This is a blatant request for consumer input! I'm in the market for a new computer, so I've been looking over the Dell website to see what my options are.

The Optiplex series seems to be the only thing on offer that still comes with an XP option and serial and parallel ports. Here are the details as I was best able to customize them based on the little I know about computers:

The cost of this system is just a little over $1000, which is about the top of my price range.

 

They are a nice machine, we have several in the office, bought for the same reason..XP Pro.

Also, you can check out the Vostro 400 / 410 now? line... They come with 3G of ram, better video 250G drive, XP Pro, and are cheaper. They are more consumer oriented, no 3 year warranty, one year, but the features are great.

We bought one here a few weeks ago, a Vostro 400, seems pretty good so far.

Oh yeah big oops, I forgot., at $1000 it included a Dell 198wfp a 19"widescreen LCD and Office basic

 

it is a pretty good machine. my favorite is the 250 gig memory because my old comp. was a 8 gig and it was full in three months.

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(sort of lengthy)

Hank-
Considering that Intel is going to drop prices on that processor as well as the much faster E8400 (3.0GHz) in July or thereabouts, you might want to hold off a bit since the overall price of a system should reflect the savings. The Optiplex has been a good staple for Dell in the past but unless you are buying one of their very high-end gaming PCs, that system is pretty much status quo-- even less IMHO. That 256MB video card they offer isn't anything special, the same for the 250GB HD. For future headroom you really should have nothing less than 512MB onboard vidro RAM. The 4 gigs of 800MHz RAM will likely run at 400MHz and with Win-XP you'll see a reality of about 3.5GB out of the 4 unless it's a 64-bit OS. I don't know what your needs or specific uses would be for a new 'puter, but for me I wanted something that could run the normal gambit of software, yet perform admirably for gaming.

The problems with most Dells, Gateways, HPs ect. is the BIOS is very limited for user settings. I have an old Optiplex, circa 2002 and it's constructed to last for many years as compared to present day Dells where cutting corners is quite obvious. I'll never go back to buying a ready-made system from a company since they often bundle crap software with it, and the mobos are on the limited, weak side for user flexibility.

If you have some computer savvy, perhaps you can create a custom build from sites like Tiger Direct, CyberPower PC, or NewEgg. I recently bought a tower only, which houses a E8400 3.0G Core 2, 320GB SATA drive, media card reader, floppy reader, Lightscribe DVD burner, 600watt dual rail PSU, nVidia 8600GT GPU with 1gig RAM, 4 GB of Corsair PC6400 RAM, custom gaming case with fan control, temp. meter. volume meter, 3 heat pipe copper CPU cooler, and an ASUS SLI mobo --- all for about $700.00 and I can safely overclock everything inside this case!
Since Circuit City is about to close their doors they have been placing many items on clearance so I got me a gamer's back-lit keyboard, wireless 5-button mouse, and a second DVD burner all for well under $100.00

Now I must admit that going it alone in piecing together a PC can have its downsides. Right now I get occasional system lockups, but I'm narrowing it down to RAM latency settings and I'm hopeful that once I dial in the right numbers, and sync the memory with the CPU, system instability will be a thing of the past. A small price to pay initially, for performance that's way beyond practically anything Dell offers and for much less money too.

Just last night I started building a second PC for me to use as a basic server and software test-bed. Someone discarded a nice mid-tower, complete with VIA mobo/ Pent IV @ 2.oGHz. Add in a 450w PSU, ATI 1650PRO GPU, 1.5 gig DDR RAM, two DVD drives, media card reader, floppy drive, USB expansion card, 2 HDDs, custom cooling efforts on my part and I'll have a 'puter for an investment of well under $100.00!!! And the mobo and RAM can be overclocked with ease.

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Thanks for the tip/reminder. I remember awhile ago promising myself that I would look into that next time I bought a new computer. I tend to get stiffed by customs on non-domestic electronics, unfortunately...

EDIT: Sweet, I see there's a .ca version of Tiger Direct, too!

 

The Motherboard ratings are normal.How many PCI slots available?

I'd double check with the Processor & the cooling fan to see whether I can sleep at night time while the computer is on.The latest Core™ 2 Duo Processors heat sink is smaller than the previous ones & also generates less heat.

Its worthwhile if it is a silent machine.

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Huh? What in the world are you talking about?
#1. The Core 2 chips generate far more heat than their predecessors, hence why the metal die is larger as are the thermal cooling devices for them.
#2. PCI slots? Who cares? Only 1 is needed in the modern world of PCIE cards. Sticking with PCI in a SATA, Core 2/Quad, DDR2/3 platform is a step in reverse!

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Hank- have you looked into the factory seconds from Dell & Gateway? Depending what their inventory has at the time you can sometimes get a high end unit for fairly cheap! And they carry the full factory warranty. You can read the details on their websites about "refurbs". A guy I work with bought one and it was amodel that never left the factory due to not meeting Q.C. standards. It was then rerouted back through, corrected and then sold at a huge discount. He's had no negative issues with it over the years.

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for what dell charge you can build your own

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Hmmmm, must be an echo in this forum--- I thought I just said that?

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Thanks for the help, everyone. In the end, I went with a Dell Optiplex 755, which is similar to the specs I'd posted above. The Optiplex series seem to be the only Dell computers still sold with parallel and serial ports. Also, the version I ordered comes with Vista business, with an XP downgrade option. Apparently you can "upgrade" to Vista anytime you're ready with the Optiplex. I guess we'll have to see if that ever happens.

Other differences to the specs above:
- 250GB drive with 3GB burst (?)
- 4GB, 2 DIMM RAM
- single optical drive (CD/DVD burning thingy)

 

well your opinion is not copyrighted is it ? and i happen to have the same opinion and didn't bother to read the thread completely

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my site:www.simons-photography.com
http://rushdenrotaract.org.uk

 

Microsoft officially stopped selling XP yesterday and as a very thoughtful customer service move on their part, they offer this so called "Vista downgrade to XP" for a sizeable cost!!! Sheesh!
I was at WalMart during lunch today and noticed that they now sell a complete Dell system incl. 19" LCD monitor. It's a 2.4G quad core w/ 3gig RAM, media card reader, multimedia system with a small built-in LCD monitor for previewing photos, etc., and all for $998.00!!! That's pretty cheap!

Walmart.com - Save money. Live better.

Oh real sneaky of you WalMart !!!! The URL I pasted automatically coded itself to rewording so we read it as senn above and not the usual http:// www. protocol

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Oh yes it is -- it's embedded.
The © is in there. When a violation occurs, it automatically generates the following reply: "Hmmmm, must be an echo in this forum--- I thought I just said that?"

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