Is this a decent Dell Pc for my lil Brother?

[Rags]

My parents are gonna get my brother a new PC because the old one he was using is starting to go. I offered to build him a decent one. But they wanted to go with something that came with a plan that if it blew up they would fix it. This is basically its speced. I am really undecided as far as dell's go. I do know that it is better then his old PC which had pent4 2.4Ghz with 512gig of ram, 160hd and a very old Radeon card. He does game a decent amount of time on WoW and is going to come back to FFXI this Feb.

The other thing is the G.C he can choose from either a 128MB ATI Radeon HD 2400 PRO, 256MB Radeon ATI HD 2600 XT, 256MB nVidia GeForce 8600 GTS, Nvidia GeForce 8800 GT.

PROCESSOR Intel® Core™2 Q6600 Quad-Core (8MB L2 cache,2.4GHz,1066FSB)
OPERATING SYSTEM Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium with Digital Cable Support
MEMORY 3GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 800MHz - 4 DIMMs
HARD DRIVE 500GB - 7200RPM, SATA 3.0Gb/s, 16MB Cache
OPTICAL DRIVE Dual Drives: 48x Combo + 16x DVD+/-RW w/ dbl layer write capable
MONITORS 22 inch SP2208WFP Wide Flat Panel with Webcam and Mic
VIDEO CARD 256MB nVidia GeForce 8600 GTS
SOUND CARD Integrated Sound Blaster®Audigy™ HD Software Edition
KEYBOARD Dell USB Keyboard
MOUSE Dell Optical USB Mouse edit
FLOPPY & MEDIA READER 3.5 in Floppy Drive
WI-FI AND MODEM 56K PCI Data Fax Modem

[Demetrio$]

8800GT

[Isiolia]

OPTICAL DRIVE Dual Drives: 48x Combo + 16x DVD+/-RW w/ dbl layer write capable

Depending on the model you're going with (this is an XPS I assume?) the default option is a DVD burner. The $40 two drive option adds the 48x Combo...as you probably know, $40 is easily enough to buy a second DVD burner to put in yourself if desired. For whatever reason, Dell doesn't offer this and jumps right to mixing a Blu-Ray drive in for hundreds of dollars.

Unless you're set on never cracking the case, I'd save $40 off the initial purchase and buy a better drive, possibly with better burning and/or playback software. But that's me.

SOUND CARD Integrated Sound Blaster®Audigy™ HD Software Edition

Note that you are effectively paying $25 for better drivers for the same 7.1 audio chip that's built into the motherboard either way. Again, I would opt to just go with the basic option here and, if desired, use the money towards a real upgrade (Dell will put an actual Soundblaster card in for $75 more as well).


Definitely go with the 8800GT for gaming.

[Rags]

I talked to a few people I know and they said a sound card was better then the on board sound. I for one have always used a sound card so I really have no clue if its true. On the sound card I meant to check the "Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Music". But I suppose we could always add the sound card later if he'd like it. So is the on board 7.1 just as good as the Sound Blaster or will their be noticeable difference?

As for the optical Drive its pretty much what he had in his previous system. So thats why we figured to just add it. I guess its something else I figured I could swap out in the future. If we go the 1 drive and the 7.1 on board it will only run 49 a month payments as apposed to 54 if we add the second drive and the sound card. Really our parents will just probably put it on the card but they use the dell price per month to give him a set price he will have to pay. Another thing is he will only be paying half that amount anyways.

[Isiolia]

The Sound Blaster HD Software Edition is -literally- the 7.1 onboard sound. You're paying $25 for a software product to "enhance" it. http://direct2dell.com/one2one/archive/ ... /7088.aspx

I haven't used it, so I couldn't give an opinion on the improvements. I think it'd be safe to assume, however, that if you are looking for a sound card to reduce CPU overhead compared to onboard, or provide better signal/noise or whatever, that this is not the way to go. It's a software DSP.

I have an X-Fi Extreme Music, and I'd say it's better than the integrated stuff, but there are other viable choices as well depending on your focus, and not all of them cost $100 or more.

With the drive, the main thing is that you can either get a 48X combo drive (DVD reader, CD burner), or take that $40 and go buy a second DVD burner. Most likely with PowerDVD and Nero OEM bundled. Now, you probably won't -need- that, as if the software bundle is similar to what the Latitudes 'n Optiplexes I get here at work have, you'll get Roxio and PowerDVD anyway. But to me, it's a better value to get a DVD burner for that same money, and I like Nero better than Roxio. Not a big deal either way really.

[Shuemue]

That machine will be pretty groovy with an 8800GT in there.

[izembo]

and the parents are ok with the price on that thing?

[Rags]

Yeah they really don't care about the price since they are going half. So he only has to spend 30$ a month on it while the parents will do the other 30$. Which really doesn't matter to him since 1 4hour day at work will pay his computer for the month and his FFXI/WoW basically.

[ryanjh]

In an attempt to minimize a whole bunch of similar threads, I'm going to post the laptop that I was looking into. I'm not really looking for adjustments on it (for monetary reasons mostly). I was mostly looking for an answer to how well this will function with FFXI? If there are any simple upgrades (under 100 bucks) i would love to hear them, but mostly just want to know whether or not it would be a waste of money in terms of FFXI.

Thanks for all the help:

Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T5250 (2MB cache/1.5GHz/667Mhz FSB), Genuine Windows® Vista Home Premium Edition, 1GB2 Shared Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz (2 Dimms), 160GB4 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive, Slot Load DVD+/-RW (DVD/CD read/write), 128MB NVIDIA® GeForce® 8400M GS, Intel Next-Gen Wireless-N Mini-card, High Definition Audio 2.0

[Shuemue]

Won't be anything amazing, but should handle it okay.