Which desktop?

C

CelestialAlchemist

New Member
As many of you may know (lol oh, and its Drawmeclose:P)I've been looking at buying a new desktop pc, and I've askd pople in the guild about their preferences. I figured it would be easier if i posted links to the computers I'm looking at. I'd like to hear everyone's opinions on them, and which one seem better value for money. I'm looking at buy a pc for gaming (which is a gimme of course lol) and also getting into 3d graphics and Games design. I understand I'll end up upgrading it over the years, but I'm wondering which of the computers i link would be best as a starter.

Dell Gaming & Performance Desktops
http://www1.ap.dell.com/content/pro...ops_best?c=au&cs=audhs1&l=en&s=dhs&redirect=1

Mainly looking at th first three on the dell site, the fourth one is a bit outside my price range lol

Acer Desktops
http://www.shopacer.com.au/ecprod/X...odel/Catalogue.html?prod_line_code=1000,7100#
Looking at the Aspire E700 Series

HP Pavillion
http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/au/en/ho/WF25a/1090261-1111625-1116609-1116609-1116609-80193058.html
http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/au/en/ho/WF25a/1090261-1111625-1116609-1116609-1116609-80193055.html

Compaq Presario
http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/au/en/ho/WF25a/1090261-1111625-1123043-1123043-1123043-80193059.html

Any help would be greatly appreciated
 
Honestly, building your own would be best, but if you are unable to do that, as much as I hate to say, I would go Dell XPS 410, I have 2! I hate Dell with a passion, but their gaming PCs beat all other brands for your money. Acer and Compaq are more like economy PCs and are not easy to upgrade and have limited space, HP is alright, but they do not have SLI or CrossFire options.

I picked up my Dell XPS 410 in January, and it has many PCI ports, SLI ready, SATA HD with 4 more HD spots, everything is very quickly and easily removed, and the price isn't bad. I bought one for my wife a month ago, and here are the important specs: 2.4GB Dual Core 2 (NO NEED FOR QUAD FOR MANY YEARS), 2 GBs of RAM, 320 GB HD w/400GB external, 256MB nVidia graphics... Mine is the same except I have a 384MB ATI, because I love ATI... Hers, with a 20" widescreen was just over $1000, and both of ours run like a dream, with much room for expansion and upgrading...
 
Ah, you mean the Dell XPS 720? Yah, thats the one i was leaning towards. Not to mention with Dell over here in australia, you get free upgrades, delivery and discount on the prices depending on what deals they have going each month

And mainly looking at it for gaming, and getting into 3D graphics & computer art sometime in the next year or so
 
So an XPS 720 looks like it starts around 5k (w/ dual video cards) in the US:


https://secure.newegg.com/NewVersio...ber=8248367&WishListTitle=Build+This+Machine!

This is less than half the price and adding equivalent hardware (such as bumping it to an 8800GTX...or two) will still keep the price dramatically below Dell.

Typically, Dell is notorious for using proprietary mobos as well as the case design preventing you from swapping it out, so once you get it...you're stuck with it. Not to mention, liquid cooling, to say it nicely, is a pain (i.e. impossible) to put in a Dell (aside from the 720 H2Cs which have it already) due to case design.


If you want to blow a lot of money (really, a LOT..like 6-7k) on a high end gaming system, go to http://www.voodoopc.com/system/quotekitchenlast.aspx?spid=61 (owned by HP now...so technically, HP DOES offer SLI options :) ...you just pay out the arm and nose for it)
 
I love Dell. That being said, you can't overclock a Dell, and that is a pain too. If you have to do name brand, get the Dell, if not, go with the Newegg option quoted above.
 
I actually meant the XPS 410, because it is much cheaper... The only difference you get with the 720 is a neat LED case...
 
I think that signifies that the end is nigh!

You get more if you go with the 720 aside from the neat LED case :) the 720 models are AFAIK, the only Dells that offer high performance cooling, so there is that. Plus, the 720s come with parts such as memory factory OC'd.

Personally, I only buy brand names when I need to, like for a laptop, or the HTPC I purchased a while back since ...well, you have to to get CableCard tuners (but we won't go there...that's about a 1000 post topic in that very discussion alone) since I can upgrade parts at will instead of having to buy a complete new PC to say, upgrade the mobo.
 
I recently picked up an acer E700 from compusa this one in fact. The system has worked great so far and I bought a 8800 GTS card and it runs everything really nicely, played through Bioshock with DX10 settings and everything maxxed out at 1600-1200.

The one complaint I would make about the minitowers is the lack of space. There are slots for a ton of drives but the way the tower is setup makes it almost impossible to use any of them. Also the Tower uses an odd setup for the Power Supply making it quite hard to switch if you need more power (Though the standard one is running an 8800 GTS without any trouble for me).

I probably would not have purchased an acer had it not been a nice sale but I haven't been disapointed with it yet.
 
I would just build my own. I don't think I've ever going to buy a new computer again.
 
Ditto. If you've got the know-how, you can build an equivalent system for about half the cost of buying a preconfigured. I haven't bought off the shelf for about 8 years.
 
I don't think that is always true. The system I bought I priced out all the parts and I could not have built the same system and been able to afford a legit copy of xp or vista. Thats not even counting my own labor involved in putting a msystem together and getting any driver/os issues resolved.

If you keep an eye out on places like Fatwallet or slickdeals you can find some nice deals that are difficult to build a comparable system for the same price.
 
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