What do you think of this system?

[Darklord]

I'm currently looking at buying a new PC and believe it or not it works out cheaper here in Australia to buy one from Dell rather than build one myself using OEM parts.
As good as Dell are (as far as brand name computers are concerned ) I have my doubts about some of the hardware used and I was wondering what some of you tech heads though of the following configuration.


DELL DIMENSION 4100 800MHz

DELL MINITOWER / 200W POWER SUPPLY

INTEL 815E (NO IDEA WHAT THE M/B IS LIKE, BUT IF ITS 815E I GUESS IT SHOULD BE PRETTY GOOD)

PENTIUM III 800EB

256MB 133MHZ SDRAM

30GB ULTRA ATA 7200RPM HD

NVIDIA 32MB GEFORCE2 DDR

12X IDE DVD ROM

CINEMASTER DVD DECODER CARD

SONY IDE CD-RW 8X/4X/32X

SOUND BLASTER LIVE DIGITAL VALUE

SPEAKERS: ALTEC LANSING ADA 885 (DOLBY DIGITAL/THX)

3COM 10/100 PCI NETWORK CARD

CONEXANT V.90/56K PCI MODEM

MICROSOFT NATURAL KEYBOARD PRO USB KEYBOARD

MICROSOFT INTELLIMOUSE PS/2

19" DELL TRINITRON FD MONITOR

MICROSOFT WINDOWS 98 SECOND EDITION

The above system will be used primarily for gaming, but also for digital video editing, graphical work (mainly using PhotoShop), MIDI production and business work. So I need a machine that can perform all these tasks at a nice fast pace. In all honesty FPS in Quake3 is my major concern though

Some questions I have are:

What do you think of motherboards based on the 815e chipset compared to the 820, BX and other comparable chipsets?

Is 200W power supply enough to run 5 PCI cards ( I will be adding a Firewire card at a later stage) as well as the AGP card and HD etc.. 200w seems awfully low.
If it is too low, is this an easy/cheap upgrade to perform?

What do you guys think of Dell motherboards? Do you know if they buy them direct from an OEM (if so which one) or do they build them themselves?

Is 256MB SDRAM overkill for gaming? If so would be 128MB be adequate as I'm already over budget as it is.

Anyone here ever heard the Altec Lansig ADA885 speakers in action what do you think of them?

Anyone here used or seen a Cinemaster DVD Decoder?


Thanks for the help.

 

[Chuffmaster2k]

In my opinion you can do without the extra memory if you have to. 256 is better, but not necessary. The power supply is really low. I would definitely change that out. You might not have problems, but it would be a wise investment. As far as the other stuff is concerned I'm afraid I can't offer much help. Good luck.

 

[Generalen]

Minitower??? the M/B must be a Micro ATX I think to fit in the case

 

[Electric Amish]

We bought one of these DELL systems with 815e chipset here at work. Haven't had any complaints,yet.

200w seems a bit low for that system, but I suppose Dell has tested the configuration....

All the parts look to be top of the line (from OEM standpoint).

256mb isn't required for gaming. 128mb would be fine if you need to cut the price back. If the extra $150 or so that the memory adds isn't a big deal, then I'd say go for the 256...I did.

Good luck.

amish

 

[KarsinTheHutt]

Decent stuff - the 4100 is Dell's best desktop. 815 is beter than 820 - I wouldn't touch 820 with a 2 meter pole.

DVD decoder isn't really necessary. I run software DVD decoding on my Katmai and its fine.

Dell uses OEM boards from Intel. They are similar to the retail ones. The board in my system is nearly exactly the same as the Seattle BX retail except for the serial number. The only disadvantage is lack of OCing, but at 800 MHz you don't really need to OC.

256 MB RAM is quite a bit, but photoshop might be faster with the extra ram.

Oh the power supply. Yes you probably want to get a 300 Watt supply with that, but you will have to install it yourself because I don't think Dell offers that option