help to compare pcspecialist vs dell

[jimbuc]

Time to buy a new pc...hard drive on dell dimension 8400 finally failed (all data backed up though).

Started to look online and went to dell (out of habit ..have bought 3 tower pc's for the family over the years ...plus they sent me a special 15% off offer) .
Have got to the point of builiding one on dell site and it is sitting in my basket but thought I would try and check out other sites. When I have done this in the past I couldn't seem to find anything that beat dell.

However this time I found pcspecialist site which I really like. Problem is that I am not that technically aware so am finding it hard to compare some aspects of
the quotes from dell and from pcspecialist (quote ref 420538) . I have the added time pressure that the dell 15% off offer lapses today (9th Oct).

As I said before we have bought 3 tower pc's from dell but we have had a few issues and I wasn't fully satisfied by some of the after sales support.
I would love to give pcspecialist a try so wondered if you can give me any advice on how the dell product would compare to the quote I have compiled on the pcspecialist site. (see below for soem details). In particualr how does the after sales support compare.

XPS 8300
Date & Time: Saturday 8 October 2011 11:28 PM


SYSTEM COMPONENTS
XPS 8300 Qty 1

Intel® Core™ i5-2310 Processor (2.90GHz, 6MB), English Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium (64 BIT) Unit Price £1,292.01


Get 15% Off!
Expires 12 October 2011 View Details
-£25.50

33% off 3 Years Next Day In-Home Service with Premium Phone Support- Offer valid until 26/10/2011
Expires 27 October 2011 View Details
-£82.50

Upgrade to 3 years McAfee® SecurityCenterTM for the price of 2 – Offer valid until 30/10/2011!
Expires 31 October 2011 View Details
-£10.00

Save £189 (Inc Vat) until 12/10/2011
Expires 13 October 2011 View Details
-£189.00

Get 15% off any system above £499
Expires 09 October 2011 View Details
-£147.75


Catalog Number: 202 D00X8321

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Module Description Show Details
Base Intel® Core™ i5-2310 Processor (2.90GHz, 6MB)
Microsoft Operating System English Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium (64 BIT)
Memory 4096MB Dual Channel DDR3 1333MHz [2x2048] Memory
Keyboard Dell™ USB Entry Keyboard - UK/Irish (QWERTY)
Monitor 21.5" (55 cm) ST2220L UK/Irish Full HD WLED Widescreen Monitor (VGA, DVI-D and HDMI)
Video Card NVIDIA® GeForce GT 530 1GB DDR3 Graphics Card
Hard Drive 1TB Serial ATA (7,200 rpm)
Mouse Dell Optical Scroll USB (2 buttons scroll) DUAL TONE Mouse
Optical Devices DVD +/- RW Drive (read/write CD & DVD) with Roxio and DVD Burn software
Sound Cards Sound : Integrated 7.1 with THX® TruStudio
Speakers No Speakers (Speakers are required to hear audio from your system)
Shipping Documents English - Documentation with UK/Ire Power cord
Gedis Bundle Reference D08X8321
Standard Warranty 1 year Collect & Return Hardware Support included with your PC
Enhanced Service Packs 3 Years Next Day In-Home Service with Premium Phone Support
Order Information XPS Desktop 8300 Order - UK
Dell System Media Kit XPS 8300 Resource DVD
Accidental Damage Support No Accidental Damage Support
Online Backup DataSafe Online Backup 2GB - 1 year licence
Call Dell Experts One free Dell Expert call to help with your PC queries within 60 days of purchase
DataSafe Datasafe Local 2.3 Basic
Microsoft Application Software English Microsoft® Office Home and Student 2010 ( Word, Excel, Powerpoint, One Note)
Protect your new PC McAfee® Security Centre - 36 Month Protection - English
Operating System Recovery Options OS Media MUI Windows® 7 Home Premium (64 BIT) Resource DVD

