$600 pre-built

[PinataUT]

Friend has a laptop for work. Wants a "'catch-all' desktop."

"No hard-core gaming."

He's very close to the Cambridge, MA Microcenter.

Budget 400-600.

I'm thinking that the best Dell he could grab from the outlet might be his best bang-for-the-buck. Suggestions?

 

[Dangman]

I'm thinking that the best Dell he could grab from the outlet might be his best bang-for-the-buck.

Sounds reasonable to me. Though it would help if you told us what he's using the PC for.

 

[PinataUT]

Yeah working on that.

 

[ComputerGeek]

Sounds reasonable to me. Though it would help if you told us what he's using the PC for.

FYI, I will never suggest a dell laptop, desktop, or just about any other dell item after what I have seen from them. Every thing is proprietary, you can not use, just any component to replace something from them. The power supply has a different connector pin-out, and will not snap into regular hard drives. Their Hard drives are also, proprietary, using the unique power connectors.

You can't use one dell laptops power supply for another slightly different model. You also, can't use universal adapters, as they will power the laptop up but they will not charge the battery.

It's just crazy. Just to let you know, You have been warned.

 

[cj3waker]

if he just needs a nice all around desktop id go with an SFF sandy bridge build
I have a build very similiar to this for my htpc and it kills multimedia playback, is whisper quiet, and fast. the IGP on sandy bridge is great for normal and multimedia usage


LG CD/DVD Burner Black SATA Model GH22NS70 OEM - OEM - $19.99


APEX MI-008 Black Steel Mini-ITX Tower Computer Case 250W Power Supply -$49.99


SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" - $69.99


Mushkin Enhanced Silverline 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 - $42.99


ASUS P8H61-I (REV 3.0) LGA 1155 Intel H61 HDMI USB 3.0 Mini ITX Intel Motherboard - $84.99


Intel Core i3-2100 - $124.99

Subtotal: $392.94

that would be a great pc coming in way under budget, and its tiny!

easy upgrades based on his needs

after market cpu cooler: shuriken rev b - ~$30

SSD boot drive: Kingston SSD now - ~$125

Dedicated GPU: single slot HD 5770/ GTs 450 - $125-$150

after market PSU: ultra x4 400 micro atx PSU - $60

the silverstone sg05 300w Would be a case/psu upgrade as well (its just a bit spendier but about the same price as the apex + ultra psu) and it allows for dual slot cards, which makes your dedicated graphics choices cheaper and more plentiful

getting all of the above would put him over budget ~$750. But he can pick and choose from what he needs. and even the base system should kill it for basic needs, and would allow him to upgrade down the road. Much unlike any big brand pc as stated above

 

[eViL_M@LuM]

FYI, I will never suggest a dell laptop, desktop, or just about any other dell item after what I have seen from them. Every thing is proprietary, you can not use, just any component to replace something from them. The power supply has a different connector pin-out, and will not snap into regular hard drives. Their Hard drives are also, proprietary, using the unique power connectors.

You can't use one dell laptops power supply for another slightly different model. You also, can't use universal adapters, as they will power the laptop up but they will not charge the battery.

It's just crazy. Just to let you know, You have been warned.

What fantasy land do you live in? I service dells on a daily basis and what you just said is blatantly wrong. The only proprietary piece is typically the SFF power supplies only because the PSU is designed around the specific case it's going in and the motherboards, the rest is almost always interchangeable. And even replacing those arent expensive. $26 shipped for a brand new 220watt SFF GX520 I just replaced last week..... With a seagate 1.5TB HD, 2gb of Corsair Ram... You get the point. I custom build pc's on the side but for customers who want a family computer on a budget I ALWAYS suggest dell. 9/10 issues with any family computer is clutter. Not the hardware itself. Premature failure is almost always due to environmental conditions and failure to properly maintain the computer "IE clean the fucking dust out". Not to mention they have THE best complete care warranty in the Industry....

As for the Laptop powersupply... funny I replaced my mom's dell inspiron 1501 with one that was suited for nearly 30 models. And it was offbrand. Hmmmm....

Let me guess, you have an intel based MBP.....

