hi all hope i can help
I am an account manager in Dell (ireland) my best advice is not to rush into buying a cheap machine now then having to upgrade it several times later its always worth saving up and getting a slightly better one, even if you have to wait a little while
personally i like to custom build my machines ive built my gaming pc and a media center, i enjoy building the systems and theres definitly a sense of satisfaction when you hit the power button and its working!!
spec wise definitley cpu --core 2 minimum,
1gb ram minimum, if your running vista i would say 2gb min.
hard drives are cheap as chips these days - this one is up to you depending on the ammount of data you plan on having
---dvdrw
motherboard --- get a decent one, your building your system around this so its worth getting one thats future proofed and can take upgrades (and has enough pci /pci express slots for expansion)
for graphics--- a really good option is the 8800 gts 320m they are quite cheap compared to their bigger brother the gtx
psu --- make sure its got plenty of cables to attach to all your parts
case --- go for a big one giving room for expansion and for big graphics cards
there is still alot of debate about vista - im afraid to recommend anything here!
personally i use windows media center edition, it works fine,
on a side note make sure you have all the relevant internal cables if your building your own system
im assuming you have monitor, mouse etc.
I had a look on the dell US site they are cheaper than here for home users
theres one the XPS 410 this is the evalue code 6V620-DXCWNF1 i added the 256MB nVidia GeForce 7900 GS graphics card and took off the monitor speakers kb and m,
and it comes out at $999 delivered with these specs
XPS 410 Intel® Core™2 Duo Processor E6300 (2MB L2 Cache,1.86GHz,1066 FSB)
Operating System Genuine Windows Vistaâ„¢ Home Premium
Memory 1GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz - 2 DIMMs
Keyboard No Keyboard
Monitor No Monitor
Video Card 256MB nVidia GeForce 7900 GS
Hard Drive 250GB Serial ATA 3Gb/s Hard Drive (7200RPM) w/DataBurst Cacheâ„¢
Floppy Drive and Media Reader No Floppy Drive Included
Mouse No Mouse
Modem 56K PCI Data Fax Modem
Adobe Software Adobe® Acrobat® Reader 7.0
CD or DVD Drive Single Drive: 16X CD/DVD burner (DVD+/-RW) w/double layer write capability
Sound Cards Integrated 7.1 Channel Audio
Speakers No speakers (Speakers are required to hear audio from your system)
Office Software (not included in Windows XP) Microsoft Works 8. DOES NOT INCLUDE MS WORD
Security Software McAfee SecurityCenter with anti-virus, anti-spyware, firewall, 15-months
Warranty and Service 1Yr Ltd Warranty and At-Home Service
Internet Access Service 6 Months of America Online Membership Included
Dell Digital Entertainment Trial pack- Basic and trial products from Corel and Yahoo
Labels Windows Vistaâ„¢ Premium
if you ring into the sales lines you might be able to get it cheaper,
hope this helps!!!
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