Dell Vostro. With 19 inch lcd. One gig ram. Intel dual core. Windows XP for 399.00.

[jalaram]

Originally posted by: Rickten
I'm very tempted to get this. Does anyone know if a standard height video card can fit in this case?

edit: found the answer to this on the dell forums. The slim only accepts low profile video cards. good to know, will not order.

There's always the 8400GS. However, the sale isn't good today. Will have to wait until next time.

 

[Zap]

Couple more thoughts on this Vostro... I mentioned no legacy ports. On the rear there are only the VGA, four USB and six audio ports. Nothing else. On the front are four USB and two audio.

The case used thumbscrews... that were NOT knurled. WTF!?!??! Had to use a screwdriver to get them loose the first time.

 

[bamacre]

Originally posted by: Zap
Couple more thoughts on this Vostro... I mentioned no legacy ports. On the rear there are only the VGA, four USB and six audio ports. Nothing else. On the front are four USB and two audio.

The case used thumbscrews... that were NOT knurled. WTF!?!??! Had to use a screwdriver to get them loose the first time.

If you get the time, can you look and see how difficult, or easy, it would be to replace the PSU?

 

[Zap]

Originally posted by: bamacre
If you get the time, can you look and see how difficult, or easy, it would be to replace the PSU?

Sure thing.

BTW, for those interested, the CPU cooler in it looks near identical to this one, just with no label on the fan.

 

[Jules]

any chance this might come back?

 

[Engineer]

Originally posted by: MyStupidMouth
any chance this might come back?

I would say yes. Seems like it shows up every three to four weeks and with Christmas just around the corner, chances are this (or better) deal will be back.

 

[cmbehan]

Originally posted by: cmbehan
I went ahead and ordered the mini-tower last night.

I upgraded to the 20" monitor and E6550 for a total of $140 more so my final price is $560 including shipping and tax.

I'll take it. Add a mid-level video card and you've got a pretty decent box for less than $700.

Ordered around midnight on Wednesday morning and the machine was on my doorstep on Friday at noon.

Great system for the price. Not what everyone is looking for, but solid all-around machine.

 

[Zap]

Originally posted by: techs
What is really cool are the new options like "No pre-installed trialware"

Mine came with Google Desktop. I know many consider that a "lesser" evil, but man it sure slowed down the system because first thing it did was to start indexing the drive. Otherwise it was really pretty clean. MS Works was installed. Would not have chosen it except de-selecting it didn't cut any cost, so I figure I'd get it. I think Dell actually shipped me a CD of MS Works with the system. Adobe Reader 8.xx was installed, which IMO is okay. Some "lite" version of PowerDVD was installed. After I got rid of Google Desktop, the system seemed nice and snappy.

Originally posted by: bamacre
how difficult, or easy, it would be to replace the PSU?

Very easy. Just unplug all the drives, unhook the cables from the various places on the chassis that has cable hooks, remove the normal 4 screws and it should fall down and hit your HSF pretty quickly. :Q J/K, you'd want to lay down the tower before unscrewing it.

The Bestec PSU looks to be completely standard ATX. It puts out 18A on the +12v so it should be good enough for a "fully loaded" system that doesn't need additional power plugs that it doesn't already have. It has four SATA and one FDD power plug (exactly matching number of ports on the motherboard), along with 24 pin ATX and 4 pin +12v. That's it. If you can install it without needing additional plugs, then it should work.

Note that the stock PSU is 140mm deep. There is a cable "hook" that is part of the chassis which will interfere with any PSU that is deeper than around 160mm.

My next step is to get some conductive ink for some BSEL modding madness! I'm going to steal the E2140 out of it and replace it with a Celeron 420, pin modded to 2.66GHz. I've already "pretested" that Celeron in another board at that speed at stock Vcore and it was stable (running torture tests off UBCD). Then I'll use the E2140 in my second Abit IP35-E. Hopefully it does as well as my other two E2140 chips (which I've sold already).

 

[Basilisk]

Never heard of "Vostro" until Saturday, when I was requested to help a friend by installing a new computer at her Mother's house. The process was a nightmare, but it wasn't the Vostro's fault,it was mainly dial-up problems/delays and data-transferring issues between two incompatible machines.

Some things to note:
- No internal IDE connectors -- only S-ATA and a floppy port -- meaning I couldn't cable in the olde HD to copy over files.
- No floppy drive on the unit I worked with... but there was the a face plate permitting one to add a floppy.
- No parallel port on back -- not uncommon but 'meant replacing a printer in our case.
- Only a VGA port on m/b; the unit I worked with had a 1 VGA+1 DVI graphics-card installed. The system refused to virgin-boot off the m/b VGA with a graphics card installed; then it didn't display anything on the DVI-connected monitor during a virgin boot, so we had to use the VGA on the card.

