Dell Inspiron 560 Desktop: Yes/No?

Dia on 25/2/2011 at 14:33

Okay, I'm not a serious guy (erm ..... gal) when it comes to computers, but my old PC is starting to show signs of getting ready to give up the ghost; I have an AMD Athlon 64 processor, 3200+, 2.20 GHz, 1.50GB of RAM & it's already about 7 years old. So I was at a local Sam's Club with a friend the other day & while perusing their electronics section, saw this Dell Inspiron ((http://www.samsclub.com/sams/shop/product.jsp?productId=prod2940022&navAction=push#desc)). It comes with Windows 7 64; I have XP64 on my old PC and have to say though I've had some problems installing certain programs that just aren't compatible with the 64 bit OS (that's when said programs are even available in 64bit, period), it's been relatively problem-free. I need a lot of memory since I dabble in making videos & play video games (of course) & as an example, right now I have to run Oblivion from my portable hd since it takes up soooo much room. So please excuse my obvious ignorance on this subject, but is this Dell worth investing in?

P.S. I've noticed that a lot of stores offer only H(ewlitt)P(ackard) PCs as an alternative. I absolutely won't buy an HP: been there/done that and had waaayyyy more issues than the damn thing was worth. :nono:

Al_B on 25/2/2011 at 17:17

I would probably steer clear of that model. It has integrated graphics, a 300W power supply and only has dual cores. I'm afraid I'm not much help at recommending an alternative as I prefer to assemble my PCs from components - is that something that you would consider doing?

steo on 25/2/2011 at 18:05

Also, only an E5800 processor, which has a pretty pathetic 800MHz bus speed and 2MB L2 cache. From a marketing perspective the 3.2GHz looks good, but you're basically getting a nerfed E7xxx series. And it's probably worth going quad core these days, especially if you're looking to hold onto this machine for another 7 years. You could try looking for something with a Q6600 processor in it, since they're quad core, have always been good value for money, and have been out for a while so will probably be fairly cheap. To compare the Q6600 to the E5800 in that Dell, the Q6600 has twice as many cores, bigger cache, 1066MHz vs 800MHz front side bus but is clocked a little over half a GHz slower per core (2.66GHz vs 3.2GHz).

Just checked prices, and at least in the UK, the Q6600 is still pretty expensive, probably because it was a very popular model and they've stopped making it. You might try looking for a newer quad core in that case. Now that I look at it, CPU prices in the UK have been pretty crazy over the last three years - the E8400 I bought two and a half years ago is now only £10 cheaper than when I bought it, must be the recession.

And yeah, as Al_B said, make sure you get something with a dedicated graphics card, and make sure you don't get one of the bottom of the series graphics cards that they just love to put in pre-built PCs. Bear in mind that, for instance, an Nvidia 6800GT will outperform an Nvidia 9200.

june gloom on 25/2/2011 at 22:29

What the other guys are forgetting is that just because it has integrated video doesn't mean you have to use it. If push comes to shove, and you really have to buy that machine or something like it, just remember you can always buy a new video card and slot that in. You'll have to get a new power supply to go with it though, obviously.

Al_B on 25/2/2011 at 23:29

I didn't forget that - of course that's an option. However, buying a complete system, buying a new graphics card and changing the power supply is a fairly major change and probably negates the advantages of buying that system in the first place.

Dia on 26/2/2011 at 03:52

Okay; like I said, I'm not the brightest bulb in the pack .... so do you guys mean something like this (http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1891328/dell_xps_720_q6600_desktop_computer.html?cat=15) is worth investing in then? Or should I forget about Dell altogether & consider another brand? I don't have the patience or experience to build my own, btw.

Al_B on 26/2/2011 at 20:28

Hmmm.... I think that review may be a little out of date (and to be honest it comes across more as an advert).

What's your budget? I had a quick look at the US Dell website and although you can obviously customise their PCs the performance models seem to be quite expensive. As an alternative I've had a browse of newegg and (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883229221) this computer seemed to be quite attractive although you may want to increase the amount of RAM at a later date.

Edit: Of course, it doesn't come with a monitor so that may need to be a factor in your budget if you can't use your existing display(s)

Dia on 27/2/2011 at 13:49

Thanks Al. Yeah, I only noticed the date on the Dell ad after I'd linked it. I really want to keep it under 1k if I can help it. I really liked what I read in your link regarding the Phenom II, though as far as add-ons go, I'm reluctant to mess around with the innards; always afraid I'm going to screw something up. Something to consider seriously though.

I have an CRT monitor that works perfectly fine; in fact, I prefer it to the old LCD monitor I had a couple years ago. The LCD made a hash of my Thief graphics so I gladly switched back to my old, reliable CRT. Thanks again.

lost_soul on 27/2/2011 at 17:14

Check out CyberPowerPC. I haven't bought from them, but you can customize the machine and the prices are more reasonable than a retail system. (http://www.cyberpowerpc.com/system/Mega_Special_I/) here is an example. You might want to swap the Phenom x6 for an X4 at a higher clock speed. I would also go with a basic case and get 8 gigs of RAM instead of 4.

Keep in mind that you can usually get MUCH better performance if you buy the individual parts for the machine yoursself. Maybe you have a friend who can help you put it together for a Pizza? :)

Al_B on 27/2/2011 at 20:09

That does look they offer a fair degree of customisation to their systems, lost_soul. It may suffer from the problem that people who know exactly what they want would just buy the components themselves. It appears to be the same brand as the system I linked to on Newegg so it seems they sell pre-built systems as well.

Quote Posted by Dia

... as far as add-ons go, I'm reluctant to mess around with the innards; always afraid I'm going to screw something up.

It's easy for me to be blasé and say that installing additional memory is easy - but as long as you're prepared to take a little care it is a straightforward operation. You will probably be OK with 4GB for a while anyway and as lost_soul says, pizza can be a good bribe if you're uncomfortable with doing the upgrade yourself :).