The ability to be able to customise the computer on the Dell website is a very handy feature. However many of the upgrade prices are not discounted much, or are even slightly inflated to the price you would pay if you brought them yourself. Considering Dell get to keep the 'old' component (in most cases), and also considering Dells buying power then there should be a huge reduction.
I brought this PC from dells website for £391 currently it has free shipping, but when the offer is off it costs around £50 I believe! Which would really bump the price up.
First Impressions: ------------------------ The PC looks fantastic, the black case is alot better than the usual beige computer case colour! The case appears to be of a high quality. Also the monitor, mouse and keyboard are in the matching black colour. Makes your computer look that bit different.
On the outside: ---------------------
There are a number of ports on this machine: -1 x RJ45 port - Broadband/Local Network ready! -2 x PS2 ports - for connetion of keyboard and mouse -6 x USB ports - four of which are on the rear, and two on the front -1 x Serial port -1 x Parallel port
There are two external 5.25" Drive bays, one of which is occupied by the CD-Rom. There is also one external 3.5" Drive Bay for the optional floppy disk.
Inside of the machine: ----------------------------------------
-Intel 2.4Ghz -256MB DDR333 Ram -80GB 7200RPM Hard drive -Dell 17" CRT Monitor -Windows XP Home -48xCD-Rom -Dell standard keyboard and mouse -Microsoft Works 7.0
Originally i wanted to have a machine with 512MB of RAM, however to have this upgraded to 512MB by dell it costs £94.00 which is rediculous. You could easily buy DDR Ram for this money, you could even buy kingston ram for this much! So i decided to buy it with 256MB, i intend to buy a stick of 512MB and sell the original 256MB.
There are 2 Dimm DDR sockets on the motherboard, which support upto 1024MB DDR Ram, which is sufficiant for todays standards.
There's one internal 3.5" Drive bay occupied by the hard drive.
There are three PCI slots for future expansion, which isn't a huge ammount, I suppose it is because it is a micro tower.
One thing that is dissapointing is that a floppy drive is not included as standard. Although floppy is old technology, it is still useful to transfer files quickly. To have a floppy drive fitted costs £23.50.... even in dixons you can get one for under £20 retail boxed! (and considering dixons usually overcharge)
Conclusion: ----------------
I do like this machine, and the basic machine is quite good value for money
You pay a lot for the name, and high quality. The quality is very good, however it is no better than my other locally built (cheeper) PC.
If you must have a Dell then I suggest you buy the basic machine and upgrade it yourself.
It is a beautiful machine, but there is not enough that is unique about it to justify paying so much extra. Dells service is good, but i prefer the service of my local computer shop.... I think next time i will buy from there.
More details
Reliability
Good
Memory / capacity
Satisfactory
Range of Extra Features
Good
Instruction manual
Good
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