The Vostro seemed like a reasonable machine, although its name is plug-ugly.

Pardon any insane typos above as the laptop I'm typing on has some issue that results in my typing jumping all-around the entry box in mid-sentence; I'm not used to laptops... perhaps some part of my hand is hitting a key that causes this... I've probably typed everything herein 3 times and I've gotta shut this down!

 

[amdskip]

Basilisk, do yourself a favor and get a ide to usb adapter. I've used mine many many times and they work great.
Floppy drives are dead. Should have gotten a parallel to usb adapter or a pci parallel port card.

The video is setup to work just as you described. Inserting a card disables the onboard and it's pretty much expected that the card defaults to vga until you get the drivers and everything setup first.

 

[WasabiTheNinjaPimp]

Originally posted by: Basilisk
- Only a VGA port on m/b; the unit I worked with had a 1 VGA+1 DVI graphics-card installed. The system refused to virgin-boot off the m/b VGA with a graphics card installed

This is standard and expected behavior.

 

[Zap]

Originally posted by: Basilisk
the laptop I'm typing on has some issue that results in my typing jumping all-around the entry box in mid-sentence; I'm not used to laptops... perhaps some part of my hand is hitting a key that causes this...

Your thumb is probably touching the touchpad.

Originally posted by: amdskip
Basilisk, do yourself a favor and get a ide to usb adapter.

Seconded.

$9.99 plus shipping and supports optical drives, EIDE hard drives, SATA drives and even notebook EIDE drives. No enclosure, but this is perfect for temporary use.

 

[Engineer]

Found at FW....Credit cgerlach

Price $449 with FREE next business day shipping!

Dell Small Business 200 Slim Tower
Core 2 Duo
XP Home or Vista Home
1 GB DDR2 SDRAM
160 Hard Drive
Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 3100
16x DVD+/- RW Drive
E198WFP 19" widescreen analog flat panel display

e value code 65028-brpcs0a

link

[/quote]


Not bad for a C2D E4500 and 160GB SATA drive (not to mention 19" LCD and dual layer DVD burner). Windows XP Home or Vista Basic (your choice) included.

 

[bamacre]

Originally posted by: Zap

Originally posted by: techs
What is really cool are the new options like "No pre-installed trialware"

Mine came with Google Desktop. I know many consider that a "lesser" evil, but man it sure slowed down the system because first thing it did was to start indexing the drive. Otherwise it was really pretty clean. MS Works was installed. Would not have chosen it except de-selecting it didn't cut any cost, so I figure I'd get it. I think Dell actually shipped me a CD of MS Works with the system. Adobe Reader 8.xx was installed, which IMO is okay. Some "lite" version of PowerDVD was installed. After I got rid of Google Desktop, the system seemed nice and snappy.

Originally posted by: bamacre
how difficult, or easy, it would be to replace the PSU?

Very easy. Just unplug all the drives, unhook the cables from the various places on the chassis that has cable hooks, remove the normal 4 screws and it should fall down and hit your HSF pretty quickly. :Q J/K, you'd want to lay down the tower before unscrewing it.

The Bestec PSU looks to be completely standard ATX. It puts out 18A on the +12v so it should be good enough for a "fully loaded" system that doesn't need additional power plugs that it doesn't already have. It has four SATA and one FDD power plug (exactly matching number of ports on the motherboard), along with 24 pin ATX and 4 pin +12v. That's it. If you can install it without needing additional plugs, then it should work.

Note that the stock PSU is 140mm deep. There is a cable "hook" that is part of the chassis which will interfere with any PSU that is deeper than around 160mm.

My next step is to get some conductive ink for some BSEL modding madness! I'm going to steal the E2140 out of it and replace it with a Celeron 420, pin modded to 2.66GHz. I've already "pretested" that Celeron in another board at that speed at stock Vcore and it was stable (running torture tests off UBCD). Then I'll use the E2140 in my second Abit IP35-E. Hopefully it does as well as my other two E2140 chips (which I've sold already).

Awesome.

Did you replace the PSU? If so, with which one?

 

[Zap]

Originally posted by: bamacre
Did you replace the PSU? If so, with which one?

I checked with a Fortron FSP400-60GLN but I left the original in there. I'm fairly positive that I won't need to upgrade the PSU unless I use a video card that needs the PCI-E power plug.

 

[Zap]

Alright, trying to do the BSEL mod and it is being a PITA. Masking off area with tape, let it dry, peel off tape... the stuff comes off with the tape. GRrrrrr! I'm trying a thicker line now, but that will prevent me from doing the 1333FSB mod since that requires two lines and I'm running out of room.

