500 buck Dells?

[Zilch]

Are they really $500, or is there a catch(ie: ISP fees, mail-in rebates, eternal soul ownership, etc.)?

[shooraijin]

I don't see any ads for $500 Dells on their website. Where did you hear about it?

My guess is, their biggest disadvantage is they would be lousy systems. ^^

[Bobtheduck]

Soul Ownership... Yeah, that's about it. Well, really, I don't trust Dell... For lower prices, they're on par with about all 500 dollar PCs, but when they get into better PCs, they charge WAY too much... Gateway is better for higher end stuff. For 500 dollars, you are getting bare minimum. A computer, most likely a 15 inch SVGA screen, a mouse, a keyboard, and a power cord... That's probably about it. 1.something (maybe 1.6) Gigahertz (better than what I've got) 128 megs of ram (crappy...), no 3d card... You get what you pay for.

Also, a lot of these things are only that price AFTER rebates you have to mail in. Watch out for that trap too. I never got my rebates back from E-machines...

[Zilch]

Oh, you got one of those Emachines, too, Bob? Heh. That thing had more quirks than Lord-knows-what, but at least it worked...

As for your question, Shoorajin, I saw a TV ad for them at $500.

No 3D graphics card? Man...I've got a 16MB one right now, and THAT'S crappy enough...and my system runs like a camel with one leg on 256 RAM...

[blkmage]

I'm assuming you're looking at this one at the left?

[shooraijin]

Ah. Ugh.

It has one of the integrated Intel chipset graphics systems. Since I have a Dell in my office (sigh), I can tell you that this chipset has nice 2D performance, but I wouldn't call it your best bet for D3D.

[Spencer]

I thought this said "500 duck bells" I was like "what? that's wack, man."

I don't really like Dells. Our school bought a whole lot and I didn't like them at all. Blah.

[Mithrandir]

Yeah. These things get poor ratings. Dell has expanded to fast for their CS department to keep up (at least that's the word around our office). If you can shell out for the rack mount server systems, they give a little better service, though. As with anything, if you see an offer that looks too good to be true, it probably is. Make extra sure you look at upgrade options. Can you throw more ram at it when it get's boggy? Are there any nasty propriatery chipsets (see shoobys post above) that you'll have to worry about if you are forced to reformat at some point in time? Can you get ALL the drivers for it, should you want to upgrade the OS in the future?

Just some questions to ask...

[Bobtheduck]

I have the Intel chipset... It causes so many problems... I wish I had an ATI...

[shooraijin]

The new Radeons are sweet.

I've been an ATI booster for years since they supported the Mac during the Dark Ages when no one else did (my Rage Orion [16MB Rage 128 with Mac-specific extensions] was a superb card in those days), but they really do a great job of giving nVidia a run for their money. nVidia has funky drivers, too, which I dislike (my parents had an nVidia on their video editing PC and it was nothing but trouble -- the ATI I made them buy, on the other hand, has been fabulously stable).

[Zedian]

You know, its' funny how Id Software new their stuff when wiping out two single lines of code to change the performance level of Nvidia's Geforce 6800 card and ATI Radeons' 9800 Pro. Their is some slight graphical difference among the two and well, Nvidia's card works much better --talk about marketing plotting.

Back on track, I don't think it's a good investment, I mean unless you REALLY need a new computer, like your current one is on the brink of blowing up, don't waste the money --just save a little more cash and in due time you can custom make your own.

Also as others have said, integrated graphics are never good, they are built on a properietary chip-set so upgrading will range from extremely difficult to pratically impossible.

[Jman]

I'm sure you could find one for $500.

[Mithrandir]

O.o

Now there's a blazing fire of reason if I ever saw one. Did you even read the thread? We KNOW you can find them for that price. It's a question now of whether it's worth it.

[Jman]

Gah Sorry misunderstood it....well the pearson who fixed my computer said that dells aren't worth the money cause their customer support sucks...

[Zilch]

Hey, thanks for all the info. I probably will be content with my little piece of crap for now.

[Jman]

LOL!

I Hear Emachines are good...you may wanna look into them!

(This is my 100th Post lets have a Partey!!!)

[shooraijin]

*gurgles* eMachines???

Well, I suppose in this price range they're a reasonable package deal, but they don't occupy the low end of the market for nothing. It wouldn't be first on my list as a general recommendation unless that was the price range they were in.

(ps., PARTY!!! ^^)

[Icarus]

*gurgles* eMachines???

Well, I suppose in this price range they're a reasonable package deal, but they don't occupy the low end of the market for nothing. It wouldn't be first on my list as a general recommendation unless that was the price range they were in.

(ps., PARTY!!! ^^)

I cannot agree more.

We have one of the *Free after mail in rebates* computers. Um, yeah. Small hard drive, slow proccessor, and the memory... I don't think you can find any more 16MB memory cards. Ours came with two of them. You couldn't do more than one thing at a time, and we were plagued with glitches and bugs. Still are.

[Jman]

I would get someoen you know who knows how to build computer and have him build you a custom!

[Mr. SmartyPants]

exactally, 40 gig harddrive, really really really crappy video card (it's integrated, some stupid extreme 3d thing) 512 RAM, and other hijinks

[Oblisk]

Why not build your own for $500. It'd be much better

[Mr. SmartyPants]

agreed