Peto said:
Can you guys advise me please.
The sort of system I want to get is a desktop PC for home-office use.
Also I want a bit of multimedia capability mainly for home recording
facilities rather than multichannel playback of music.
I may need access to the inside about once a week to add or remove
a particular data harddrive.
Price is very important so don't want to pay extra for anything
very leading edge.
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A few years ago I was told to steer away from Dell because:
1) there was no room in their boxes for expansion hardware,
2) their power plug for mobo power was non standard,
3) Dell designed most hardware so there was not much service info
4) etc
But now I am told dell are ok.
Is it true those 3 things are no longer such a problem with Dell
because expansion hardware is less likely now as there is so much
function on the mobo (reasonable sound, some video driving, USB,
audio, firewire, ethernet, etc). Also I'm told Dell are now using
standard components rather than specially designed versions of
components.
Are these things about improvements really true?
Does this mean Dell is now worth considering? What drawbacks does a
Dell have nowadays?
The worst part about the prebuilt computers, seems to be the
software setup that comes with them. Having to burn your
own recovery disks, is a detail many people forget to do.
I'd prefer a simple single partition install and a standard
Windows installer CD, that allows a "repair" install if I
need it. The prebuilt machines have the "recovery partition",
but that method deletes the contents of C:. So the OS
and (bloated) bundled applications are an impediment
to owning a prebuilt.
There are a number of ways to connect data hard drives to a computer.
A USB enclosure is one way (about 30MB/sec). An ESATA enclosure
gives about the same performance as an internally connected
SATA drive (70MB/sec to 120MB/sec, depending on the brand
and class of drive). Some computers also have removable drive
bays, and a tray system for drive removal, so you don't have
to use an external enclosure. The most flexible option is
the external USB enclosure, as if you go to a friend's house
with the data hard drive, they are likely to have a USB
connector on the back of their computer.
For me, the best kind of enclosure for a computer, is one with
a simple removable metal side panel. The computers that "scissor"
open, a technique used on some older Macintoshs and on some
Dells, really stinks in terms of the convenience factor.
To work on a Macintosh like that, I have to place it on my kitchen
floor and work on it. And gently push the cables into place, so
that when the enclosure is closed up again, no cable gets snagged.
(These are cables in the expansion area. The system cables are
nicely dressed, but when you add hardware to the machine, to do
actual work with it, that is when the fun begins. On a tower with
removable side panel, there is less that can go wrong.)
So if someone can sell me a computer, put a *standard* Windows
installer CD in my hand, I might buy it. But I'd also need
to see a picture of the interior of the computer, to see
how miserable it is to add hardware to it.
When buying a prebuilt
1) In the past, video card expansion possibilities on the cheapest
machines were limited. Many customers (suckers) opened the
computer, to find only PCI slots available to add a video card.
The cheapest computers had no AGP slot built into them.
That was in the AGP slot era. Things have changed a bit, in that
now the computers are more likely to have a PCI Express x16 slot.
2) On a lot of the prebuilt machines, the power supply is undersized
for a good video card upgrade. The power connectors may be limited
in number. If you wanted to add a GTX280 to the machine, there
wouldn't be enough PCI Express power connectors, nor would there
be enough amps available on +12V to power it.
3) Provisions for cooling may also be limited. The way that the CPU
is located and cooler mounted, limits the ability to place a
high end processor in the CPU socket. BIOS controls for making
settings changes are minimal. BIOS upgrades, to add support for
newer processors may be nonexistent. Upgrading the processor is
more of a challenge than it should be.
4) A number of the form factors that prebuilt computers come in,
are not big enough for any kind of significant upgrade. If the
case is tower sized, then it may have more add-in card slots.
Some computers are small enough, that only low-profile add-in
cards fit. Many computer may also have issues taking new video
cards which are quite long. (Even my home built computer has
trouble with that.)
In my current computer, I have about six expansion slots, but
I probably would comfortably use three of them, leaving some
room for cooling. I've had several machines, where I filled all
the slots. So it can be done. It just depends on how much heat
a card throws off, and for video, I like to leave a blank slot
next to the video card. My current video card has an 80mm fan
mounted in an adjacent slot, as the card is fanless, and the
80mm fan helps keep it cool.
A DIY computer provides the best ability to control upgrades.
You can use a standard Windows installer CD. So from a usage
standpoint, I'm not even remotely interested in a Dell. A
Dell is more like an "appliance".
The Dell is now more likely to stick with standards, at least
for the power supply. So swapping a more powerful ATX supply
should be possible. But it is the mechanical details, such
as how much room is there for a new supply, a new video card,
a bigger CPU heatsink for a processor upgrade, those are
the things that you cannot plan for, when buying a prebuilt.
Paul
