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Its about time to get a new PC. With prices as low as they are its makes no sense in building it myself so I'm thinking about this Dell. Please take a look at the specs and let me know what you think. I no longer play games on my PC so I don't need a high powered video card.

EDIT: I took a look at Got Apex for some Dell coupons and found they had a deal on the Vostro 410 Tower. For only $20.00 more than an 80 GB hard drive, I can get a 250 GB SATA hard drive.

Dell Vostro 410 Tower

Free upgrade from Core 2 Duo E7200 to Core 2 Quad Q6600 Processor.

FREE Genuine Vista Business Bonus w/ XP Professional downgrade Installed a $99 value.

1 Year Basic Limited Warranty and 1 Year NBD On-Site Service

No Monitor (I have dual Dell 19” Widescreen monitors about 3 months old.)

2GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM 800MHz - 2DIMMs

Dual Drives: 16x DVD-ROM Drive + 16x (DVD+/-RW) Burner

128MB ATI Radeon HD 2400 Pro (I may replace this with a different video card)

250GB Serial ATA Hard Drive (7200RPM) w/DataBurst Cache™ (20GB Primary Partition) (Will also install my Seagate 300 GB & 400 hard drives (both SATA) that are in my present PC)

No Floppy Drive

No Modem Option

Integrated 7.1 Channel Audio

No Pre-installed Anti-Virus/Security Software

Dell USB Keyboard

Dell Optical USB Mouse

No speakers (Will use my existing Logitech 5.1 speaker system.)

Integrated PCIe Gb NIC Ethernet

The price of this set-up is now $619.00

Thanks in advance for your assistance.

MAC

Are your current drives SATA or IDE? If they're IDE, you'll only be able to hook up 2 drives without installing an IDE card. Other than that, the system specs look nice

eGo

Decent system for the money. I have several friends who are gamers who bought the same system a couple of months ago when it was on sale with the Q6600 CPU for around the same price.

You can install an 8800GT video card in that thing if you wanted to do serious gaming - I know plenty of people who have. The PSU is (just barely) designed for it since that card is offered as an option on that system. It also will take a standard PSU if you ever want to upgrade it.

I would recommend getting the built-in card reader if it doesn't come with it. You'll find it under "Floppy Drives" in the configurator and it goes in the floppy bay instead of a floppy. I think it's usually $30 and it's worth it to have it built in.

Also, be aware, I'm not sure if the Vostro 410 has an EIDE port at all. If it does it will be a single one and it will only be rated for ATA100 not ATA133.

FP

I guess you mentioned the EIDE port because I stated I was installing my two existing hard drives in the Vostro. Since Dell offered a 2nd and 3rd SATA hard drive in the configuration I am assuming the PC will have open SATA ports on the motherboard. I'm going to call Dell and see if they can tell me Yes or No.

my main rig is a core2 duallie opteron - dropped in an 8800gt -2gb ram - it has a total of 4 sata ports and 0 ide. It's plenty fast for anything. I run the vid card off an old psu I had lying around...just short out the "on" switch. I need more drives, I have external usb ide and sata enclosures.

Yes, they are likely to have at least 4 SATA ports on the motherboard. One will be used for the hard drive and the other likely for the optical drive.

This should be more than good enough for the basic user.

According to this review here: http://www.goodgearguide.com.au/index.p ... ;6359;pt;1

The Vostro 410 has six Sata ports, and no IDE ports.

OH, and since you're talking about adding extra drives, be aware that this PC has one extra 3-1/2" bay (the HDD's ar mounted flat, side by side at the bottom of the case). You may not be able to use the 2nd HDD bay if you have a long video card installed. You could also install a HDD in the spare 5-1/4" bay with a mounting adapter, or maybe in the floppy bay if you leave it empty.

Here's some internal photos I took a few months ago of a client's new Vostro 400 with a factory 8800GT installed. The layout should be the same as a 410 I'm guessing.

Thanks for the info FP!

Well, the PC has been ordered. Total, inc sales tax, was a little over $670.00.

Now comes the fun of locating all my program disks and files so I can install them on the new PC.

Thank you everyone for your comments! I really do appreciate them.

MAC

If you have to have IDE, there are converters. I used one for 3 years. However, the reason I stopped after that is because suddenly I got an error (that went away when hooked up to a normal IDE channel). Anyhow, I'm sure if you have spare drives that one will work fine for you. They can be had for about $15ish.

True, not to mention there are external enclosures out there as well. There are always solutions.