TOTAL :£837.26

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
837.26 142.36 167.5
142.375



pcspecialist quote 420538
Case

COOLERMASTER SILEO 500 QUIET MID TOWER CASE
Processor (CPU)

Intel® Core™i5-2320 Quad Core (3.00GHz, 6MB Cache) + HD Graphics
Motherboard

ASUS® P8H61-M LX2/SI - mATX MAINBOARD, DDR3, USB 2.0, SATA 3.0Gb/s
Memory (RAM)

4GB SAMSUNG DDR3 DUAL-DDR3 1333MHz (2 X 2GB)
Graphics Card

1GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GT 520 - DVI,HDMI,VGA - 3D Vision Ready
Memory - 1st Hard Disk

1TB SERIAL ATA 3-Gb/s HARD DRIVE WITH 16MB CACHE (7,200rpm)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive

24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Memory Card Reader

INTERNAL 52 IN 1 CARD READER (XD, MS, CF, SD, etc) + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT
Power Supply

350W Dual Rail PSU + 120mm Case Fan
Processor Cooling

INTEL SOCKET LGA1155/1156 STANDARD CPU COOLER
Sound Card

ONBOARD 8 CHANNEL (7.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Facilities

ONBOARD 10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT - AS STANDARD ON ALL PCs
USB Options

4 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL (MIN 2 FRONT PORTS) AS STANDARD
Firewire & Video Editing

3 Port IEEE 1394a Firewire PCI Card (£9)
Operating System

Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£79)
Office Software

Microsoft® Office Home & Student 2010 (1 License Product Key Card) (£82)
Anti-Virus

BULLGUARD INTERNET SECURITY - FREE 90 DAY TRIAL
Monitor

22" Widescreen TFT 1920 x1080 2MS D-Sub, DVI, 21.6" Panel (£99)
Keyboard & Mouse

LOGITECH® K200 USB MEDIA KEYBOARD (£10)
Mouse

LOGITECH® OPTICAL USB MOUSE (£5)
Warranty

3 Year Gold Warranty (2 Year Collect & Return, 2 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£69)
Delivery

STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time

Standard Build - Approximately 10 to 12 working days
Quantity 1

 

[tom_gr7]

dont buy the dell,

firstly pop up ya budget.

also what do you plan an using the pc for? is it just general office work? gaming? media?

 

[tom_gr7]

just wanted to say pcs are awesome! really really good tech support and after sales.

 

[Wozza63]

if you want some differences here are a few

You dont know how good the mobo is, usually a naf custom one which doesnt give much room for improvement (might only have 2 slots for RAM)

cases are usually pretty naf cooling wise with Dell's and may cause problems if you are trying to do intense work or a bit of overclocking, the CPU cooler is usually a stock one and they somehow gather dust very quickly

the PSU will also be stock and very low power, probably only just over what you require, meaning if you change graphics card or something you may cause problems

the hard drives are usually cheap SATAII ones and not SATAIII even though you choose a SATAII on your PCS spec

You get pretty naf customer service with Dell or any of the big brands, and they dont care once they have your money, PCS customer support is the best ive ever seen for any company ever

You will get a stack of bloatware that you'll never need which will slow down your PC big time, like McAfee for example, in my opinion its the worst AV and benchmarks still seem to show it :/

 

[Wozza63]

what you get compared to dell for much less of the price

Case
COOLERMASTER SILEO 500 QUIET MID TOWER CASE - Much better case

Processor (CPU)
AMD PHENOM II X4 965 (3.40GHz/8MB CACHE/AM3) - BLACK EDITION - Faster CPU

Motherboard
ASUS® M5A87: AM3+ PLATFORM, DUAL DDR3,SATA 6.0GB/s, USB 3.0 - good reliable motherboard from a company most people know of and they are very high quality

Memory (RAM)
4GB SAMSUNG DDR3 DUAL-DDR3 1333MHz (2 X 2GB) - Samsung RAM, a brand you know

