Dell Vostro 220 $399

[Creig]

A friend of mine wanted a cheap gaming system for him and his kids as a Christmas present a year and a half ago. I ordered him a basic Vostro 200 (dual core, one optical, one HD), an ATI 3870 and a couple of SATA to Molex adapters. It has been going strong ever since on the stock 300w power supply, no instability whatsoever.

I believe the stock Vostro 200 power supply at the time had two spare SATA power connectors, for those that wanted to know. Not sure about the 220. I think they might have a 6 pin PCI-E on them already.

 

[redelcamino]

Originally posted by: WaitingForNehalem

Originally posted by: Phew
qliveur, I think he was referring to just the monitor.

Like I said, if you don't need the LCD or OS, then you should build your own. But you simply can't build a comparable machine yourself for $450 shipped that includes Vista and a 22" LCD.

Even using the absolute cheapest components on Newegg, the lowest I could come up with was still about $550 shipped.

I would never advocate a Dell at higher price points, but for <$500, this is an unbeatable deal.

Nonsense. I built a much better rig for cheaper. For the OS use Windows 7 RC. When that expires then you can figure out what to use next.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16813186167
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16819115206
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...?ItemList=Combo.206162
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16820227269
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16822136032
http://accessories.us.dell.com...8&acd=10466193-1909457 -coupon code XTHR0RQRXJHQ12


TOTAL-$438

Not every one wants to build there own...I see nothing wrong with pre-built. Except the PSU, which can be upgraded easily on most types of systems.

 

[Nack]

The Vostro 220 is a nice little computer. It's sort of like store bought baked beans. Pretty good, and a great place to start, but you need to add some things to make it truly great. Here is what I did with my $369 Vostro 220 w/included 23" Samsung 5ms HD Monitor (a deal from a month or so ago).

Xeon E3110 3.0GHz dual core 6mb L2 1333MHz FSB (a rebadged Wolfdale E8400 Core2Duo, $103 off of eBay)
4GB (2X2GB) Mushkin in Dual Channel mode($65.99 from Newegg - I know, but no memory deals were around when I wanted to do the upgrade - at least it runs at 5.5.5.18 even at 1.8V)
GeForce 9800GX2 (bought used for $100 off of eBay - works great - and yes, it fits, with angled SATA cables, barely)
Antec TP-750 Blue LED 750W Power Supply - yes, it fits, and I got it cheap - needed to run the 9800GX2 ($99) - also has monster size fan, which is nice.
250GB Seagate 7200.12 SATA hard drive (stock)
Stock case, USB Keyboard, USB Optical Mouse
Stock motherboard
Samsung 23" 5ms Widescreen HD LCD Monitor

Not a bad little gaming rig for around $750 including 23" HD monitor, AND I still have the Pentium Dual Core CPU to eBay (can get about $60 for that), a 300W ATX PSU (probably get $20 for that) and a 1GB ram stick (probably another $20) to sell.