> -----Original Message----- > From: Gruss Gott [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: Saturday, July 15, 2006 9:46 AM > To: CF-Community > Subject: PC Purchase Advice > > I'm thinking I need a desktop PC to store, organize, and preserve all > of my photos, videos, and music as well as work for games, managing > bills, etc. > > I'm no expert so I ran to the Dell site and thought the XPS700B2 might > be a good fit: > http://www.dell.com/content/products/features.aspx/cto_xpsdt_700?c=us&cs=1 > 9&l=en&s=dhs
First off, especially for what you've stated as your reasons for buying (archiving/preserving), definitely opt for one of the "Data Protection RAID" solutions. All this means is that the system will ship with two hard drives which will be configured as mirrors of one another. So your system will see, for example, a single 320 GB drive but there will actually be two of them in there. Essentially what this means is that a drive can go completely tits up and you lose... nothing. Not a blessed thing. I won't use a non-mirrored system for anything important any longer - it's only saved my ass once but once was enough. There is a performance hit for mirroring (although not a large or noticeable one) so some benchmark geeks will steer you away from it: ignore them and protect your damn data! ;^) > My questions are: > > 1.) Could I get the same features for a better price elsewhere? Maybe. Especially if you got something close to what you want and added piecemeal. But the aggravation level goes up enormously and the resulting system isn't as integrated as the Dell and won't be covered under a single warranty. What you can do however is watch sites like techbargains.com and bensbargains.net and wait for a Dell coupon deal. They happen all the time and you can often get either decent upgrades or money off your Dell purchase. > 2.) Is there anything new coming out I should wait for? I know Intel > has a new chip coming out but I probably won't get it as I don't need > the cutting edge performance. Not much unless you want to be on the bleeding edge. However if you can hold off six months the landscape will change pretty dramatically due to Vista. Of course this only really matters if you're going to run Windows but since you're buying a Dell I think that's a safe assumption. ;^) The system you've picked is perfectly adequate for Vista - no worries there. But just before it comes out and right after companies like Dell will be, at the very least, offering free or included upgrades to Vista and quite likely packaged hardware deals sponsored by MS (I suspect free or very cheap MS web cams or game controllers, for example, for people buying Vista with a new PC). You might also see better video cards in general, better connectivity and so forth on the Vista-stickered machines. For what it's worth here's an article covering the MS requirements for labeling a machine "Vista Premium". Look especially at what will be required as of June 1 and see if there's anything you're going to miss in the next 10 or 11 months: http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060614-7060.html Dell should start meeting all of these requirements well in advance of the June 1 deadline. The problem and/or benefit is that companies like Dell will probably try to sell through non-compliant hardware in the next six months. So on one hand you might get a nice deal but on the other you might also get a system with some feature missing (Protected Video Path is an obvious one for example). Personally I'd only wait for a hardware release (new chip or motherboard) if: a) It was a major change. For example if it changed sockets/slots or otherwise obsoleted (yes, used as a verb) major components of my current system. b) Was a major release. For example the dual-cores hit hard. The key here is just that older component prices will generally drop (sometimes dramatically). I'd only wait if I had the money to spend on bleeding edge or if I really needed to save a few dozen dollars. At least that's what I think. Jim Davis ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Introducing the Fusion Authority Quarterly Update. 80 pages of hard-hitting, up-to-date ColdFusion information by your peers, delivered to your door four times a year. http://www.fusionauthority.com/quarterly Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/message.cfm/forumid:5/messageid:211255 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=s:5 Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.5
