Dell and tweak -or- AMD I Build?

[teddyv]

Trying to decide Intell/Dell or AMD/Build my own. Price is virtually identicle. Will be using for regular MS Office stuff, some Photoshop/Illustrator & Dreamweaver, some Video work, and some Everquest/Ultima type games.

Dell has some pretty insane deals lately, the most recent was:
DellSB - Dimension 8400 w/3.0Ghz Pentium 4 630 HT, 512MB DDR2 SDRAM, 40GB S-ATA, 48x CD-ROM for $699 after Rebate plus FREE 19" LCD, with $33 2nd Day Air Shipping! Expiring early this morning! $629 total savings on Dell`s high end Dimension 8400 outrageous deal, bringing it to just just $699 shipped after rebate, this time with a FREE Dell e193FP 19" LCD monitor ($429 value)! You`re getting the Intel 925X based motherboard, with the fast 3.0 Ghz Pentium 4 630 HyperThreaded Processor, 512MB of dual channel DDR2 SDRAM, PCI Express x16 based Radeon X300 SE with 128MB of memory, 40GB S-ATA hard drive, 48x CD-Rom, integrated Dolby Digital capable 5.1 sound, 10/100/1000 networking, Windows XP Home, and a 1 year warranty.

If I get this though I am not sure how many drives I can add, how upgradeable it is, etc. The other option is an AMD Venice system:

Antec SONATA II Piano Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case 450Watt SmartPower 2.0 ATX 12V V2.0 for AMD & Intel systems Power Supply - Retail
MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 Ultra ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail
SAPPHIRE 100121 Radeon X700 128MB DDR PCI-Express x16 Video Card - OEM
AMD Athlon 64 3000+ Venice Integrated into Chip FSB Socket 939 Processor - Retail
CORSAIR ValueSelect 1GB (2 x 512MB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) Unbuffered Dual Channel Kit System Memory Model VS1GBKIT400 - Retail
Microsoft Windows XP HOME Edition With Service Pack 2 - OEM

I will be reusing the monitor (but a 19" flat would be sweet!), mouse & keyboard (new would again be nice), speakers, my current 120-gig IDE drives, and my optical drives.

Any advice MUCH appreciated!

 

[t3h l337 n3wb]

Well, the AMD system would probably be better, unless you're doing heavy video editing and multitasking. It has more RAM, a better video card (X300 SE blows), and of course, an Athlon 64 runs much cooler and efficiently than a P4, and as a result, allows for more overclocking. Oh, and the Sonata is really quiet and looks a lot better than a stupid Dell case

 

[airfoil]

Easy. AMD you build!

 

[zainali]

you have to wait for a good dell deal. you cant buy it anytime.

if you want it right away go for amd. if you want to wait till end of dell's quarter get a dell

 

[ProviaFan]

If you want the convenience and support, then Dell is the way to go. Whenever I have to make a purchasing decision about a system for an organization or someone else for whom I don't wish to be providing tech support for the next ten years, I go with a Dell. For my personal systems, it's DIY all the way! (AMD64 is a fine well-rounded processor, though the P4 wins by a small bit in overall "smoothness" in heavier multitasking)

 

[imported_whatever]

If you are willing to try it, the 630 frequently OCs to 4.0GHz with a simple pin mod (although because it is LGA775 you have to do soldering on the back)
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=62471 if you are interested.

 

[Cohort]

I would say you get alot more pleasure from doing it yourself. Even when you run into problems like I did.

Other then that Dell does not use the best system componants, and are very pick about what and how you upgrade in them.

 

[hoppa]

AMD you build!

Let me say this about Dell and "upgradeability." Zero. None. Nada. I had a friend who wanted to upgrade his video card in his Dell to a 6800 GT. We decided he'd need a better powersupply in order to give enough power to the video card. Heres what happened:

Power supply was a weird size, so we couldn't get a normal power-supply in the case. Also, the cooling system was some weird thing that couldn't be removed from the case. Needed a new case, needed a new fan.
Motherboard had no standard general connectors (power/reset/LEDs, etc). It also did not support standard fan designs. It also actually had no standard fan power connectors. Needed a new mobo.
He also happened to be stuck with RDRAM (remember when that was a good idea? Oh, right, never) so he needed to replace that as well because you can no longer get RDRAM platforms. That wasn't really Dell's fault though.

So basically, in needing to upgrade his video card, he ended up with an entirely new system, sans proc/HD. All of it except the RAM were the Dell's fault, although their choice to use RDRAM is beyond me.

Anyway, if you ever want to upgrade or overclock (oh, right, the prop., locked down BIOS) or do anything interesting, forget about the Dell.

AMD is better anyway.

Wordiest post ever.

Good luck.

-andy

 

[hurtstotalktoyou]

That Dell deal you mentioned really isn't anything special at all. A 3-GHz Pentium and 19" LCD for $700? Not really, that's after rebate. And don't forget that those Dell flat-panels are pretty low-grade. You can get something similar for well under $300: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16824180024 And for $400 or so, you can build an Athlon 64 2800+ system that out-muscles the P4-3GHz.

Also, why in the world would you get a system with a 40GB hard disk and no CD burner or DVD support?

 

[ProviaFan]

The Dell BIOS on the Precision workstation I just set up for A/V (extended single track and occasional multitrack, with PowerPoint and specialized lyric projection software) has the most limited BIOS I've ever seen. Basically, you could turn HT, EMT64, and DEP on or off, and you could change the boot order of the drives. That's it. :|

Building your own is a much better solution, if you're competent or able to read (thanks, MechBgon!). :thumbsup:

 

[DaveSimmons]

1 GB vs. 512 MB is a major point in the AMD's favor for PhotoShop, also for EQ from what I've read.

 

[w00t]

wow dell ..