Advice on Dell desktop spec.

I'm thinking in terms of this Dell desktop and just wonder what people think of the spec? Its working out at €1077. I have a preference for Dell with the 3 year warranty.


PROCESSOR
Intel® Core™ i5-2310 Processor (2.90GHz, 6MB)

OPERATING SYSTEM
Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium, 64bit, English

SYSTEM RECOVERY
OS Windows® Recovery Media Not included

SERVICES AND SUPPORT
3 Years Next Day In-Home Service with Premium Phone Support

DATASAFE ONLINE BACKUP
DataSafe Online Backup 2GB - 1 year licence

OFFICE SOFTWARE
English Microsoft® Office Home and Student 2010 ( Word, Excel, Powerpoint, One Note)

PROTECT YOUR NEW PC
McAfee® SecurityCenter 3 Year Subscription

MONITOR
ST2320L 23" (58 cm) Full HD WLED Widescreen Monitor (VGA, DVI-D and HDMI) - UK/Irish

MEMORY
4096MB Dual Channel DDR3 [2x2048] Memory

OPTICAL DRIVE
DVD +/- RW Drive (read/write CD & DVD) with DVD Burn software

HARD DRIVE
1TB (7200rpm) SATA Hard Drive

GRAPHICS CARD
AMD Radeon™ HD 6450 1GB DDR3 graphics

What do you want to do with it?

Ram is on the low end, but not a bad PC for the money, if you're not building yourself that is.

What type of USB ports does it have? Does it have any USB 3, or are they all USB 2?

Can you drop the Mcafee to save money? If so, get rid of it, and use a free antivirus package.

Seems a bit high on the price... but all depends on what you want if for... for general use - web / doing projects / copying photos onto it.. it'll be grand... a bit pricey I think for such jobs...

If you want it for gaming, then need to beef up the RAM... 4 gig is entry level these days... Not too sure of that processor - does it mention "dual core" anywhere? Again not a big thing if not hammering the machine with gaming / heavy memory intensive programs...

The online back up is a bit on the low side.. if you can lose that & burn what you need to DVDs / external disk, then do. Same (as mentioned already) - loose McAffee BUT make sure you get a good anti-virus (search on AAM & you'll get loads of recommendations, use AVG myself and it's great).

Nice size screen though... 23"... make sure that it has a good desk to sit on

Thanks for replies.

Very basic use for meself and himself - if it was the kids would be a different story with gaming etc.

Use AVG at the moment but there is an offer on the McAfee at the moment and its very cheap so that's why I included it. I used to hate McAfee years ago but got it on a laptop some months back and it seems to have improved on the user side.

The answer is 'yes' to most of the points made so I think I might go ahead in the next few days but any further points appreciated.

Thanks,

Sue Ellen.

Is there any sound card included?

Son tells me they're no longer required. He checked this out recently with his new laptop.

>>Not too sure of that processor - does it mention "dual core" anywhere?
Core i5 2310 is a quad-core processor, i.e.: better than dual-core

>>Is there any sound card included?
A basic sound card is usually integrated onto the motherboard. However you still need to specify that you want speakers (which the laptop would have built in)

Hi Lex,

Yeah, it does appear to be quad-core.

We have speakers so will probably use those but we always use the headset.

Thanks from

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