How cheap can you do it?

[eflat123]

Please refer to my above post: "And that's because the OS isn't the one that originally came with the dell."

It could still be an OEM version and thus now tied to the hardware.

 

[Kekewy]

It originally came with XP home, the OS it has now is XP Pro and is a retail version. Also, the dell os disk isn't tied to the hardware, or at least I've never seen one that is. It's the driver disks that are tied to the hardware. I've used an OS disk to install XP on several machines, regardless of brand. Another friend of mine just used her dell OS disk to put Vista back on her Mom's HP a month ago. There's just the bare minimum of drivers on it so you have to install drivers for everything. On a new build that's not really an issue because you'd be installing drivers for everything anyway.

 

[DominionSeraph]

Why not buy a Dell inspiron 580 desktop all that you might still need is the video card but I doubt it from what you are talking about doing with it. it does have a pci-express x16 slot

He's not gonna be doing much in the way of gaming on Lynnfield integrated graphics; and I wouldn't bet that the Dell PSU can push a GTX 460.
So you're looking at $500 (plus tax!) for a dual-core i3 550 Inspiron 580 that still needs a video card ($100) and probably PSU ($35). It does come with Windows 7. But it also comes with all 4 DIMMS already filled.
Oh, and the Inspiron 580 doesn't even qualify for free shipping at $500. I just put one in my cart and am looking at $49 in shipping and $33 in tax on a $499 system. So that would be $717 total for just a dual-core i3 550/GTX 460.

As David said... $605 i5 2500k build. It has the God-tier processor, the fastest 7200RPM hard drive on the market (no telling what the Inspiron 580 has), SATA 6Gb/s and USB 3.0, 2 DIMMS open, a case that looks to have much better cooling, and he doesn't pay tax unless he lives in California.

I honestly would find it VERY hard to recommend anything between this and the $370 AMD build. Upping video card doesn't make much sense since it's such a deal at $99 and the AMD isn't going to really take advantage of a $170+ video card (and the Sandy Bridge doesn't have the budget.) And upping the CPU to anything significantly better puts you so close to the i5 2500k
This isn't bad:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboD...t=Combo.581470
Phenom II X4 955 with Gigabyte GA-800GMA-UD2H
But we're within $90 of Sandy Bridge.

 

[mfenn]

I honestly would find it VERY hard to recommend anything between this and the $370 AMD build. Upping video card doesn't make much sense since it's such a deal at $99 and the AMD isn't going to really take advantage of a $170+ video card (and the Sandy Bridge doesn't have the budget.) And upping the CPU to anything significantly better puts you so close to the i5 2500k

I agree wholeheartedly with this. Sandy Bridge is so fast and so well-priced that it makes pretty much anything other than the Athlon II line terrible bang-for-the buck.

 

[Davidh373]

I agree wholeheartedly with this. Sandy Bridge is so fast and so well-priced that it makes pretty much anything other than the Athlon II line terrible bang-for-the buck.

Agreed.

 

[mnewsham]

I would have to argue that you might want to wait for the new i3 line to come out and see how it performs and what it is priced at.