Buy a Dell desktop: a $1200 machine that can't even stand by or shutdown properly

Though now that I've said that, it probably will.

The main beef I have with Dell is that they advertise their computers cheap - but you then have to expensively 'customise' them to get all the features you need.

I've had one for over 3 years - it's been fine, and one of the quietest pc's I've known

Stand by/shut down problems is usually a windows problem.

A: "My computer has a mildly annoying yet almost completely innocuous problem"

B: "REINSTALL WINDOWS!!!!"

Run "msconfig" and see if there is anything starting up that may cause it (scanner background apps are prone to causing this).

If the machine is exactly as it was out of the box then yes it's Dells fault.

Have you tried rebooting?
Yes

Have you tried reinstalling Windows?
Yes

Have you tried.. time travel?

ready to upgrade. 2150 for this from Dell; anybody wanna tell me why this is or isn't a good idea?

Studio XPS 9100 Studio XPS 9100
PROCESSORS Intel® Core™i7-930 processor(8MB L2 Cache, 2.80GHz)
OPERATING SYSTEM Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium, 64bit, English
MEMORY 12GB Tri Channel DDR3 SDRAM at 1333MHz - 6 DIMMs
MONITOR 24.0" Dell ST2410 Full HD Monitor with VGA cable
VIDEO CARD ATI Radeon HD 5870 1GB GDDR5
HARD DRIVE 2TB - 7200RPM, SATA 3.0Gb/s, 64MB Cache
OPTICAL DRIVE Dual Drive:Blu-ray 6X Combo Drive and 16X DVD+/-RW w/double layer write capability
SPEAKERS No Speaker Option
KEYBOARD Logitech Wireless Desktop MK520 Keyboard and Mouse
MODEM No Modem Option
WARRANTY AND SERVICE 2 Year Basic Service Plan
OFFICE SOFTWARE Microsoft® Office Home and Student 2010
SECURITY SOFTWARE McAfee SecurityCenter , 24-Months
DATASAFE ONLINE BACKUP Dell Online Backup 2GB for 1 year
SOUND CARD THX® TruStudio PC™
Adobe Software Adobe® Acrobat® Reader 9.0 Multi-Language

why's it so expensive?

amazed they have the gall to list acrobat reader as a selling point

you could probably get this custom built a lot cheaper. is this to be a 'gaming rig'?

honestly, I would focus on processor (maybe also RAM) and update the other components over time; it may end up being more expensive but it will be easier to budget as each discreet chunk of cash is going to be less than $2K

also if the monitor isn't free I'd dump it and look for one on sale

it's meant to be a gaming/home use system. I don't have any sense of what these run cashwise quite frankly. Dell is not the way to go then? Was considering Newegg again but just worried about getting a system that way.

why are you getting a wireless keyboard and mouse if this is a gaming rig

these days i can't help but feel something like a mac mini + dedicated games console of yr choice might be a better option

also are you opposed to AVG, because that is good antivirus which also happens to be free

also if you want to do any serious A/V stuff with it, you want a hard drive separate from the one running the OS to boost performance, so the 2TB hard drive is kind of overkill

That looks pricey; I'd estimate that you put that together for $1500 or thereabouts. Big ticket items: chip + mb gonna be about $400; video card about $350; RAM about $250; HD about $120; optimal + keyboard + mouse basically free (esp. if you skip wireless); monitor $200; OS about $70; plus box + power supply for about $100. I guess you get a warranty out of Dell also, which could be worth something, though you'll get warranties with all the pieces.

12 gigs of ram is overkill, i have 8 and nothing uses it

the only reason to have that much RAM is to support future applications; you could easily cut back there

beware of 64 bit windows if you want to play older games as well

HPs suck, too.

wow, okay. let me think about what my needs are so I can talk about it here.

I've never had anything but problems with Dell

which one

oh is this thread about computers?

Can't fault Dell, had an XPS laptop for 4 years now, when it dies, i'll be getting another.

12gig ram
=
http://cdnet.myxer.com/tn/c/580180/big/?t=20080804213410

Here's where I'm at: I tend to run iTunes (with 150K+ songs, so it's a ram hog and i'd rather have the music on the c drive where i've been told it'll be faster accessed?), 9zillion tabs of internet fun and 30 documents at the same time. Nothing that needs 12 gigs, but I've been working with 3g ram and a 2.2 ghz processor for a long time and this machine is lag lag lag laggy.

I would like a video card that can run current state of the art games (read: starcraft 2) at high fps without freaking out; I'm rocking a shitty ATI Radeon x1200 at the moment. I do run AMG already. I prolly don't need a new monitor at this point but was feeling like going whole hog.

