Opinions please.

[Rubric]

I need a desktop pc.

Now i don't need anything too fancy. It will be used for internet access, emails, word processing and storing music and photo's. I do play some World of Warcarft and some Football Manager and will probably play Warhammer next year.

I know it's Dell but i have come across this spec.

AMD® Athlon™ 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 5000+
Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium - English
1 Year Base Warranty - Collect & Return
Dell™ 20" Black Wide Flat Panel (E207WFP) - UK/Irish
2048MB 667MHz Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM [2x1024]
500GB (7200rpm) Serial ATA Hard Drive with 16MB DataBurst™ cache
256MB ATI® Radeon™ HD 2600 XT graphics card
16x DVD +/- RW Drive
Integrated 7.1 Channel High Definition Audio
Dell™ A525 Speakers with Subwoofer UK/Irish
19-in-1 Media Card Reader
No Modem
Internal PCI 802.11b/g Wireless Network Card
Microsoft® Works 8.0 - English
Adobe® Photoshop® Elements 6 (English)


Do you think this will be suitable for my needs or can you suggest something else for no more than £600.

I really can't be bothered to build my own especially as i need a monitor and software.

 

[Kryten]

It will certainly suit your needs however have a look at the same spec system for a Core2Duo, far more bang for the buck and undoubtedly better futureproofed (and for anyone pointing out "Phenoms" compatibility with AM2 motherboards, not in the Dell one's they aren't)

Otherwise no problems - it'll easily run WoW and any football manager even as it stands - I just like to try and futureproof kit as much as possible without raising the cost at time of purchase - softens the blow a little

 

[Rubric]

It will certainly suit your needs however have a look at the same spec system for a Core2Duo, far more bang for the buck and undoubtedly better futureproofed (and for anyone pointing out "Phenoms" compatibility with AM2 motherboards, not in the Dell one's they aren't)

Otherwise no problems - it'll easily run WoW and any football manager even as it stands - I just like to try and futureproof kit as much as possible without raising the cost at time of purchase - softens the blow a little

Thanks for the input. That's good to know.

I did look into building my own over the last hour and for the same money i can put this together.

Asus M2N-E SLI Nvidia nForce 500 SLI MCP Socket AM2 8channel audio ATX Motherboard
AMD Athlon 64 X2 5600+ (2.8GHz) Socket AM2 2MB L2 Cache (2x1MB) Retail Boxed Processor
Kingston 2GB Kit (2x1GB) DDR2 800MHz/PC2-6400 Memory Non-ecc CL5 Unbuffered 1.8V
Seagate ST3500630AS 500GB Hard Drive SATAII 16MB Cache 7200RPM - OEM
Leadtek PX8600GT 256MB Extreme Dual DVI TVOut PCI-E Graphics Card
LG GSA-H55NBAL 20x DVD1RW/DL/RAM IDE Black Bare Drive - OEM
Casecom LG-5570 Black/Silver Mid Tower Case - With 500W PSU 12CM Fan 20+4pin
HANNSG HW173A 17" TFT Monitor Widescreen 1440x900 500:1 250cd/m2 8ms VGA Silver/Black 3 Years Warranty
Microsoft Business Hardware Pack - Black/Silver Wired Keyboard with Black Wired Optical Mouse - PS/2-USB
Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium x64Bit OEM 1PK DVD


Am i right in thinking better Graphics card and probably more upgradeable in the future?

 

[Rubric]

Shit just thinking i need a cpu fan and some speakers

Edit or do the retail versions still come with heatsink and fan like they used to?

 

[Kryten]

Yeah, retail chips come with coolers. Still suggest buying the Core2 processors over the AMD. They run cooler too, and the intel stock coolers that are provided are also very good and quiet, importantly.

A couple of tweaks also to the "home build" - for very little or no difference in price, you can get the 32mb cache version of the 500gb Seagate drives, stunning performers.

Graphics card is about equal to the ATI one of previous, so no gain or loss there.
Only big "if" you're gonna get will be the difference between the 17" monitor you've picked and the 20" Dell - I think in this day and age you might start to notice that difference in size a little.

 

[Rubric]

Yeah, retail chips come with coolers. Still suggest buying the Core2 processors over the AMD. They run cooler too, and the intel stock coolers that are provided are also very good and quiet, importantly.

A couple of tweaks also to the "home build" - for very little or no difference in price, you can get the 32mb cache version of the 500gb Seagate drives, stunning performers.

Graphics card is about equal to the ATI one of previous, so no gain or loss there.
Only big "if" you're gonna get will be the difference between the 17" monitor you've picked and the 20" Dell - I think in this day and age you might start to notice that difference in size a little.

I've always resisted Intel processors for some reason and have actually never done a build with one. But tbh it seems i can get the best deal from Dell then.

Thanks for the input Kyten.


PS, will the power supply be ok?

 

[Kryten]

On the homebuild? Hard to say. Casecom aren't the highest quality manufacturer of cases and I imagine to suit the power supply probably won't be up to much, but until it's in front of you it might be hard to judge. If you can find out any more information on it I might be able to judge better - you might be lucky and find it's an OEM supply made by the likes of FSP or one of Tagan's many whitebox brands - then again it could be something nasty.

** EDIT **

No, scratch the case entirely. Just found it on Ebuyer and it syas the power supply is as per item 109466 - i.e. Casecom's own make and it's not even SATA spec - so no power for your hard drive.
I can't spend too much time hunting round cases for you but a quick find around Ebuyer shows up this:
Coolermaster Elite 330 Black Case With CM eXtreme Power 460W PSU *SPECIAL OFFER* - Ebuyer
Under 50 quid for a Coolermaster case and 460w power supply which, unlike the Casecom, has power sockets for your hard drives and graphics card.

** EDIT **

As you probably know from my previous rants about PSU's in other threads, the important thing is the quality of the supply rather than how many watts it throws out. I could go into technicalities but I know at the end of the day, you just want it to work.

As far as the comment about getting the best deal from Dell - do you mean the price is less with intel hardware? If that's the case it's down to Dell's long running partnership with Intel and they're still a little "new" about their AMD offerings. Interesting though, as the end user is concerned, AMD are merely the "cheaper option" currently and they should be seeing prices adjusted as such.