New Desktop- $700 range?

[Neuromancer]

Check out This thread

Never mind I just noticed the URL on that thread.. ignore last post

 

[The_Magistrate]

Found one that will work perfectly:

Dell Dimension 8400

Pentium 4 running at 3.0 ghz
80 GB Hard Drive (7200 RPM of course)
17'' CRT monitor (I don't really care if it's flat-panel or not)
128 mb ATI Radeon X300 SE (I'll upgrade this when I get the money and prices drop on current cards)
512 MB RAM (I'll upgrade it when I get the money)

For $699.

Sure, it's not the best system, but for $700 bucks, sheesh, it's great.

I think you got ripped off. The only thing worth any amount of money in that system is the P4 processor and the PCI-X graphics card. Too many people are quick to think Dell has the best deal. They don't.

You could have gotten a system without a monitor and saved yourself $150 and gotten 1GB of RAM, or a DVD Burner...

 

[Iceman]

Are you not comfortable with building your own system?

I would not recommend the x300 series video card, they just came out with the x550 series (card is not ATI, but chipset is) that will out perform the x300 series and sells for about the same price.

Nothing wrong with getting a dell unless you intend on doing any modification of your system

If you like Intel the new dual cores are cheap..

If you want raw gaming power, get yourself an AMD 64bit .. the venice cores are very nice and greatly clockable

Also if you are looking at a piece meal build... what you can do is get a mobo processor now... and your current rig you can dissassemble for a little while until you complete the new rig.

What I mean is... use RAM Power supply Case... hard drives from your current rig in the new one. As you upgrade the new one, repair your old(present) rig with the components you borrowed.

For greater gaming performance you are going to want SATA hard drives as well.

Good Luck whatever you decide ^*^

Similar computers on build-your-own sites like this have seemed to have sold for around 670. So, I think I'll stick with the dell that comes together. I do plan on updating the video card and ram every year or two, also, so that can be a factor.

 

[stealth_thunder]

hmmm..... sound great to have a new computer like mine but mine is too expensive.