Cheap, decent desktop

Yeah, you have to go to the AAA web site, then follow their link to Dell Home and apply the coupon code they gave you at checkout. I think if you go to Dell Home directly and try the code it might not work, and it doesnt work on the Dell Small Biz site. Not sure if it "stacks" with other discounts, but usually systems that are discounted off the top do take a stacked discount like AAA or fatcash. Its only when Dell sends you a promo code in email that you have to type in during the checkout process that the stacking might not work.

If you're still employed (no such luck here) your employer may have an "Employee Purchase" plan with Dell, which is through their EPP program. Some tasty deals there but I have no idea how it works...either you have a code from your company or a link from your company's web site or some such. Current and former military also can buy Dell gear through the militarys version of the EPP program.

The non-slimline 530 is a nice box. Its very quiet. Good expansion. Easy to work on. Unless they've changed it since the last time I saw the innards, it has a single large fan on the back with a cowling tube down to the processor area and no separate processor fan, which are usually small and noisy. If you stick with the x3100 onboard graphics, that means one big fan pulling air through the system. Thats about the same setup as the HP desktop I bought early last year. With a core2duo, 2GB of ram and a raid 1 sata pair, it runs about 103 degrees in the box and pulls 67-75 watts with the monitor off. With that thermal and energy profile, you dont mind leaving it on as a home server.

I'd cancel and get that 530 to get the better specs and the much longer warranty, keep which ever monitor (your old or new) looks better once you fire it up, and sell the other one on craigslist for $100-125. It'll go pretty quick.
 
I didn't know how fast these prices on Dell change. The 530 I was looking at yesterday went up $20 today. I ended up canceling my order and went with a cert refurbish. $309

Vostro 200 Mini
Core 2 Duo
2GB SDRAM
160GB HD
16X DVD +/- RW DL
XP Home

Not sure if it has a 10/100 card. I want to wire this one since it will be sitting right next to my router.

Sometimes I think Dell logs hits and bumps up pricing accordingly.
 
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They do a lot of dynamic price adjustment based on production line utilization, component stocking, who is looking at what, and who is ordering what. If you dont like the price on something, wait a while. I dont think they use any user cookies, but I havent checked into that recently...

I havent seen anything made by Dell in the last 5 years that didnt have at least a 10/100 port on the back. As far as I know, all the Vostro's have at least a 10/100 and some have a 10/100/1000.
 
Uh oh.

The Dell Online Store: Build Your System

530 full tower, Core2 quad processor, 3gb ram, 500GB drive, x3100 graphics, dvd burner, no monitor...$499. There ya go ClifP...

Add a 19" monitor with or without the glossy finish for $190.

Warranties are expensive on this.

And it probably wont be there tomorrow, if its even there later on today.
 
How are you getting to these cheap builds? I've tried many different paths and the cheapest quad I could fine was 599 or 699 to start.

I think I keep what I got and spend the extra 200 on something else.
 
You need the direct link, which sometimes is mailed to some people. Dell is weird...you come in from an affiliate link and they give you some deals and not others, different affiliate, different deals.

I just check into fatwallet.com or slickdeals.net a few times a day. Look into their hot deals forum and search for dell or hp, or do an ambiguous search for something like "GHz" or "GB" or "Core" to see systems, since many posts say something like "Dell - 3GHz Core Duo 500GB..."

You can also do a search and then ask it to notify you immediately on any new posts containing that search query. You do need to become a site member for that, but thats no harder than registering for any other forum.
 
Not stellar, but decent. Mid size tower so it has a little more expansion than the slim tower.

The Dell Online Store: Build Your System

Dual core, 1GB, 160GB, x3100 video, 19" screen, $379. Upgrade to the 20" for $30. Bump to 250/320GB disks is reasonable but all the other upgrades including the longer warranties are spendy.

$29 to bump it to Vista from XP and I'd stick some of my own memory in it later to bring it to 2GB if you're not going to run XP.

Good if you need something now, otherwise I'd wait a bit.
 
While you're looking at computers, this is a good deal on a humongous external disk drive for backups or nearline storage.

Western Digital 1TB My Book External Hard Drives 1TB at OfficeMax

Use codes SPRING or OFFICEMAX for an extra $15 off. $194 for a full TB of external storage is decent. I have the same unit with a smaller disk in it and its been a good performer. Quiet, cool and it turns on and off with the computer automatically if you leave the USB cable connected.

There are a handful of off brand externals in this size range at the same price, but this brand name unit has been selling at discount in the $230-240 range. This is $229 at costco right now.

Only thing that'd make me look elsewhere is if my PC had an e-sata connection, as thats a bit speedier than USB2.0
 
Dell Outlet Home & Home Office - Refurbished Computers - Refurbished PC - Refurbished Computer

Dell outlet is having a sale. 20% off using coupon code S3G10Z$00NH9V7 which expires after 750 uses.