I have scratchbuilt two machines, last one maybe seven years ago. Not for me this time; I'd rather cough up a grand and get something that meets the above needs made for me. Recommendations?

so maybe 8 gig of ram, 2.8 ghz processor and a terabyte on the main drive... Radeon 5870 gonna get it done? I could probably knock this down to like 1800 or so, but I'd prefer to make it 1500 max.

8 gigs of RAM is plenty, i'd just check to see if there are a couple expansion slots for upgrading the RAM in the future (like a few years from now) - not necessary but nice to have. but yeah, i'm pretty sure you can get a great computer ~$1500, $2150 is definitely overkill

you'll have to go with 64-bit Windows since 32-bit won't address more than ~3 gigs of RAM

also, turn on your Steam profile cuz between thanksgiving and new years day you will be hitting them up A LOT

went with a 1500 model (delivery/tax bumped to 17); eating my heart out but it was necessary

Studio XPS 8100, Intel Core i5-760 processor(8MB Cache, 2.8GHz), 8GB DDR3 SDRAM at 1333MHz-4x2GB, ATI Radeon HD 5770 1024MB GDDR5, 1.5TB Serial ATA 2 Hard Drive 7200 RPM, 16X DVD+/-RW and 16X DVD-ROM, Microsoft Office 2010 Home and Student, Logitech Wireless Desktop MK520 Keyboard and Mouse, Bose Companion 2 Series II multimedia speaker system

could certainly have gotten cheaper but i was just a lil desperate
starcraft ii! u will b mine

Put Linux on it.

and a donk?

If you like, but it makes it a bit more unwieldy.

typing from new computer. Miles to go before this thing is up and fully running tho!

yay!

thing was a snap to get up and running and it's hella fast. installing itunes now.

always an awesome time :)

wow and that's how fast it took to install itunes. with two games downloading off steam. yipes.

but the real test is in importing the songs. do i transfer everything on the external into the 1.5 terabyte c drive and then see if it runs faster? or run the music off an external? let's try the latter first.

how much is your rig forx

roughly 1500 + 100 tax + 100 delivery

sounds dope. what will your wallpaper be?

I've been using this for a long time: http://www.flickr.com/photos/manel/4447407563/
i am currently installing freedom force, portal, microsoft office 2010 and importing about a terabyte of music into itunes while i'm typing. task manager says it's at 15% cpu usage
this things kinda humming right now

love the wallpaper

it is a solemn donkey

he's been a good companion. i switch in images from the metropolitan as well.
like this guy: http://www.metmuseum.org/images/KhubilaiKhan/objectImages/50282.EL.jpg

koobli truckin' khan

just got a refurb hp last month, then hp had it again, then i got it back today! if all goes according to plan it will boot this time

in short a $1200 machine that can't even stand by or shutdown properly would have literally been an improvement

I bought my super-PC about a year ago and its awesome, but the real revelation for me was when I spent another £300 on:

a silent CPU cooler
a silent video card cooler
2 silent case fans
a fan controller
a silent PSU

and now the thing is not only blazingly fast, its also silent as a mouse. There's the quietest rustle from the PSU and the occasional ticking from the HD, but that's it. The front case fan come on every so often to cool down the hard disks, and the video card fan comes on if I'm playing COD, but other than that it's incredibly quiet. It makes such a difference to the atmosphere, it seems more homely and way less industrial somehow.

i do fucking hate these people btw

long story.

my new dell desktop should arrive tomorrow, really really hoping it will be reliable. since it's just for music production it'll never be connected to the internet, so that should help.

the aforementioned machine had some sort of power source/motherboard issue. It took a month and a half to resolve; i'm returning it and have just received and am updating an even MORE muscular system and it's all first world problems but what a headache

sorry man, that sucks

Anyone else remember these guys? they are still going!

http://www.dell.com/

Their site is so budget looking

Dell now accepts bitcoin

http://www.dell.com/learn/us/en/uscorp1/campaigns/bitcoin-marketing?c=us&l=en&s=corp

what kind of cheap pcs do people buy now? i don't even know.

Okay, I am pretty seriously considering getting a top o' the line XPS 27" touch all-in-one, tricked out roughly so
http://www.dell.com/us/p/xps-27-2720-aio/pd?oc=fdcwlp1397&model_id=xps-27-2720-aio
I'm not into an apple. Anybody got a better option? Thoughts on windows 8 and on having a touchpad desktop?

or, if i'm gonna spend 3k on this monstrosity, do i just go ahead and hit up my apple genius friend and have him get me a discount on a fully leveled up imac 27?

