Opinions on pc, bit of help??

Posted: Sat Jan 07, 2012 7:42 pm

asking all you tech wizards out there!!!! would you buy this for $160 or 80 quid in old money?

Dell Inc., OptiPlex 755, Small Form, Black/Silver, Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU E8400@ 3.00GHz Dual Core, 2048MB RAM 160 GB SATA HDD, 24 Speed TSSTcorp DVD+/-RW TS-L633A, Integrated Graphics Controller, No Operating System, HD Audio Controller, Serial KT Controller, HECI Controller, 8 USB Port(s), no power cable, Surface Marks & Scratches, (B) (Serial No: 4TFYX1S) (SN:4TFYX1S) (23026-1)

Have been having a close look and seems a good deal but, your expert thoughts would be appriciated!!!
All i want it for is occasionly gaming and basic internet and mucking around, do u reckon civ5 wud work on it??
Thanks in advance Very Happy

Posted: Sat Jan 07, 2012 7:55 pm

really depends what you wish to use it for...... gaming is out of the question unless simpler things. But as an internet machine and standard workhorse for the office environment it is plenty of hardware for a small price.

I suppose the easist way to compare your find to what else you can get for the same cost is a barebones..... you don't get much.

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/category/category_slc.asp?Lprice=100&Hprice=199.99&CatId=31

Posted: Sat Jan 07, 2012 8:26 pm

probably need some ram and specially a gpu for it too play decently according to this.

http://www.game-debate.com/games/index.php?g_id=963&game=Civilization%20V

Posted: Sat Jan 07, 2012 8:39 pm

lonewolf26 - I edited your title, please be specific in title names Wink

I wouldn't buy it except to muck around on the net as second computer (I actually wouldn't buy Dell at all)

It will need a graphics card and without knowing what the mother board is it is anybodies guess what will go in it. Also with no OS you can't be sure what it is like.

lonewolf26 wrote:

Dell Inc., OptiPlex 755, Small Form

Is this it -

If so you would be hard pressed to find a graphics card that will go in it

Posted: Sat Jan 07, 2012 9:31 pm

Would that be an MCS deal?? If yes, i'll post further

Posted: Sat Jan 07, 2012 9:47 pm

That is a bit lower than the average price on ebay for that model and setup. So if you didn't like it you could resell it and get your money back or most of it anyway. Buying a new pc is like buying a new car, they loose a lot of $$ the moment their out the door. I almost always buy used usually broke and busted in need of repair or found on road dead. Laughing

I just bought a used dell studio xps 435 with a core i7 for $250 and I am happy with it after spending another $100 on ram, and trading some spare parts I had for a new ATI 6750, And $80 for a 32Gb SSD drive (still in route from China). I will be finally able to post some respectable benchmarks then. Dell's do have their short comings, like Trollster was saying alot of them slim line dells are a biatch to find a good graphics card for. And dell's bios sucks as far as overclocking goes. Back to your question though for the money you really cant go too wrong there, and it should play civ 5 ok

Quote:

Minimum System Requirements

Operating System: Windows® XP
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo 1.8 GHZ or AMD Athlon X2 64 2.0 GHZ
Memory: 2 GB RAM
Hard Disk Space: 8 GB Free
DVD-ROM Drive: Required for disc-based installation
Video: 256 MB ATI HD2600 XT or better, 256 MB nVidia 7900 GS or better, or Core i3 or better integrated graphics (see note)*
Sound: DirectX 9.0c-compatible sound card
DirectX®: DirectX® version 9.0c

Posted: Sat Jan 07, 2012 10:33 pm

JamesHotwire wrote:

and it should play civ 5 ok

lonewolf26 wrote:

Dell Inc., OptiPlex 755

Dell Optiplex 755

http://www.pcworld.com/product/30456/dell_optiplex_755.html?p=specs

Intel GMA 3100

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/102009-13-suggest-sone-good-games-3100

civ 5 on Intel GMA 3100

Posted: Sat Jan 07, 2012 11:21 pm

I stand corrected Embarassed

. I guess that's another thing about the low to mid range dells is that the graphics suck, and the form factor and low wattage psu really limit your choices. I put a nvidia 520gt in slim case dell dimension I think it has the same 250 watt psu. the 520 only draws 19 watts and doesn't use a PCI 6 pin plug, and can be mounted low profile or regular height.

Posted: Sat Jan 07, 2012 11:47 pm

If games are not going to be played its still a bargain machine for office work and internet. However I have seen some good motherboard cpu combo items secondhand as people upgrade to i5 and i7 Sandy bridge and ivy.
I saw an i5 760 with a decent gigabyte board for 100USD. now that i see as a good deal. A decent mother board has plenty of usb and decent sound chipsets from intel capable of decoding dolby and dts etc. They also have the preamp outputs for 5.1 and 7.1 setup. So that would be my preffered avenue of choice. Memory and WD hard drives are a snip compared to costs 3 to 5 years ago. Add a decent video card older GTX and some very decent Ati are to be found for as little as 30 usd secondhand and new old stiock for 50 to 60 USD.

Posted: Sun Jan 08, 2012 12:02 am

It boils down to what $160 is to you, I would pay 50 but I am always broke and can never afford to pay for anything. Also depends if you have an OS lying around and a power cable (Ive got about 20 of the bloody things Laughing

). For surfing the net it would be fine but like I say, depends what the $$$ means to you.

Posted: Sun Jan 08, 2012 6:56 am

Hi again all
Thanks for all your input, the sale is here

http://www.graysonline.co.nz/lot.asp?LOT_ID=7327114

Hope this answers some of your questions

Posted: Sun Jan 08, 2012 7:34 am

trollster wrote:

lonewolf26 - I edited your title, please be specific in title names Wink

I wouldn't buy it except to muck around on the net as second computer (I actually wouldn't buy Dell at all)

It will need a graphics card and without knowing what the mother board is it is anybodies guess what will go in it. Also with no OS you can't be sure what it is like.

lonewolf26 wrote:

Dell Inc., OptiPlex 755, Small Form

Is this it -

If so you would be hard pressed to find a graphics card that will go in it

these are what we use at work. they are pretty bad for games but as for browsing they are ok if the connection is ok. cant really input much more than that as i have not seen or used these outside an office or shool environment. but i would pay that price....like trollster says if i had it.

Posted: Sun Jan 08, 2012 9:47 am

it could make a good file server??

Posted: Sun Jan 08, 2012 2:19 pm

$100 is the max i would pay for that, would be fine for linux or XP but i wouldnt run win7 on it

Posted: Sun Jan 08, 2012 5:18 pm

Its not bad for 80 quid. 159 NZD not USD.
Regardless of what any of us think about it you have not mentioned what you want to do with it ??

Anyways here is a link to some overclocking done on the E8400 plus links to other items E8400 cpu related.

http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleid=2394&page=3