computer Upgrade

**Scotty** · 09 November 2008, 08:08 PM

Hi,
Well I am thinking of upgrading my present Pc and was wondering if I could get some un-biased opinions. My current PC is elitegroup motherboard wiht a Sempron 3000+ processor at 1.61 GH 32 bit, I have 2GB Ram with a Geforce 9800GT 512 Graphic accelerator. I mainly do graphics and gaming.
Most of the big retailers either carry Dell, Acer or HP bundles.
What would be my best bet?
Jim

**steve.ledger** · 09 November 2008, 08:16 PM

Good warranty, accessible fast and friendly support.
After that, the rest is up to your wallet.

Tip: Take some grains of salt with you to deal with super-store salespeople

**Scotty** · 09 November 2008, 08:29 PM

hi Sledger,
Thanks for quick reply! My son bought a HP machine but everything loaded when he purchased was HP products, he then Pruchased a Dell which he is happy with. I was inclined to the Dell brand and was curious to peoples thought on Dell products. As you might be aware I have issues with Xara Xtreme Pro 4 not being fully functional on my present machine, one of the reasons for considering an upgrade
Jim

**steve.ledger** · 09 November 2008, 08:37 PM

Originally Posted by Scotty

I was inclined to the Dell brand and was curious to peoples thought on Dell products.

That could incite biased comments, something you didn't want.
However, hardware quality aside - I can vouch for Dell warranty and support.
I have a Dell 24" LCD which is now out of it's 3 yr wty, but during this period it was replaced quickly and without fuss twice.

Of course in my position I always build PC's rather than buy off-the-shelf.

**iamtheblues** · 09 November 2008, 09:51 PM

I can recommend Dell. I have an Inspiron 530 desktop with a 20" monitor.
I have had it for a few months now, and I'm very pleased with it. It has 4GB of memory and Intel Core 2 Duo. It's impressively fast. The fan can be heard for the first few seconds at startup, but after that, it is really quiet, silent in fact. The DVD RW drive makes a slight noise when burning discs. But I imagine they all do. The website allows you to pick 'n mix between different components with good flexibility ie; size of hard drive(s) amount of memory, cpu, printers, graphics cards and various warranties. You might want to go for the top of the range graphics card if you are serious about gaming. The at home warranty is reassuring if you don't fancy getting under the hood. My father-in-law has always bought Dell; laptops and PCs, never had any problems with any of them.
Saludos,
Bob.

**pauland** · 09 November 2008, 10:00 PM

Originally Posted by Scotty

As you might be aware I have issues with Xara Xtreme Pro 4 not being fully functional on my present machine, one of the reasons for considering an upgrade
Jim

Why wouldn't it be fully functional on your machine? The spec for your machine probably surpasses the spec of most Xara users.

Paul

**steve.ledger** · 09 November 2008, 10:03 PM

Scotty's Xtreme functionality issue wasn't hardware related. He has problems with some filters not being available (HTML for example).

There's every chance a re format and full reinstall would fix that.
Though for a gamer, a Sempron is a bit low-end.

**Soquili** · 09 November 2008, 10:17 PM

Dell has good warranty service and as good a quality or maybe a bit better product as any off the shelf equipment.

If you know of a shop that custom builds computers and stands behind their product, I would recommend having a machine built to your needs.

The cost of a custom built machine is most reasonable and you don't get all the junk ware that off the shelf equipment is always loaded down with.

With off the shelf equipment I spend at least an hour removing everything except the OS before I install any of my preferred software.

**raynerj1** · 10 November 2008, 04:48 AM

Build it yourself... Then you only have what you want in the box and nothing else.

**pauland** · 10 November 2008, 06:54 AM

Originally Posted by raynerj1

Build it yourself... Then you only have what you want in the box and nothing else.

That's fine if you are comfortable with doing that (and can work out a solution where any problems may arise), but often sourcing separate components can be more expensive that getting the whole shebang from a vendor. In the case of vendors like Dell it's sometimes cheaper to go with default memory and hard disk then buy upgrades from third parties.

Paul (who has built his own systems but now mostly uses dell laptops).