Thinking about getting this Dell

Don't really need a heavy duty gaming system, so figured this looked good.

Inspiron 531
Athlon 64 X2 4400+ processor
1GB/250GB
128MB Radeon ATI HD 2400 PRO
Vista Home premium
24in E248WFP LCD
Free Dell $100 gift card

$714 (or so) delivered.

As much as I would love a 24" monitor, my dual monitor setup is fine (20" wide and 17"), so I'll sell the new monitor (and the Dell gift card, assuming it's xferable) on ebay and hopefully get $450-$500 (the monitor is $469 by itself on the Dell site) back total for a net cost of ~$250 or less.

Good deal?

 

its okay. I'd get a 256 meg video card and another Gig of Ram. That's not "top of the line, but those 2 additions would make the system last a LOT longer.

 

The 256MB NVIDIA GeForce 8600GT-DDR3 video card is $90 extra. Is that reasonable or would it make more sense to take the integrated video option and buy a video card on my own? (BTW, am I correct in assuming pretty much all new systems use PCIe video cards now?)

Also, upgrading to 2GB would be another $100. The memory is Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz. I should be able to add a gig of that for way less than $100, right?

I haven't kept up with PC hardware stuff for years, so forgive my ignorance.

 

How much does going onboard save you? You can get that vid card around $130-$140 which isn't too bad. I like your ide with that. Its also possible you could buy the RAM, but becareful if its propietary, because you'll be forced to buy from Dell and it'll cost more than $100.

 

Onboard saves me $150 off of the 256MB card.

I checked Crucial's website and their memory configurator tool shows that I can add 2GB (2 1GB sticks) for $58 to that specific Dell model.

I still have to configure the system to cost $999 or more to get the $350 discount and the $100 gift card, so by dumping the video card I can actually upgrade the processor to the Athlon™ 64 X2 Dual-Core 5000+ and add a DVD burner and keep it at the same price.

 

I've never had good experiences with onboard video cards, though I know some people play WoW on their laptops. As long as you are getting a desktop with a good 500W power supply, I would get the standalone card.

And the extra gig of RAM is worth it.

 

he's talking about pulling the card from the dell purchase and buying his own. the 8600 has been a bit of an underachiever, tho. i'd be tempted to go with a 7 series or maybe an ati 1950 pro.

of course, i'm still farting along with my 6600gt. i think i'll get teh 8800gt in the next few months.

 

Pretty certain I'd upgrade the RAM after I got the system since it seems I can do it considerably cheaper than with the options Dell provides.

And since video isn't hugely critical in the short term, I can wait a little while to add the card. The only problem I can foresee here (and for some reason I'm guessing it's the case) would be if the integrated video wouldn't allow me to use my dual monitors until I can get a card.

Yeah, I've read that the 8600 is just so-so. I figured I could find something better for the money if I really needed to.