Dell or build

[Dan1317]

Hello, I have a question about a Dell E310. Everything that I have built on it suits me fine (I don't have it yet). Here are the specs if these will help.

Intel P4 640 w/ HT (3.2 Ghz 800FSB)
XP Pro
2GB DDR2 533Mhz
160 GB
19 in. Dell Flat Panel
Integrated Sound Blaster Audigy
Office Basic

(A few other stuff like McAfee etc)

The Price is $1,080. But I can't use the Graphics Accelerator for what I need to do with it. My question is these dell's ship with PCIe 16x Slots right? If anyone knows their help would be much appreciated.

Also, do you guys think this is a good deal? The graphics card I am looking at right now is this (linked) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814150153

Anyone know if these are good cards?

(Need at least a 256 bit interface card)

I thank you a lot for your help


Also should I erase the OS and reinstall it? I heard that was good to get rid of junk software?

Thanks again

 

[angry_ducky]

A couple things:

1) That Dell doesn't have a PCIe or AGP slot on the motherboard. The best graphics card that you can get is a PCI card, and those all suck

2) As long as you order a Dell with the Windows reinstallation disc, you'll be able to reinstall Windows and get rid of all the junk software. Otherwise, you need to buy a new copy of Windows.

3) That graphics card that you linked sucks, as well. It is basically a crippled 6800. You'll be much better off with a 7600GT.

4) Even if the Dell had a PCIe slot, the power supply probably isn't good enough for a good graphics card.

Just build your own PC.

 

[rochin]

A couple things:

1) That Dell doesn't have a PCIe or AGP slot on the motherboard. The best graphics card that you can get is a PCI card, and those all suck

2) As long as you order a Dell with the Windows reinstallation disc, you'll be able to reinstall Windows and get rid of all the junk software. Otherwise, you need to buy a new copy of Windows.

3) That graphics card that you linked sucks, as well. It is basically a crippled 6800. You'll be much better off with a 7600GT.

4) Even if the Dell had a PCIe slot, the power supply probably isn't good enough for a good graphics card.

Just build your own PC.

Most new dells ship with a pci-e slot. Newer dell PSUs are at least 350w for the older series. Newer should be at least 400.

 

[MG37221]

Only you can make that decision. With Dell, you're paying for all that software you are planning on deleting as well as the video card that you can't use. I build all of my PCs and wouldn't want it any other way. I get only what I want, nothing I don't want and I'm the one who chooses future upgrade potential when I do build.

I don't necessarily save money but neither am I locked in to something with limited upgrade potential either.

Here's a good example of what you can do for a grand. Remember also that these prices are gonna change, for the better, toward the end of July when Conroe ships, for both AMD and Intel.

 

[angry_ducky]

A couple things:

1) That Dell doesn't have a PCIe or AGP slot on the motherboard. The best graphics card that you can get is a PCI card, and those all suck

2) As long as you order a Dell with the Windows reinstallation disc, you'll be able to reinstall Windows and get rid of all the junk software. Otherwise, you need to buy a new copy of Windows.

3) That graphics card that you linked sucks, as well. It is basically a crippled 6800. You'll be much better off with a 7600GT.

4) Even if the Dell had a PCIe slot, the power supply probably isn't good enough for a good graphics card.

Just build your own PC.

Most new dells ship with a pci-e slot. Newer dell PSUs are at least 350w for the older series. Newer should be at least 400.

E310 Specs As you can see, it has two PCI slots, and one PCIe x1 slot. To my knowledge, there are no graphics cards with a PCIe x1 connector, but if you can give me a link, I'll retract my statement. Just to put things in perspective, you can build a PC with a 7900GT and an Athlon 64 for the price that he's paying for this Dell.

 

[delanooch]

Call Dell and ask them if it has a PCI-E 16x slot in it. I agree with the duck the 6800 card is a bad idea.

Bottom line, call Dell on a phone and ask them what the board specs are, keep in mind you can return this PC for up to 30 days after you buy it, I did once and was painless minus the shipping I paid for to ship it back to Texas.

edit: why not move up to an E510? they are cheap as well and have more upgrade paths.

 

[joefriday]

A couple things:

1) That Dell doesn't have a PCIe or AGP slot on the motherboard. The best graphics card that you can get is a PCI card, and those all suck

2) As long as you order a Dell with the Windows reinstallation disc, you'll be able to reinstall Windows and get rid of all the junk software. Otherwise, you need to buy a new copy of Windows.

3) That graphics card that you linked sucks, as well. It is basically a crippled 6800. You'll be much better off with a 7600GT.

4) Even if the Dell had a PCIe slot, the power supply probably isn't good enough for a good graphics card.

Just build your own PC.

Most new dells ship with a pci-e slot. Newer dell PSUs are at least 350w for the older series. Newer should be at least 400.