Graphics Card
1GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GT 440 - DVI,HDMI,VGA - this card is better than a 530 and you could easily upgrade if you are gaming

Memory - 1st Hard Disk
1TB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD1002FAEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm) - best standard SATAIII drive available, which is the fastest standard ones atm compared to the Dell one, which is 3GB/s and much older/slower

1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM

Power Supply
450W Quiet 80 PLUS Dual Rail PSU + 120mm Case Fan (£29) - PSU with plenty of room with the capacity for small upgrades like RAM HDDs etc

Processor Cooling
SUPER QUIET 22dBA TRIPLE COPPER HEATPIPE CPU COOLER (£19) - Very good cooler for the price and will keep your CPU much cooler

Sound Card
ONBOARD 8 CHANNEL (7.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)

Network Facilities
ONBOARD GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS 802.11N 300Mbps PCI CARD (£16) - Not sure if you wanted wireless built in but its here if you want it

USB Options
6 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL (MIN 2 FRONT PORTS) AS STANDARD

Operating System
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£79) - you'll get a disc and all the stuff with this one and you can reinstall if you want to/need to, not sure if the dell has that

Office Software
NO OFFICE SOFTWARE - you can add office software wasnt sure if you needed it, OpenOffice is pretty awesome in my opinion and its free

Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE

Monitor
IIYAMA E2271HDS 22" LED WIDESCREEN, HDMI/DVI-D HD 1920x1080 (£139) - awesome monitor, the reviews on these are great an they have everything you could ask for, you could upgrade the size if you wish as well

Keyboard & Mouse
LOGITECH® K200 USB MEDIA KEYBOARD (£10) - standard keyboard probably no better/worse than the dell one

Mouse
LOGITECH® OPTICAL USB MOUSE (£5) - same as the keyboard, standard, no better/worse although logitech is probably the best for this kind of thing

Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£5) - BARGAIN!!

Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)

Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 10 to 12 working days

 

[0mnishambles]

You will pay more for a PCSpecialist PC and you will not get the same accessories as a Dell PC for the price. You will, however, get superior built quality, complete control over what does and doesn't get bundled with your system and very good customer support. I've just bought my second PC from here, the first I bought five years ago and it still runs fine. For an investment like a PC I recommend going with quality over economy.

If you go down the PCS route, half an hour Googling the parts you want to choose will give you a very good idea of what suits your needs. Frankly, a little knowledge can go a very long way towards finding exactly what you want from your computer.

Edit: Just saw the spec above, definitely agree with the Iiyama monitor and the CPU cooler to extend the lifespan of the processor. In the interests of longevity I would opt for a larger PSU and if you want to play games (the Dell you posted was a gaming rig, I think) I would research the graphics card you buy.

 

[Wozza63]

considering the PCS spec he chose is half the price and much better i think the above is completely wrong, and you have no knowledge of half the parts in a Dell PC, like mobo etc

 

[Pete]

Personally i like Dell, not enough to buy another personal PC from them; but I think they are well built and the internals are often quick release and very tidy. Like others have said the parts are often of lesser quality and things like the power supply often don't leave much room for upgrading.

This is the reason why so many companies/offices have them, the Optiplex range or similar, will do a good job for 3,4 or possibly 5 years of using Office every day. Now businesses like where i work get the excellent Dell support - this is not the case for home users, from personal experience trying to get anywhere on the phone with them is a nightmare and their support forums are full of users posting problems/issues but no one from Dell with any answers.

Some of Dell's pc's aimed at office use often have custom motherboard slots so that you can't install a generic graphics card for example, their XPS range which is what i had was ok though. My GF also has a Dell XPS and she's been lucky (touch wood) no problems but then it's not stressed by games or video editing.

You won't find me going back to Dell anytime soon is all i'll say. :¬)

 

[tom_gr7]

One thing about pcs, is you know exactly what is going into you cuatom pc.

