Dell AMD

[vaporpark]

Dell sent me a flyer the other day advertising their PCs with AMD processors. Not sure if this is a new endeavor for them, but the price seems pretty good. Since I am in the market for a starter recording DAW, I was wondering what some of the experienced here thought about value to dollar spent on these systems, or would building your own still be the best value.

http://www.dell.com/content/products/category.aspx/dimen?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs

Any input much appreciated.

Thanks,
vaporp

 

[Kevin Deschwazi]

I own a Dell and they are pretty good for the price but they also have their downsides.

The MAJOR one for me is that alot of the hardware and connectors are proprietary so you can't swap stuff out. Optical drives and HDDs are OK but if you wanted to fit some quiet fans or a new (quieter) PSU you probably won't be able to.

After about 18 months my Dell became very noisy and I spent a lot of time researching my options for making it quieter. However when it came to swapping out fans, PSU etc it couldn't be done.

I would never buy Dell again for this reason.

I've never had to call on their customer support but I've heard some horror stories about that too.

 

[Mindset]

Agree....



As for the pricing, I don't see anything "Cheap" on their website that you sent me... All I saw was this...

for $359 you get

Amd Sempron 3400+
Windows XP Home
Nvidia GeForce 6150LE
512mb DDR2
80gb SATA HD
no monitor
48x CDRW/DVD Rom
no suites (MS Office etc...)
just 1 year

That is expensive to me in my opinion....

For the computer that specs the best, $919 dollars.. WAY to expensive....

I can go to my nearest electronics store, get a AMD Athlon 3500+ w/ motherboard for $99 dollars
a GeForce 7300LE for $39
512mb DDR2 $39
100GB SATA HD $49
DVDRW $59
Case w/ pw $19
and still stay under that price at $259 w/o operating system.. and get a faster computer.... Throw in the operating system, and you'll be around that price.

Semprons are not that fast. IMO they are very slow

If your not into building your own, than well, buy it. If you are, it's kind of a little cheaper, for the more power you want. My system for me to build was $850 with the 19" Samsung 930B monitor... Spec the near same system (a little less than mine, and it'll come out at $1400+ dollars

 

[coolwhip]

Go with a macbook! I got a dual-processor 2.0 Ghz macbook that I love - I run protools, reason, and live on it with absolute ease.

Macbook 2.0 ghz - $1099
2 GB ram - $160 from newegg.com
250 GB western digital w/enclosure - $100

TOTAL - $1359

For a great price, i have a tremendously fast machine that will last for the years to come. And there's always the cool factor that comes with toting around that glowing white fruit emblazoned machine...

 

[coolwhip]

If you don't need the portability, you could always go with the same 2.0 DualCore processor in an iMac. Last time i checked, the refurbished ones were a little under $900, bringing the total cost for the whole system with ram and a hard drive a little over the $1100 mark. Not bad, not bad at all...