E310 Specs As you can see, it has two PCI slots, and one PCIe x1 slot. To my knowledge, there are no graphics cards with a PCIe x1 connector, but if you can give me a link, I'll retract my statement. Just to put things in perspective, you can build a PC with a 7900GT and an Athlon 64 for the price that he's paying for this Dell. There are 1x graphics cards. I thought I rmembered reading that the new VIA graphics cards are 1x compatible. I'll look it up.

 

[joefriday]

Well, the S27 seires chipset has NATIVE support for all PCIx speeds (1,4,8,16), but apparently there must not be an S27-based card using the PCI 1x design.

 

[shadowduck]

While I would build, the E310 at that price is a rip-off. Dell thrives on those who are not well-tuned on how to use their website. I used to work for Dell, so let me help you a bit.

Get the E510 instead with a D920 CPU, 2GB of RAM, and basically the rest of the specs you had. You don't need a virus scanner from Dell. Avast works great and its free forever. Consider getting a 19" digital instead of an analog, but with the 19" LCD Analog the E510 is $1077 after discounts.

Use coupon: NTS77PR6N$?4BF to change the discount from 20% to 35%.

OR just build it (better, but requires more effort )

 

[michaelahess]

E means entry leve, not kiding. I had to fix one the other day, it felt like a celeron 1.4Ghz! It even had 512ram, they are crippled pos's, the 5 series is a little better, got a few for a company that was stuck on them, not bad but still 300-400 more than a comprably built one.

 

[riva2model64]

Dell makes pretty quality stuff, just sometimes they don't have the best price-perf

I would recommend that you configure the Dell XPS 400

the xps 400 is a good size case with pci-e16
it is decent value computer

i recommend you opt for the 1907fp (+$50) if you want to get a display

get a video card of yourself
the 6800 XT is good only if you find it at a price of around $90 and has great game perfomance, at stock speeds may get 3DMark 05 marks, but there are better around that price, like the x800 GTO

 

[FatFunkey]

Dell makes pretty quality stuff

you are kidding right? you have to treat a dell really well and i mean like freaking REALLY WELL or it will give you so much back sass / just go to hell in a hand basket, they put in....basicly wallmart parts and charge an extra 100 bucks for each part, you can only put in dell parts and you can almost never upgrade them yourself with out modding out the case (Ie new videocard, u have to 1st put in a PSU is higher wattage and 2nd - 30bucks says u have to make your own screw holes..)

and dont even get me started on their labtops...pos..my friend had the videocard (9700..yea it was a "high end dell") go out in less then a year and my friends sister has been having problems with hers since day 1

 

[angry_ducky]

Dell makes pretty quality stuff

you are kidding right? you have to treat a dell really well and i mean like freaking REALLY WELL or it will give you so much back sass / just go to hell in a hand basket, they put in....basicly wallmart parts and charge an extra 100 bucks for each part, you can only put in dell parts and you can almost never upgrade them yourself with out modding out the case (Ie new videocard, u have to 1st put in a PSU is higher wattage and 2nd - 30bucks says u have to make your own screw holes..)

and dont even get me started on their labtops...pos..my friend had the videocard (9700..yea it was a "high end dell") go out in less then a year and my friends sister has been having problems with hers since day 1

Personally, I like Dell. They build reliable computers and price them low. I don't like the bloatware, but all PC manufacturers do that. If it bothers you so much (as it does me), spend another $10 for the Windows reinstallation CD, and once you receive the PC, do a fresh install of Windows.

E means entry leve, not kiding. I had to fix one the other day, it felt like a celeron 1.4Ghz! It even had 512ram, they are crippled pos's, the 5 series is a little better, got a few for a company that was stuck on them, not bad but still 300-400 more than a comprably built one.

That would be the bloatware that you felt, sucking up all the system RAM and fragmenting the HDD. With a Windows reinstall, it wouldn't be nearly as sluggish.

There are 1x graphics cards. I thought I rmembered reading that the new VIA graphics cards are 1x compatible. I'll look it up.

Linky?

 

[jimytheassassin]

Also remember this. DELL PSU's are propriatary. If you need more power than the stock computer, you'll need another Dell made supply. That is unless you're willing to re-order the leads in the motherboard plug of some other brand PSU and keep your fingers crossed. Google for mod instructions if curious

 

[sprint_9]

If you go Dell then go with the E510. I have one and it is a decent pc, running a 630 P4, 1.25 gigs of ram, ATI Theatre 550 Pro, with more to come. I would reccomend perhaps getting a Dell then doing some of the other upgrades else where, for example, I bought mine with 256 mb of ram, which a pot of crap, but for what they wanted to upgrade at the time I didnt want to. You have to watch them because you can do some of the upgrades for less money yourself.

Some upgrades are worthwhile though, like right now they list the 820 as base cpu, but for only 40 dollars you can upgrade to the 930 which is a much better processor.

