Dell 9200 w/ E6300 for $500 - Deal or No Deal?

[GreenGhost]

The deal includes a 22" Dell, for $800, tax & shipping included.
Subtracting the price of the monitor, you have it for $475.

Vista basic, 160GB, no burner, no memory (well, 512MB, it's like selling a car with no tires).

If it's for someone else, a plain-vanila, non-overclocker family guy, would you buy it?

Something else?
I think it would be difficult building it for less, agree?

 

[Hemsky]

All Dell's have proprietary parts when it comes to things like PSU, DVD/CD drive and the like. Upgrading the parts would require you to buy Dell parts. IMO, just to get it at an acceptable level will cost you a fair bit.

Besides, it's a Dell...

I work for a computer parts dealer and the only thing I get are complaints on how Dell's will break down 1 week after the warranty expires. Not only that, but it's rare to find any pre-built systems nowadays that actually come with a disk to install Windows.

 

[lobbyone]

512MB for Vista? Ouch! If you enjoy waiting for your system, sure why not! Even with Vista Basic, 512MB is gonna be sluggish at worst

 

[engiNURD]

Go for the Dimension E521 instead ($399 w/o monitor), its a much better deal for a non-overclocker family guy. AX2 3800+, 1GB ram, 160GB HDD, GeForce 6150 board/video, etc. That should be more than able for such a person. Dell's are fine. While a lot of models use proprietary parts, there are also a lot that don't. How often do you upgrade a dell anyway? lol. We've been using dells at work for well over 5 years, and not one has broken down to the point where it wasn't easily fixed. Take care of your system, and it will work fine. Dell's are great for the non-demanding avg joe's.

 

[andy04]

dude its so much more fun building your own s1ht... why do you want to loose that fun

 

[GreenGhost]

I'm building another (e4300) for myself. When I was about to buy a monitor, I asked myself if I should recommend this buy, as the discount would come when you upgrade to the 22".

Certainly, the price for a usable computer would be $475 plus $70 for 1GB Value memory.

Building one would be about

case + ps = 100
mb = 100
e6300 = 175
mem = 70 (1GB, value)
hd = 60
os = 75 (Academic discount)
ms+kb = 30
-----------------
grand total: $610

I don't see how to save it, unless you buy cheaper mb and ps.