does anyone know if dell.com does black friday?

[astralis]

does anyone know if dell.com does black friday or cyber monday (ie have coupon codes)?

i'm looking into upgrading my computer, with a budget of around $600-$750. i don't need a monitor or a sound system (have those already).

any suggestions, recommendations? hp or dell? good deals? ways to customize? (i'd like to get 2 GB on memory, for example)

much thanks!

[Shek]

As a corollary to astralis' question:

Who here owns a Mac and what are the advantages/disadvantages, and what will be the growing pains of switching from an IBM platform to the Mac? Thanks.

[Bill]

does anyone know if dell.com does black friday or cyber monday (ie have coupon codes)?

i'm looking into upgrading my computer, with a budget of around $600-$750. i don't need a monitor or a sound system (have those already).

any suggestions, recommendations? hp or dell? good deals? ways to customize? (i'd like to get 2 GB on memory, for example)

much thanks!

Make sure it has an AGP port if you want to play video games. Most Dells do not.

[gunnut]

does anyone know if dell.com does black friday or cyber monday (ie have coupon codes)?

i'm looking into upgrading my computer, with a budget of around $600-$750. i don't need a monitor or a sound system (have those already).

any suggestions, recommendations? hp or dell? good deals? ways to customize? (i'd like to get 2 GB on memory, for example)

much thanks!

You want an entire new system? Or just want to upgrade bits and pieces?

[pdf27]

Make sure it has an AGP port if you want to play video games. Most Dells do not.

Or even PCI-Express

[gunnut]

As a corollary to astralis' question:

Who here owns a Mac and what are the advantages/disadvantages, and what will be the growing pains of switching from an IBM platform to the Mac? Thanks.

Depends on what you want to do with your Mac.

I build my own systems and am very picky about my parts. Macs have very limited choices of parts, and mostly very expensive. So as a hardware guy, I don't like Macs.

If you just want to browse the web, shop, fire off some emails, write papers and print them, then the only difference you should notice will be the interface. Mac OS should read MS based document.

[astralis]

gunnut,

You want an entire new system? Or just want to upgrade bits and pieces?

i'd like an entirely new system, without a monitor or sound card (this is why i said i preferred a way to customize). sort of drives me nuts, because most of the deals i see include the monitor.

m21,

Make sure it has an AGP port if you want to play video games. Most Dells do not.

most dells moved to PCI-e? my current video card, which i'd also like to keep, is AGP. you know if HP is the same?

[gunnut]

i'd like an entirely new system, without a monitor or sound card (this is why i said i preferred a way to customize). sort of drives me nuts, because most of the deals i see include the monitor.

You can order a Dell without a monitor. They're pretty cheap too.

most dells moved to PCI-e? my current video card, which i'd also like to keep, is AGP. you know if HP is the same?

Depends on what you do, you may not even need to keep your AGP card. The most advanced onboard video is as powerful as a discrete card from a few years ago. It's enough for just about everything except for CAD or highend gaming.

I haven't seen the new systems from Dell or HP yet. Most of the stuff I have here are prototypes. They normally have PCI-e and no AGP now.

Try this one:
http://www.dell.com/content/products...=19&l=en&s=dhs

My Components
PROCESSOR AMD Athlon™ 64 3200+ edit
OPERATING SYSTEM Genuine Windows® XP Home Edition edit
UPGRADE TO WINDOWS VISTA No Express Upgrade to Windows Vista Selected edit
MEMORY 2GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHz- 2DIMMs edit
HARD DRIVE 80GB Serial ATA Hard Drive (7200RPM) w/DataBurst Cache™ edit
OPTICAL DRIVE 16x DVD+/-RW Drive edit
MONITOR No Monitor edit
VIDEO CARD NVIDIA GeForce 6150 LE Integrated Graphics GPU edit
SOUND Integrated 7.1 Channel Audio edit

My Accessories
SPEAKERS No speakers (Speakers are required to hear audio from your system) edit
KEYBOARD & MOUSE Dell USB Keyboard and Dell 2-button Scroll Mouse edit
FLOPPY & MEDIA READER No Floppy Drive Included edit
MODEM 56K PCI Data Fax Modem edit

My Software
PRODUCTIVITY No productivity suite- Includes Microsoft Works 8. DOES NOT INCLUDE MS WORD edit
ANTI-VIRUS & SECURITY No Security Subscription edit
Dell Recommends
Help Protect Your New PC!
PC-cillin™ Software, 15 months!
Help Me Choose
Upgrade to PC-cillin Internet Security with AntiVirus and Spyware removal 15-months [add $79 or $3/month1]