With the E510 you can swap the power supply with an OCZ modstream BTX power supply, keeping in mind it is the BTX model. It has been noted in the dell forums by many that it is a bolt in quality power supply.

The only thing bad about a dell is the case, power supply, and motherboard are all dell designs, so you cant really just swap one or the other of those particualar things, well except for the power supply in the case of the E510 which can be swaped for the OCZ. But you could be stuck as far as processor upgrades go with your MB, like me, I think Im stuck with single cores, no duals for me, my 510 is too old to upgrade. Other then that the rest of a dell is off the shelf parts I believe, mine has an NEC drive, Western D HD, Micron ram-same as Corsair.

Also there is no PCIx16 in the E310, I have looked in my parents and there is none.

Building is a better alternative I believe, but it is a little more expensive, especially if you dont already have a monitor.

 

[The_Abyss]

Also remember this. DELL PSU's are propriatary. If you need more power than the stock computer, you'll need another Dell made supply. That is unless you're willing to re-order the leads in the motherboard plug of some other brand PSU and keep your fingers crossed. Google for mod instructions if curious

I didn't think they were propriatory any longer?

 

[angry_ducky]

Also remember this. DELL PSU's are propriatary. If you need more power than the stock computer, you'll need another Dell made supply. That is unless you're willing to re-order the leads in the motherboard plug of some other brand PSU and keep your fingers crossed. Google for mod instructions if curious

I didn't think they were propriatory any longer?

The only way to find out is try it.

 

[chuckshissle]

I think there's no pci-e slot on this Dell E310 series. What a bummer!

http://configure.us.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?c=us&cs=19&l=en&oc=DE310SAP&s=dhs

 

[michaelahess]

That would be the bloatware that you felt, sucking up all the system RAM and fragmenting the HDD. With a Windows reinstall, it wouldn't be nearly as sluggish.

That was my fix. Every Dell I've ever had the displeasure of fixing is absolutely slow compared to a comprably equipment home-built. They cost more than they should, they are slow, and they do have high failure rates. Over the last 7 years of repairing thousands of computer I have repaired more dell's than anything except emachines (compaq and hp are close behind) This is still taking into account the fact that more Dells are sold than others so there will of course be more to fix, but the ratio's are still WAY out of proportion.

Newer Dell's, at least some models I've seen, don't have proprietary ps's anymore, but they still suck for upgradability, 3 hard drives on the XPS's, like, wow :roll:

edit: $10 for an OS you already purchased, yeah right, those cd's, I'll tell ya man they really cost that much :roll: Sounds like they decided to follow compaq and hp in that area. Down right dumb. $30 for a floppy???? I can't say anything good about them right now. I'll stop

 

[jimytheassassin]

ah yess, learnin somethin new everyday.. a quick forum search reveals it's no longer true as is used to be.. my bad. Perhaps another psu could work. *bow*

 

[chuckshissle]

I think you'd be better off building your own system. With the Pentium D series going down it would be a great build and bang for the buck compare to Dell.

Okay, you should grab the Pentium D 950 3.2Ghz, along with 1x2Gb of DDR2 533 ramage and 7900GT or X1800XT, you have a powerful pc. I'm assuming you can do the rest.

 

[icbluscrn]

while i do think dell is the way to go ,I think that price is a bit high woule tell you for the 500 series, if you research around you can find good deals on dell. I got in on a couple of the E510 deal with 20" Lcd for less then $700. or you can just look for coupons. i have also built my own pc and while some people enjoy it , i could not stand all the little problems, The only downside to a dell (i think) is the fact you cant overclock)

As far as walmart parts :roll: it has a lite-on cd drive a philips dvd r/w drive
A seagate 80gig hd, samsung 512ddr2 with the p4 630. Granted no records are going to be falling but it does its job with these walmart parts


As far as far as the Power supply its rated at 305w and was still able to use a 7900gtx no problems. Currently using a x800gto2. All of the e510 ive seen dont have a pci-e power connector unless you order it with a video card then you get a 375w PSU.so you are going to have to t-off of a drive.
By the way it can be replaced it uses a 24 pin mobo connector the only issue i see is you might have to fold some metal tabs back in order to fit a bigger supply in it.

As far as the xfx 6800xt i had one it was $90 after rebate and i think that was to much stay away.

by the way if you use the recover disc it will reinstall all the dell crap

 

[michaelahess]

No offense but just because you don't know how to build a reliable computer (little problems?) doesn't mean the OP won't be able to, my 3 year old can put together a computer if I give him the parts and it works great, even the cpu (I do the AS though.) Dell only has good deals when you can get their crap for free! I have been building $500 computers for the last 2 years that will beat any dell that costs $800 (excluding monitor).

 

[riva2model64]

Yes, the last few Dell computers I saw used regular PSU's
My friend upgraded his Dell Dimension 8400 with a Dynex 500w and it worked fine

 

[Dan1317]

Linky?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814133164