 

[Jules]

Anymore good deals? Im not intrested in the slim one. Id rather have the mini tower.

 

[bamacre]

Originally posted by: Zap
Alright, trying to do the BSEL mod and it is being a PITA. Masking off area with tape, let it dry, peel off tape... the stuff comes off with the tape. GRrrrrr! I'm trying a thicker line now, but that will prevent me from doing the 1333FSB mod since that requires two lines and I'm running out of room.

Sounds like loads of fun.

I looked at some Inpirons and Vostros, but it seems like after replacing the PSU, it's just not worth buying them over my cost of XPS 410's and Precision 390's. No need to replace their PSU's.

 

[Engineer]

Originally posted by: MyStupidMouth
Anymore good deals? Im not intrested in the slim one. Id rather have the mini tower.

The only mini-tower deal is the $429 right now (that I know of).

 

[Jules]

Originally posted by: Engineer

Originally posted by: MyStupidMouth
Anymore good deals? Im not intrested in the slim one. Id rather have the mini tower.

The only mini-tower deal is the $429 right now (that I know of).

Damn, Im thinking about ordering this but i rather have the mini tower so later on i can get a better card.

 

[KPACOTKA]

Dell sent me some teaser that on 19th will be available some super cheap machine. So I'm in waiting mode now.

 

[Zap]

I may give up on the BSEL mod... spending more time on it than it is worth. The conductive ink just won't stick to the CPU... comes right off.

Originally posted by: KPACOTKA
Dell sent me some teaser that on 19th will be available some super cheap machine. So I'm in waiting mode now.

Remember to post here! If it isn't a Vostro, create a new thread.

 

[dman]

Posted below, better deal (with coupon needed):
http://www.dell.com/content/pr...?c=us&cs=04&l=en&s=bsd



If above ends, There's a semi-regular deal for $549

http://configure.us.dell.com/d...999&oc=brpc4ga&x=0&y=0

Intel® Core?2 Duo Proc E4500 (2.20GHz, 2MB L2 Cache, 800FSB)
Genuine Windows Vista® Home Basic
Dell 20 inch Widescreen E207WFP Analog Flat Panel Display
1GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM 667MHz - 2DIMMs
160GB Serial ATA Hard Drive (7200RPM) w/DataBurst Cache?
Single Drive: 48x CD Burner / DVD-ROM Combo Drive
128MB NVIDIA® GeForce® 8300GS
No Floppy Drive
No Modem Option
Integrated 7.1 Channel Audio

While that base config is not so much a deal you can upgrade to Analog w/ DVI 22" WS LCD ($70) and/or Geforce 8600GTS ($80). No DVDRW but if you are handy can get that from elsewhere for less than Dell.

Anyway, not worthy of it's own thread but just sharing options.

 

[Jules]

Originally posted by: dman
There's a semi-regular deal on a higher end Vostro 400 @ $549
http://configure.us.dell.com/d...999&oc=brpc4ga&x=0&y=0

Intel® Core?2 Duo Proc E4500 (2.20GHz, 2MB L2 Cache, 800FSB)
Genuine Windows Vista® Home Basic
Dell 20 inch Widescreen E207WFP Analog Flat Panel Display
1GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM 667MHz - 2DIMMs
160GB Serial ATA Hard Drive (7200RPM) w/DataBurst Cache?
Single Drive: 48x CD Burner / DVD-ROM Combo Drive
128MB NVIDIA® GeForce® 8300GS
No Floppy Drive
No Modem Option
Integrated 7.1 Channel Audio

While that base config is not so much a deal you can upgrade to Analog w/ DVI 22" WS LCD ($70) and/or Geforce 8600GTS ($80). No DVDRW but if you are handy can get that from elsewhere for less than Dell.

Anyway, not worthy of it's own thread but just sharing options.

Damn, gonna have to wait.

The rig now is killing me with its 256mb of ram

 

[Jules]

I ended up getting this.



If you are interested in a more customizable system (which includes a normal size mid tower case), consider
this Vostro 400 configuration for $539 after 10% coupon 707VR8CPM50QCJ

Intel Core2 Duo Proc E4500 (2.20GHz, 2MB L2 Cache, 800FSB)
Genuine Windows XP Home Edition Or Vista Home Basic
Memory 2GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM 800MHz - 2DIMMs
Monitor Dell 20 inch Widescreen E207WFP Analog Flat Panel Display
128MB NVIDIA GeForce 8300GS
250GB Serial ATA Hard Drive (7200RPM) w/DataBurst Cache
Integrated 10/100 Ethernet
16X (DVD+/-RW) Burner Drive
Integrated 7.1 Channel Audio
1 Year On-Site Service, Parts + Labor, 24x7 Phone Support