been for a decade. I'll also raise you my 3 work machines being Dells... you stand no chance against those 3!
...and I'll also agree with Mike.
'76 911S | '14 328xi | '17 GTI | In memoriam: '08 848, '85 944
"Here, at last, is the cure for texting while driving. The millions of deaths which occur every year due to the iPhone’s ability to stream the Kim K/Ray-J video in 4G could all be avoided, every last one of them, if the government issued everyone a Seventies 911 and made sure they always left the house five minutes later than they’d wanted to. It would help if it could be made to rain as well. Full attention on the road. Guaranteed." -Jack Baruth
after reformatting the Windows ME  hudder: to XP and upgrading the RAM the 2001 Dell Dimension 8100 desktop is still running strong. It's just used for basic functions like MS Office, simple applications, and web surfing. I can hear the HD starting to go, but service for 7+ years isn't bad and they're simple to replace and back-up.
i second the slickdeals.net and you can also check fatwallet.com for another option. I know you're looking for a desktop, but you may want to consider a laptop with a docking station and peripherials so you have the option to move it anywhere.
Will a laptop be able to run 2 monitors? I usually run 5 programs at once on 2 screens so I can see info on one screen and enter info on another.
PS. I have had my current Dell Dimension 4550 for 5 years now and never had a problem. I need more than 1GB of memory though and I can't go more than that on this unit. So instead of making major changes to this one, I would rather get another one.
I have never had any problems with any of my Dell computers.
Evan Wrote:So is this going to be another Alan-asks-for-advice-for-3-pages-and-then-doesnt-buy-anything thread?
I am still going to be buying a bike, just didn't seem like I should be in much of a hurry with winter approaching so soon. I have been going to the gym so I don't suck too bad when I get out there......
Ole Wrote:Will a laptop be able to run 2 monitors? I usually run 5 programs at once on 2 screens so I can see info on one screen and enter info on another.
you could either run an external video card or a PCMCIA video card
Ole Wrote:Will a laptop be able to run 2 monitors? I usually run 5 programs at once on 2 screens so I can see info on one screen and enter info on another.
Most docking stations support dual monitor.
'76 911S | '14 328xi | '17 GTI | In memoriam: '08 848, '85 944
"Here, at last, is the cure for texting while driving. The millions of deaths which occur every year due to the iPhone’s ability to stream the Kim K/Ray-J video in 4G could all be avoided, every last one of them, if the government issued everyone a Seventies 911 and made sure they always left the house five minutes later than they’d wanted to. It would help if it could be made to rain as well. Full attention on the road. Guaranteed." -Jack Baruth
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