PHOTOS, MUSIC & MORE! Trial pack- Basic and trial products from Corel and Yahoo edit
My Service
WARRANTY AND SERVICE 1Yr Ltd Warranty and At-Home Service edit
Dell Recommends
An Additional Year of Service!
Upgrade Your Years of Service. Choose 2 Years of Service and protect your investment!
(If Complete Care selected, number of years must match warranty term)
Help Me Choose

Upgrade to 2Yr Ltd Warranty and At-Home Service [add $80 or $3/month1]

DIAL-UP INTERNET ACCESS 6 Months of America Online Membership Included edit
ALSO INCLUDED WITH YOUR SYSTEM
Mouse Mouse included in Wireless, Laser or Bluetooth Package
Adobe Software Adobe® Acrobat® Reader 7.0
Network Interface Integrated 10/100 Ethernet
Future Operating Systems Windows Vista™ Capable
Miscellaneous Award Winning Service and Support
Labels Vista Capable Sticker

I started with the cheapest one and made sure I got Athlon64 processor instead of Sempron. Oh yeah, forgot about the price. I think this is around $580. I stripped everything out of it, upgraded CPU and to 2GB memory, and a DVD-RW. You can add more hard drive space if you want. It's easy and cheap.

[Parihaka]

As a corollary to astralis' question:

Who here owns a Mac and what are the advantages/disadvantages, and what will be the growing pains of switching from an IBM platform to the Mac? Thanks.

I run a G4 at home as my internet interface, primarily because of lack of viruses but also because I'm heavily image focused and the mac software eats the competition. I run Tiger on it which means I can have several desktop setups so my wee girl can have it set up for her to play her games on-line without cluttering up my workstation.

At work I'm currently running HP's with 10 terrabytes each as workstations but am going to replace them with the Mac Pro as it has all off the shelf componentry, desktop swapping and can partition-render while I continue working. I'm not a big fan of the Mac/PC debate as both have their benefits but the Mac Pro eats everything else on the market and can run most recent windows applications within an emulator which comes standard. Microsoft mac comes as standard.

Mac Pro
Part of this site gives you a price-build so you can decide what you need and get a price for it.

[gunnut]

Mac Pro eats everything else on the market and can run most recent windows applications within an emulator which comes standard.

But emulator will kill your performance.

And Macs are hella expensive.

[Parihaka]

Shek,
Downside of macs.
Games. Most popular games don't run on the older macs.
Software. Unless it's graphics based, popular software isn't available on older macs. (although MS Office is supplied for macs running OSX)
Mouse. The one button mouse is a pain in the ****, I get around it by using 4 button pen and tablets, which once you get used to them are way better with no OOS issues (downside NZ$250, don't know what they cost stateside)

I'll continue to post on this as and when things occur to me.

[Parihaka]

But emulator will kill your performance.

The emulator reduces the speed to about the performance you'd get on an average PC

And Macs are hella expensive.

Latest prices IIRC only about 10%, and stability is way better.
(As regards the prices, I'm talking top end use for editing, haven't checked out low end home use, but a decent 2nd hand G5 is same as good 2nd hand PC's, here anyway)

[gunnut]

The emulator reduces the speed to about the performance you'd get on an average PC
Latest prices IIRC only about 10%, and stability is way better.
(As regards the prices, I'm talking top end use for editing, haven't checked out low end home use, but a decent 2nd hand G5 is same as good 2nd hand PC's, here anyway)

Perhaps. But I can buy parts and build a PC for myself.

And I doubt you can run Company of Heroes or Crysis in emulation anywhere close to what I can on a PC.

[Parihaka]

And I doubt you can run Company of Heroes or Crysis in emulation anywhere close to what I can on a PC.

Yep, the games issue is a pain. That's why I also run that VAIO I was having ram issues with;)

[texasjohn]

Here is my take on this. I build my own all the time. I have never owned a "brand" since the 386 days.

Dell is today probably the best bet over HP. HP and Compaq just merged and the support sucks. I have replaced more HP Power Supplies than normal. Bundled software is also cheezy.

Dell has the Dual-Core AMDs with 64-bit video- a "gotta have" for high end games. The current PCI-E video cards outperform an AGP. But they all have an AGP slot also so you can add your own in if you like.

Most manufacturer's system boards come with on-board video. All Dell ones are good, but you don't have to use it if you don't want to. There are slots to add your own. No biggie.

You can order a system from Dell without the monitor. Use the money on memory instead. At least 1Gb RAM, 2 if you are a serious gamer.

Dell has 2 primary workstation models. They are Dimension ( home) and Precision ( power user). The Precision offers RAID for Drive redundancy, if your drive poops on you. This may not be all that important.

No, I don't work for Dell, I'm just a Network Janitor!!:)