 

[Tony1951]

My view is if you want a good allround computer that includes playing games then PCS everytime. I have said to colleagues on many occassions that Dell are for people who do not much about computers. You will get a machine to do the basics, if you have any other aspirations for a computer PCS everytime.

 

[jimbuc]

Thanks for this ...very helpful. Any suggestions on what what hard drive? Or how to do I build up my knowledge to choose a better spec? cheers

 

[jimbuc]

Thanks for this it is very helpful. Only just spotted the fact that you have given me a new spec...very much appreciated
cheers

what you get compared to dell for much less of the price

Case
COOLERMASTER SILEO 500 QUIET MID TOWER CASE - Much better case

Processor (CPU)
AMD PHENOM II X4 965 (3.40GHz/8MB CACHE/AM3) - BLACK EDITION - Faster CPU

Motherboard
ASUS® M5A87: AM3+ PLATFORM, DUAL DDR3,SATA 6.0GB/s, USB 3.0 - good reliable motherboard from a company most people know of and they are very high quality

Memory (RAM)
4GB SAMSUNG DDR3 DUAL-DDR3 1333MHz (2 X 2GB) - Samsung RAM, a brand you know

Graphics Card
1GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GT 440 - DVI,HDMI,VGA - this card is better than a 530 and you could easily upgrade if you are gaming

Memory - 1st Hard Disk
1TB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD1002FAEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm) - best standard SATAIII drive available, which is the fastest standard ones atm compared to the Dell one, which is 3GB/s and much older/slower

1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM

Power Supply
450W Quiet 80 PLUS Dual Rail PSU + 120mm Case Fan (£29) - PSU with plenty of room with the capacity for small upgrades like RAM HDDs etc

Processor Cooling
SUPER QUIET 22dBA TRIPLE COPPER HEATPIPE CPU COOLER (£19) - Very good cooler for the price and will keep your CPU much cooler

Sound Card
ONBOARD 8 CHANNEL (7.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)

Network Facilities
ONBOARD GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS 802.11N 300Mbps PCI CARD (£16) - Not sure if you wanted wireless built in but its here if you want it

USB Options
6 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL (MIN 2 FRONT PORTS) AS STANDARD

Operating System
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£79) - you'll get a disc and all the stuff with this one and you can reinstall if you want to/need to, not sure if the dell has that

Office Software
NO OFFICE SOFTWARE - you can add office software wasnt sure if you needed it, OpenOffice is pretty awesome in my opinion and its free

Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE

Monitor
IIYAMA E2271HDS 22" LED WIDESCREEN, HDMI/DVI-D HD 1920x1080 (£139) - awesome monitor, the reviews on these are great an they have everything you could ask for, you could upgrade the size if you wish as well

Keyboard & Mouse
LOGITECH® K200 USB MEDIA KEYBOARD (£10) - standard keyboard probably no better/worse than the dell one

Mouse
LOGITECH® OPTICAL USB MOUSE (£5) - same as the keyboard, standard, no better/worse although logitech is probably the best for this kind of thing

Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£5) - BARGAIN!!

Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)

Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 10 to 12 working days

 

[jimbuc]

Hi, without the 15% discount the dell's do look expensive. Plan to do office stuff, web , video editing and some limited gaming.
What should i set my budget at?
cheers

dont buy the dell,

firstly pop up ya budget.

also what do you plan an using the pc for? is it just general office work? gaming? media?

