Ouch

[desertfox04]

My cousin was looking for a computer for college, and was lured into buying a high end dell. All he's going to use it for is gaming and downloading music.

Dimension 8400
Dimension 8400 Pentium® 4 Processor 540 with HT Technology (3.20GHz, 800 FSB)
Memory 1GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 400MHz (2x512M)
Keyboard Dell ® Quietkey ® Keyboard
Monitor FREE UPGRADE! New 17 in E172FP Flat Panel Display
Video Card 128MB PCI Express? x16 (DVI/VGA/TV-out) ATI Radeon? X300 SE
Hard Drive 160GB Serial ATA Hard Drive (7200RPM)
Dual Layer DVD burner
Floppy Drive and Additional Storage Devices 3.5 in Floppy Drive
Operating System Microsoft® Windows® XP ProfessionalWPXP


Unit Price: $2,024.00

Poor kid, I think he was planning on playing Half Life 2 and Doom III. And they gave him an x300 SE.

I think most of us are thinking of what we could of built with $2000.

Me? I would of got him...

AMD Athlon 64 3500+ ($400)
Abit KV8 ($120)
OCZ EB PC3200 (2X512mb) ($300)
Geforce 6800 GT ($450)
NEC 2510a Dual Layer DVD Burner ($80)
Seagate 160gb S-ATA ($120)
Floppy/Flash combo ($30)
NEC SuperBright Diamondton 19" ($250)
Antec 430W TruePower PSU ($70)
Case(I'd give him a choice of cases, let him pick the one he likes) ($70)
Microsoft Mouse and Keyboard combo ($30)

Total: $1920

And BTW, I didn't have the heart to tell him how bad he got screwed.

 

[nick1985]

OWNED

 

[WooDaddy]

One thing us "techies" forget is that we don't need no stinking warranty or toll-free support. Your cousin might.. and yeah, yeah.. he/she could always call you. As much as it pains us to think, they could probably do just a good enough job as we could. Don't worry, they still think of us as the superior computer users.

Also, you forgot the cost of XP and the other bundled software that comes with the Dell.. Scary.. it almost looks like buying a pc is as cost effective as making a pc... or actually more cost effective.

WoooOOOOOOooooo!!

 

[WooDaddy]

Originally posted by: nick1985
OWNED

Heheheh... Yeah and that too! :evil:

 

[jpeyton]

Wow, he got a full rectal by Dell.

Does he have IM? Cuz I don't mind telling him the bad news.

HOLY SH!T

BTW, I've configured faster A64/6800GT/19"LCD systems for 25% less than what he paid. All top shelf parts too.

 

[LTC8K6]

He's not going to like gaming with the X300 or that LCD. In Dell's defense, there just aren't many PCI-E cards out yet to put in these systems. He's lucky that he'll be able to upgrade that card.

 

[desertfox04]

Ignorance is bliss, he's happy as he is, until he trys to run a next gen game. I suppose I would of got him a plain 6800 and used the extra $150 for OS. And most of the parts come with software that is superior to what dell uses.

Plus I would of bought from Newegg, I could of gotten him a customer appreciation gift, like a T-shirt. I don't see dell giving away t-shirts.
They give away customer un-appreciation gifts, like crappy tech support from India.
I got a free copy of Far Cry as my appreciation gift

 

[dullard]

The 4600 is the Dell to get. 1 GB of DDR2 is damn expensive. Plus there is already a ~$200 premium just to have a Dell computer start with the number 8.

That said, you took a lot of liberties in making the comparison. A 17" LCD costs far more than that 19" CRT you choose. Sure I'd much rather have a 19" CRT than a 17" LCD, but your cousin wanted an LCD. Also what about Windows XP Pro? Heck if he just got the home version of Windows, he would have saved nearly $100 from Dell.

 

[milehigh]

Originally posted by: WooDaddy
Also, you forgot the cost of XP and the other bundled software that comes with the Dell.. Scary.. it almost looks like buying a pc is as cost effective as making a pc... or actually more cost effective.

WoooOOOOOOooooo!!

'

I agree...I wanted to look at making a few extra bucks so I priced out a couple systems to sell complete with KB, mouse, speakers, LEGAL OS,etc...and it is very difficult to compete with retail systems and make any money.

I won't build a computer for anybody without adding in at least $300 profit which makes it very difficult to stay price competitive with Dell, BB, CC etc...

 

[Macro2]

Hey, someone has to take the full rectal from Dell so Dell can balance the low profit or loss they take in the low end stuff on special.

 

[nick1985]

what does the X300 compare to? i know its god-awful. a 9200?

 

[CraigRT]

Originally posted by: nick1985
what does the X300 compare to? i know its god-awful. a 9200?

man that would suck!

 

[CVSiN]

Sooo tempted.. must hold back anti dell oppionion.... cant hold it.....



OMFG you got PWNED!
somewhere in a corner office at Dell in Austin.. an Exec is looking at an order sheet going.. Hey Bob look at this retard!

 

[MercenaryForHire]

Originally posted by: CraigRT

Originally posted by: nick1985
what does the X300 compare to? i know its god-awful. a 9200?

man that would suck!

X300SE = 9600SE.

- M4H

 

[mikecel79]

Originally posted by: dullard
The 4600 is the Dell to get. 1 GB of DDR2 is damn expensive. Plus there is already a ~$200 premium just to have a Dell computer start with the number 8.

That said, you took a lot of liberties in making the comparison. A 17" LCD costs far more than that 19" CRT you choose. Sure I'd much rather have a 19" CRT than a 17" LCD, but your cousin wanted an LCD. Also what about Windows XP Pro? Heck if he just got the home version of Windows, he would have saved nearly $100 from Dell.

Like dullard said. Plus at that price he's probably getting a 3 year warranty on everything. I priced one out with as close to the specs as listed and it had a 3 year warranty. What about other software like Office, or AV, MusicMatch and anything else Dell provides. It's hard to beat Dell when doing a full-featured system with a LEGAL OS and applications.