Saw some pentium dual cores with 250/320GB, 2gb ram, vista premium about $309-319 -20%. Also saw some core 2 duo 2200/2400s with 500gb, 3gb, vista premium and a decent mid range video card for 379-450 -20%

Again, most of these "refurbs" are machines people bought and sent back within a month, or they were DOA's that got sent back, fixed, rerun through the QA process and put in the refurb bin. I didnt see any that are old machines that would have been in use for any period of time.
 
On and those Psystar guys are taking orders for their $399 mac clone and their 999 mac pro clone.

Looks like they're going to get into a legal battle with Apple whose OS license states it cant be installed on non apple hardware.

The company fights back by saying that apple is being monopolistic and requiring people to pay 4x the cost for the hardware just to get the OS.

Hmmm...4x the price...where have I heard that before?

Their $399 machine specs superior in every way to the mac mini, yet is cheaper.

One thing you may run into is that the apple OS does a hardware check to make sure that its being installed on a real apple machine, as do the apple updates. Looks like these guys are using some of the well known ways to subvert the checks. If you're technically inclined, you can do this yourself.

$399 for a pretty decent mac clone isnt too bad. Bet the company is driven into the ground legally in about 2 weeks though.
Mac Clone Maker Psystar Shuts Online Store Again - Yahoo! News
 
For just basic computer needs (email, pix, word processing, etc) for a non-gamer, is there really any need to future-proof by going for a quad over a core2duo? At least at the moment, Dell has a quad available for $499 but also has several core2duo's at their refurbished site in the mid-$300 range. My HP Pavilion Slimline with an AMD Athlon 64 (which just died) was quite slow whenever anything was running in the background so I assume a core2due will be a step up. And most certainly a step up from this old Dell Dimension running Win 98. Also, wouldn't the core2duo tend to be quieter than the higher octane quad? And thanks CFB for threads like this, they're very helpful to less technically gifted individuals like myself!
 
Yipee-Ki-O said:
For just basic computer needs (email, pix, word processing, etc) for a non-gamer, is there really any need to future-proof by going for a quad over a core2duo? At least at the moment, Dell has a quad available for $499 but also has several core2duo's at their refurbished site in the mid-$300 range. My HP Pavilion Slimline with an AMD Athlon 64 (which just died) was quite slow whenever anything was running in the background so I assume a core2due will be a step up. And most certainly a step up from this old Dell Dimension running Win 98. Also, wouldn't the core2duo tend to be quieter than the higher octane quad? And thanks CFB for threads like this, they're very helpful to less technically gifted individuals like myself!
Click to expand...

You are IMO right in your thinking. I have a P4 3.06 system that I thought was "powerful" and it was; 5 years ago. Recently, I purchased two systems a new DT and NB. Both have D2 processors on them and they are a vast improvement over the P4. Not having a Q (turned down the option on the DT) I do not have much of a basis to compare the D2 to the Q. The Intel Site has a pretty good bit of information on both (have to take some of it with a "grain of salt" since it the home site for the processors): Welcome to Intel
 
I'd say that if the price delta is moot, the quad might give you a longer lifespan by working with highly threaded apps that start showing up in a few years. The operating systems are becoming more free threaded as well and I'd expect future versions of windows, macos and linux to really make use of the QC.

Dual processor to me is a must. Theres almost no price premium to go from a single core system to a basic dual core.

Theres a price/performance/benefit dropoff going from the dual to quad core on a desktop, but quads make perfect sense in a multi application server environment.

In the firebreathing desktop thread, I've posted sub 499-599 quad systems with big screen monitors. Thats a computer thats amazingly powerful now and will still be a very powerful machine 4-5 years from now. When I advise people on computer purchases, I usually ask them if they think it'll still be the computer they'll still like to have in 3-4 years, because if thats the case, they can probably get 5 out of it.

Buying a new machine and switching all your stuff over to it can be a major undertaking. Being able to do that less frequently and squeezing an extra year or two of life from the equipment can more than make up a slight increase in system price.

These machines are freakishly cheap too. If you consider that at retail the quad cpu alone costs $200, the monitor costs over $200, and the copy of windows is at least $90-120...so you're getting the case, power supply, motherboard, keyboard, mouse, dvd drive and all the other stuff in there including a warranty for free.
 
cute fuzzy bunny said:
Buying a new machine and switching all your stuff over to it can be a major undertaking. Being able to do that less frequently and squeezing an extra year or two of life from the equipment can more than make up a slight increase in system price.
Click to expand...

You can say that again...

I finally got my refurb Vista machine to stop freezing, by restoring to original. Of course, I bought it for home studio use, so if it won't run my new "Vista-compatible" software, it's just a relatively expensive paperweight...

Almost makes me miss the Celeron 500MHz machine it replaced... :p
 
Hah. I gave an old laptop with a 700MHz celeron to my BIL's teenaged kids. They gave it back. "Its TOOOO SLOOOWWW!"

So much for all the folks who said it was "plenty good enough for basic web surfing and what most people do!" when it was a new product 6 years ago.

Now its considered a relic unworthy of instant messaging and ipod syncing.
 
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