 

[BennyBoyP]

Working to a similar budget to the discounted Dell I'd recommend something like this (I've gone with an Intel setup as I'm an Intel fanboy)

COOLERMASTER SILEO 500 QUIET MID TOWER CASE
Intel® Core™i5-2500 Quad Core (3.30GHz, 6MB Cache) + HD Graphics
ASUS® P8Z68-V LX: USB 3.0, SATA 6GBs, ATI®CrossFireX
4GB SAMSUNG DDR3 DUAL-DDR3 1333MHz (2 X 2GB)
1GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 550 Ti - DVI,HDMI,VGA - 3D Vision Ready
1TB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD1002FAEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
INTERNAL 52 IN 1 CARD READER (XD, MS, CF, SD, etc) + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT
450W Quiet 80 PLUS Dual Rail PSU + 120mm Case Fan (£29)
SUPER QUIET 22dBA TRIPLE COPPER HEATPIPE CPU COOLER (£19)
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
ONBOARD 10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT - AS STANDARD ON ALL PCs
6 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL (MIN 2 FRONT PORTS) AS STANDARD
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£79)
FREE Microsoft® Office Starter 2010 (Limited functionality Word & Excel)
BULLGUARD INTERNET SECURITY - FREE 90 DAY TRIAL
22" Widescreen TFT 1920 x1080 2MS D-Sub, DVI, 21.6" Panel (£99)
1 x 2 METRE DVI-D CABLE (£5)
LOGITECH® MK520 WIRELESS KEYBOARD & MOUSE COMBO (£39)
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£5)
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Standard Build - Approximately 10 to 12 working days

Price: £858.00 including VAT and delivery.

Good value system and pretty much bulletproof for what you want to do with it.

 

[tom_gr7]

For your budget you could get a very stong amd setup, either quad core or six core(but six cores wont be used if gaming, but good for your other tasks.)

 

[Petchi b]

Don't know what your budget is but you cannot go wrong with this spec.

Case
COOLERMASTER HAF 912 PLUS MID TOWER GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD PHENOM II X4 965 (3.40GHz/8MB CACHE/AM3) - BLACK EDITION
Motherboard
ASUS® M5A87: AM3+ PLATFORM, DUAL DDR3,SATA 6.0GB/s, USB 3.0
Memory (RAM)
4GB SAMSUNG DDR3 DUAL-DDR3 1333MHz (2 X 2GB)
Graphics Card
2GB AMD RADEON™ HD6950 - 2 DVI,HDMI,2 mDP - DX® 11, Eyefinity 4 Capable
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
1TB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD1002FAEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Memory Card Reader
INTERNAL 52 IN 1 CARD READER (XD, MS, CF, SD, etc) + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT
Power Supply
CORSAIR 650W ENTHUSIAST SERIES™ TX650 V2-80 PLUS® BRONZE (£72)
Processor Cooling
SUPER QUIET 22dBA TRIPLE COPPER HEATPIPE CPU COOLER (£19)
Sound Card
ONBOARD 8 CHANNEL (7.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Facilities
ONBOARD 10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT - AS STANDARD ON ALL PCs
USB Options
6 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL (MIN 2 FRONT PORTS) AS STANDARD
Operating System
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£79)
Office Software
NO OFFICE SOFTWARE
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Monitor
22" Widescreen TFT 1920 x1080 2MS D-Sub, DVI, 21.6" Panel (£99)
DVI-D & HDMI Monitor Cables
1 x 2 METRE DVI-D CABLE (£5)
Keyboard & Mouse
LOGITECH® MK250 WIRELESS KEYBOARD & MOUSE COMBO (£21)
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£5)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 10 to 12 working days
Quantity
1

Price: £903.00 including VAT and delivery.

 

[0mnishambles]

"Or how to do I build up my knowledge to choose a better spec?"

There are a lot of knowledgeable website that review hardware. The ones I use generally have far more information than I'm usually looking for but will be able to sum things up nicely.

If you want an overview of a whole PC guru3d publishes a "buyers guide" every summer.

http://www.guru3d.com/article/pcbuyer-guide-summer-2011/

It gives a succinct picture of the main parts of the PC, give a couple of recommendations and puts it advice in context of the wider market. There is a page for low-, mid- and high-end PCs and while there is a degree of knowledge assumed by the author, it's a good introduction. If you're not sure the PCS chaps can give advice as well.