Dell?

Gits!

Phil

Ooops....made a mistake it's an 18'' digital flat screen...picture quality is superb.

Was going to say...I've only seen 14" TFTs on PC World nasty budget specials, and they do look like they've been taken off a laptop...

So is that an 18" CRT with a flat screen, as opposed to an 18" TFT? Largest ones I've seen are the Iiyama 22" ones, which are very nice but kind of bulky to accommodate for most home users...

Rob.

Was going to say...I've only seen 14" TFTs on PC World nasty budget specials' date=' and they do look like they've been taken off a laptop...

So is that an 18" CRT with a flat screen, as opposed to an 18" TFT? Largest ones I've seen are the Iiyama 22" ones, which are very nice but kind of bulky to accommodate for most home users...

Rob.[/quote']

I think it's a CRT with a flat screen...I need to check.....it's fairly thin though.

I think it's a CRT with a flat screen...I need to check.....it's fairly thin though.

Should be fairly obvious - to the tune of about a foot in depth at least!

Simple test - can you pick it up with one hand without giving yourself a hernia?

Rob.

Speaking of Dell - I was going to look into one of their systems until I stumbled across this... Anyone reckon this is a bit of a rubbish offer???

AMD Athlon XP2200 CPU

MSI Micro ATX M/B

256MB DDR PC-266 RAM (expandable to 2GB)

40GB Seagate HDD

DVD ROM

1.44MB FDD

LAN

ProSavage8 2D/3D Graphics

On Board Sound

6 X USB 2.0

Keyboard

P/S2 Mouse

Retail packaging with user manual & quick set-up poster

Full Plug & Play BIOS

ONLY

Iiyama

Drool.

Anyone reckon this is a bit of a rubbish offer???

It's not bad, but for the same money you could get a similar system but with XP2400, 80Gb hard drive, DVD/CD-RW combo drive, 128Mb graphics card (the ProSavage is usually a shared memory onboard thing). I take it the system includes Windows XP?

Rob.

Speaking of Dell - I was going to look into one of their systems until I stumbled across this... Anyone reckon this is a bit of a rubbish offer???

AMD Athlon XP2200 CPU

MSI Micro ATX M/B

256MB DDR PC-266 RAM (expandable to 2GB)

40GB Seagate HDD

DVD ROM

1.44MB FDD

LAN

ProSavage8 2D/3D Graphics

On Board Sound

6 X USB 2.0

Keyboard

P/S2 Mouse

Retail packaging with user manual & quick set-up poster

Full Plug & Play BIOS

ONLY

I'd be a bit suspect about the graphics and sound but for

It's not bad' date=' but for the same money you could get a similar system but with XP2400, 80Gb hard drive, DVD/CD-RW combo drive, 128Mb graphics card (the ProSavage is usually a shared memory onboard thing). I take it the system includes Windows XP?

Rob.[/quote']

Ahem - where from?

And yes - I'm fairly sure its XP it comes with.

Ahem - where from?

And yes - I'm fairly sure its XP it comes with.

From the only place I'd be quoting prices for professionally built machines from!

It doesn't specifically mention an operating system, which can often mean there isn't one, though with a retail box and quick start guide you'd think there would be...

Rob.

Iiyama stuff is nice, but you pay for what you get...the cheaper 22" monitor is still just shy of

From the only place I'd be quoting prices for professionally built machines from!

Rob.

So, this is when you cash in on the free webspace offered to me?

PM me if you have any details. I'm still in two minds whether to dismantle my current PC for spares or leave it as is, and wipe the system totally (once all data's been transferred across, using crossover cable - Good clue that I'll need an ethernet card )

Anyway - in a month or so's time I could well be in the market for a new system of some sort.

:cheers:

ill sell you the 22" for 330+vat

Oh, so they've come down since your last price list, eh? :p

Rob.

Oh' date=' so they've come down since your last price list, eh? :p

Rob.[/quote']

Hmmmmm

Rob, Can you do dual CPU systems? I need something hefty (must be dual CPU) for a new office test machine. I won't need OS or monitor.

Phil

Hmmmmm

Rob' date=' Can you do dual CPU systems? I need something hefty (must be dual CPU) for a new office test machine. I won't need OS or monitor.

[/quote']

What did you have in mind? Dual Athlon?

Rob.

Simple test - can you pick it up with one hand without giving yourself a hernia?

Rob.

Not quite......but a lot lighter than my previous 21'' monitor...so it must be a TFT then.

What did you have in mind? Dual Athlon?

Rob.

Yep, summat along those lines, if it'd be cheaper than Intel. Plus about 1Gb of RAM.........

Phil

Yep, summat along those lines, if it'd be cheaper than Intel. Plus about 1Gb of RAM.........

If you want to drop me a PM of spec/requirements I'll see what I can do...

Rob.

On the original question about Dell, they are good systems and well built but if you are a PC enthusiast or bodger I would look elsewhere as some of the main components are Dell

Just to contradict everyone singing Dell's praises I had a bit of a nightmare! :(

Purchased a Dell Inspiron 4100 laptop a couple of years back and all was well until randomly sound and/or on-board modem would fail. The machine was one month out of warranty and the best Dell could do after much faffing about was to offer me a fixed cost repair charge of

I use Dell for myself and all my clients.. Theyre good quality, decently specced and decently priced - sort of good all rounder.

I always spec them up with 3 years NBD warranty for laptops and desktops and 3 years 4hr SBD response for servers and even though Ive had a few issues, they always come and sort it out satisfactorily.

I use a Dell Inspiron 4150 laptop - and havent had one iota of trouble with it - despite using it around 60 hours a week for the last year and a half. Also had an Inspiron 4000 before that and its still going strong too (as my spare).

Wouldnt buy anything else for business use and recommend it to all. As mentioned, the Dell Outlet is a good source of machines at lower prices.

Paul..

as a computer monkey, here's my two penn'iths worth.....

I bought a Dell XPS 450 back in 1999........which I'd tweaked the spec on, so back then it actually had decent graphics and the soundcard was one of the better public consumer offerings.

I retired it from active service about three weeks ago, added some RAM and a fresh, albeit smaller hard disk, sits there quit happy running Windows XP Pro.

Nothing ever went wrong with it in all this time. The 20Gig Hard disk failed about six months back, but all data was recovered, just wouldn't boot from it. And that isn't a DELL part....so.....

I'd recommend them for anyone. In fact , I do and have helped friends buy laptops from the Dell Outlet, which is well worth a trawl.....(online)

I have to say.. the biggest weakness ive seen with dell systems are the PSUs

they are all custom jobbies, and they seem to fail alot especially on optiplex systems. other than that, most our core servers are dell, very reliable