I've just bought this:

Dell Dimension E521

305 Watt PSU
Athlon 64 X2 3800+ (2.00GHz, 512Kx2)
Integrated 10/100 network interface
Integrated 7.1 Channel Audio
1GB DDR2 SDRAM @ 533MHz
160GB SATA II Hard Drive (7200RPM)
256MB nVidia GeForce 7300LE TurboCache
16X DVD+/-RW Drive
USB Keyboard & Mouse (Optical)
A525 30 Watt 2.1 Stereo Speakers with Subwoofer
Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 with Re-installation CD
Microsoft Works 8.5
1 Year Limited Warranty

PCI - 2 Slots
PCIe x1 - 1 Slot
PCIe x16 - 1 Slot

Sub-Total $609.00
Shipping FREE
Tax $40.29
Total Price $649.29

I felt it wasn't to expensive and will allow me to surf the internet, play Unreal Tournament 2004, and goof around in chatrooms. So what do ya think guys?

Yeah I could've built it but I am financing it, I'm lazy too :-Z

looks good.

Good price. I'm working on a Dell M90, but I'd like to get something like that for home.

Yeah, that's a really good deal. Should run games pretty well.

Not bad for it doing the things you want it to do. You wound up only paying about $50 more for it than if you would have built that same system yourself. $50 is worth less hassle. And if that system included a monitor, you actually saved more.

- N

I just got myself a new Dell XPS 410. Very good deal in my opinion. $1500 after the educational discount (for my university) and it comes with a E6400 Intel Core 2 Duo processor, gig of ram, 250 gig harddrive, 256 MB GeForce 7900 GS, and most of the other crap that you need for a computer. Plus a flap screen LCD monitor (19 inch).

The Core 2 Duo is smoking fast. Not just in terms of processing, but in terms of computer responsiveness. I very much enjoy it.

-AntonK

a lot better than the computor we're using at the moment, we had a powerspike and the spare computor is 1.2 gigs with 128mb of memory

305 Watt PSU

Is that enough power?

Well I think the main issue with the PSU is that while it is only 305 Watts they usually under-rate their supplies. I would've preferred something with a little more kick but as it stands Dell doesn't sell PSU's based on what you desire, they offer only high ones for systems that are expensive, like the XPS 700. Hell when I had my old XPS 400 (which sucked BTW) it used a 350 Watt PSU. I was mad cuz I couldn't use a better videocard in it, but then that's the price of not wasting my time building it myself. Also let's not forget I'm financing the thing cuz I don't got that much (600) right at the moment.

It's funny but they say the expected ship date is October 4th, LOL I guess that's because the AMD's are still so new they may just be taking orders for now.

I use to have:

Pentium D 830
2 GB DDR 533
160 GB HD
GeForce 6800

But for some odd reason it just seemed slow as dirt, also the games FEAR, Oblivion should've at least run decently but they skipped frames like a Mofo. It's insane but that made me wonder if something was just messed with my system, thus I trashed it (by destroying it with my hands). I've got no time to waste on PC's that don't work well. They say this system I got is comparable to the one I rid myself of... the fact that AMD uses Hypertransport is better to me then the BS intel was doing.

I wanted a simple system for playing some games (considering unreal 2004 and doom ran fine on the other PC) I'm guessing this one will play them just fine. I'll admitt to getting bored with Doom, it was simply not fun after they became to hard to fight without cheating.

It'll be interesting to see if it can at least run FEAR or Oblivion in minimal settings, cuz the other PC just couldn't.