 

[Dangman]

Keep it civil people.

Oh and please refrain from posting "build your own PC" posts people. Unless the OP specifically states building is a possibility, keep the discussion on prebuilt PCs. This is not General Hardware.

 

[ComputerGeek]

What fantasy land do you live in? I service dells on a daily basis and what you just said is blatantly wrong. The only proprietary piece is typically the SFF power supplies only because the PSU is designed around the specific case it's going in and the motherboards, the rest is almost always interchangeable. And even replacing those arent expensive. $26 shipped for a brand new 220watt SFF GX520 I just replaced last week..... With a seagate 1.5TB HD, 2gb of Corsair Ram... You get the point. I custom build pc's on the side but for customers who want a family computer on a budget I ALWAYS suggest dell. 9/10 issues with any family computer is clutter. Not the hardware itself. Premature failure is almost always due to environmental conditions and failure to properly maintain the computer "IE clean the fucking dust out". Not to mention they have THE best complete care warranty in the Industry....

As for the Laptop powersupply... funny I replaced my mom's dell inspiron 1501 with one that was suited for nearly 30 models. And it was offbrand. Hmmmm....

Let me guess, you have an intel based MBP.....

I knew I was going to get bashed.

Well there is no need to get Angry with me. I am just saying I also, service PC's, as does my uncle. We both have found many, many, many of dell's parts are proprietary. I also received 4 dell laptops all within 2 years of each other, that all had different power adapters. I also, bought a universal adapter to try to test a laptops battery, however it would not charge with the universal power adapter.

I am not saying this to bash dell, as some of their products are good, like their monitors. I would not however put my money into a PC that is proprietary. I do as you probably can tell, love, non-proprietary and open source based products.

And just Fyi I don't like Apple Computers, had a mac and I got rid of it. I do however service them and they like dell have many proprietary components. I myself am running a quad AMD rig now. So I am not an "Intel Fan Boy" either.

Just Fyi

 

[eViL_M@LuM]

I knew I was going to get bashed.

Well there is no need to get Angry with me. I am just saying I also, service PC's, as does my uncle. We both have found many, many, many of dell's parts are proprietary. I also received 4 dell laptops all within 2 years of each other, that all had different power adapters. I also, bought a universal adapter to try to test a laptops battery, however it would not charge with the universal power adapter.

I am not saying this to bash dell, as some of their products are good, like their monitors. I would not however put my money into a PC that is proprietary. I do as you probably can tell, love, non-proprietary and open source based products.

And just Fyi I don't like Apple Computers, had a mac and I got rid of it. I do however service them and they like dell have many proprietary components. I myself am running a quad AMD rig now. So I am not an "Intel Fan Boy" either.

Just Fyi

Your reasoning is completely moot, you could say the exact same thing about every single consumer PC manufacturing company. I've been doing tech support since '99, if you want to bash a company try E-Machine prior to Gateway purchasing them. Or even worse... Packard Bell... the Daewoo of the pc industry.

 

[ComputerGeek]

Your reasoning is completely moot, you could say the exact same thing about every single consumer PC manufacturing company. I've been doing tech support since '99, if you want to bash a company try E-Machine prior to Gateway purchasing them. Or even worse... Packard Bell... the Daewoo of the pc industry.

I will say no more as not to clog up this thread I am just giving my opinion to the OP, other's may interpret it as they Like.

* to the OP* If you want to know anymore about dells and why I don't like them Just Ask. Thanks!

 

[cj3waker]

Keep it civil people.

Oh and please refrain from posting "build your own PC" posts people. Unless the OP specifically states building is a possibility, keep the discussion on prebuilt PCs. This is not General Hardware.

didnt seem to me like he had completely ruled out custom build, i thought thats what microcenter was hinting at, but will do

 

[PinataUT]

didnt seem to me like he had completely ruled out custom build, i thought thats what microcenter was hinting at, but will do

Ah, I was wondering why you posted that. No, he's too busy to build. I was able to pull up inventory on the Boston Microcenter, but my friend was comfortable getting a scratch-n-dent from the Dell Outlet.