Hit up your Apple friend. Buy Parallels and run both OS X and Win8. See which one you prefer. You can run your Mac and PC apps side by side. Apple hardware is very good and the support is excellent as well. Parallels or VMWare make it really simple to have do both.

Much better resell value for Macs - in case you don't like it or want to upgrade down the line, you'lll recoup more on the iMac than the Dell

Fingerprints on the screen is something you live with on a smartphone or tablet

But would you really want that on your desktop

Do you really wanna hunch over and touch your screen

All the time

i read somewhere this company spent a lot of money making the usb ports green
http://www.engadget.com/2014/05/06/razer-blade-14-review-2014/

for that price point i'm surprised there aren't any artisanal pc rig makers, or at least none i could find.

I can believe it - most hardcore PC heads will want to DIY, and the ones who want fancy pants rigs can go with stuff like Cyberpower, Falcon, etc.

But forks... I don't know if it's worth it to spend 3K on any PC now unless you're using for industry

it would be fully tax deductible and i feel like, fuggit: might as well go top of the line and warranty up and lock down
i am leaning toward the apple rig tbh

If you're gonna spend $3k you might as well get a Mac Pro

Maybe also drive to Delaware or New Hampshire

dayo, having just watched 'her' i feel like you might be trying to help me work out my personal issues in a mysterious way before you transcend into the singularity. Tell me more about this "Delaware or New Hampshire"

ps i am aware i am a bourgie fuck btw

it's my birthday tho' be kind

if it's your birthday treat yourself to a Mac Pro and marvel in the unneeded excess

my right as an american iirc

do you do like graphics/video production? b/c like that's basically the workload the Mac Pro is intended for (or other things that can take advantage of two GPUs)

anandtech review pretty great ofc http://www.anandtech.com/show/7603/mac-pro-review-late-2013/

why does anyone buy desktop computers idgi

Forks you should go to DE or NH because there is no sales tax there and you could save ~$270, less your gas and tolls and whatever else

the next computer i'll be buying is some sort of macbook, so i'm on a similar wavelength to lagoon, even though i'm typing this from an imac (that isn't mine) right now and usually use an imac. that'll change. but dayo's right that if you're gonna spend a lot of money and will be near new hampshire or another place w/o sales tax it might not hurt to take advantage of it, esp. since apple's pcs are very expensive.

actually, we got this imac in nh

it was and is heavy

keep in mind that apple might be releasing some mac-related stuff this fall, i think. you might want to wait, if you can, but i don't remember the rumors super well so i don't know what you'd be waiting for exactly except perhaps some sort of high-res (retina) desktop display, perhaps even something in 4k, but who knows

why does anyone buy desktop computers idgi

But then my options are an expensive iMac (still need externals), Mac Pro (ditto) or a Mac Mini (same).
or I can build an $800 Windows machine for photo editing and just deal with Windows being terrible.

i hate typing on laptop keyboards up against a screen
also trackpads

Your 27-inch iMac is now shipping with the following configuration:

• 3.5GHz Quad-core Intel Core i7, Turbo Boost up to 3.9GHz
• 32GB 1600MHz DDR3 SDRAM - 4X8GB
• 3TB Fusion Drive
• NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780M 4GB GDDR5
• Apple Magic Mouse
• Apple Wireless Keyboard (English) & User's Guide
• Accessory Kit
• AppleCare Protection Plan for iMac - Auto-enroll

BAWSS.

i hate typing on laptop keyboards up against a screen
also trackpads

― Nhex, Sunday, August 3, 2014 10:01 AM (1 week ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

docking station with large monitor and a logitech m570 yo

yeah but then... why not just go for a desktop
the answer used to be portability, but now you have phones and tablets you can get instead of a laptop

phone is out b/c no keyboard. tablet is out because no keyboard or is essentially a laptop if keyboard.

but for real I do a lot of CAD that can't be done with a laptop or phone

and then I run anything too intense on a cluster of servers. so a laptop maybe just makes sense for me.

I definitely share your hatred of trackpads anyway

luv trackpads, multitouch 4 lyfe

Happy for u forks but you made a classic rookie mistake in ordering extra RAM from Apple

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/889298-REG/crucial_ct2k8g3s160bm_16gb_2x8_204p_sodimm.html

Order two pairs of these and follow the instructions here

https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/iMac+Intel+27-Inch+EMC+2639+RAM+Replacement/20249

It's okay though you have 30 days to return it and get the one you need

;o)

Put the difference towards that Nets Season Ticket package

Or split the difference w/ me for helping you save all this cash

; )

hm. will look into that, thanks!

duplicate detective is the jam yo