New Dell Desktop

[Zee]

I needed to buy a new computer for my brother so im just going to give him my old one which is still quite good with a 2.66GHz core 2 duo and 4GB RAM.

Well i've ordered the new system from Dell, just wondering if it is good for the price paid and if the hard disk speed is ok and the graphics card is ok too?

Total price is £1,046.73 excluding the speakers and soundbar.

Intel® Core™ i7-2600 Processor (3.40GHz, 8MB) 1
Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium, 64bit, English 1
OS Windows® Recovery Media Not included 1
1 year of coverage included with your PC 1
DataSafe Online Backup 2GB - 1 year licence 1
Microsoft® Office Starter: reduced-functionality Word & Excel w/ads. No PowerPoint or Outlook 1
McAfee® Security Centre - 15 Month Protection - English 1
24in ST2420L UK/Irish Full HD WLED Widescreen Monitor (VGA, DVI-D and HDMI) 1 Blu-Ray ROM combo (Blu-ray read only, DVD, CD read & write) 1
8192MB Dual Channel DDR3 1333MHz [4x2048] Memory 1
2TB Dual Hard Drive RAID 0 "Stripe" (2x1TB - 7,200 rpm) 1
1GB ATI® Radeon™ HD 5870 graphics card 1
Dellâ„¢ USB Entry Keyboard - UK/Irish (QWERTY) 1
Dell Laser Mouse USB (6 buttons scroll) Black
Dell Wireless 1520 Half Mini Card (802.11n)
Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Music (using PCI slot)
XPS 8300 Resource DVD 1 English - Documentation with UK/Ire Power cord
Datasafe Local 2.3 Basic 1 1 year Collect & Return Hardware Support included with your PC
One free Dell Expert call to help with your PC queries within 60 days of purchase
XPS Desktop 8300 Order - UK
Dell AY410 Multimedia Desktop Speaker
Dell AY511 multimedia SoundBar

[tweetiepooh]

Careful with RAID 0 as if one disk goes you loose the system.

[Zee]

Originally Posted by tweetiepooh

Careful with RAID 0 as if one disk goes you loose the system.

What do you mean i lose the system?

I'd never buy a Dell. Their prices are a rip and aftercare sucks.

[Zee]

Originally Posted by LSainsbury

I'd never buy a Dell. Their prices are a rip and aftercare sucks.

The system im using is a Dell Vostro desktop which was well priced and has never gone wrong, my laptop is also a Dell Studio XPS 16 which has never gone wrong either, although my XPS 15 did go wrong once and they replaced it with a brand new system.

[Badders]

Strangely I've just had exactly the same speced Dell XPS 8300 delivered to work - apart from:

Dell Wireless 1520 Half Mini Card (802.11n)
Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Music (using PCI slot)
Dell AY410 Multimedia Desktop Speaker
Dell AY511 multimedia SoundBar

> Careful with RAID 0 as if one disk goes you loose the system.

Yes, first job was to make it RAID 1 - make sure you've got a recovery DVD before doing this.

> I'd never buy a Dell. Their prices are a rip and aftercare sucks.

Here at the office we have nothing but Dell. They just work - and carry on working. Occasionally, wear and tear takes it's toll so we have to replace the odd Power Supply or Disk. We've still got a Dell Poweredge 4200 server with Windows NT Server 4.0 and it's been running trouble free 24-7 since 1998.

Regarding aftercare, we've never used it. If it's going to fail it'll probably happen within a year so we never take out the extra warranty. If it runs trouble free for a year then there's a good chance it'll run for much longer. After that, just replace the component which has failed.

Price wise they may be more expensive but still competitive. We need reliability and I guess Dell need that also. Their systems tend to be underclocked so they don't get stressed which is why they last so long I guess. They're also very quiet.

Anyhow, that's my two-pence worth.

[Zee]

Originally Posted by Badders

Strangely I've just had exactly the same speced Dell XPS 8300 delivered to work - apart from:

Dell Wireless 1520 Half Mini Card (802.11n)
Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Music (using PCI slot)
Dell AY410 Multimedia Desktop Speaker
Dell AY511 multimedia SoundBar

> Careful with RAID 0 as if one disk goes you loose the system.

Yes, first job was to make it RAID 1 - make sure you've got a recovery DVD before doing this.

Ok, thanks.

How do i make it RAID 1 and what does that do?

[Welshchris]

I remember ringing Dell asking about ram for one of their OPTIPLEX systems as it didnt take standard ram, they give me a number for crucial and stated that Crucial supplied the ram for their systems and give me a model number. When i rang Crucial they didnt have a clue, the model number for the ram they didnt have on file and crucial stated they have never dealt directly with Dell. I ended up having to import it from USA on ebay.

[Dai]

Originally Posted by Zee

Ok, thanks.

How do i make it RAID 1 and what does that do?

RAID 0 lays your data in 'stripes' across the 2 disks, so basically if 1 disk goes bad you've lost everything.

RAID 1 duplicates your data on both disks so you always have a backup copy.

IMHO there is absolutely no good reason for a home user to run RAID 0. The slight speed gain is just not worth the risk of data loss.

[Badders]

Originally Posted by Zee

Ok, thanks.

How do i make it RAID 1 and what does that do?

If you don't know much about it I'd leave it. It means reinstalling or recovering what's currently on the PC. For security you could by an external USB disk drive and backup to that. You can do a System Image Backup through 'Backup and Restore' in the Control Panel. This takes an exact copy of your drive in case you have a disk crash on your Dell.

If your keen though, press Ctrl-I when the pc boots - delete the RAID Volume - Create a new Mirror Volume - Install Windows from your backup disks.

Good luck!

[Zee]

Originally Posted by Badders

If you don't know much about it I'd leave it. It means reinstalling or recovering what's currently on the PC. For security you could by an external USB disk drive and backup to that. You can do a System Image Backup through 'Backup and Restore' in the Control Panel. This takes an exact copy of your drive in case you have a disk crash on your Dell.

If your keen though, press Ctrl-I when the pc boots - delete the RAID Volume - Create a new Mirror Volume - Install Windows from your backup disks.

Good luck!

Well i know the basic stuff like how to reinstall Windows, so i guess there would be an option there somewhere?

Is it really needed, i've had my current dell for about 5 years and it has never had a problem, it even smashed on the ground 2 times and still works perfectly.